Outlander (TV) Content Warning?

January 28, 2021 10:50 PM

After ignoring it until last week, I got sucked into the series last week--and was enjoying it until I hit two brutal torture episodes. Can I just skip ahead? Or should I drop it? (CW for descriptions of torture and assault below the fold, and spoiler warning for Outlander Season 1)

The specific episodes are Season 1, Episode 15 and 16. This is when Jamie's been taken by the redcoats, and Captain Randall inserts himself into the prison, beating him, breaking his hand, sexual assault, etc. With Claire watching.

I let episode 15 run, and got through it paying half attention. I assumed that'd be it. But the next episode had more flashbacks and I turned it off 10 minutes in.

Is this an outlier or is there more of this to come? I was really enjoying it but I need to nope out unless this was something not going to be repeated at all.

The violence levels up to that were mostly OK--Claire's previous meeting with Randall was right up to the line for me but it was briefer and communicated his sadism without wallowing in it.

posted by mark k to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

Best answer: There is a TON of sexual violence on the series. IIRC those eps of s1 are the "worst," but there is a lot of other bad stuff, and in fact I gave up seasons later because I just could not take it anymore.
posted by Charity Garfein at 11:48 PM on January 28, 2021 [12 favorites]

There are so many terrible things about this show. It reminds me of when I was a teenaged babysitter and found a really trashy 1980s bodice-ripper "romance" novel in the house and read it after the kids went to bed -- lots of very fucked up power dynamics, outright sexual and non-sexual violence, and unconsented-to sadistic scenarios presented as some part of a hot steamy romance... Like, ok, it was kinda thrilling when I was a super-horny teenager but even then I was disgusted.

I quit watching Outlander in disgust too.

But hey, some people like 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight, and I'm not going to judge them for that.
posted by erst at 12:18 AM on January 29, 2021 [4 favorites]

I don't think it's a coincidence that you stopped at the exact episode that my wife and I did.
We gave the rest of the show a "Hell no" after that and never looked back.
posted by Bill Watches Movies Podcast at 1:58 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

I found the first book disgusting and quit reading even before that scene for the reasons that this author and this comment from me explain. There was some discussion of this question in this previous thread. A fair number of people disagreed with me and said it got better. But in the process it came out that 3/4 of the main characters get raped at one point or another. Unclear whether that's in the book or show, but hopefully that thread will help you decide whether to keep going.
posted by salvia at 2:56 AM on January 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

I will be the brave person who admits that I like the show (since it seems that most people here find it irredeemable, I feel obligated to voice a slightly different opinion!) However, I would absolutely not recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a strong stomach for violence and particularly sexual violence. I wish people were more up-front talking about this, as despite the fact that it has some of the best female-gaze sex scenes on TV, the entire plot hinges on sexual violence in multiple seasons. I would not recommend you push through based on what you said.
posted by branca at 5:48 AM on January 29, 2021 [8 favorites]

I have numerous trusted friends who love the show and the books. They have informed me that yeah, it’s pretty much rape and violence all the way down, but it’s the type that actually follows through emotionally and plot-wise. So like, if you are the kind of person who enjoys that type of catharsis and heavy drama but rarely find media that engages with it in the way you’re looking for so normally avoid rapey gory stuff, you might dig it. But otherwise, you will find more entertainment elsewhere. So sayeth my trusted fandom friends, all of whom were like “we know you love historical costumes but give this one a pass.”
posted by Mizu at 6:04 AM on January 29, 2021 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I'm with branca here.
But...If you need an awful-meter assessment, the Randall-scene you mentioned is (both in the books and in the show, for me) top on the list of "I wish they wouldn't have done this". It doesn't get much worse than this, at least not in this grinding-on and gratingly-off-taste fashion.
Fwiw., the flashbacks to this particular scene occur ever less frequent in subsequent episodes, mainly because the show gets its drive from the introduction of new entanglements (as opposed to "Lost," for example, which basically builds on the importance of flashbacks for how present-tense events play out).
posted by Namlit at 6:32 AM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I have some friends who like it too, but getting ambushed by even one more episode approaching this is not something I can deal with right now.
posted by mark k at 7:22 AM on January 29, 2021

While there is definitely more sexual violence including rape (and regular violence too) in later seasons, for me it doesn't come anywhere near the level of the episodes you mention, which were very hard for me to watch too. That said if your limit is somewhere below that level or you just don't want to see that stuff right now, best to give it a pass.
posted by randomnity at 7:34 AM on January 29, 2021

I share your opinion; I was really interested in it for the first few episodes, then after the Jamie/Claire wedding she instantly transformed from a character into a sexual object, the plot then seemed to become secondary to the scenes that treated her as a sexual object, and I dropped it.

