Outlander: A disappointing start to a promising Season 4

Outlander premiered Season 4 last night and what was promised to be a very good season got off to a very disappointing start.

Urgh, I did not expect to be writing a disappointing review about Outlander today. Season 4 premiere last night, and I honestly thought I would be sitting down after the premiere to write all about how such a promising looking season had gotten off to this amazing and wonderful start. Unfortunately, it fell flat and proved to be a disappointment.

It had its good moments, I won’t deny that. Everybody brought their best and the look of the old colonial town, considering it was filmed in Scotland, was wonderful to see. Rollo was cute and well behaved, far from my dog, and Stephen Bonnet, played by Ed Speleers, was everything I imagined. But as a whole and as one, it failed.

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And it started from the very beginning, with Hayes’ hanging. A well done, by the book moment that was ruined by the long exposure, and very unnecessary, doubletake on Hayes’ dead body. I get it, Outlander wanted to go for realism, they just went a bit far.

Then came the opening credits. A moment that I eagerly look forward to with each episode. Similar to Game of Thrones I refuse to skip the opening credits because of the music. Bear McCreary’s score on Outlander has been nothing short of phenomenal, but Season 4 is far from what he is usually capable of. Although, from what I’ve ready that was a showrunner decision to end the opening credits with the choral sound and not McCreary’s. Maybe it’s not his fault.

Clearly, in an attempt to add a twist to the music with the fact the show is now set in America, the tune opened up as normal (this time with a banjo sound), and as it progressed everything was fine, the tune stuck to the original theme while embracing the new setting. Until the last few bars, where the choral sound came in, drowning out all of the instrumental music and creating more noise than music.

It got no better from there.

What followed right up until the final act was essentially a pilot episode of a TV series. Instead of a creating an episode aimed at entertaining fans, it was as though the episode had been made for network bosses where the purpose is to convince them why the show should be greenlit.

An episode filled with introductions, back stories, plot devices, setups etc, etc. Everything was spoon fed to us and the Outlander premiere soon became a setup episode for how the rest of the season would play out.

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OUTLANDER — Photo credit: Outlander/STARZ — Acquired via STARZ Media Room /

Now you might think, “well, duh, all premiere episodes do that,” and yes, you’re right, they do. But not as much as what Outlander just did. It was so heavy with setting up what is to come, it lost all sense of entertainment in the now.

They would have been much better sticking up a big sign at the start, or taking some inspiration from Star Wars, and opened up the episode with the following.

A long time ago, in a country far, far, away,

Following a shipwreck, Claire and Jamie are now in America,

A dangerous and wild place,

Their friends and family are with them as they seek passage home,

However with the idea of a new start, they decide to stay,

Fergus and Marsali decide to stay in Wilmington as Marsali is pregnant,

Young Ian travels with them with his new dog Rollo while they secure passage for him home,

They all travel to Jamie’s aunt but with pirates and thieves around they must watch their backs,

Which brings me to the only good part about the episode, the final 10 minutes and the moment Stephen Bonnet was revealed to be a big bad guy for those who were not in the know. Which they also messed up.

The scene was fine, all was going well, they were traveling, pirates came on board to rob them, and then the music kicked in. At this point, I actually thought I had done something because the music didn’t match with what was going on. I did a double take wondering if I had started Spotify or something.

They honestly shouldn’t have done it or used some other music. Ray Charles’ “America the Beautiful” just didn’t fit the scene in anyway and it really didn’t fit with the time period either.

Then there was the ring. Stephen Bonnet stole Jamie’s ring, not Frank’s. In the books, it’s Frank’s ring that is stolen and it really is an important moment. This change is something I don’t think would have sat well with those who are avid book fans.

Fingers crossed this is nothing more than a one-off. Hopefully come next week I’ll be writing about how wonderful and great it was. Because Outlander Season 4 has been promised to be so good, and so far, it is not looking like it.

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Convince me I’m wrong. Tell why it was good. Drop a comment below telling me just that.

Outlander airs Sundays on STARZ

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