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Why Outlander is ‘a very complicated example’ of the romance genre’s appeal 28%
By CBC Arts0%
5/13/2026, 7:50:18 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Representativeness Heuristic, and Framing Effect, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 29.6% saturation with 242 hits. Analysis detected 1,501 faulty-reasoning hits from 818 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 38.7% and a BS Rank of 28% (12,192 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 72.50% of the article peer group.
After eight seasons and more than 100 episodes, Outlander is coming to an end.
The TV series is an adaptation of a popular book series by Diana Gabaldon and, like its lead character, Outlander is stuck between two worlds: the harsh prestige TV of the last decade, and on-screen romances of today.
Today on Commotion, culture critics Kathryn VanArendonk and Kayleigh Donaldson join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about how the series has managed to stick around despite never quite going mainstream, and how its legacy is intertwined with its intense fandom.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity.
For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
Elamin: Kathryn, how do you explain that gap?
There's this allure of the show, obviously, but yet it has not managed to sort of break through the conversation barrier, if you will.
Kathryn: I think there's a couple things.
One of them is that conversations about romance have been siloed away from the rest of pop culture for all of the decades of romance's existence as a genre.
And, it seems like pop culture is perpetually attempting and then forgetting to learn that, actually, there are all of these women who are obsessed with this thing and who will spend untold amounts of money to follow romances that they care about.
And pop culture goes like, ‘Oh, really?’
And then they're like, ‘Oh, I forgot about that again.’
So that's certainly part of it.
The other thing is that Outlander specifically is a very complicated example of this phenomenon because it is a romance, but it also has this attempt to be a prestige television series, much like Game of Thrones.
It was compared to that in the beginning, but clearly wasn't actually very much like that.
The piece that I wrote really argues that the whole show is stuck between those two worlds — this kind of prestige TV thing, and this much more romance-driven thing.
And because it can't really land either of those places, it feels like this strange hybrid that doesn't speak to any one thing in particular.
And so it's very difficult to use it as the fodder for a think piece where you're like, ‘Look, people are obsessed with this,’ or, ‘They really care about that.’
Because every time you do, they're like, ‘But what about all the rape?’
Because there's a lot of rape, you know?...
It makes it very difficult in romance spaces also to say this is an example of romance that people care about.
WATCH | The opening scene of Outlander Season 8:
Elamin: Kayleigh, there's also the Scotland of it all.
This is a show that leans heavily into the Scottish identity.
It spends a lot of time portraying Scottish culture in the 18th century.
Do you think that's been a factor in the ways that it has not necessarily broken through the same way [similar] TV shows have?
Kayleigh: I think that certainly adds to the niche quality of it.
I mean, it's also part of a large tradition we have — partly in romance novels, but partly just in culture — the idea of the magical, mystical part of Scotland, typically the Highlands, where you have stories of the sexy Highlander and the clan.
You have things like … I Know Where I'm Going!, stories like Highlander the movie, you know, more jingoistic efforts like the film Braveheart.
A lot of that is largely not designed for Scottish people.
It is typically designed for Americans, if I'm being honest.
And you see that in Scotland.
Like, the Outlander tourism boom is really evident.
There are tons of tours that you can do around huge parts of Scotland for that.
And I understand the appeal; I'm sort of fascinated as someone for whom it's obviously not designed for me.
Anytime I hear someone freaking out over some hot Scottish guy, all I can see in my head is my dad, which is very uncomfortable.
But I totally get the appeal.
But I do think that is the thing, is all the things that make Outlander so fascinating, and the books as well, are these really specific details….
These books are all a thousand pages long and they're incredibly dense in history and detail, but also romance, but also science fiction.
And you have to be able to keep up with all of them….
You can't read them out of order.
You have to do the work; you can't just jump in.
I think that might actually be another reason it's kind of become niche.
You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Panel produced by Nathan Chizen.
Analysis
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