3 out of 5

Developed by: Ronald D. Moore

covers season 1, episodes 1 – 10

I had no idea why, but I knew that there was a significant amount of hype leading up to Outlander’s premiere.  Comic-cons seemed to care.  Then shouldn’t I?  And after watching an episode… and after watching two… I sort of got it, but not really.  Would I be watching this if I wasn’t waiting for the hype to hit?  Fair question.  And notable in that I’m almost surely not Outlander’s intended audience, and this only became more and more clear as the series wore on, to the point that by the tenth episode, I’m checking out.  But I can acknowledge the appeal, and the quality of production and the general quality of the acting and that, yes, it’s probably female geared and it’s nice that there’s a pretty prominent show that goes all-in on sexualization primarily from a women’s point of view.  But I can also note that the show is slow, almost inexorably so, and that it gets far, far away from the dribbles of sci-fi that initially held my interest.

Claire – a combat nurse – and her husband, Frank, find themselves having to get to know one another again after several years apart due to World War II.  They vacation in a small town as part of a romantic rekindling and also to allow Frank to research his family history, bits of which he recounts or are overheard during various conversations.  One morning, Claire hears some noises coming from some ruins.  When she investigates… she finds she is whisked back to 1700s Scotland, siding with Rebels, and fighting to adjust her 1940s mindset to the past as well as running into some surprising connections to her present.  Yes, there’s a handsome, gentle-on-the-inside man who whisks her away.  Yes, we’re very clearly stacking up escapist fantasy, as Claire flirts with whether or not a dalliance in such times would count as an affair, whilst the historically fueled plot chugs forward, Claire using her insider knowledge (and medical skills) to try to stay on what she considers the right side of things.  And it works, for the most part.  The romantic hook is played up and is palpable, and it pairs well with the occasionally beautifully countryside and then the undeniable ghastly business of war, and the very ignorant and masculine mindsets of these fightin’ boys; Claire remains curious of her circumstances, and some further mysteries connecting to the present are dangled, giving Outlander an underlying momentum of our lead’s need to get back home.

And then there is some fetishized spanking, and rape.  And then the sex-to-show ratio becomes incredibly imbalanced.  And then the loose connection to mystery and sci-fi is let fade fully into the background (I’m sure it will come back around when needed, but apparently it’s not needed right now…) so that Claire can fully get swept up in the bosom-heaving dramas of the time, with too much (by my opinion) screen time devoted to nipples as opposed to… story.  And then: I stopped caring.

Essentially, the show tested the waters of a female driven sexy sci-fi-lite show to see if it appealed and it did, and now, I can only suspect, the writers and producers are just giving the audience what it wants.  Alas, it’s not really what I wanted out of the show.  But I ain’t the audience.