Grade: A-
After 11 long months of waiting, the Drought-lander is finally over.
Starz’s sweeping drama, adapted from Diana Gabaldon’s book series of the same name, is back and better than ever. The second season of “Outlander” takes us from the familiar tartan kilts and rolling moors of the Scottish highlands to the embroidered silks and lavish parties of French high society.
When we left our time-traveling, now-pregnant heroine and her dashing Scottish husband, they were boarding a ship to France in order to prevent the imminent Jacobite rebellion and resulting battle that wipes out the Highland clans.
While this change in narrative could easily have been jarring, “Outlander” tends to shift genre by the episode and therefore takes this transition in stride. A time-traveling saga, period epic, historical romance, political thriller and feminist melodrama all in one, it’s impossible to pin into one specific category.
Book readers may have known where season two would begin, but for the rest of us, “Through A Glass, Darkly” was a surprise.
Claire Fraser, played by waifish beauty Caitriona Balfe, has somehow been transported back to 1948 Scotland.
Cautiously welcomed home by her husband Frank (Tobias Menzies, as fantastic as ever) who has been searching for her for two years, Claire spends the first half of the episode researching the results of the disastrous Battle of Culloden in 1746, where her beloved husband Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Highland friends were apparently crushed by British forces.
“Outlander” plays with time both narratively and episodically, and season two flips back and forth between Claire’s dual lives in elaborately layered sequences. We move from 1948 back to 1740s France, where Claire and Jamie are weaseling their way into French high society in order to prevent the ominous fate of the Highland clans.
Every aspect of “Outlander” adapts to fit the new setting and storyline, from the lush costuming to the elaborate sets.
Even the show’s credit sequence, which is arguably one of the best on television right now, sets up the new theme. Formerly “The Skye Boat Song” set to bagpipes with lyrics from a Robert Burns poem, the song now includes a background of baroque music and a second verse performed in French.
Although it seems a trivial change, the new opening credits reflect just how committed “Outlander” is to the details. Each small change, from the credits to the costumes, is a testament to how meticulously well-crafted the show is.
I can’t write about “Outlander” without mentioning the sex. Although season two lacks the sexual tension and emerging romance between Claire and Jamie that was the defining trait of the first season, their chemistry is as palpable as ever.
Last season’s traumatic encounter with the evil Black Jack Randall has left Jamie a changed man, however, it often leaves him deeply at odds with Claire.
But fear not: sex scenes await.
It’s not all Claire and Jamie this season, though — equally, if not more affecting, is her relationship with Frank in 1948. Menzies, who plays both Claire’s original husband and the series’ main villain, navigates both very different roles with astonishing skill. Some of the season’s most heart-wrenching scenes come from Balfe and Menzies’ painfully raw moments together.
Through sumptuous imagery, restrained pacing, nuanced emotional depth and honest performances, “Outlander” sets itself apart from the overblown bodice-rippers that have come before it. It is truly, thoughtfully different from anything I’ve ever seen on television, and the show gladly embraces that singular weirdness.
The second season of “Outlander” takes its new French setting and storyline in stride and loses none of the things that make it so unique. Claire may be torn between times and Jamie on edge in a new, hostile country, but the show itself has never seemed more effortlessly composed.
@Kate__Halliwell
