The Best Television of 2015: No.7 - Starz's OUTLANDER

A post-WWII nurse called Claire (Caitriona Balfe) travels back in time to 17th-century Scotland while holidaying in the Highlands with her husband, where she meets a dashing young highlander called Jamie (Scott Heughan) and her spouse's sadistic Red Coat ancestor Captain 'Black Jack' Randall (Tobias Menzies)...

What made it so good? While it uses sci-fi to set the story up, Outlander is largely a romantic action-adventure with added kilts. I instantly enjoyed this show, but it definitely could have veered into limp 'picture postcard' Highland fluff, so what kept me going were the glimpses of something darker underneath. Indeed, by the time the second half of the season was underway, and certainly by the final batch of episodes, Outlander had revealed a grittier and nastier side to its nature. Game of Thrones may be most people's go-to drama when asked to choose a memorably harrowing or shocking scene, but Outander's scenes of sadism and rape eclipse everything I've seen on that HBO series. Outlander wasn't showing violence for an easy thrill, either, it was an unavoidable part of the story, and everything worked because we'd spent so long getting to know and care about Claire and Jamie as a couple. Bonus point for easily the best sex scene (erotic, romantic, realistic) on television in years, too.

OUTLANDER, 1.16 – 'To Ransom a Man's Soul'

★★★☆

The finale of Outlander was far removed from what I'd have predicted earlier in this first season. The show took a brave and harrowing direction, which flew in the face of the pulp-romance feel the premiere had. "To Ransom a Man's Soul" was one of the most unpleasant, uncomfortable viewing experiences I've had for a long time, and certainly raised the bar when it comes to dramatised torture sequences. (Yes, Game of Thrones has lost that ignoble rosette.) I've recommended Outlander to family and friends I'd never want to be in the same room as when they watch this hour, let's put it that way.

OUTLANDER, 1.15 – 'Wentworth Prison'

★★★★

For a television series that could so easily have become stuck in a fug of romanticised chivalry and glossiness, one of Outlander's biggest surprises has been how damned intense and unsettling it can become—not to mention outright gruesome. This began relatively early, with the notorious flashback where Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies) was seen gleefully flogging Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) to within an inch of his life, but a part of me wondered if that scene was an anomaly. But no, it seems Outlander takes a curious pleasure in bringing Captain "Black Jack" Randall back into the lives of Jamie and Claire (Caitriona Balfe), to wreak misery and psychological damage on the happy couple. This may become wearisome and repetitive, but not yet.

OUTLANDER, 1.14 – 'The Search'

★★★☆

I wasn't anticipating much from "The Search", because Outlander's perhaps leaned too much on the derring-do thrills of people being kidnapped or arrested, and requiring their loved-ones to rescue them. However, this hour actually surprised me by taking some unexpected turns, and setup what promises to be a rousing end to the season—even if it's determined to find drama in innocent people falling foul of the English redcoats.

OUTLANDER, 1.13 – 'The Watch'

★★☆☆

After a run of great episodes that's reenergised the season in many ways, things were just too sluggish to really enjoy "The Watch"—not helped by the fact Outlander has a tendency to rely on variations of either Claire (Caitriona Balfe) or Jamie (Sam Heughan) being kidnapped and in need of rescuing.

OUTLANDER, 1.12 – 'Lallybroch'

★★★☆

We're in a very different place now, literally and figuratively. Jamie (Sam Heughan) knows his wife's a time-traveller, and is awed by her stories of airplanes and, well, seeing an elephant in the flesh, and Claire's (Caitriona Balfe) been taken to her new spouse's ancestral home at Lallybroch. Having chosen 17th-century Scotland over her own place and time, this was an hour of 'meet the family' drama, but not as overwrought and predictable as that implies. Indeed, sassenach Claire's arrival was met with frostiness by her husband's pregnant Jenny (Laura Donnelly), but this episode mostly avoided the in-law clichés.

OUTLANDER, 1.11 – 'The Devil's Mark'

★★★★

A pivotal and exceptional hour from Outlander, despite how much of the trial adhered to the tropes of innocent women charged with witchcraft and having to suffer the false testimonies of townsfolk with scores to settle, or who wilfully misinterpret events to serve their own prejudices and fears.

OUTLANDER, 1.10 – 'By the Pricking of My Thumbs'

★★☆☆

"... something wicked this way comes." More than last week's mid-season premiere, "By the Pricking of My Thumbs" felt like an hour that took a stride into fresher territory: introducing an important character only previously alluded to in conversations, the Duke of Sandringham (Simon Callow); deepening the character of Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek), Claire's (Caitriona Balfe) mystical friend at Castle Leoch; adding another complication caused by Dougal's (Graham McTavish) carnality; and even threw in some inter-clan violence with the McDonald's...

OUTLANDER, 1.9 – 'The Reckoning'

★★☆☆

It's been an unreasonably long six months since the last episode of Outlander, so this might as well have been the premiere of the second season, not a resumption of the first—although, on that score, it would be seen as a big disappointment. As a mid-season episode, I guess this was fine—but forgive me if my memory of Dougal MacKenzie (Graham McTavish) financing a Jacobite rebellion has since gone stale, but I managed to cling to the enjoyable relationship drama at the heart of this show. A fantasy romance lives or dies on the strength of its lovers, and it's here that Outlander resonates thanks to English time-traveller Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Scottish clansman Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) being one of television's most beguiling matches.

