Outlander season 5: Breaking down the 12-episode order
Obviously, it makes sense to look at that reduced order and feel disappointment; however, over the course of this article we would like to shift that thinking if we can. Rather than looking at this as a bad thing, why not look at it instead as a good thing that the past three seasons had as many episodes as they did? After all, in the world of premium cable getting thirteen episodes a season is almost unheard of. Look at some of the other big shows right now, whether it be Shameless, Power, Game of Thrones, Westworld, or Homeland. None of these shows have a consistent thirteen-episode order. As a matter of fact, Game of Thrones is rocking a six-episode order for its final season!
The reality with longer episode orders, especially for a premium cable show, is simple: It’s really difficult to do consistently. These shows are big, expensive, and are often filmed out on location with a lot of extras, costumes, and sets that have to either be built or modified. It’s not even fair to compare them to a network show. While series like Grey’s Anatomy may have a 24-episode order, they film the majority of their scenes on pre-built sets in Los Angeles. They don’t venture too much out on location and don’t need costumes that are anywhere near as elaborate. Given that they have a large ensemble cast, that also makes things so much easier since there are breaks woven into the schedule for actors.
With Outlander, what we are seeing is that it’s very difficult to do 13-episode seasons and then also be able to release them annually. Season 4, for example, is going to premiere roughly 14 months after season 3, which premiered almost a year and a half after season 2. If the show continued at this pace, it’s hard to imagine season 5 would premiere 13 episodes in 2019 at all. Twelve episodes at least gives the series more of a chance to be an annual event which should make us all a lot happier during the Droughtlander.
Also, there’s the chance for more time off
Filming Outlander is a rewarding experience for many, but also an exhausting one. The cast and crew often film very long days and sometimes overnight away from their homes and their families. They are doing that for a solid nine months of the year with maybe three months off in between. It’s really even less than that when you consider press tours and other commitments that some of these people have to do. Filming for season 4, for example, started in early October and will presumably wrap before the end of June. Maybe the cast will have July, August, and some of September off, but that’s really it. They deserve a chance to rest; meanwhile, the same goes for the crew members and especially the producers, who really work all year round and barely get a break at all. Cutting one episode from the order can mean production runs a few weeks shorter, at least provided that the rest of the season takes the same time that it did.
As we note in the video below (subscribe to our YouTube channel if you want to see more – we have Outlander videos every Friday!), one thing worth considering here is that with its hour-long run time, an Outlander season of 12 episodes is still probably the equivalent of 15-16 episodes of a standard network show. While you may be getting less content than you did previously, that’s still a lot of content and it’s something to celebrate and embrace. The fact that we’re getting two more seasons at least should be enough to compensate for any sadness that comes with dropping an episode from the order.
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