Here's Why STARZ' Outlander is Way Darker Than the Original Books
The fans noticed the big difference.
Though Starz's Outlander is by far one of the most popular fantasy shows on the air right now, it's far from the most acclaimed, especially in recent years. The thing is, the last few seasons of the show have been a total mess, with the budget apparently being slashed, resulting in soap-opera-style writing, while the props and locations have looked cheap and uninspiring.
Fortunately, the recent first part of Season 7 proved that Starz producers are trying their best to make the show feel great again.
Despite the fact that fans were quite angry at the network for splitting Season 7 into two parts, they were generally very positive about the latest installment. However, one question still puzzles long-time Outlander fans - why is the show so different from Diana Gabaldon's original series of books?
Two different projects
While the show's writers have always followed Gabaldon's storylines fairly closely, they have managed to make the show feel completely different from the books.
The books are all huge, with hundreds of pages and numerous chapters, and they allow fans to immerse themselves in the Outlander story. And they are actually quite funny, with various humorous subplots and gags to help the reader relax after particularly difficult scenes.
However, the show is not like that at all, as fans have noticed that the two projects have been quite different since season 1.
The thing is, in her books, Gabaldon has complete creative freedom when it comes to the length of the story, whereas on the show, the writers are forced to wrap up the entire story in the span of just a handful of episodes, which is the reason why the show is darker, fans argue.
'That automatically meant they had to have cut a lot of the lighter moments a lot in order to pack in the main story each season. And from what I've heard here, whatever moments they did keep, they couldn't transfer the humor from book to show effectively. All the books have a ton of humor in them, but I'm pretty sure we won't see a lot of it in the episodes left to come,' a fan said.
Source: Reddit.