Love Outlander? This slightly silly prequel is bound to satisfy

3 months ago 27

Outlander: Blood of My Blood ★★★

Full disclosure: I have not watched a lot of the long-running Outlander, to which this new series is a standalone prequel. But I am across the influence the series has had on the TV landscape in the past decade.

Based on the bestselling novels by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander is a genre-mashing time-travel romance. The ongoing series follows Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe), a forward-thinking former military nurse who, on holiday with her husband in Scotland, finds herself transported back to the 18th century while visiting a (fictional) stone circle.

Jamie Roy as Brian and Harriet Slater as Ellen – <i>Outlander</i> original Jamie’s parents – in the prequel <i>Blood of My Blood</i>.

Claire falls in with a group of rebel Highlanders, eventually marrying the leader’s hunky son Jamie (Sam Heughan) – initially for protection but the two soon fall madly in love. The kind you leave your husband back in the 20th century for.

But while Outlander’s audience has largely been women – it was once described as “Game of Thrones for soccer moms” – it’s not all hastily removed breeches and bodices, as Jamie and Claire become key players in the Jacobite rising. The TV adaptation has been lauded for its representation of women as multidimensional, and eagerly applauded for its (many) steamy sex scenes, which put women’s desire into the foreground.

Jeremy Irvine as Henry and Hermione Corfield as Julia in 1917 London, before their fateful visit to Scotland.

Outlander has also been praised for its largely accurate portrayal of Scottish history, even if 18th-century Scotland was likely far more patriarchal than the version Claire encounters. (The sexual violence that caused controversy in the first couple of seasons is likely accurate.)

Ahead of the final, eighth season, which is due early next year, this prequel takes the same premise but with two sets of couples: the parents of Claire and Jamie.

Blood of my Blood opens with Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) mourning the death of her father and fearing who will take his place as the new “laird”. She’s told to focus on finding a husband but marriage has never interested her – until she meets the mysterious Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), from a rival clan.

Flashing forward to the trenches on Belgium’s Western Front, Henry (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia (Hermione Corfield) fall in love through their correspondence after Julia encounters Henry’s letters through her job as a censor.

Several years into their marriage they’re on holiday in Inverness when, well, you know how this goes … except this time it’s not just Julia whisked back in time to 1714. Henry also travels to the same period, and while a lengthy “do not reveal” list prevents me from disclosing much, the pair can only hope to find their way back to each other – and to the five-year-old daughter they’ve left at home in London.

Much of the creative Outlander team remains; the production and costume design are lavish and the scenery looks glorious. But with just two episodes available for preview, it’s hard to gauge if Blood of My Blood – which can be watched without any prior knowledge of the original – will be as saucy. There are some gratuitous breasts in the first episode, however, and we also see Jeremy Irvine’s bum during some lovemaking among the heather.

There’s a hint of menace, too, especially from Lord Lovat (Tony Curran): the grandfather of Jamie Fraser, for whom Julia is stuck working as a maid – and all the maids are warned not to “linger too long in his presence”.

Is it a slightly silly way of expanding the Outlander universe? Definitely. It’s essentially the same story with new, equally good-looking characters. Will the series’ millions of ardent fans care? Unlikely.

Outlander: Blood of my Blood is on Stan – which is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead – from August 9.

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