Outlander: Sassenach Show Only

August 5, 2014 6:15 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

1945 England: Claire Randall reunites with her husband after five years of war. A second honeymoon goes awry when she falls back through time to 1740's Scotland. (Episode viewable on starz.com in the US in advance of the 8/9/14 broadcast premiere)
posted by oh yeah! (8 comments total)

Far better than I expected it to be. You can really see that Claire and Frank loved each other before and are well on the way to loving each other again. What bad luck that Black Jack physically resembles his descendant so closely. Love the writing and portrayals of the Scots as well. They're not gruff, accented UK stereotypes but clearly their own people with their own ways fighting to throw off foreign systematic oppression.
posted by infinitewindow at 11:46 AM on August 10, 2014

It's sort of interesting to see how many of the Scottish actors are actively advocating in favor of Scottish Independence this year, too!
posted by olinerd at 6:26 PM on August 10, 2014

This was a pretty fantastic pilot. And while obviously its primary concern was being true to its own story, it effectively split the difference between the soapy (but adult) period drama of Downton Abbey and the dark, violent operatics of Game of Thrones. The S.O. and I both enjoyed it immensely.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:46 AM on September 1, 2014

I must confess I just started watching this last night and find myself pleasantly intrigued by it. (FYI -- wasn't writing off the premise or the books it's based on; I just didn't think I would like it so I ignored it.)
posted by Kitteh at 7:59 AM on March 4, 2015

I am just now watching because I saw the preview for Season 2 and it looked interesting. I'm halfway through the first season and I had no idea it was posted on Fanfare.

I liked the slow pace and atmospheric shots. The acting is great although I don't find the actor convincing in the husband role. At first I thought it was because they had been separated for five years but he seems more interesting in ferreting out local history than responding to his wife. She's the initiator, hurray for the feminist viewpoint, but every time? After this episode I was thinking he might be gay.

When she travels to the past, a well-directed frightening sequence, she ends up with a band of scruffy highlanders, burly and hairy and muddy, indistinguishable from one another by firelight, except for one clean-shaven, high-cheek-boned, well-developed naked torso'd lad and that's when it veered into Harlequin Romance territory.

But the premise was intriguing, the acting superb (that actor is very convincing in the soldier role), it's very well-written, suspenseful and tense, and I can't wait to see what happens next.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:16 PM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Any others who are only now starting to watch this (as it only recently appeared on Netflix here in Europe), or will I be talking to myself here, long after everyone else is gone? Although it seems like most of the the fun has been in the books included thread. Mine is still gathering dust on the bedside table.

Anyway, I've already watched a few episodes, but my thoughts after the first episode were: looks promising. Boy are all those scruffy Scotsmen going to be difficult to tell apart. But maybe that'll change when they shave and clean up? If the redhead is going to be the love interest, I approve! There seemed to be a nice spark between the two.
posted by sively at 10:42 AM on April 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

This recently appeared on Netflix in the US and I’ve started to go through it.
posted by bq at 1:04 PM on October 16, 2019

Adding that this episode made me understand why the author chose a protagonist who had been through WWII whereas in the books I didn’t get it.
posted by bq at 1:05 PM on October 16, 2019