Rueben's Ramblings

The new CW series The Flash will debut on October 7 at 8 PM.

After witnessing his mother’s murder, and his father wrongly accused, Barry Allen (series lead Grant Gustin) is taken in by Detective West and his family. As Allen enters adulthood, he becomes a brilliant, yet socially awkward, forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department, whose obsession with his tragic past causes him to become an outcast among his peers.

Allen tries to uncover the truth about his mother’s murder and clear his father’s name, which leads him to Harrison Wells’ particle accelerator. When the accelerator causes an explosion, Allen is struck by lightning, and enters a coma for nine months. When he wakes up, he learns he has the ability to move at superhuman speeds, though he is not the only metahuman created in the wake of the explosion.

As the violence related to metahuman criminals escalates, though still keeping the promise of finding out why his mother murdered, Allen vows using his gift of speed to protect Central City with the help from a few close friends and associates who share his secrets.

The cast includes Candice Patton, Rick Cosnett, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanagh and Jesse L. Martin.

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The Starz series Outlander, based on the best-selling novel by Diana Gabaldon, debuted back on August 9 and over the course of the past 7 weeks has captured the hearts of TV viewers with its tale of Claire Beauchamp (series lead Caitriona Balfe), a World War II nurse in 1945, who – after touching the standing stones in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands – travels through time to 1743 where she encounters the clan McKenzie and meets young Jamie McTavish (Fraser) [series lead Sam Heughan].

Those seven episodes have found Claire adapt, as best she can, to her new surroundings – albeit forced upon her by the Laird and War Chief of the clan (series regulars Gary Lewis and Graham McTavish, respectively) – by becoming the Healer of Castle Leoch, the home of the clan.

She has become friends with Castle Leoch’s housekeeper Mrs. Fitz (recurring guest star Annette Badland) and local village woman and wife of the procurator fiscal (basically the village’s attorney/judge) Geillis Duncan (series regular Lotte Verbeek); and, to an extent, even young Laoghaire MacKenzie (recurring guest star Nell Hudson), a 16-year girl (and granddaughter of Mrs. Fitz), who has a crush on Jamie.

Unfortunately, she has several uncomfortable encounters with Captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, a direct descendant of her husband Frank Randall (the dual role played by series regular Tobias Menzies), which leads Dougal to arranging a marriage between Claire and Jamie in order to save her life from the sadistic bastard, who was the cause behind the horrible wounds on Jamie’s back (two floggings within a week subjected on the young lad several years earlier).

This past Saturday’s episode, entitled “The Wedding“, was one of the most anticipated moments out of the small screen adaptation of the book and did not disappoint. And, with the mid-season finale, entitled “Both Sides Now“, only a few days away – set to air on Starz on Saturday, September 27, the anticipation for what will happen is great.

Fans can take heart that even though the series will be going on a break, it will not be for too long, as 8 more episodes of its debut season will air on Starz in early 2015, continuing on with the remainder of the story of Claire, Jamie and the clan McKenzie.

And, even better news is that Starz decided early on that the show will have a second season, following the second book in the Gabaldon “Outlander” series entitled “Dragonfly in Autumn“.

Don’t miss out on the mid-season finale this Saturday at 9 PM on Starz.

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