Outlander: Blood of My Blood review – A sweeping love story that harks back to the show's early days

With the news that the original hit series was wrapping up with its eighth season, many of the devoted fans were understandably crushed at the prospect of no more Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitríona Balfe) on our screens.

While we do have the fated final instalment left to come, the show has taken on a new lease of life in the form of prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood. And boy, does the new series have plenty to dig into.

Previously teased as simply being about the story of Jamie Fraser’s parents, Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie, Blood of My Blood is in fact about both sets of parents of Jamie and Claire's, taking us across timelines and locations to show what hurdles each couple had to surpass in order to be together.

Again, it was previously announced that Blood of My Blood would unfold in both 18th-century Scotland and First World War-era England.

In fact, as we learnt from the epic trailer, both of Claire's parents Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield) and Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine) have travelled back in time to 1714, where Ellen (Harriet Slater) and Brian (Jamie Roy) are navigating their own feelings for one another.

It makes sense that Julia and Henry would perhaps make their own way through the stones seeing as Claire's ability to time travel must have been passed down to her by her parents.

In the original series, we learnt that they both died in a car accident when Claire was young, but actually, as we come to learn in Blood of My Blood, that's far from the truth.

In the first episode at least – and for a lot of the series thus far – the focus is on Ellen and Brian's tale, the fight for being named as laird and the struggle for power in the aftermath of the death of Ellen's father Red Jacob (Peter Mullan).

Mullan brings his signature stony-faced yet excellent usual performance to proceedings – you only have to be familiar with his work in Ozark, Top of the Lake or the more recent After the Party to know what I mean – bringing his patriarchal character to life via flashbacks, which also underline his close bond with daughter Ellen.

Despite promising her that she wouldn't have to marry for tactical reasons and for love, her brothers have other ideas in the face of rising tensions after his death.

It's the classic case of women being subjugated by the men in their lives, something that plays out in both Ellen and Julia's stories in different ways.

In spite of this, you can tell there's an effort to portray these women as powerful, even if the way their cards of life have been dealt try to deem them as otherwise. They both take matters into their own hands, perhaps not choosing the path that some fans would take but asserting control over their lives anyway.

Both Slater and Corfield infuse the series with an unmistakable dominance, always trying to remain two steps ahead of the questionable men around them. For many, this will be their first proper introduction to both stars, with the actresses easily taking it in their stride to lead such an anticipated series and deliver scene-stealing performances in the process.

Similar can be said of Irvine and Roy, with the latter providing a quieter, more measured side to proceedings. Roy easily fits into the heartthrob mould of an Outlander character, but with a more profound story and understanding of the circumstances that befall him.

While many won't be as familiar with Roy as they will be of Irvine, it's Irvine's performance that may come as one of the unexpected surprises in this series.

Desperately searching for his wife, navigating a new time period and being an outsider, all while dealing with the PTSD that comes from fighting on the frontline of the First World War, are all scenes that Irvine executes with such incredible heart.

There's no one standout lead character in Blood of My Blood, but with each star taking us through this sweeping love story in their own ways, it really is a casting testament that the spin-off is helmed by four great leads.

Naturally, in a series that spans two different love stories against a complicated backdrop of greed, power and patriarchy, there are some issues with pacing and feelings of it being, at times, overcrowded.

Laying the groundwork in a prequel show like this is necessary, but even so, some of the first episodes still feel a little long-winded, not as action-packed, and imbalanced.

Perhaps it's also a case of simply accepting the series for what it is and not relying on context (that hopefully comes later down the line), but the ease with which Julia and Henry seem to accept their new time period and don't wholly lose their minds is a little comical.

If I stepped through stones into 1714, I'm sure it would take me more than a few days to wrap my head around it, but hey, I guess it's a matter of flight or fight.

Outlander has rightfully been called out in the past for its usage of sexual violence as a throwaway plot device, with Blood of My Blood hopefully marking a more progressive chapter for the show's future. Saying that, the writers of Blood of My Blood still have a way to go in realising that not everything needs to be detailed in drawn-out scenes and can, more thoughtfully, occur off-screen.

With so many historical series relying on explicit and upsetting scenes against women, Blood of My Blood still has stomach-churning instances that I'd rather the franchise do away with altogether.

Perhaps that's a wider conversation that needs to occur within the Outlander universe and its fandom, but saying that, Tony Curran does succeed at making Lord Lovat a greasy character that many viewers will rightfully feel uneasy about.

Whether you'll be left thinking about Blood of My Blood loads after watching remains to be seen, because it's not exactly doing anything we're not already familiar with.

But with one story filled with stolen glances and illicit moments, and the other much like a cat-and-mouse game of hide and seek, the series has all the makings of keeping us on our toes.

Its future has already been secured past season 1, so that could explain why some episodes are a lot slower than others, but there's no denying that Blood of My Blood has plenty of the same heartfelt emotion, love and pining that those early seasons of the original show (and Heughan and Balfe) executed so well.

While we'll have to wait and see if the show has the same kind of fan-favourite twists and stamina we've gotten used to from the original series, Blood of My Blood is certainly a worthy addition to the Outlander universe.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood will premiere on Saturday 9th August in the UK on MGM+ in the UK. You can buy Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books on Amazon.

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