Outlander: corset-tugging time travel

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Outlander: corset-tugging time travel

July 13, 2016 - 17:37
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There is Outlander. Not the new Mitsubishi family van, but the epic time travel tale that actually works brilliantly as a television series.

Caitriona Balfe as Claire Randall and Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser in Outlander.

By Angela McCluskey

There is Outlander. Not the new Mitsubishi family van, but the epic time travel tale that actually works brilliantly as a television series.

We meet the fabulous Tobias Menzies as Dr Frank Randall, a delightful and amiable character in the first episode with his new wife Claire (Catriona Balfe) on honeymoon after the Second World War. Suffice to say she trips on a couple of well-placed magic stones (which were probably left there by the Mormons) and wakes up in the middle of a Highland brawl.

Claire’s outfit immediately draws much attention and everybody kinda forgets for a minute as they circle this wench in a pret-a-porter easy-to-rape get up made up of a few large chiffon handkerchiefs…ello, ello, ello! What no 85 loop corset or 12 petticoats?

“I could be back in time for tea,” thinks the dastardly “Black Jack” Randall looking ridiculously handsome in his Hugo Boss shiny Joan Collins-shouldered uniform. But wait for it… guess who he is? Yup he’s Tobias Menzies too – the great, great, great grandson of “Old Black Jack”.

Two annoying things are: a silly version of a beautiful song by a way too over-tutored singer. And the fact that Claire can be a wee bit annoying as she cries a lot. But the way the story brings feminism and history together to give her character a strong arc works well by season two.

The heroine travels back and forward to see Frank which is even more intriguing. She’s found rolling about in a giant dress, corseted up to high heaven and is helped by a country doctor who is slightly taken aback when she shakes him. The look of horror she gives poor old Frank when she wakes up as all she sees is Black Jack in a suit…

“I don’t know where to start,” she murmurs.

They go to Parisian balls, Scottish castles, stunning parties and there are lots of fights and men in beautiful kilts with big leather belts!

Based on the historical time travel novels written by Diana Gabaldon, there have been two series of this Anglo American production shown on Amazon Prime. Season three will be aired soon and a fourth is also in the pipeline.