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Orphan Black: Season 1
Sep. 15th, 2013 04:41 pmAKA "That series with Tatiana Maslany that everyone keeps going on and on about." Which...is pretty warranted? Mostly because of Tatiana Maslany.
The gist of things is that a grifter, Sarah, returns to town after running off a year ago, and hopes to reclaim custody of her daughter, Kira, from her adopted mother, Siobahn, with whom she left Kira for a few hours and then never came back. (Her adopted brother, Felix, voices all our thoughts on the likelihood of this going down easily.) But then a very-obviously-better-off woman, Beth, who looks just like her jumps in front of a train, leaving her purse behind, and Sarah steals her purse and identity, intending to do the latter just long enough to take every cent Beth had. Then she learns that Beth is only one of several women who look like her-the others including but not necessarily limited to a German woman named Katja, a scientist named Cosima and a suburban housewife named Allison-and that her lookalikes have been trying to find out who and what they are.
I wasn't particularly impressed by or interested in the pilot, despite the concept, with Beth and Katja being the only things to really hold my attention, and likely wouldn't have bothered watching more if not for the near-universal love for it that I've seen, and the only negative fan-reviews/reaction that I've seen were, IIRC, based only on the pilot. It does, however, quickly pick up in the second episode, and keep improving from there.
A lot of shows' successes depend on the strength of their leads, but I'm not sure I've seen another that does as much as this one. While others like Nina Dobrev or Anna Torv rightly receive praise for successfully portraying two separate characters in the same show, their characters ( at least in what I've seen of The Vampire Diaries- first 2 seasons and 1st episode of the 3rd season-and Fringe-first 4 seasons) they only play two characters, and those characters don't spend a lot of time in each other's company, and still only have to play one character in more episodes than not. Tatiana Maslany plays, if I'm counting right, 7 characters throughout the series, with 3 being the fewest characters she plays in any given episode. In addition, every episode has at least 2 of her characters interacting face-to-face at some point, most episodes have several scenes of this, and not always the same two characters, and each character is very distinctive by mannerisms, voice and speech patterns (not to mention accents) that the hard work of the show's hair and makeup department isn't always needed to tell them apart. And then she has to regularly play one of her characters impersonating another. This also probably happens at least once in most episodes, and that's not counting Sarah impersonating Beth for a lot of the season. There's also a lot of "Is there something in them that's inherently similar, personalitywise, and how much is nurture over nature?" going on, though mostly with three of the characters.
Which is not to say that it's a perfect show. To say the show doesn't seem to have much of an idea of what" informed consent" is is something of an understatement (I suspect the writers assume that when you reach a certain level of almost every character having an ulterior motive, wanting revenge, being blackmailed, acting out of self-preservation, keeping game-changing secrets, etc., you don't have to worry so much about that. If so, I disagree with them quite strongly.) and it's very much a "sea of white people" show. There are only 2 PoC to appear in multiple episodes throughout the season in major roles (and a couple in much smaller roles, and I think the writers forget about them at times), and one is Sarah's abusive ex, and the other, though usually a positive character, has a number of Angry Black Man moments. The only other living PoC of import in the show appears near the end and introduces a whole other set of potential issues. (ETa-ish: No, wait, there was one other dude in a minor role who gets used by Sarah to maintain her cover and then kinda vanishes). There are also various things throughout the series that make me think the lead role was originally meant for a WoC, though I can't always pin down why I think that. Then there's Felix. Love the boy, and there are a lot of times when his bitchiness and irreverent commentary are the only thing saving the show from taking itself 5000 times too seriously, but they really did go out of their way with the "flamboyantly gay stereotype" bit at times. (ETA: Interesting commentary on Felix by the actor here.)
Still, very worth watching overall, IMO.
( long and possibly rambly spoilers )
The gist of things is that a grifter, Sarah, returns to town after running off a year ago, and hopes to reclaim custody of her daughter, Kira, from her adopted mother, Siobahn, with whom she left Kira for a few hours and then never came back. (Her adopted brother, Felix, voices all our thoughts on the likelihood of this going down easily.) But then a very-obviously-better-off woman, Beth, who looks just like her jumps in front of a train, leaving her purse behind, and Sarah steals her purse and identity, intending to do the latter just long enough to take every cent Beth had. Then she learns that Beth is only one of several women who look like her-the others including but not necessarily limited to a German woman named Katja, a scientist named Cosima and a suburban housewife named Allison-and that her lookalikes have been trying to find out who and what they are.
I wasn't particularly impressed by or interested in the pilot, despite the concept, with Beth and Katja being the only things to really hold my attention, and likely wouldn't have bothered watching more if not for the near-universal love for it that I've seen, and the only negative fan-reviews/reaction that I've seen were, IIRC, based only on the pilot. It does, however, quickly pick up in the second episode, and keep improving from there.
A lot of shows' successes depend on the strength of their leads, but I'm not sure I've seen another that does as much as this one. While others like Nina Dobrev or Anna Torv rightly receive praise for successfully portraying two separate characters in the same show, their characters ( at least in what I've seen of The Vampire Diaries- first 2 seasons and 1st episode of the 3rd season-and Fringe-first 4 seasons) they only play two characters, and those characters don't spend a lot of time in each other's company, and still only have to play one character in more episodes than not. Tatiana Maslany plays, if I'm counting right, 7 characters throughout the series, with 3 being the fewest characters she plays in any given episode. In addition, every episode has at least 2 of her characters interacting face-to-face at some point, most episodes have several scenes of this, and not always the same two characters, and each character is very distinctive by mannerisms, voice and speech patterns (not to mention accents) that the hard work of the show's hair and makeup department isn't always needed to tell them apart. And then she has to regularly play one of her characters impersonating another. This also probably happens at least once in most episodes, and that's not counting Sarah impersonating Beth for a lot of the season. There's also a lot of "Is there something in them that's inherently similar, personalitywise, and how much is nurture over nature?" going on, though mostly with three of the characters.
Which is not to say that it's a perfect show. To say the show doesn't seem to have much of an idea of what" informed consent" is is something of an understatement (I suspect the writers assume that when you reach a certain level of almost every character having an ulterior motive, wanting revenge, being blackmailed, acting out of self-preservation, keeping game-changing secrets, etc., you don't have to worry so much about that. If so, I disagree with them quite strongly.) and it's very much a "sea of white people" show. There are only 2 PoC to appear in multiple episodes throughout the season in major roles (and a couple in much smaller roles, and I think the writers forget about them at times), and one is Sarah's abusive ex, and the other, though usually a positive character, has a number of Angry Black Man moments. The only other living PoC of import in the show appears near the end and introduces a whole other set of potential issues. (ETa-ish: No, wait, there was one other dude in a minor role who gets used by Sarah to maintain her cover and then kinda vanishes). There are also various things throughout the series that make me think the lead role was originally meant for a WoC, though I can't always pin down why I think that. Then there's Felix. Love the boy, and there are a lot of times when his bitchiness and irreverent commentary are the only thing saving the show from taking itself 5000 times too seriously, but they really did go out of their way with the "flamboyantly gay stereotype" bit at times. (ETA: Interesting commentary on Felix by the actor here.)
Still, very worth watching overall, IMO.
( long and possibly rambly spoilers )