8. Outlander
Few shows were able to stand toe-to-toe with Game of Thrones during its run, but Outlander stood out. Outlander was the show that Starz used to compete with GoT; it aired on the same night of the week in a similar time slot (though typically when Thrones wasn’t on the air). It shares a lot of qualities with GoT, such as its amazing costuming and music, a superb cast, a sweeping plot, and plenty of twists and turns. It should come as no surprise, really: Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander books, is a friend of George R.R. Martin’s in real life, and both extensively research different historical periods to inform their work.
But at its core, Outlander is much more of a romance story. It follows World War II nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe), who is accidentally transported back in time to 18th century Scotland while on vacation with her husband. It’s there that she meets Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), a fiery and honorable highlander who helps her stay alive…and steals a piece of her heart in the process. Torn between love of her husband Frank (Tobias Menzies) and her burgeoning romance with Jamie, Claire is thrown into the heart of the Scottish Jacobite uprising and left without a way to get home.
That’s all just to start, though. Outlander is a series that spans decades and generations. The time travel elements in this show are a lot of fun, and it knows exactly how to pluck the heartstrings.
One word of warning: Outlander features quite a lot of sexual assault, and some of it is extremely graphic. The show goes to incredible lengths to handle these things well, portraying the emotional trauma of these events far better than TV shows usually do. But still, it definitely deserves the trigger warning.
The first five seasons of Outlander are currently available on Netflix or Starz. Season 6 is due out in 2022, so the “droughtlander” is nearly over.