WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Having nothing to watch while I was waiting
for the 2nd season of ‘Narcos’ to come out, I decided to give
Outlander a try. I read a few things
about the story, it seemed kind of interesting, and the fact that it had to do
with Scotland and it was filmed in the highlands made me watch it. I am
obviously not a Scot, but I have been to this wonderful country, and spend
almost one week in the highlands, in several places actually. Despite it was
August, everything was so green and beautiful that it took my breath (and mind)
away. Well, up to a point I could bet that this series wasn’t filmed there! I
don’t remember seeing so much grey and brown and faded yellow colours in the
Highlands. (Later on the landscape becomes more “Scottish”). Maybe I’m wrong,
so don’t take it into consideration.
Better take a look a closer
look to the series itself:
Outlander is based on a series of books, which
I haven’t read, nor plan to do it. (Especially now). The main story is about Claire Randall, a young woman serving as a
nurse in the 2nd World War, who has somehow travelled back in time and
found herself in 1743 in Scotland. So far so good… There, she tries to adapt herself, having at the back of her mind to
find a way to return “back to the future” and to her husband Frank. But things
become complicated when she is taken by a Scottish clan, and at the same time
she is hunted down by Jack Randall an officer of the British army, who is
actually her husband’s ancestor. In order to avoid her capture by the British
army, she is “forced” to marry Jamie Frazer a handsome (of course) Scottish warrior and a Clan laird, and from that point and on her life takes a different turn.
This is the whole story more or less written
in a serious manner.
[On a
lighter and funnier approach, the whole story could summarize to something like
that: The books are written by a woman, and as it seems, their main target is
the female audience. That is something that is becoming clear from the start,
and many times it looked like a teenage girl's wet dream. So far the series
followed that tough, smart (but not so smart as it turns out) and constantly
horny 20th century woman who accidentally travels back in time. She spends her
time thinking mostly about two things: 1. How to travel back to her time and to
her husband. 2. When to bang Gingerguy (who is obviously not her husband). The
series asks us intriguing questions such as: - Will she sleep with Gingerguy?
(Just kidding, of course she will) - When will she sleep with him? (After
almost 6 weeks) - How awesome is Gingerguy actually? (Very awesome, obviously,
what did you expect? He is the hero after all).]
If I want to be honest with you and myself, I
must say that I did enjoy some episodes, but there were some times that I was
struggling to continue. Also, I can’t understand why they focused for almost
2 whole episodes on that homosexual prison rape. Yes, it was including some
very intense scenes, (I fast forwarded most of them), but spending almost 2
hours on that subject was a little too much for me.
Also,
despite that I really enjoyed the last 2-3 episodes of the second season, I don’t
think I will continue watching it.
So, let’s sum up: Outlander’s first 2 seasons are including 29 episodes in total, with
each episode being almost an hour long. (The only exception is the 29th
episode, which was almost 90 minutes long). As it seems, Outlander is more of a “female friendly” series, and
you will understand that if you read the viewer’s reviews on the internet. The production and the filming are
excellent, the scenery is gorgeous, but mostly because Scotland is
gorgeous! So, I will give a 10 out of 10 for Scotland, but I don’t think I could give more that 6.5 - 7.0 for Outlander.
IMDB’s rating is 8.5 out
of 10.00
By clicking on the following YT link you will be able to watch the trailer for Season 1.
