I have been a fan of Outlander for years now and I have been recommending it to others ever since. I’ve got some very good reasons for that. I’ve tried to narrow it down to 10 for your reading pleasure.
Oh and there will be some SPOILERS, but I tried to keep it to a minimum.
Tons of very well-done sex scenes
You may have heard from adoring fans and nay-sayers alike that Outlander is basically soft-core porn, and I would say that doesn’t quite do it justice. Outlander is a high-budget, well-made, realistic and yet still fantastical story- and emotionally-driven porn. There are so many sex scenes and it never gets old.
Within the first 20 minutes of the first episode is a spectacularly rousing scene of a true gentleman on his knees. Let’s just take a moment to reflect. Blow jobs are always in movies and tv shows. It’s, like, hardly even daring anymore. You know what IS daring? Eating pussy. And Outlander’s definitely got you covered on that front.
There are dozens of sex scenes in this show and plenty of sexy banter. Much of it is in the first season, though don’t worry, it continues on throughout the series as well. The nice thing about having lots of sex scenes, is that you can show many different facets of intimacy, and they do. There are moments that are tender and intimate, exciting and passionate; even angry sex.
Shameless nudity, like the day ye were born
There’s a lot of nips and bits in this show. Butts, boobs, they’ve got it all. They don’t really treat nudity as anything out of the ordinary. Sure, there’s a time and place for it, but it’s not forbidden like it is in so many other shows.
Because Outlander shows so much intimacy, as well as a fair few private moments, a fair bit of vulnerable shots, are put on full display for our viewing pleasure. You see it all. The ups and downs, the love, the hate and everything in between. It is meticulously crafted to give you somehow a heightened sense of realness, and nudity is very real.
Sexy accents and languages
If sexy accents make you melt, there are plenty to choose from.
Claire and her husband, Frank, are British and they travel to Scotland. You’ll hear a lot of both accents, which is certainly enough to make you melt already. As you continue on, you’ll hear French accents, Jamaican, Southern United States, Mohawk, and even some German. Of course, you’ll also hear some more typical American accents as they flash to modern times.
Jamie and the other Scotsmen speak plenty of Scottish Gaelic. That’s not the only non-English language you get to hear, either. Depending on where they go, the intro changes languages to reflect where they are. French is heard quite a bit in the second season. Then you get bits of Cantonese, Spanish-French patois, Swedish, Latin, Italian, Greek, German and even Mohawk. Fun fact: to film the 4th season, they hired 100 indigenous actors from Canada to play the Mohawk and Cherokee characters. This show really did their research and as much as was possible, strived for authenticity and it paid off.
Jamie and Frank
Jamie Fraser is the leading man in Outlander, and he is always doing something swoon-worthy. Right from the get-go, he’s presented as a kind-hearted and passionate outlaw who is a pillar of his community. His devilish smirk and well-placed winks will leave you weak in the knees and eager for him to carry you to safety.
He’s not just a pretty face, though. Jamie also has a moral compass as strong as his muscles. It seems he’s always taking beatings in the place of those weaker than him, which seems to be just about everybody, (Have you SEEN his body?) and he simply cannot allow any injustice. And yes, he starts out with a very 1700s mindset but shows that he is more than capable of rapid emotional growth.
As he continues a relationship with Claire, he learns more and more about oppression, respect, and complete honesty. His personal and emotional growth is earnest and ongoing, which is just about the sexiest thing in a man.
In contrast to Jamie, there is Claire’s modern-day husband, Frank. Frank is a proper British gentleman and loves Claire dearly. The same actor plays his ancestor who does horrific things to Claire and Jamie back in the 1700s. It really is heartbreaking to see how radically different Frank is from his ancestor yet because of the resemblance, well, it gets rough.
Both men are very attractive on many levels, despite their differences, and will have you wishing you were Claire.
Kinky fantasy role play to aspire to
Outlander showcases Scotland under British rule and the rebellion that ensues. During this time, lashings were handed out like condoms at a play party and just about everyone finds themselves shackled up at one point or another. Captain Jack Randall is very much a sadist, as are several others throughout the series, though Randall leaves the largest impression.
There are plenty of scenes kinksters may get excited about. They’ve got bondage, sadism, masochism, and domination. The seriousness varies from real abuses of power and domination to a fictitious ruse meant to fool the enemy. There’s plenty of blood lust and some of it turns into passionate sex scenes, and those that don’t often add tension and intrigue.
Early on in the series, Jamie decides to punish Claire for putting his men at risk. He decides to punish her as he would any of his men — with a belting that would last until his arm got tired. Though Claire is not at all a fan at that point, she switches the roles with a quick blade to his throat and seems to enjoy it quite a bit. Throughout the series, they play with power dynamics in sexual relationships.
