Orphan Black: Season 1
Sep. 15th, 2013 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreAKA "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.
SPOILERS!
-So, let's talk about Beth and Katja. Actually, lets just talk about Katja for now. I FIND IT SO SAD THAT NO ONE CARES ABOUT KATJA. LITERALLY NO ONE. Like, Allison and Cosima pretty much just find it inconvenient that she died? And I know that Beth is the only one who really interacted with her, but Katja is the one who figured out both that there were clones out there, and that someone was killing them off, and she's the one who contacted Beth, which is the only reason she, Allison and Cosima (and later Sarah) were able to meet. I know Beth's death is considered what kicked thins off, since that's what brought Sarah in, but really, it was Katja (or Helena, depending on how you want to look at it) who got the clone club rolling, which is also what led to Beth killing that woman to protect the other clones, which eventually led to her death.
-And then there's Beth. BETH, AT LEAST PEOPLE CARED ABOUT YOU! Well, mostlyyour girlfriend Allison and your mostly-maybe-fake boyfriend. (But he was apparently willing to kill anyone in his path when he thought you might have been murdered?) And probably Art. And I'm pretty sure Sarah was half-obsessed with you for a while there. But guys, not only was Beth somehow able to figure out some part ofthe conspiracy and take down someone involved in it (and make it look like a complete accident!) but she was also able to find out about Sarah (maybe by running her own fingerprints through the system?), and somehow not only knew she'd be at that train station, but also that Sarah would take over her life, which would take her to the other clones. like, the way she put her stuff down and made sure Sarah saw her seemed to make it pretty obvious (in my mind, at least) that it was all very deliberate on her part. I'm also very curious about her relationships with both Art and Paul. Like, at the beginning, Art didnt seem to like her much, but then later he seemed really fond of her, and apparently he didnt hesitate to risk his own career to cover for her. So I guess maybe it was just her instability that had him like that early on. Then there's Paul, who...seems to have cared about her in some way, even if not actual romantic love, but that's somewhat ambiguous.
-So, really, while I'm not generally a fan of shows relying on flashbacks, I wouldn't object to lots of Beth and Katja-centric flashbacks.
-Allison is my favorite, for anyone who is curious. And, like Sarah thinks was the case with Beth and Paul, I wonder how many of her issues stem from the fact that her marriage seems to have been pretty much dead for a long time, but Donnie hung around in it for some inexplicable reason (and kept coming back) despite no apparent interest in the relationship. And I wonder how long Donnie has been her monitor. My assumption is that it's the reason they got back together after being broken up in college, and that while Delphine and Paul are relatively recent additions to Cosima and Beth's lives, they probably had monitors they weren't aware of before them.
-Did I mention how iffy the show's idea of informed consent is? IT'S REALLY IFFY GUYS. Only Cosima's' reaction to the confirmation that Delphine is her monitor really makes me think the show is really aware of it. But beyond that: Allison and Beth are/were living with people who's JOB it was to spy on them, report on them, and go out for a drink or whatever while people came in and illegally experimented on them (after letting the intruders in the front door, presumably). In Paul's case, there doesn't seem tohave been much choice involved, but who knows with Donnie. (And we can assume Katja and the other dead clones probably had something similar going on.) Then there's Sarah literally jumping Paul because he's weirded out by his girlfriend suddenly acting like another person. And this is not "spy/grifter/whatever about to be caught out and seducing someone" but a case of person A having sex with person B ONLY because they believe person B is person C, with whom person A has an established relationship. (Except person B is in that relationship with person C either partly or only because a secret organization is forcing them to, which person B-who atthat point knows she's probably going to jail forever if her impersonation is revealed-doesn't know, and informed consent got tossed out the car window about 5 miles back and is crying pitifully on the side of the road.) By the time Allison was having sex with her best friend's husband because she was convinced that her best friend was spying on her and letting people into her house to experiment on her, my brain was actively trying to ignore anything sex-related in the show out of self-preservation.
-That said, I DO think the show recognizes the monitor situation as violation and objectification, no real doubts about that, I just don't think they've really taken the idea of informed consent into account, or that it sees the connection between the two.
-Poor Aynsley. All you ever really did was be a bit too nosy and interfering.
-Also, I'm really glad the the early "Paul is kinda weird and creepy, isn't he?" vibe was apparently deliberate on the show's part, and not another in the endless stream of cases where creepy Nice Guys/douches are supposed to be Great And Supportive Guys. I actually started enjoying him as a character (though I wouldn't say I actually like him) once the "Paul the supportive boyfriend who won't give up on you" act went away.
