Cast: Hermione Corfield as Julia Beachum, Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser, Harriet Slater as Ellen Mackenzie, Jeremy Irvine as Henry Beachum, Tony Curran as Lord Lovet, Seamus McLean as Colin Mackenzie, Sam Redford as Doogal Mackenzie,

length: 10 episodes

release year: 2025

Streaming service: Starz

*there Is No Known Audio Description For This program*

What Is it?: if you have been unable to move on with life, because you have followed the Outlander series or novels, and have been on pins and needles with regards to the history of Claire and Jamie’s parents, then fret no more. Follow Henry and Julia Beacham as they stumble through the same time portal shooting them back a couple hundred years, where they meet up with a pair of star crossed lovers that will eventually become Jamie’s parents. Is everyone fated, or is this secretly the easiest time portal to travel through?

What Doesn’t Work: yes, sports fans, this is sadly a negative review. My Outlander knowledge extends to having watched, albeit without audio description, about half that series. I made it until they got to America, and more people kept time travelling. Here, Julia goes in first, and she gets kidnapped and sold into servitude. Henry follows, where he becomes reliant upon a Laird for survival. It will take nearly all season for them to reunite, because that is what the big conflict is.

we also have Brian and Ellen, who belong to two warring clans, but love each other. Brian is a bit of a bastard son, but was gifted the last name of his father, so he’s a Fraser, and Ellen is a Mackenzie. she’s betrothed to Malcolm Grant to try and unite the grant clan, but doesn’t want to follow through.

As a blind critic, I could basically follow most of the main story of the four leads. Outside of that, there are a handful of regulars I could keep track of, but people would come and go, and I couldn’t be sure if I had already met them, or where they came from. the season also ends with a cliffhanger I’m truly not sure how it left the audience hanging. Aside from that, we have a host of other things that as a sighted person i would get to see, and some of these things would be translated, but without description I get nothing.

No action sequences, or descriptions of violence. There’s a reference to a character early on meeting a violent demise, and his body remaining visible as a warning. Without a mention in the dialogue, I would not have known, and it makes me wonder about how many other times I missed. there’s quite a lot of sex, which also lacks description. costumes, sets, character descriptions, even something as simple as night or day. Also, never underestimate the power of facial recognition, because in a cast this big, having it would have helped me follow minor characters a lot easier.

The sad thing is, this show hasn’t jumped the shark yet, and if it did have audio description, I think I would have gone positive. but I was missing so much in every episode, and left confused, that I couldn’t possibly move this forward.

The cast has some strong performers. I realized I love Scottish accents. I also really love the Scottish music, and just enjoyed the brand new theme, and even simple fiddle playing. These are things I could enjoy. But in and around that are things I couldn’t quite follow.

Why You Might Like it: I bothered with this because I know that there are blind people out there who are fans of things, notably the Outlander novels. their desire to watch the shows could lead them to do this without audio description. I suppose if you have been supplemented by the source material, the show is probably easier to follow without audio description, though I’d imagine still underwhelming to some extent.

Why You Might Not Like it: A lack of accessibility on a show like this really does hurt it. Sometimes a show or film is structured in a way that we can get more out of it, but here, we’re missing far more than we’re getting.

Final thoughts: Outlander: Blood of My Blood continues in the grand tradition of fantasy period romance, and Starz’s unyielding commitment to not providing audio description for any of their programs. what a grand tradition to uphold.

rotten: 5.1/10