I was first told about the Outlander books about 9 years ago or so. I wasn’t an avid reader back then, and the size of the books and the ongoing series was intimidating as hell to start, so I shelved them for a few years. As soon as I heard that Starz was going to be making Diana Gabaldon’s books into a series I knew it was time to dive in.
Fast forward a few months and I was lucky enough to have finished a book or two and was smack dab in the middle of San Diego Comic Con and in front of the Starz and Outlander booth. I was blown away. The outfits were spot on, the accents were perfect, and I was being cordially invited to the screening of the first episode. I couldn’t wait to see how they brought this complicated story with so many twists and turns to life. I was blown away by the sneak peek, and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the premiere.
In the year 1945, Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) has just finished her five-year stint as a nurse on the front lines of World War II. During a second honeymoon in which she hopes to reconnect with her husband Frank, who also played a part in the war, she touches some ancient rocks and is transported to 1743, a realm without streets, iodine, or anything resembling the kind of gender equality of the 1940s. The series premiere of Outlander was a beautiful, welcoming introduction to Diana Gabaldon’s imagination. I truly enjoyed it, and I think you will too. You can catch episodes of Outlander on Starz every Saturday, Starz On-Demand, or on the Starz mobile app, though excepting the premiere, episodes won’t be available online for free.
The Scottish Highlands are a place of history and ghosts. Giant rocks soar over meadows and dells. Tiny towns still adhere to the pagan rituals of years past. It’s the sort of place one would expect to be transported back in time, to catch a glimpse of an actual ghost, or have lots and lots and lots of sex, just as Claire and Frank do in the first thirty minutes of tonight’s episode. In fact, I counted: In the show’s first thirty minutes, they do the “deed” four times in half an hour. Remember, though, they’ve been away from each other for five years, and as Claire narrates sex is their bridge back to each other. I get it, Claire. Frank is a devilishly good looking, with those aristocratic lines all over his strong-jawed face and his natty suits.
Claire and Frank are the focus of the first half of the episode. Their relationship isn’t so much strained as it is complicated by too much truth and time spent away. They’re both smart as hell, what with Frank exploring his own genealogy (the reason they’re up in Scotland) and preparing to be a teacher, and Claire, having mastered the gruesome task of medical aid during wartime, now turning her sharp mind to the world of botany. They take interest in each other’s work, sharing their findings as the fog rolls by their stunning windows. They explore dilapidated castles together, first delighting in the history surrounding them then getting down to some serious fun adult time without giving away the fun the happy couple shared. They are married adults, intellectual equals, and yet there’s something distant about their emotional closeness. Perhaps they’ve seen too much or have too many questions about their time apart. Or at least, Frank does.
The later half of the episode gets fun and more interesting and you can instantly tell that Claire is on edge and ready to become unhinged when she is transported back in time, to the Highlands of the past where men are fighting, and wearing kilts! Claire barely getting her bearings finding herself in the middle of a gunfire with men in red coats and the sexy men in kilts. Claire nearly being raped by a man in a read coat that eerily looks like her husband Frank gets rescued by Dougal MacKenzie (Graham McTavish) and his merry men and whisked away where her nurse “training” comes into play when she helps Jamie Fraser( Sam Heughan ) put his dislocated shoulder back into place where the two are instantly thrown together, and well the chemistry and curiosity are both evident.
I could go on and on, but I would rather you catch the episode and get sucked in. It has it all, sex, lies, and did I mention men with accents in kilts? What more of a reason could you need to start watching this series and picking up the books?
We need to talk about the way Outlander is shot for a moment. Wide shots give a sense of the vastness of the Scottish Highlands. Close shots give the actors a chance to show their hidden emotions and quiet reactions. Slow motion, while it can be cheesy, gives weight to some scenes in which could have been even cheesier and just works here. The point is, I now want to go to Scotland and find some ghosts and perhaps a man in a kilt. Also, the costuming is luscious. The fabrics are so rich and plentiful. Even the garb worn by the soldiers of yore look like vintage Alexander McQueen — there’s little in this show that isn’t gorgeous.The show reads like Masterpiece Theater meets premium channel lack of censorship. In fact, before the two of them started gettin’ down, the show felt exactly like a Masterpiece production: exquisitely shot, subtle, and very British. Frankly, Masterpiece could use some good sex scenes, but I cannot picture Masterpieces big draw of a TV showing bits and pieces of the boudoir. Let’s face it, sex sells, and it’s not a sex based show, but it has to be there 😉
