The drought is almost over: Outlander returns March 2022

There’s been a bit of a dry spell in the realm of sexy, time-traveling, action romances of late. Well, the drought is coming to an end. Thankfully, the British are coming as Outlander (perhaps the only sexy time-traveling, action romance around) returns for its sixth season.

The series still has quite a bit of life left in it, too. Outlander author Diana Gabaldon announced the season at a launch event for the ninth Outlander book, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone. We’re sure that these are very sexy, horny bees, which, if you know anything about birds and bees, they all are. They’re also very violent, which Outlander also is, so it’s a perfect metaphor.

This latest season picks up right where the last left off, with Claire (Caitríona Balfe) escaping Lionel Brown (Ned Dennehy) and returning to Fraser’s Ridge. Unfortunately, there’s a little business of a Revolutionary War on the horizon, which is bound to screw up all of Claire’s plans. This poor woman has such an eventful life.

Unfortunately, the last season didn’t end on a high note, returning to some particularly tasteless obsessions. Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, who wrote the season finale recap for The A.V. Club, criticized the show’s frequent depictions of sexual violence. She wrote:

This season finale is Outlander at its absolute worst. Whole seasons ago, I wrote that the show was over-relying on rape and sexual violence as a narrative device. And it’s still doing it. Using rape as a character arc over and over again is not radical. It’s hard to see these choices as anything other than trauma porn at this point. Trauma seems to be the default choice for the writers of this show when it comes to complicating a character or their arc. And it’s growing exhausting.

Outlander premieres on Starz on March 6, 2022.