-Cosima, no coughing for you, please.
-I swear the writers ship Beth/Allison. And Sarah/Helena. And yeesh, how do you actually have both sexual and platonic chemistry with yourself, depending on what two characters you happen to be playing at any given time. THIS IS NOT NATURAL, TATIANA MASLANY.
-I'm sorry, Matt Frewer, but after Generation X, Alice and Eureka, I just cannot take you seriously. It's not that you're a bad actor, it's just that I can't interpret a character played by you as one I should take seriously or consider a threat after most roles I've seen you in.
-Kira is seriously the calmest child ever. Like, I half wonder if she's drugged or something. IT JUST ISN'T NORMAL. (In another show, I'd say it was possible that she had ADD or something similar-it's a misconception that kids with ADD can't focus on anything, sometimes the problem with it's manifestation is that the kid gets TOO focused on one or two things and looks perfectly calm and obedient but you won't ever be able to get them in any mode but the one they're in right then, or get that focus for anything else-but I think she's supposed to be The Super special And Unique And Amazing child or something.) But really why does Kira call her "monkey"? LEAST MONKEYLIKE CHILD EVER.
-I dislike the idea of Siobahn having been spying on/using Sarah all this time, but I have a suspicion there might end up being something solid behind that. Not just because of the picture (because she could have "gone rogue," so to speak, when Sarah was very young) but because Dr. Leicke (or however it's spelled) only said they'd been looking for Helena for a long time, and neither Sarah nor Kira seemed to be news to him.
-I'd say "Show, what were you trying to say there with Amelia?" but I have a sneaking suspicion that the answer is along the lines of "But don't you think Tatiana Maslany looks 'ethnically ambiguous'?" or "But we'll reveal that Amelia was actually just the incubator."
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.
SPOILERS!
-So, let's talk about Beth and Katja. Actually, lets just talk about Katja for now. I FIND IT SO SAD THAT NO ONE CARES ABOUT KATJA. LITERALLY NO ONE. Like, Allison and Cosima pretty much just find it inconvenient that she died? And I know that Beth is the only one who really interacted with her, but Katja is the one who figured out both that there were clones out there, and that someone was killing them off, and she's the one who contacted Beth, which is the only reason she, Allison and Cosima (and later Sarah) were able to meet. I know Beth's death is considered what kicked thins off, since that's what brought Sarah in, but really, it was Katja (or Helena, depending on how you want to look at it) who got the clone club rolling, which is also what led to Beth killing that woman to protect the other clones, which eventually led to her death.
-And then there's Beth. BETH, AT LEAST PEOPLE CARED ABOUT YOU! Well, mostly
-So, really, while I'm not generally a fan of shows relying on flashbacks, I wouldn't object to lots of Beth and Katja-centric flashbacks.
-Allison is my favorite, for anyone who is curious. And, like Sarah thinks was the case with Beth and Paul, I wonder how many of her issues stem from the fact that her marriage seems to have been pretty much dead for a long time, but Donnie hung around in it for some inexplicable reason (and kept coming back) despite no apparent interest in the relationship. And I wonder how long Donnie has been her monitor. My assumption is that it's the reason they got back together after being broken up in college, and that while Delphine and Paul are relatively recent additions to Cosima and Beth's lives, they probably had monitors they weren't aware of before them.
-Did I mention how iffy the show's idea of informed consent is? IT'S REALLY IFFY GUYS. Only Cosima's' reaction to the confirmation that Delphine is her monitor really makes me think the show is really aware of it. But beyond that: Allison and Beth are/were living with people who's JOB it was to spy on them, report on them, and go out for a drink or whatever while people came in and illegally experimented on them (after letting the intruders in the front door, presumably). In Paul's case, there doesn't seem tohave been much choice involved, but who knows with Donnie. (And we can assume Katja and the other dead clones probably had something similar going on.) Then there's Sarah literally jumping Paul because he's weirded out by his girlfriend suddenly acting like another person. And this is not "spy/grifter/whatever about to be caught out and seducing someone" but a case of person A having sex with person B ONLY because they believe person B is person C, with whom person A has an established relationship. (Except person B is in that relationship with person C either partly or only because a secret organization is forcing them to, which person B-who atthat point knows she's probably going to jail forever if her impersonation is revealed-doesn't know, and informed consent got tossed out the car window about 5 miles back and is crying pitifully on the side of the road.) By the time Allison was having sex with her best friend's husband because she was convinced that her best friend was spying on her and letting people into her house to experiment on her, my brain was actively trying to ignore anything sex-related in the show out of self-preservation.
