MOVING ON
‘Outlander’ returns for a fifth season that takes the historical fantasy further away from where it began
Does someone have a god complex? In an upcoming episode of Outlander, a determined Claire (Caitriona Balfe) tries to create penicillin so she can stave off a potential medical disaster on Fraser’s Ridge. But her daughter-cum-fellow time-traveller Brianna (Sophie Skelton) worries that her surgeon mother is trying to upend the 18th century with a 20th century drug. “Pretending to be someone else and writing lists that go against the accepted wisdom of the day is one thing,” Brianna says to Claire. “This, it’s dangerous. What if it messes with some cosmic balance or breaks some rule of space and time?”
We’re long past that, bonnie lass. In fact, her beau, Roger (Richard Rankin), is eager to abandon their pioneer life in North Carolina this season and resume a thoroughly modern existence with Bree. “As a couple, they had an understanding,” explains executive producer Matthew B. Roberts of the duo’s decision last season to time travel to 18th-century Scotland. “But her feelings are starting to change. Her support system is here. So, her take is, ‘Aren’t we home?’ ”
In many ways, Outlander is a very different show from the lush romance introduced to audiences in 2014. Highly erotic sex scenes in Scottish castles have largely been replaced with Claire and Jamie (Sam Heughan) hacking out a new destination for expats in North Carolina. So when [US network] Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch referred to Heughan as “eye candy” last year, the stans became apoplectic that their Highlander hero – who now has grey hair and wears spectacles – was still being reduced to a piece of meat.
“The comment didn’t do him great justice to how he has developed as an actor,” says Hirsch. But he didn’t mind getting fans’ knickers in a twist. “You want a fan base that is passionate. Whether it is good, bad or ugly, they are talking about Outlander all the time.”
This is how you do an all-star season of Survivor. In the 40th instalment of the US reality show (starts Thu., Feb. 13 at 7.30pm; Go), 20 former winners compete for another shot at the title of Sole Survivor and a record $US2 million. Now that’s worth playing for.
Assembling the cast of former victors took some doing … with one exception. “The only person we were certain would say yes is Sandra [Diaz-Twine], because she has never not said yes,” says host Jeff Probst. He considers convincing married couple Rob and Amber Mariano, who met on the show and have four children, and Parvati Shallow, who’d recently given birth, to leave their families to play, as huge coups.
While some of the returning contestants only won relatively recently, there are other players who haven’t been on the show in years and have been through major life changes in the intervening period. “You have all these different ways that life and Survivor have impacted everybody, and some of them have two decades of wisdom to boot,” Probst says.
And while the return of polarising twist the Edge of Extinction has some fans up in arms, it does mean most if not all the former winners will remain part of the game for the duration of the season. Survivors ready? Go!