Outlander: Blood of My Blood Review: Starz's Romantic Prequel Series Will Have You Swooning

There's a certain magic about Outlander. Yes, that includes the magic within the story, the magic of time-traveling through stones and the lore of fairies, the magic of fate and true love, but it also extends to the success of the show itself. Adapting Diana Gabaldon's beloved, extensive series about a World War II nurse falling through time and falling in love with a Scottish Highlander in the 1740s could've been a disaster — that sentence alone is insanity — and yet, out of the gate, it worked. It was the magic of the team behind it: Ronald D. Moore at the helm, Jon Gary Steele's lush production design, Terry Dresbach's gorgeously detailed costume design, and, perhaps most supernatural of all, the perfect casting of leads Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan, who have an instant, palpable onscreen chemistry. That chemistry, especially, simply felt like something you couldn't plan for. The combination of all of these elements has not only satiated Outlander fans for seven seasons but felt like it could never be recreated. It's part of the reason why the prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, has been met with such anticipation: Could they actually find that specific alchemy again? It's a delight to discover that the answer is yes — the magic is back. 

While Claire (Balfe) and Jamie's (Heughan) love has always seemed fated, Outlander: Blood of My Blood is poised to show us exactly how long their destiny has been set in motion by sending us further back in time to tell the story of both their sets of parents. Outlander has already provided some details on the famed love between Jamie's father, Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), and mother, Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater). We've even met Brian, both in flashbacks and more recently in one little time travel side quest by one of the original series' travelers. We already know that Jamie's parents fall so deeply in love with one another that they elope once they realize their two families, in an intense rivalry, would never let them be together, and this series gives us the chance to watch their love story, embroiled in Scottish clan politics, play out from the very moment the two lay eyes on each other in 1714. 

ALSO READ: The complete guide to summer TV

Claire's parents, Julia (Hermione Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine), are much more of a blank slate going in. Outlander fans know only what Claire does — that her parents died in a car accident when she was a child and she was raised by her archeologist uncle. Blood of My Blood offers up an intriguing surprise: Maybe Claire's parents didn't die in that car accident. Maybe they traveled through time. And not just any time, by the way: When Julia — who meets Henry during World War I — accidentally falls through the stones while on holiday in Scotland and Henry goes after her, they land in, you guessed it, 1714. While Henry searches for Julia and Julia tries to survive in an untenable situation (nothing in the Outlander-verse is ever easy; always remember this), the two find themselves, to varying degrees, mixed up in Brian and Ellen's love story. The premise is exciting and enticing to any Outlander fan, but a cool premise alone does not make a good TV series. Thankfully, Blood of My Blood has much more to offer.

Most importantly, it has romance. It is dripping in romance. While the casting of our core four here is kind of incredible at face value — casting directors Suzanne Smith and Simone Pereira Hind outdid themselves with Slater and Roy, who look exactly like they could procreate a human who looks like Heughan, and Corfield looks and sounds so much like Balfe at times it is unnerving — you can't sell romance without real chemistry, and there is a high bar for it in the Outlander-verse. Both couples clear it. Though this seems like it might be a baseline for any show with the Outlander name attached to it, it's important that both couples are believable and compelling, not just for entertainment value, but for this series to have any chance to work at all. 

9.0

Outlander: Blood of My Blood

at Starz

Like

• Both main couples have a palpable and immediate chemistry
• The casting across the board is excellent
• Its mix of sweeping romance and politics keeps things interesting

Dislike

• Some creative choices might make viewing difficult for Outlander newcomers

Blood of My Blood gives itself quite the juggling act from the very start by presenting two very different romantic storylines. In the first six episodes, which were provided for review, the series seems to let one couple's story take center stage per episode, switching between the main couples from one episode to the next. This formula could change as the series goes along, especially as all four of the main characters begin to interact more. (The budding friendship between Julia and Brian in this first half of the season is especially lovely to watch.) It would be a detriment to the series if one couple were clearly the more interesting one to watch; to be constantly wishing we could skip over one story to get to the other would render this prequel a failed experiment. (They didn't have to include Claire's parents, so there had better be a real reason to unfold their story, too, you know?) This will certainly be an element to pay attention to as the series moves along, but if things continue as they are, it shouldn't be a problem. 