-That said, I DO think the show recognizes the monitor situation as violation and objectification, no real doubts about that, I just don't think they've really taken the idea of informed consent into account, or that it sees the connection between the two.
-Poor Aynsley. All you ever really did was be a bit too nosy and interfering.
-Also, I'm really glad the the early "Paul is kinda weird and creepy, isn't he?" vibe was apparently deliberate on the show's part, and not another in the endless stream of cases where creepy Nice Guys/douches are supposed to be Great And Supportive Guys. I actually started enjoying him as a character (though I wouldn't say I actually like him) once the "Paul the supportive boyfriend who won't give up on you" act went away.
-Cosima, no coughing for you, please.
-I swear the writers ship Beth/Allison. And Sarah/Helena. And yeesh, how do you actually have both sexual and platonic chemistry with yourself, depending on what two characters you happen to be playing at any given time. THIS IS NOT NATURAL, TATIANA MASLANY.
-I'm sorry, Matt Frewer, but after Generation X, Alice and Eureka, I just cannot take you seriously. It's not that you're a bad actor, it's just that I can't interpret a character played by you as one I should take seriously or consider a threat after most roles I've seen you in.
-Kira is seriously the calmest child ever. Like, I half wonder if she's drugged or something. IT JUST ISN'T NORMAL. (In another show, I'd say it was possible that she had ADD or something similar-it's a misconception that kids with ADD can't focus on anything, sometimes the problem with it's manifestation is that the kid gets TOO focused on one or two things and looks perfectly calm and obedient but you won't ever be able to get them in any mode but the one they're in right then, or get that focus for anything else-but I think she's supposed to be The Super special And Unique And Amazing child or something.) But really why does Kira call her "monkey"? LEAST MONKEYLIKE CHILD EVER.
-I dislike the idea of Siobahn having been spying on/using Sarah all this time, but I have a suspicion there might end up being something solid behind that. Not just because of the picture (because she could have "gone rogue," so to speak, when Sarah was very young) but because Dr. Leicke (or however it's spelled) only said they'd been looking for Helena for a long time, and neither Sarah nor Kira seemed to be news to him.
-I'd say "Show, what were you trying to say there with Amelia?" but I have a sneaking suspicion that the answer is along the lines of "But don't you think Tatiana Maslany looks 'ethnically ambiguous'?" or "But we'll reveal that Amelia was actually just the incubator."
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Date: 2013-09-16 12:18 am (UTC)It's sad that I never even absorbed how critical Katja's role is in the clone revelation story. You're right, all of that credit kind of goes to Beth, somehow. Although I also admit that I thought Katja was one of the more stereotypical portrayals of the clones, where hair and makeup and accent were trying to do too much characterization work? But I suppose that's also because she didn't really get much time to become more than that.
I dislike the idea of Siobahn having been spying on/using Sarah all this time, but I have a suspicion there might end up being something solid behind that
Me too. I'm still holding out that it's something more like her being rogue from very early on and out on her own side and Kira's side. I don't know why, but I am hugely invested in her not screwing over Sarah. I think because their prickly relationship gradually became one of my favorites, and the "reveal" of her and Sarah's backstory, that she was part of an underground network rescuing and protecting kids, that Sarah was one of those kids, and all the actions she took to protect Sarah, were all really significant to me as part of the show and I'd hate if they now become a lie. :(
Oh wow, I never had any suspicion that they were trying to say Amelia was the actual biological mother of Sarah and Helena. I just assumed that she carried the babies, but they were genetically not hers.
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Date: 2013-09-16 12:33 am (UTC)I agree about trying to characterize Katja via how she looked and sounded, but yeah, it was probably because she was around for about 2 minutes before dying, and no one knew her well enough for us to get to know her though the other characters like we do Beth.
The Siobahn/Sarah relationship is actually my strongest investment when it comes to Sarah herself. I also hope she went rogue early on.
