With its tight focus on Claire, Outlander lets us meander within a scene, and find moments of odd serendipity, or pleasant diversion, or looming horror, drifting to and fro as it pleases. While in France, trying to plot the downfall of Prince Charles’ doomed Jacobite rebellion, they spent a lot of time discussing their schemes, often absurdly literally. He looks like someone from the cover of a bodice-ripper, and Outlander certainly isn’t above having him spout heartfelt near-poetry. Moment to moment, Outlander rarely sits in a groove, stuffing its scenes with the chaos of life. Outlander is about the messiness of our stories, their intangibility and resistance to form, whether that’s something as literal as history or as manufactured as genre.

Source: National Post July 12, 2016 17:48 UTC