Though steeped in pressure to live up to the hype, Brian and Ellen's story does have the advantage of a rich history already drawn out in the Outlander novels and series. The challenge, of course, is to keep things interesting even though we know at least the broad strokes of where their journey is headed (though Outlander is never afraid to toss in a surprise or two, let's be honest). And there is certainly a sadness that looms over this part of the show, since we know the fates of not only Brian and Ellen but most others in the MacKenzie clan. It's a testament to Roy and Slater's performances, then, and a real nod to that onscreen chemistry, that it's easy to set aside those feelings and get swept up in the beginnings of their story. They both make their characters so instantly lovable and easy to root for, and Slater especially sparkles in the first six episodes as a woman unafraid to be vocally unsatisfied by the role she is supposed to play in the MacKenzie clan. Most importantly, Roy and Slater take these characters we've heard stories about and make them not just fully realized, but fully their own. If Outlander: Blood of My Blood is really going to take up the mantle as Outlander winds down, these characters need to be more than just playing out old stories; they need to stand on their own, and both actors give these iconic characters a grounded nuance. 

Their story is helped by another duo, though not of the romantic kind. It's not such a hot take to point out that Outlander was at its best during its earlier seasons set in Scotland, exploring clan dynamics. It feels like Blood of My Blood realizes that. While Brian and Ellen are falling in love, Ellen's brothers, Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) and Dougal (Sam Retford), are locked in a complicated dynamic as they vie for power — a dynamic that Outlander fans will know only grows more complicated as the men grow older. While Ross and Retford might not look exactly like their Outlander counterparts, they fully embody the essence of both Colum and Dougal and give fitting portrayals of younger, less experienced, and less weathered versions of those characters. Their performances are especially exciting to watch, and they expand the story in a way that will be necessary for this show's shot at longevity. The four main characters are the draw, but the supporting characters and their storylines need to be engaging, too. (A problem, I'd argue, Outlander has run into more and more as it's aged, but now is not the time!)

And what of our other main couple? Some could argue that taking on two characters who are more or less original to this series — or, at the very least, arriving on our screens with a blank slate — makes things a little easier, but I'd argue Corfield and Irvine have the harder job here. There's not much time spent on screen with Julia and Henry before they're ripped apart by those pesky time-traveling stones. We meet them briefly in the pilot episode, and the bulk of the story of how they met and fell in love takes place in the first half of Episode 2, and then they are off to 1714, alone and desperate to find one another. Brian and Ellen are just beginning their love story, and we get to watch every beat of it play out. Julia and Henry have to fall in love in 20 minutes, and it has to be so convincing that the audience feels every bit of their pain and longing once they're split apart. Corfield and Irvine pull it off easily. Their chemistry feels authentic from the jump, and their aching to be reunited leaps off the screen. Six episodes in, it's already easy to get swept away with emotion merely thinking about the moment when they finally find each other. (They have to find each other, right?) What a feat to get an audience that invested that quickly.

The romance and our core four are reason alone to sign up for Outlander: Blood of My Blood, but fans of Outlander will also be happy to know that other beloved elements of the mothership — the production design, the costumes, the music — have easily translated over to the prequel (developed by Matthew B. Roberts, who also wrote the pilot), making it feel just as fully realized. The fact that there's almost zero explanation or exploration of the time-travel aspect of the story once Julia and Henry find what will be their home bases in 1714 is a little concerning; sure, that information could come across as repetitive since it is well-trodden territory in Outlander, but the choice to avoid it could also ice out Outlander-verse newcomers. It's also disappointing that the prequel has already turned to sexual violence for plot points in just six episodes, but it remains to be seen if it'll become an epidemic like it has on Outlander. Here's holding out hope that this series goes a different way. 

The overwhelming majority of this first half of Outlander: Blood of My Blood's first season (which will consist of 10 episodes), though, is such a smooth entry into a new chapter of a cherished story. The operative word there is "new," because the most impressive part of this prequel is how exciting this story feels, even though we've spent so much time here already. Time will tell if this series has the legs its predecessor does, but the first six episodes and the four main characters, especially, easily answer the question of whether we needed this show at all with a big, bold yes. 

Premieres: Friday, Aug. 8 at 8/7c on Starz
Who's in it: Harriet Slater, Jamie Roy, Hermione Corfield, Jeremy Irvine
Who's behind it: Matthew B. Roberts (showrunner and executive producer)
For fans of: Romance, time travel, or, you know, Outlander
How many episodes we watched: 6 of 10