Had heard nothing but good things about 'Outlander' from good friends and trusted reviewers around the time Seasons 1-3 (widely considered the period where 'Outlander' was at its best) aired, but due to music commitments and watching other things it did take me a while to get round to watching the show. Absolutely loved the idea of the show, which has always been one of my main reasons for watching anything, and loved the idea of the mix of period drama and time travel.
'Outlander', after finally getting around to watching it a while back, was on the whole hugely impressive. It is agreed that Seasons 1-3 are fantastic, and while over deliberate pacing and bizarreness crept in in Season 4 there was a lot to like about that season too. Do agree with those that were disappointed with Seasons 5-6 and those that felt like watching two different shows, especially 6 which repeated all the mistakes Season 5 did, amplified them and made more along the way.
There are a lot of fantastic things. It is wonderful visually, with handsome and evocative settings and costumes that do such a wonderful job transporting one to the time period and making them feel that they are there. Even better is the photography, which is at its best cinematic worthy. Not only is it beautiful to watch, but it is very rich in atmosphere. Likewise with the music scoring, which never felt too much in placement or volume while still having a lot of presence and variety (hardly stock cue level here).
A vast majority of the direction is accommodating and allows the drama to breathe, when necessary in the more scaled down scenes, while also giving plenty of tension and energetic momentum in the more tense moments. Seasons 1-3 are very thoughtfully written and full of complex emotions, while the storytelling in these moments grabs the attention, never feels predictable or soap-ridden and has plenty of tension, intrigue and emotion. 'Outlander' is an extremely well acted show too, with everybody cast to pretty much perfection and that is including when the show declined.
Season 4 still has plenty of those things, though some of it feels more dragged out and some parts are a bit too on the silly to the point of bizarreness. That is nothing compared to Seasons 5 and 6, particularly as said 6, which often has slow as molasses pacing (over-deliberation taken to extremes), paper thin storytelling that is at worst uneventful and subplots that are very melodramatic and take a long time to get anywhere in development.
Furthermore, the writing in Seasons 5 and 6 underwhelms a lot, one can literally taste the flavourless soap suds listening to the dialogue, which is stilted too and induces a lot of cringing. The characters are stripped of their complexity also and become rather one dimensional. Thank goodness the exceptionally high quality of the production values, music and acting remain, which saves them from unwatchability.
In summation, started off fantastic but the past two seasons have felt like a different show quality-wise. 7/10 (Seasons 1-3 would rate around 8-10, Season 4 would rate 6-low 8 and Seasons 5 and 6 are a 4 at best)