OUTLANDER, 1.7 – 'Both Sides Now' • lost girl

★★☆☆

The mid-season finale of OUTLANDER was satisfying, if guilty of reheating the nasty threat from "The Garrison Commander", only now with added gristle because Claire's (Caitriona Balfe) newly-married to Jamie (Sam Heughan). It'll be interesting to see how Outlander deals with the fact its two love birds have hooked up this early, as they're currently in a honeymoon period where it's fresh seeing them as bonafide couple. I suspect Outlander won't regret doing it, as a number of shows have recently chosen to unite their romantic leads successfully. I recall doing that revitalised later seasons of Chuck, because the 'will-they-won't-they?' cliche of romantic fiction is more overplayed than seeing married couples dealing with life.

OUTLANDER, 1.7 – 'The Wedding' • happily ever after?

★★½ (out of four)

JAMIE (to Claire): I'll never forget when I came out of the church and saw you for the first time. It was as if I stepped outside on a cloudy day and suddenly the sun came out.

It couldn't hope to compete with the imagery and shocks of "The Garrison Commander", but "The Wedding" had warmth and charm... and heaven knows we really needed our spirits lifting after last week's harrowing hour. Considering this was a fundamentally slower, character-driven instalment, writer Anne Kenney did a good job keeping your attention. It cleverly subverted expectations by opening with Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) already getting married, so Claire doesn't have to be handed back to the English, and filled the rest of the hour with some nice Claire/Jamie scenes and occasional flashbacks to their hurried wedding preparations...

OUTLANDER, 1.6 – 'The Garrison Commander' • tables are turned

RANDALL (to Claire): I run in darkness, Madam. And darkness is where I belong. I need no sympathy and you'll get none from me. One way or another, I will get the truth out of you.

★★★½ (out of four)
written by Ira Steven Behr • directed by Brian Kelly

If you've bailed on OUTLANDER, for whatever reason, I implore you to resume viewing to this episode, at the very least. "The Garrison Commander" had a very simple plot and was built on essentially two scenes, with an unforgettable flashback, and it was a gripping showcase for Tobias Menzies—whose Captain "Black Jack" Randall suddenly became one of the greatest small-screen villains right now, and I'm including Games of Thrones' rogues gallery.

OUTLANDER, 1.5 – 'Rent' • the future path to the past

written by Toni Graphia | directed by Brian Kelly

We got a sense of the long-term plan for OUTLANDER with episode 5, beyond Claire's (Caitriona Balfe) inevitably doomed intention to time-travel home by touching the stones at Craigh na Dun. The famous Battle of Culloden is three years hence, and Claire remembers it will mark the demise of the Clan MacKenzie and the Highlander way of life. This gives Outlander a deadline and something nasty looming on the horizon, and one assumes the eight source novels haven't reached that grisly conflict with the British army just yet—so does this mean Starz are angling towards making a half-dozen seasons, or so?

OUTLANDER, 1.3 & 1.4 – 'The Way Out' & 'The Gathering'

FATHER BAIN (to Claire): I smell the vapours of hell in you.

If the first few episodes handled the set-up, this third hour was about adjustment as 20th-century time-traveller Claire (Caitriona Balfe) started to find her feet as a "stranger in a strange land". It was also a helpful instalment in terms of explaining why Claire doesn't try to take anyone into her confidence by telling them the truth of her predicament, as there was a brilliant fake-out moment when she imagined telling kindly Mrs Fitzgibbons (Annette Badland) about her timeslip, only to be branded a demon. And the rest of this episode's events proved Claire has to be very cautious about what she says, as the 18th-century is still a very superstitious and religious place.

This week, I'm loving... OUTLANDER's Opening Titles

Isn't it beautiful? Totally captures the mystery and romance of the Highlands of Scotland, while cleverly mixing together The Skye Boat Song's melody with lyrics paraphrasing Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Sing Me a Song of a Lad That is Gone (with lad altered to lass).

OUTLANDER, 1.2 – 'Castle Leoch' - lies of a spy

JAMIE (to Claire): You're a kind woman... with a good touch... and your husband is a lucky man.

The disdain many men feel toward romantic fiction is perhaps a belief the love story will be too gooey, but I'm not getting that impression from OUTLANDER. "Castle Leoch" saw involuntary time-traveller Claire (Caitriona Balfe) arriving at the titular stronghold, home of the Clan MacKenzie, where she spent five days adjusting to her new environment/century, and trying to put everyone's mind at ease over rumours she's an English assassin or spy...

Review: Starz's OUTLANDER - loch to the future

Beyond producing a handful of projects since his Battlestar Galactica remake ended, writer Ronald D. Moore has been struggling to develop another big hit. Things look set to change in the near-future, following a development deal with Sony Pictures TV and creation of his Tall Ship Production company. RDM has a stack of projects in active development; from remakes of The Wild Wild West and A Knight's Tale, to western Hangman and seafaring drama The McCulloch. But first comes OUTLANDER; a historical romance from cable upstart Starz, adapting Diana Gabaldon's popular novels.

August 2014 Highlights - DOCTOR WHO, INTRUDERS, THE KILLING, MASTERS OF SEX, OUTLANDER, A TOUCH OF CLOTH...

It's August! Summer's still here, but there's lots of good reasons to stay indoors with the television on. Below are my prime picks of shows hitting US and UK screens over the next four weeks, so read on if you need to plan your TV month...

2014: Television To Look Forward To

As has become tradition, I've compiled a list of the big new shows that will help make the loss of 2013 more bearable. 2014 looks to be shaping up rather nicely (if noticeably full of dark subject-matter), if the below mix of pilots and commissioned series make good on their potential. As always, I'm sure I've missed some gems, so feel free to add some of your own choices as a comment. If I strongly agree with any oversights, I will add hastily them and claim they were included all along.