Reading a little further here on Fanfare, and on the answers above, I think I'm in your camp.
posted by Dashy at 9:06 AM on January 29, 2021

I found this sequence appalling and frankly self-indulgent (on the part of the directors and producers, whose motives for showing this in such detail, are questionable) and I wished I hadn't watched it, only whenever it seemed it was finally over, welp, there was more.... I was able to watch the rest of the show through Season Four without anything happening that was as brutal as that, however, "brutal" is subjective. I found Game of Thrones to be needlessly gruesome and refused to watch it, to give you an idea. Outlander is a violent show.
posted by Armed Only With Hubris at 9:32 AM on January 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

I absolutely ADORE Outlander, even though I usually can't handle violence and especially sexual violence of any stripe. (I will never, ever watch Game of Thrones -- numerous friends have warned me off.) I'm invested enough in the love story that I'm willing to just skip the scenes that are too intense.

Yes, 1x15 and 1x16 are extremely, extremely hard to watch. I've probably seen the first season 3 or 4 times (again, I'm a BIG fan!) and I've still never seen all of 1x16 -- I just can't. In the last week, I've literally had two random people say to me, "Hey, you watch Outlander, right? Why did the end of season 1 traumatize me?!" This is a very common reaction.

IMHO, it's the worst thing that ever happens on Outlander, at least in terms of how gratuitous it is. Other bad things happen, but they aren't given nearly the amount of screen time or level of detail. Yes, there is further sexual violence to be had (it's a frequent plot line in the books, and something lots of people don't love about Gabaldon's universe), but NOTHING as visually horrific as 1x16. The last episode of season 5 has a similar tone/theme, but TPTB actually went out of their way to creatively, sensitively convey the horror of the situation without making it gratuitous.

In terms of non-sexual violence, that happens too, but I really do think you hit the peak of it in season 1. I really can't think of an episode more graphic than that, though there are some battlefield/war scenes that are a bit bloody.

There is a LOT of wonderful TV out there, so if you feel like you just can't with this, then stop watching! But I will say that as a woman who loves romance novels/stories, seeing big feelings portrayed on screen, and time travel narratives, Outlander is THE ACTUAL BEST and probably one of my favorite shows of all time. 2x13 might be my favorite episode of TV ever. I just love all the actors/characters so much, and it's made me cry harder/feel more strongly than any other piece of fiction I've encountered, and I mean that very sincerely. If you are also into these kinds of things, it might be worth sticking it out. Alternately, if you want some period piece chemistry/sexy times in an EXTREMELY fluffy package, check out Bridgerton instead!
posted by leftover_scrabble_rack at 1:04 PM on January 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

Chiming in late, but I had to bail on the books after finishing the first one. The concept is basically everything I like in recreational reading, and was really enjoying it, but the graphic sexual violence kind of came out of nowhere towards the end. Frankly, it felt really gratuitous and lazy to me, and I wasn't interested after that. I never bothered with the television adaptation. I am not easily disturbed by violent content, but I was kind of offended by what appeared to me to be nothing more than sloppy writing for the sake of titillation alone.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 8:48 PM on January 29, 2021

IMHO, it's the worst thing that ever happens on Outlander, at least in terms of how gratuitous it is.

I just watched the entire show (thanks, pandemic) and I was braced for the season 1 sexual violence because I had read books 1-5, but I was not at all prepared for what happens at the end of season 5, so that struck me much harder. I was really very upset at the end of season 5 and although it was not as graphic as the season one episodes, it just felt like the most entirely unnecessary rape scene out of all of the entirely unnecessary rape scenes on the show.

The show is beautifully shot, the costuming is great, it really does well with pacing and keeping you engrossed, it can be quite romantic, but I would not recommend it to anyone at all ever because of Gaboldon's obsession with having almost all of her characters sexually assaulted and the TV shows insistence on not trimming most of that shit out.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 9:36 AM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]