Whether it’s watching time travellers in “Outlander” or hockey players in “Heated Rivalry,” television viewers still have a taste for romance, according to one of the former show’s executive producers.
“Outlander” premieres its final season in Canada on Monday. In the period drama based on the books by Diana Gabaldon, 20th-century British nurse Claire Beauchamp and 18th-century Scottish Highlander Jamie Fraser fall in love and cling to that love across different centuries and continents and through extreme obstacles.
When it debuted in 2014, “romance was kind of a dirty word,” said executive producer Maril Davis during a Q&A.
“But you look at something like ‘Heated Rivalry,’ another great love story in a different setting, I think people crave that kind of story. They crave seeing great love stories go the distance.”
“Outlander” has certainly done that. While it hasn’t reached the pop culture ubiquity of the queer Canadian romance “Heated Rivalry,” it has devoted fans the world over who have followed its expanded roster of characters through eight seasons — not just through tribulations including war, rape, kidnap, torture and near death many times over but also the joys that come from the love of family and friends.
Since filming began in Scotland in 2013, its cast and crew have become a family of their own.
Davis noted that people behind the scenes have gotten married and had children since shooting began — “like, so many big life moments happened during the course of the show.”
“I auditioned for this show when I was 18 years old,” said Scottish actor John Bell, who plays Young Ian, Jamie’s nephew. “I’d had a career as a child actor and I hadn’t worked for two years . . . it was actually one of the last auditions that I had before I was supposed to go to university for four years. So the impact of this changing all of our lives, it cannot be understated.”
Of course, the many months spent together on set meant shooting this last season was particularly emotional.
Richard Rankin, who plays Jamie and Claire’s son-in-law, Roger, recalled in an interview how surreal it was saying goodbye to cast members who had filmed their final scenes.
“The last scene that I shot with Sophie (Skelton, who plays Roger’s wife, Brianna), I thought, this is the last frame of the last shot (in) the last scene that we were ever going to have together, and that’s a strangely, strangely sad thing.”
“There were days it just felt like another day on ‘Outlander,’” said Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie, “but then it would hit you, ‘Oh my God, this is the end of this (shooting) block or the end of this episode. It really was quite a roller-coaster of emotions and it was building up towards the end.”
Caitríona Balfe, who plays Claire, added in the same interview: “I just feel an enormous sense of pride and gratitude for the fact that we got to live with these characters, experience this show and be part of this incredible fandom. It’s just been an amazing journey.”
Not even the actors know how that journey will finish, since multiple endings were filmed.
Also, the show has gone off book since Gabaldon has yet to release her 10th “Outlander” novel, although Davis said the author has been told how the drama ends.
“You want people to be satisfied,” showrunner Matthew B. Roberts said about the series finale, but “we’re not gonna please everyone.”
“We tried to tell a good season of ‘Outlander’ . . . and we took it to the television series’ logical ending,” he added.
Davis said she “cried fat, ugly tears” over the last episode, “but I was very satisfied. I thought it was a really beautiful episode.”
