The seventh season of Outlander, the popular Starz TV series based on the bestselling time-travel historical romance series by Diana Gabaldon, premieres on June 16. It spends its first few episodes wrapping up the shocking events of the sixth book, 2005’s A Breath of Snow and Ashes before launching into an adaptation of the seventh, 2009’s An Echo in the Bone, which sees several characters getting increasingly caught up the events of the American Revolution. The first four episodes made available to critics are grand, sweeping productions, but there’s also an intriguing coziness to the proceedings that has definite appeal.

The first book in the series, 1991’s Outlander, introduced Claire Randall, a British nurse from the 1940s who visits a magical stone circle in Scotland and is sent back in time to 1743; there, she meets Scottish fugitive Jamie Fraser, who eventually becomes her husband. Later series installments involve major historical events, including the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and more time travel—the couple have a child, for instance, who’s raised in the 20th century by Claire’s previous husband. Eventually, Claire and Jamie make a move to colonial America.

The TV show, which is quite faithful to the events of the books, premiered on Starz in 2014 and immediately found a devoted audience. It stars Caitríona Balfe as Claire and Sam Heughan as Jamie, who are both excellent; the couple’s adult daughter, Brianna (played by Sophie Skelton), and her 20th-century husband, Roger MacKenzie (Richard Rankin), also play major roles in later seasons, as they travel back in time to try to avert Claire and Jamie’s deaths. (It’s complicated.)

The ongoing saga combines aspects of multiple genres—historical fiction, romance, time-travel fantasy—and does it so well that it’s sure to satisfy fans of any of them: The history is deeply researched and detailed (perhaps too detailed for some); the romance is erotic and dramatic; and the knottiness and ethics of time travel are handled thoughtfully. It also addresses feminist issues, with Claire’s 20th-century sensibilities regularly running up against 16th-century sexism. The book series has produced multiple bestsellers, including its ninth and latest entry, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, published in 2021. (Indeed, the novels’ popularity almost certainly inspired an entire romance subgenre of Scottish time-travel tales.)

The new season of the TV show begins with the later events of A Breath of Snow and Ashes—a book that notably featured disturbing violence, including Claire being kidnapped and sexually assaulted by multiple men. (In 2020, Lynette Rice at Entertainment Weekly published a thoughtful article about the Season 5 episode that portrayed this, and about the series’ portrayal of rape over the course of its run.) Claire is also unjustly arrested for the murder of a pregnant woman, Malva Christie, whose baby she attempted to save by Cesarean section. The initial episodes of Season 7 are packed with incident; it’s no spoiler to reveal that Claire is quickly exonerated, and the events that follow include a suicide, a killing, and a disaster that results in the main characters losing just about everything.

After this frenzied start, however, things slow down considerably, and the show takes its time introducing major new characters such as Jamie’s grown son, William, who doesn’t know that the Scotsman is his father; the young man is, much to Jamie’s chagrin, joining up with the British Army. The show also intriguingly introduces a Quaker doctor and his daughter who’ve been cast out of their pacifist religious community for supporting the war effort against the British. There are several poignant scenes between members of the Fraser family in these initial episodes; in one, Brianna tells her father about Disneyland (“the happiest place on Earth”) while sitting with him a forest full of fireflies. A few affectionate moments between Jamie and Claire do little to advance the plot but have a pleasant air of comfort—one that will surely be dispelled in future episodes, as the Revolutionary War ramps up. It’s a rare show that knows the value of taking its time like this, and it effectively raises the emotional stakes—even on a drama in which characters are refreshingly open about expressing their feelings.

Season 7 likely isn’t the best place for newcomers to start, but previous seasons are easily accessed on Netflix or Starz’s streaming service. Longtime fans, though, will enjoy simply spending time with these familiar characters—even during quiet moments of conversation.

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.