While on her honeymoon, WWII combat nurse Claire Randall is mysteriously transported back to 1743 Scotland, where she is kidnapped by a group of Highlanders - and meets an injured young man named Jamie.
The major thing up for discussion, of course, has to be the split between the time spent in 1945 and the time spent in 1743. It takes a very long time until Claire falls back in time to the Scottish highlands. And that very much feels like an unavoidable burden. The series - and especially this pilot - had to establish Claire's modern world and the future that she'd work feverishly to get back to throughout the next handful of episodes. There has to be a reason why she needs to go back to the 20th century. In that respect, the show doesn't give a very strong reason. Frank is largely just bland. But those sequences in 1945 do have their merits. You just have to recognize that everything Claire and Frank are learning about in this area will prove to be very thematically important once she's living amongst the Scots. However, that does largely just make it feel like an information dump. You just have to know all of this information before she goes back in time. There's no real way to avoid that. Were those moments a bit too heavy-handed? Yes. Were all of them necessary? Probably not. They definitely could have cut down the 1945 stuff by at least 5 minutes. They could have cut the palm reading scene altogether. And yet, it's still very important for understanding that part of Claire's life.But the show really becomes magnetic once she touches the stone and is mysteriously flung back in time. That's the world Outlander will primarily live in and the show does an excellent job of setting up that dynamic almost instantly. Sure, it's somewhat awkward having Frank being this really nice guy only for the same actor to be playing his ancestor who then wants to rape Claire a second after meeting her. That basically casts that portion of the love triangle in a bad light. But the Scots do come and rescue her and she's caught in this mysterious new world where she is an outsider. She has no clue what has happened nor where she is in time. All she can do is use her modern ways to help the people who saved her. That's a very interesting culture change for all involved. The Scots aren't used to a woman acting this way and she is surprised by just how brutal and reckless this clan be. It's a very fun world of intrigue to live in that only gets better in succeeding episodes.
Some more thoughts:
- "Sassenach" was written by Ronald D. Moore and directed by John Dahl.
- I love just how simple the time jump is actually depicted. It's a very blunt and realistic take on the trope of falling through time. There is no mystic or supernatural trappings of her falling. She simply blacks out and wakes up.
- Outlander is just so wonderful to look at. Sure, it's a little on-the-nose that 1743 Scotland is more colorful than the 1945 version. However, I think the later time period has its moments too. Just look at the extravagant dance amongst the stones.
- So, there was three sexual acts in the first 40 minutes of this premiere. So I honestly thought Outlander would be just another Starz drama that shows explicit sex simply because they can. That is not the case however. Sex is a rarity in future episodes. It was only shown frequently in the beginning to better define the relationship between Claire and Frank.
- You will be singing along to the title sequence very soon. You can count on it.