Women are in prominent roles and their pleasure is paramount
Representation matters, and though the main characters are all white (it IS Scotland in the 1700s after all), the women are key players in the series. Despite the submissive roles that women were relegated to at that time in history, women play key roles in political and social influence. Women talk to other women about things other than men. Women shoot guns. Women drive the plot. Not exclusively, but they do nonetheless and it’s worth noting.
Claire is an outspoken and skilled woman for her time, which is the 1950s in England, and her presence in the 1700s is nothing short of revolutionary for some of the characters. She inspires other women with her bravery and confidence.
Not only are the women in Outlander real, badass characters but there is also a real emphasis on feminine pleasure throughout the series. There are scenes where the men are very much enjoying pleasuring the women they are with and going to great lengths to please them. Feminine pleasure is rarely showcased in this sort of way. Usually, women are just incidentally enjoying what the men are doing to please themselves. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one.
Sexy examples of enthusiastic consent
Over the last decade, the conversation around consent has gained a lot of traction (thank God!).
Going to high school in the early 00s meant I heard a lot of “no means no” and again and again I would hear about court cases where rape victims were discounted because they “didn’t say no”. Having been raped myself, I knew that saying no and fighting back aren’t always things you feel capable of in the moment. Fortunately, the conversation changed.
This decade brought with it the “consent is sexy” movement where there has been an emphasis on enthusiastic consent. I love it! Now we want people to shout YES when they really, really want it! Some critics are unconvinced. I often hear that having to obtain explicit consent ruins the mood. To that, I say: “Watch some Outlander!”.
Though not all sex scenes in Outlander are consensual (we’ll talk about that in a minute), many are and very enthusiastically so! When Jamie and Claire first get together, it’s under a fair bit of outside pressure and he refuses to sleep with her until she wants him. He tells her how he “burns” for her and when asked if she will have him, she breathlessly replies, “Yes”.
Outlander pulls off multiple examples of enthusiastic consent that is sexy as hell and in stark contrast to the sex scenes that most certainly are not consensual.
Difficult rape scenes, done right.
Be warned, if you are triggered by rape, and I mean truly triggered, do not watch this series. There’s a lot of it. Rape is always uncomfortable, as well it should be, but I do believe there is immense value to depicting it faithfully.
I applaud the creators of this series for not shying away from the topic of rape. It was a very big reality in the 1700s and is still to this day of epidemic proportions. It had to be dealt with somehow and the way rape is handled in this show is brilliant.
Rape tends to be depicted in movies and tv as though the people who do it are horrific monsters. Outlander does a good job of showing its monstrosity while retaining an understanding of the rapists as people with deep, though disturbing, motivations. It’s a complicated mess of a situation with many layers and grave consequences.
It also doesn’t only happen to women.
SPOILER ALERT: One of the most difficult parts of the series is when Jamie, yes that strong hulk of a man, is raped and consequently crushed by the experience. It completely breaks him and he is forever changed by it. This is so important to have in a popular series, especially with such a masculine character. Men can be raped. It can completely break you and most importantly, you can eventually heal and at no point have you become less of a man.
Men talk to other men about their trauma
Jamie isn’t the only male character traumatized by rape in this series. In Season 4, we get to see a wonderful moment where another trauma survivor confides in Jamie about having been raped. The two talk, man to man, about the struggle of surviving sexual abuse and it’s achingly touching.
Usually, if men talk about their trauma on screen, it’s to a woman. Women’s emotional labor is habitually taken for granted and is often their primary purpose for existing on-screen. As a result, there aren’t too many examples of men grappling with difficult emotions with other men.
Outlander does a stellar job of showing what that kind of conversation can look like without taking any sort of masculinity away (as seems to so often be the fear). Instead, Jamie is able to look the other man in the eye and help him through the experience. A genuine scene of offering validation and support as men.
A different perspective on virginity
When Claire and Jamie get it on for the first time, it is acknowledged that Jamie, the manliest of manly characters, is a virgin. Not only is he a virgin, but he marries Claire, an already-married woman who, by the looks of previous scenes with Frank, is most definitely not at all a virgin.
Men are so often pressured into being very sexual at a young age. Just as young women are seen as damaged goods if they lose their virgin status, men are seen as somehow not a man until he loses his virgin status. A terrible double-standard, but there you have it.
To have one of the main characters who is very traditionally masculine and very sexy and desirable be a virgin is radical AF. Not only is he a virgin, but he has no shame associated with that status. That is simply the way it is. He shows us that sex does not define a man.
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Outlander is a treasure for so many reasons. Ultimately, what it comes down to is that Outlander is helping to redefine masculinity away from toxicity and raising up women and their pleasure while they’re at it.
What’s not to love?
