Morning Musing on Irish Magazine
First, yes to those who also commented on the picture with Colin Mochrie. She looks happy, relaxed and finally more like herself, hair and all. I’m hoping it’s because she’s far less stressed overall than she was a year ago and that could be because she’s confident in where the season prep is going, plus relaxed and happy that she and Sam finally got some quality time together, if that glowing tan means anything.
Irish Magazine? (First, if you liked it CLICK ON IT. Don’t just read the full text here on Tumblr.) It was a very good article. It was the article I’ve been hoping for that works on making her relatable. It was an article where she focused on one cause and spoke about it in a very articulate way instead of the jump on every bandwagon way she tweets about causes. And she made some very good points about it.
When I read long articles like this, certain things leap out at me beyond the obvious main parts of the story. In this case, it was the journalist observing that Cait is so understated nobody notices her in the restaurant. It’s the schleppy thing plus people probably see a lot of very pretty brunettes around. Probably helps that Claire is starting to look very different from Cait. I think she and Sam take full advantage of that when they travel together and have perfected the she keeps walking for a bit while he stops for a picture, routine. Truth be told that comment got me almost as excited as the producer thing.
Her side projects sound interesting and it’s good that she feels confident in her career to be able to try her hand at that. Trying to write her own scripts gives her a good insight into the process and how she gives feedback to Outlander scripts beyond her own character. I would love to see her or Sam or both get a shot at directing an episode in one of the next two seasons.
I like that this article had a purpose yet didn’t talk about her personal life at all. Often articles designed to make you more relatable might also talk about your personal life if you have something interesting going on. This one deliberately stayed away from the fengagement, which is made more interesting because they have used Irish publications and Irish pap walks as the primary conduit to push it out there. But as soon as she’s out of the Starz-controlled promo window, look what happens. ( And I did find it very sweet that her father was both a policeman and a comedian.)
On to the other big news of the story, congratulations to them on the well-deserved nod at being named producers of the show they helped make a hit. The producer status is well-deserved for both of them. Pretty sure it’s why they’ve been hanging around Los Angeles for several weeks. It validated my gut feel in how they behaved over finale weekend with her live tweeting and him totally ignoring the finale and then jumping in the next day to ask questions about the finale. And he worded the question very astutely by opening the door for all feedback even though he always will get a percentage that are just kissing his ass. He asked it in a way that gave permission to be critical. That is what a good producer would do.
They showed themselves to be a team again that time (not that we didn’t know that already). And their approach was very strategic, very deliberate. Together, they are the true definition of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, both personally and professionally.
Keep in mind though, producer status is not executive producer status so there’s always the chance they can be overruled by Matt, Toni or Maril. One example of that was the way Sam had to tweet the party line on the day after his Q&A but I’m sure he held his nose while he did it. And he did it in a way that was obvious as to was going on so it did not negate the two days before, if you were paying attention. With producer status and the fact that they’ve already seen script outlines (not a typical thing), it looks like they have a chance to input on how the overall story flows. That’s hugely important. That’s assuming that it’s even true that they’ve only seen outlines, I’ll bet they seen some scenes too.
I almost always write in outline format no matter what I’m doing. Sometimes it’s a mental outline like in this post and if it’s a big presentation for work, I actually write up a true, make my 7th grade English teacher proud, outline. (After all, giving good presentation is all about telling a story.) So giving Sam & Cait outlines is a good start. And if that means that starting filming is delayed a few weeks, then I think that can only be good for the show.
What producer status will do is first and foremost protect the Integrity of their characters both in the way they behave and maybe even in when they enter a scene or story. And that has great potential. I was rewatching the 2017 interview with Yvonne at the LA Times (the one where Cait twirls the gold band on her finger when Yvonne mentions the Frasers have settled into married life) and Cait talked about how they get disappointed when certain book scenes are left out or changed (she gave the Claire finds out about Willie story as an example).
Also, if I’m another producer or a fairly new writer on the set, I think I would defer to the two people who know those characters the best. And if more people support what they do and say, perhaps that will shift Matt and Toni the right way should there be a debate over it. Time will tell. They won’t win all the battles by means, but they will win some or even prevent them from happening. Especially if the survey results tally out as I expect them to.
I will remind people again that Cait did not say she wanted fewer sex scenes. She wanted less explicit sex scenes or scenes where they make love as Sam would say. And so perhaps they can help craft the right kind of scene and fit it in the right places. We already know that sometimes the scripts are pretty vague and they tried to get creative. Or maybe Sam can place iconic line in a better places than the times Matt shoves them in out of context. Overall, it doesn’t mean they all of a sudden have full control of all things Outlander or even all things Jamie and Claire. But it does mean now that they have authority and equal footing with some of the writers who have the same status, assuming that’s what their teams negotiated. So they can’t just make a suggestion that is “heard”, they at least have to be heard and debated. And judging by her tan and glow, perhaps so far it’s going okay.
The mentions of her early months living and filming in Scotland were interesting. I would imagine that’s where first a friendship grew, and then one night perhaps with a little help from Father Whisky, they couldn’t deny what was fate any longer. It’s an awfully sweet story that would make a great script, Cait. Even if the last few years you’d have to say that truth was Stranger than Fiction! And it’s time that you and Sam deserve your happy ending together.
