"The Troubling, Subversive Promise of the New Show Outlander" Topic

"It's a good time for fantasy. Thanks in large part to the spectacular success of Game of Thrones, "genre" stories once relegated to cult status are getting green lights and mainstream attention on screens both small and large. But as the popularity of the HBO show continues to grow, so have criticisms that it often leaves its women viewers wanting. Despite an audience that is more than 40 percent female, the omnipresent sexuality of Game of Thrones remains relentlessly focused on the desires of its male audience, despite outcry from both fans and even the stars themselves.

Based on a series of novels by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander—which debuts on Starz Saturday night, with Battlestar Galactica director Ron Moore at the helm—is a difficult series to label. With elements of fantasy, historical fiction, and science fiction, it's a bit of a genre mutt, but above all it's a romance. Its core conflict lies in the heart of Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe), a headstrong, fiercely intelligent Englishwoman from the 1940s who falls through time into 17th century Scotland. Trapped between times and cultures, she finds herself torn between her love for her temporally estranged husband, Frank (Tobias Menzies), and her attraction to a handsome young highlander named Jamie (Sam Heughan).

Outlander is a fantasy story that engages in the sorts of fantasy we so rarely see on television: the kind that dares to put a woman, her experiences and her sexual desires at the center of the story—and lets them run the show. Where Game of Thrones‘s penchant for "sexposition" has catered almost exclusively to the sexual tastes of heterosexual men, Outlander not only acknowledges that women's desires exist, but indulges them just as unabashedly…"
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"Outlander is a fantasy story that engages in the sorts of fantasy we so rarely see on television: the kind that dares to put a woman, her experiences and her sexual desires at the center of the story"

Unlike say 'Sex in the City'?

Just trying to use controversy to sell their show, best of luck to them but it's not my thing. I listen to recorded books while I work and I didn't get past the first disc on that one.

To end on a positive note, it was better written than anything by Dan Brown.

I know of the books, but have not read them. They're very popular. From what I gather, they're "bosom heavers" with a bit more substance to them. But I can't attest to the quality, one way or the other.

"To end on a positive note, it was better written than anything by Dan Brown."

I think there's a lot of daylight between Dan Brown and a well written book ;-)

LOL, DJ!

My wife knows the author and has attended several writing conferences with her.

We'll be watching tonight when my wife gets back from traveling.

My wife LOVES those books, here favorite author. She has been watching the first episode over and over and over. (to be fair she does that with any show she likes at all).

Long story short, it is a slightly classier women's smut book series where the author actually does historical research into the time period being written about.