“We might be the first people ever to come up here,” Sam Heughan declares to Men in Kilts co-star Graham McTavish from atop a glacier in New Zealand’s Milford Sound towards the end of tonight’s Season 2 premiere on Starz. The former Outlander co-stars and IRL friends have helicoptered to the top of a breath-taking glacier and are feeling on top of the world. Well, Heughan is. McTavish, on the other hand, isn’t so sure they’re the first people to ever charter a helicopter to a popular vista.
“Uh…no,” McTavish says. “But it’s still really great.”
“Well, the first men in kilts to come up here,” Heughan argues.
“Maybe the first people in kilts,” McTavish grants him.
“The first people in commando on a glacier,” Heughan says, hinting there’s nothing but what nature gave him under his kilt.
“Didn’t really need to know that,” McTavish answers, but I would argue…we did.
After all, this is Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham Season 2 and if there’s one thing the first season proved, it’s that Sam Heughan likes to tease the audience.
Men in Kilts first hit Starz in early 2021. The travelogue show followed Outlander hunks Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish as they embarked on a road trip across Scotland. Over the course of the season, they competed in the Highland games, dove into a pile of whiskey hops, and gleefully competed in various games for the ultimate prize of bragging rights. At one point, the loser of a dare had to promise to lunge himself into the frigid sea in nothing but his birthday suit. Sam Heughan gamely took the L.
In Men in Kilts Season 2, the bickering and bantering is still there, but Sam and Graham find themselves on the other side of the world. McTavish explains that he’s lived full-time in New Zealand since falling in love with the nation while shooting Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy. A nostalgic Heughan eagerly shows up on his doorstep to torture his pal through a variety of stunts and side quests.
In the Men in Kilts Season 2 premiere, our handsome hosts fill us in on how Scottish immigrants have shaped the modern culture of New Zealand. (Don’t worry — next week is all about the indigenous Maori.) However, Heughan seems far more preoccupied with making McTavish squeal. The self-described adrenaline junkie remembers how McTavish’s fear of heights led to some comic moments at his pal’s expense. So Heughan gets McTavish to zip line through the Kiwi wilds before they go swimming with Great White Sharks. (Heughan and the producers happily gift Jamie Fraser fans with a shot of him in his speedo.)
However McTavish finally finds a way to have the upper hand. He takes Heughan on his first helicopter ride through Milford Sound. And what do you know? Heughan finds a way to be cheeky at the end of it.
Sure, his commando comment could have easily been in jest — after all, part of the fun of Men in Kilts is seeing how much sillier and sarcastic Heughan is compared to Jamie — but still spoke to the fun and freewheeling attitude of this Starz gem.
Men in Kilts Season 2 Episode 1 “Scottish Influence” is now streaming on the STARZ app.
