Blood of My Blood - My Thoughts
Going in, I wasn’t expecting much, so I’ll start with the positives: it was actually better than I thought it would be. The Scotland atmosphere is gorgeous and easily the show’s bigest strength. It feels grounded, moody, and rich, and the main four actors are all genuinely talented. You can tell they’re giving their all, even when the material isn’t always doing them favors.
Unfortunately, that’s where the real issues begin - the writing. It has this frustrating tendency to spoon feed the audience every single point, as though we can’t pick up on nuance ourselves. We get that Ellen is desired, we get that Lord Lovat is bad. It’s not subtle, in fact, it’s so overstated it becomes almost cartoonish at times.
The most glaring example for me was the Ellen and Brian falling-in-love scene. One minute Ellen is adamantly against marrying anyone, and thirty seconds into learning Brian’s name, she’s already imagining their shared future. There’s no build-up, no tension, no real emotional hook, it just happens because the script says it has to.
In contrast, Henry and Julia’s love story is genuinely more compelling. Their storyline has layers, stakes, and a sense of gradual connection. Although honestly, if I didn’t already know the established family tree, I’d be rooting for Brian and Julia over the intended couples.
Chemistry is another issue. There’s an absence of that spark that makes a romance feel alive. While I’ll give the actors credit for trying, the effort is there, too much maybe, but the end result still falls flat. The love scenes themselves range from mildly awkward to borderline cringey, but I had zero expectations anyway.
And here’s the thing - it’s interesting enough that I’ll keep watching. It’s not unwatchable. But it did make me miss Outlander Season 1 so much that I actually went back and rewatched it. That’s when the problems with BOMB really stood out.
Season 1 of Outlander had depth. The characters felt like real, breathing people with inner lives, flaws, and gradual changes. The plot unfolded naturally, allowing moments to breathe. Conflicts and connections between Jamie and Claire were built over time and carried real emotional weight. Compared to that, BOMB feels rushed, shallow, and forced - more like a Hallmark movie than a sweeping historical romance.
In some ways, it mirrors the decline of Outlander itself in the later seasons, where the focus shifted from organic storytelling to ticking off plot points as quickly as possible. It’s the same creative hand at the wheel - Matt, and unfortunately, it shows.
So yes, I’ll keep watching and hope that it finds its footing. But right now, it’s a show with potential that’s being let down by its own writing.
