There are many reasons to be grateful for Outlander, but chief among them is the fact that it distracts us from the challenges of daily life in this particularly weird era we're living through. It does so with rugged men in kilts, breathtaking vistas, gorgeous interiors and dresses beautiful enough to make you weep. More important, it promotes the idea that one can live on whisky and oatcakes and still have exceptionally dewy skin. If that's not living the dream, what is? But the main reason to be grateful for Outlander has a long name: Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall Fraser. The biggest miracle is that Outlander has been unswerving in its fealty to a noble cause: the idea that a woman's many lives, whether professional, sexual, personal, political and psychological, are all worth exploring with respect, care and some well-modulated irreverence. Claire experiences consequences for her actions, after all, there wouldn't be much drama if she didn't. But Outlander plumbs her heart, soul and mind without punishing her for being calculating, impetuous, forthright, horny, intelligent and witty.
