Shows Like Outlander You Definitely Need To See

Although "Outlander" begins its long journey in Scotland, the characters we know and love eventually travel across the seas in search of a fresh start in the New World. In its depiction of colonial America, we can see a lot of similarities with another historical drama, "Jamestown." Initially airing on Sky One in the UK (and later on PBS in the United States), "Jamestown" takes place a handful of years after the initial founding of the American colony in the early 1600s. It follows the lives of a group of women who have made the long and hazardous journey across the Atlantic to meet an uncertain fate: They have agreed to marry the men in Jamestown who have paid for their passage. 

Made by the same production company that brought us "Downton Abbey," it's unsurprising that "Jamestown" has a tendency towards soap opera qualities, and probably skips on historical accuracy more often than not. But it's a fun watch, with plenty of characters that make audiences emotionally attached far more quickly than you might expect.

Traveling back in time to the 18th century is disorienting enough: But how would a colonial-era man grapple with the concept of the modern world? Fox's fanciful reimagining of Washington Irving's classic novella "Sleepy Hollow" addresses just such a hypothetical. In it, Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) is not murdered by the Headless Horseman, but sent forward in time to 21st-century Sleepy Hollow. There, he teams up with a Sleepy Hollow police officer, Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie), who are powerfully bonded to one another. In addition to learning the ins and outs of modern society (his reaction to both donuts and sales tax is delightful), he and Abbie will serve a deeper purpose — fighting to thwart the Headless Horseman and avert a biblical End of Days.

"Sleepy Hollow" ran for four seasons on Fox, although, to be honest, it loses its way fairly early into the series' run, faltering completely when the creators make the inexplicable decision to break up the dream team and write Nicole Beharie off the show. But for the first season or two, "Sleepy Hollow" is a delightfully frothy supernatural show that combines demon-fighting with the endlessly endearing "fish out of water" trope as Crane acclimates himself to the modern world.

When you start hopping from decade to decade all willy-nilly, the natural timeline begins to resemble a corkscrew more than anything else. "Dark" plays with the ceaseless interconnections of characters who have traveled from one generation to another, weaving a complicated but endlessly fascinating web of intrigue. It all begins with the mysterious disappearance of a young boy named Mikkel in a small German town, where the frantic efforts to find him only reveal more secrets. 

The town, it seems, features a peculiar little wormhole that has been transporting its citizens backwards and forwards through time for generations. The great success of "Dark" is that it somehow manages to stop just short of total incomprehensibility. It keeps you engaged throughout all the twists and turns, and its mysteries reward attentive viewers for their patience. "Dark" ran for three seasons on Netflix, the show's first German-language television show, before coming to a conclusion in 2020.

If you, like many others, are interested in "Outlander" for its male heroes brooding against the wild backdrops of remote historical Great Britain, "Poldark" may just be right up your street. It stars Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark, who returns to his native Cornwall in the aftermath of the American Revolution only to find his father's mining business in dire straits and his girlfriend engaged to another man. Not exactly the homecoming that every man dreams of.

And even though he quickly finds love with the fiery Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), storm clouds seem to follow Poldark around, as he perpetually bounces from one grave misfortune to the next. So there's always cause for some pensive brooding atop the rugged cliffsides of Cornwall. "Poldark" ran on BBC One for five seasons, before bringing its troubled narrative to a close in 2019. It was almost universally well-received, with sumptuous visuals and a stirring romance that would prove an unbeatable combination.

Whereas the sense of modernity that "Outlander" has comes largely from Claire's forward-thinking presence, "Dickinson" is a historical comedy that almost seems to be post-modern in its approach. Hailee Steinfeld stars as Emily Dickinson, the famously reclusive poet of 19th century New England. But this isn't the Emily Dickinson that you see in literary textbooks, glum and morose. Here, she's vibrant, imaginative, and desperately out of place amongst her family and society at large. Not to mention the fact that she's secretly in love with her best friend Sue Gilbert (Ella Hunt), who inconveniently happens to be romantically involved with Emily's brother, Austin (Adrian Blake Enscoe). 

"Dickinson" is a historical coming-of-age story, taking the black and white imagery of a long-dead writer and making her daily tribulations feel surprisingly contemporary. Featuring a bold cast of surprising guest stars that include John Mulaney, Jason Mantzoukas, Billy Eichner, Nick Kroll, Chloe Fineman, and even Wiz Khalifa as Death, "Dickinson" is unlike any other historical television show on the air.

One of the key struggles that Claire faces in "Outlander" is adjusting to attitudes towards women in the 18th century, and the restrictions placed on them. Although "Miss Scarlet and The Duke" takes place nearly two centuries later, the characters still grapple with many of the same issues. Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) is a young woman raised by her father to have powers of observation and detective skills that would almost rival Sherlock Holmes. When he dies, she is determined to keep his detective agency afloat. 

But there's just one problem: It's Victorian England, and no one believes that a woman has any business working as a private investigator. It's only through her grit and a very convenient friendship with a Detective Inspector of Scotland Yard, William Wellington (Stuart Martin), that she has any hope of succeeding. "Miss Scarlet and The Duke" falls very much in line with the typical period fare we see produced by the BBC and exported to PBS in America, but Eliza's pluck and the chemistry between the two lead characters make it a charming, if conventional, affair.

If there's one thing novelist Ken Follett has always been good at, it's sweeping historical epics. "Pillars of the Earth" is a BBC adaptation of one of his most famous novels, the sprawling story centered around the building of an English cathedral in the 12th century. It covers a staggering amount of territory, from the battles between the heirs of King Henry I for the throne of England to the relatively smaller conflicts that break out within the town of Kingsbridge. 

"Pillars of the Earth" is a famously complicated book, with so many characters that it probably needs a glossary to keep them all straight. But the triumph of this adaptation is how well it streamlines the narrative, allowing the story to unfold over several episodes in easily digestible bites. It features an impressive cast of stars, chief among them Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell (in a rare non-villain role), Donald Sutherland, Matthew Macfadyen, Hayley Atwell, and Eddie Redmayne, whose work here is career-defining. It's a lush historical epic that sweeps audiences up with the depth and richness of its story.

The Russian aristocracy in the late 1700s was the very picture of excess, and therefore incredibly easy to satirize. "The Great" takes a bold swing at the chaotic and frequently cruel nature of life in Russian court, by focusing on a young Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning) upon her initial arrival from Germany and marriage to Peter III (Nicholas Hoult). She has the highest of hopes for a happy wedded life, but those are immediately dashed, and she does not spend a great deal of time mourning them: Instead, she plots. Catherine realizes that if Peter cannot usher Russia into a more enlightened age, she will have to — with or without him.

"The Great" features a sharp, brutally frank sense of humor that finds little delight in subtlety. It milks the inherent absurdities and backwardness of the Russian aristocracy for all they're worth, creating a surprisingly fresh and modern take on the almost comical viciousness of life at court in the 18th century.