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Date: 2013-09-16 12:44 am (UTC)I am really really invested in Mrs. S. not deliberately having betrayed Sarah; I am INCREDIBLY invested not only in her relationship with Sarah and Felix (though I am really invested in that!) but also in her, herself, as a politically conscious person who is actively trying to work against oppressive systems. And she has at least appeared very sincere about that, especially when she's calling Sarah out on . . . not doing that.
I still want to start a petition to replace Paul with Raj (the sweet guy from the police station) for all of season 2.
While I get the critique about Felix, I also thought this commentary from the actor was really interesting.
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Date: 2013-09-16 12:59 am (UTC)Yeah, I completely get and agree with what he's saying. And I actually think Felix-the-character plays those things up deliberately at times? Because I think he gets people to focus on that and then they don't notice as much if he's up to something, or it keeps them from getting too caught up in their own problems. (I think he does the latter with Allison a lot, really.) And I hope we see him interact a lot more with Cosima and maybe Delphine (I don't think he's going to be warming up to Delphine until the clone club gives her the ok) so that we can see him interact with other queer characters beyond pre and post-coital cameos. But basically, emphasizing a stereotype in the portrayal of a character is not, IMO, an inherently bad thing, based on the writers and what they do with it. But there are a lot of bits with Felix that make me think someone went "this is the way gay people act, right?"
I want more of Mrs. S./Felix to be developed! Because we really didn't see a lot of that. Like, at the beginning, I think they were somewhat on the outs over Sarah, but not later once she and Sarah have made up.
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Date: 2013-09-16 02:25 am (UTC)YEAH, ME TOO. I liked everything we got but I will always want more.
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Date: 2013-09-16 02:43 am (UTC)I loved his reaction to Delphine. "Oh, IT IS THE RUINER OF COSIMA'S DREAMS. WE DO NOT LIKE YOU. But you can come in if you behave and I won't kick you out unless she says to."
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Date: 2013-09-16 02:15 am (UTC)THIS THIS THIS. Ahem, sorry but these are all my feelings!
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Date: 2013-09-16 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-16 04:37 pm (UTC)I want more about her next season. I'd love to see something that explains why she's so hard. She needs to be, I feel. It doesn't mean she doesn't care, I think, it means she cares too much.
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Date: 2013-09-16 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-16 04:32 am (UTC)My feeling is that Paul is a mercenary who was spying on, emotionally abusing, gaslighting and using Beth so he wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of his own actions, and he was frantically going around torturing people to save his job and cover his ass. It's obvious he didn't give a single shit about Beth; if nothing else we knew about his choices and actions told us that, the way he treated Sarah before he knew she was Sarah would. (Sorry if I'm bitchy about this, but I SWEAR TO EVERYTHING fandom has me at the end of my rope on this. If Paul's actor was not so painfully boring to me I would ship it like a hot potato on the SO SO FUCKED UP scale, but....a romantic or even ambiguous hero he is not. Paul started working in Sarah's favour because she sexually gratified him without more than two whole conversations between them, all of which she was actively trying to escape him in.)
I'm not a gay man, but as a queer woman I'd say beside everything the actor said re: Felix not only are there real gay men who do act like that, and not only is Felix a multi-faceted character who is not solely or even prominently defined by his sexuality (rather he's defined narratively by his role as a brother and friend to Sarah) it's just a part of his presentation - but also he's not the only queer character in the show, which does weigh in on the representation/stereotype scale I think? Cosima is queer (bisexual, by word of God) and she's the other end of the narrative scale, where her sexuality is very casually dealt with and not really a performative part of her personality at all.
Ooh, that's a very good point vis-a-vis Siobhan. I'm really hoping that Siobhan is/comes over to/ends up on their side one way or another, and that they deal with Siobhan and Sarah's thorny and complicated relationship with respect and depth.
I thought they did confirm Amelia just carried them? Someone (someone more qualified than I am to examine the issue) remarked on how fucked up it was, considering the history of black women being used as medical test subjects for the purposes/betterment/future of white people, to use that as a plot point (esp of fulfillment for Sarah) and then fridge her. I was astonished they killed her - or maybe not astonished, but genuinely surprised. It seemed like a pointless waste.
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Date: 2013-09-16 04:47 am (UTC)I should rewatch where Amelia was explaining things to Sarah. At the time, I was spending a lot of time going "WTF WHY NO."
With Felix, I just get the feeling that the writers sometimes go "this is how gay men act, right?" while thinking about the stereotype instead of people. I want him and Cosima to interact a lot next season.
