Let's Be Real: There's No Sex in Marriage, and Outlander Season 7 Confirms It

Just like any relationship, marriage is indeed a complex affair. It often starts at a high point, and then the passion fizzles out over time. Eventually, it becomes routine, with all its aspects, including sex, becoming monotonous. Perhaps, this is why many marriages end in divorce.

That being said, our discussion focuses on the remarkably authentic depiction of marriage in STARZ's Outlander. Set against the historical backdrop of 18th-century Scotland, the passionate love story of Claire and Jamie instantly captured the audience's hearts when the series premiered in 2014. It has since expanded over seven seasons, the latest of which is currently airing.

The audience's genuine interest in Outlander may partially be attributed to Claire and Jamie's passion. We all remember the passionate, graphic sex the two were having at every opportunity in the early seasons. Frankly, that, along with the over-the-top drama, was a key factor that kept people watching.

However, Outlander's long run spans some thirty eventful years, during which the two characters endure a great deal. Eventually, they get married, and the leitmotif of their relationship changes: the couple evolve from passionate lovers into mature partners that deeply care for each other. One corollary of this evolution is that the series now has far fewer sex scenes, and some viewers are unhappy about that.

An interesting factoid about the early steamy sex scenes is that they were largely improvised by the actors, who didn't have much experience in the field at the time.

'I think when we started, we were honestly kind of thrown in, I think, a little bit in the deep end and we just had to figure it out ourselves,' Sam Heughan revealed in an interview with Decider.

According to him, now that they have an intimacy director, Vanessa Coffey, on set, shooting sex scenes is far more peaceful and comfortable.

Furthermore, like in a real-life marriage, sex has gone from being driven purely by passion to being an expression of the deep care and love the characters have for each other.

'What really is evolving is these two characters and this marriage. You know, we're talking thirty years later. It would be highly, I think, unreal and unrealistic if they still, you know, had the same kind of first passion that they had. This is something that's grown over time. It has deepened. It has evolved,' Caitriona Balfe weighed in.

That has only improved the authenticity of the relationship portrayed in the series, a rare occurrence on TV. And the emotionally nuanced sex scenes between Clair and Jamie make the later seasons much more interesting, at least for more mature audiences...

Episode 4 of Outlander's seventh season drops on 7 July.

Source: Decider.