Outlander season 1 review
The series continually evolved and changed. And while we're on the subject of romance, Outlander took a different and welcome approach to sex and the female gaze.
While their love for each other dictated where the plot went, it didn't crowd everything else out if that makes sense. It wasn't really introduced in a big way until the seventh episode, "The Wedding", though and then the bond between Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) was at the heart of the story. I can't say whether the 16 episodes of Season 1 changed any minds, but I can say the series successfully wove together various arcs, tones, and development to address those concerns and to show Outlander has a wide range. Some groups wrote the time-traveling, historical fiction tale off as romance and nothing more, while others were concerned about a plot centering on a woman torn between two marriages. Starz's Outlander had some preconceptions to overcome before the first episode aired.
Outlander season 1 review full#
To alter it or to put Jamie through anything less awful would be to make the television series fundamentally different from the books.Warning: Full spoilers for Season 1 of Outlander follow. Actually, the audience's relationship with those characters is affected just as much. The catch is Jamie's path and Claire and Jamie's relationship is shaped hugely by this moment in the books. Was the torture and rape of Jamie necessary? Well, is any plot ever necessary? Much of what occurred in the finale was pulled from the book by Diana Gabaldon, which leads to an inevitable discussion along the lines of "just because it's in the book doesn't need it means to be in the television series." Should they have skipped over the events of Wentworth Prison and left the ugliness on the page? After all, it's one thing to read about such torture and another thing to have it come to life before your eyes. Jack scarred him physically and emotionally, and we need to see Jamie continue to struggle with Wentworth in the future (not because I want him to suffer but I do want his recovery to be realistic). Obviously they had the challenge of setting Claire and Jamie's relationship in the right direction for the next season and television comes with time constraints, but I don't know how feasible it is for him to get to an OK place so soon. Claire fought hard for Jamie's recovery, but it felt like he bounced back too quickly. Balfe brought a tremendous amount of strength to Claire - she was sort of a force of nature. Heughan made Jamie's pain palpable and communicated so much about Jamie's state of mind with his eyes. Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe were each remarkable in the episode, too. His performance has made Jack a villain none of us will be forgetting any time soon. Menzies was especially talented at bringing softness into Jack's actions, and the overlying tone of kindness made the actions more sickening. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to explore and study a mind as twisted as Black Jack's. This is a character who has already shown himself to be the worst of the worst, and it's impressive (and terrifying) how they managed to make him more awful - again, it adds context to past episodes with Jack.Ĭaitriona Balfe in OutlanderAnd Tobias Menzies. It was one more way in which he exerted control and inflicted pain and possibly the worst of his actions. By pretending to be Claire, he planted seeds of hate and distrust in Jamie's mind. Jack's actions introduced a near insurmountable hurdle for Jamie and Claire. The depth of what happened was never minimized. We see her love for him and her determination to save him and cutting between Wentworth and the monastery was an effective way to temper the atrocities at the prison without downplaying them. But in between Jamie's memories, we see Claire fighting for him. The actual acts and the repercussions were fully depicted. That's not to say they shied away from showing everything because they didn't. Jumping back and forth on the timeline meant a break between the graphic torture and rape. Balance was key to getting through this episode.
But they were also accompanied by an emotionally charged and hopeful recovery. The scenes presented in "To Ransom a Man's Soul" are easily some of the most distressing ones that have been on television. Jack's sadism was on full display, and it was a challenge to keep looking at the screen. Being a book reader and knowing what was ahead between Black Jack and Jamie didn't make any of it easier to watch. If you thought the last episode of Outlander was disturbing, the Season 1 finale probably made you reconsider your evaluation. Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow, as do discussions of sexual violence.