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Date: 2013-09-16 11:00 pm (UTC)I don't remember them exactly, but I think I had a couple of those moments with Felix, too - at least one of them might have been in the club, but I watched it all in one rush and didn't really have a chance to process individually. Jordan Gavaris definitely carries that role (one of the reasons I was first grumpy about Paul was that I found it profoundly ridiculous that Dylan Bruce and not Jordan Gavaris had second billing.)
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Date: 2013-09-16 11:10 pm (UTC)I suspect Dylan Bruce had higher billing because even though he was still a relative unknown, I think he had more recognizable stuff in his portfolio, because the show itself seems to hold Felix as much more integral than Paul. It'll be interesting to see how the billing goes in season 2.
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Date: 2013-09-16 04:35 pm (UTC)I need say no more. In fact, I think that Paul is still out to save his own ass and he's only trying to help Sarah inasmuch as he'll still be able to have contact with her and play both sides. But hopefully Sarah, who seems to be painfully aware of other people's motivations (and sometimes less aware of her own) will be aware of that fact, and in a less hubristic fashion than Cosima, who thought she was playing Delphine and who got played herself.
As to Delphine, whom I like as a character, but whom I kind of do not like as a person, I say, "What do you mean, you never told them about Kira? YOU ARE NOT STUPID. You know a basic background check would turn up the fact that Sarah had a daughter." And I hope that the other characters realize this too.
So, in short: I agree, and I kind of extend it to Delphine, who seems to have a conscience left that Paul doesn't, but who is still pressured and not necessarily acting in the best interests of anyone other than the company she works for. Certainly not Cosima and the other clones - unless she takes an abrupt turn next season, which I can certainly hope for, but I'm not foolish enough to believe that sleeping with someone and feeling sorry for what you've done is enough to mean that you have changed your future behavior accordingly.
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Date: 2013-09-16 10:17 pm (UTC)They did seem to totally skip over Delphine's culpability in that scenario, and I kind of side-eyed it, but as long as they deal with that, explicitly or implicitly in character dynamics....
I think Delphine (and Cosima, in her own way) are fascinating and in some respects rather ugly characters. Delphine clearly dehumanized Cosima, and I'm not entirely convinced that she's totally shaken that viewpoint of Cosima as a clone before person, i.e. an object of scientific fascination. (That it is acceptable to manipulate, deceive and use to achieve your ends, before personal acquaintance and an unexpected element of intimacy and response forcibly humanize Cosima.) To the extent that Delphine has shaken it, she seems perched on the slippery slope of 'i feel bad about this one I am now emotionally invested in' rather than an actual in-depth and conscious reevaluation of her own viewpoint. Which is fascinating! But I hope the show doesn't try to play it straight fluffy, because...nope. (And then there's culturally-appropriating Cosima, who - while Allison and Beth are in the very middle of the visceral peril and terror - has a level of abstraction and distance that fits perfectly into her clear presentation of confident class privilege. And, as you said, her hubris - not to mention her casualty with the gravity of Sarah/Allison's warnings and situation - is rather jarred by the end, and I really want to see how that ends up playing out through her interactions with Sarah and Felix and Allison. I feel like the writers have a very clear, complex picture of Cosima as a 3D human being, flaws and all, and I do love that.)
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Date: 2013-09-16 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-16 09:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-16 12:03 pm (UTC)I admit, the kids are part of why I have such strong feelings about Donnie? I don't know if they adopted them before or after he became a monitor (but I'm thinking he became a monitor before they were married), but with Beth and Cosima, there wasn't anyone else being affected, but there are here, and the only time Donnie really seems interested in the kids is when he can use them to manipulate Allison.
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Date: 2013-09-16 12:49 pm (UTC)There was this Egyptian movie a few years ago that got a bit of attention in Israel because, while Israelis were the baddies, it was mostly set in Israel. (Tel Aviv is quite mountainous, apparently. No idea where they filmed it.) Anyway, the plot was basically this Egyptian woman who is kidnapped by her husband and wakes up in an apartment Tel Aviv, to discover that he's been an Israeli agent for as long as she's known him, and now he's gone back, naturally taking her - and their kids - along with him. After that it's pretty bad thriller stuff with her trying to get back to Egypt while dodging the Mossad or something, but that whole set up was just fascinating to me. I couldn't believe this was an action flick and not a character drama, but there you go. Sometimes writers just want to blow things up, apparently.