Ophan Black

[dhampyresa]

I finished watching S1 of Orphan Black today (and then promptly watched the one episode of S2 that is currently available). It's really great! There's a lot of things to love about it, but I think the main one is Tatiana Maslany, because OMG HOW IS SHE SO GOOD AT ACTING A+++++ CASTING

Things I liked, in no particular order:

• Felix and his relationship with Sarah and later Allison, he's just so nice and supportive yet unwilling to take any of sarah's shit
• How French Delphine is. Whoever is writing and/or teaching her how to say her lines is brilliant, because omg yes "a jogging" perfect. (For the curious, "un jogging" or sometimes "un footing" is the noun of going for a jog/run in French. It's one of those French words that look and sound like they're from English but aren't, or at least not that way.) I swear, her French accent is perfect. You can tell she's fluent, but not bilingual from it. There's something very french about the way she says 'Cosima' as an interjection. It sounds subtly different from the way she says it when she's speaking to Cosima, because she doesn't have her accent on yet. This is a brilliant brilliant thing to hear and I would love this show just for this.
• Cosima. OMG COSIMA Come to my arms you science nerd you. (She's also really hot /shallow.)
• Art! Art investigating shit and being Beth's freind even when she turns out to be Sarah. Partners!
• Allison: looks nice but is really fucking scary underneath (I've no idea what a soccer mom is, but I dare hope they're not all like that). That said, her actions wrt Aimsley in the S1 finale made me lose a lot of sympathy for her. We'll see how that turns out.
• Emilia! I liked her, even if she wasn't in it much. (Not sure how helena ended up in a convent in Ukraine, given that "the church" probably meant the Church of England here.)

So yeah. Orphan Black. It's great and you should watch it.

Comments

[ollipop]

I love how everyone who's seen this show agrees that Cosima is the hot one. Because she absolutely is! And not just for her science nerdi-ness, but generally. (My spouse says it's because she stands up straighter than the rest? But I think that's not it.

I'm sorry be the one to break it to you: soccer moms are very much like that, with the possible exception of the unregistered firearms. Goody-two-shoes on top, Lord of the Flies all the way down. I have strong feelings about soccer moms, though Allison is the one I most closely resemble.

I think that Beth Childs is my favorite! Is that terrible? I'm hoping for some flashback in s2.

[dhampyresa]

She totally is the hot one! her science nerdery is a big part of it for me, but you're right that it's not just that. (That could be it, although she also tends to wear lower-cut shirts, but idk and I think the glasses really fit her.)

Hey hey hey, excuse you, Alison's firearms are all licensed, she just happens to know an arms dealer. (What.) I think my problem with 'soccer mom' is that it's probably supposed to be a cliché and/or stereotype so (the show acts as though) I should know the broad lines of it already, but I don't. I literally have no idea what to expect. What is subversion? What is cliché? I JUST DON'T KNOW so I'm left feeling like I'm missing half the context in some scenes.

I have very little feelings on Beth, since we don't get a lot about her, and all of it second-hand, but I do like what I've heard and yes, I am totally hoping for a flashback too, now that you've mentionned it.

[ollipop]

Cosima... Cosima is one of those girls that just radiates hotness. She's got this thing with the glasses and the nervous laugh. Some women are pretty from a distance, but Cosima is the one who's even more attractive from three feet away... You can tell she smells good just by looking at her: all bath soap and flowers and girl-ness. She's also the one who can always spot you if you're watching her.

But, BETH! Beth is the one who is fine around guns, who is a determined runner, who is pissed as hell at being a clone and is convinced that she has to carry the world by herself because she can't rely on her clone-sibs. I can't figure out why she might have killed herself (except that they needed the plot device) and wish the show would do the work to make it make sense.

As for soccer moms, I'm not sure how Canadian soccer moms might be different. American soccer moms are defined by their roomy, kid-toting vehicles... They sit in their cars or on the sideline for 90-minute practice, and get maybe too involved in critiquing their kids' performance. Soccer moms are peppy and supposed to be extroverted and will volunteer to cut oranges into slices and pass out juice boxes to the young athletes. They tend to be VERY suburban and over cautious about security (which is what makes Allison's firearms and paranoia so precious) and they tend to be over-educated (as a group) and underemployed (usually they stayed home to parent their kids). They talk about one another, fret over the quality of their children's schools, and they seek medical advice on the Web. There's a big overlap with "soccer mom" (an older term) and "helicopter parent" (which has the bonus of being gender neutral). They would prefer not to eat processed food but end up buying drive-through anyway on the way to practice. They have huge consumer buying power. Allison's "craft room" and free time to make crafts is a big soccer mom trait. I'm not really sure why they inspire such scorn, except that society is really good at hating women. There are pretty strictly enforced gender stereotypes and expectations of marriage and monogamy around the soccer mom stereotype, because the soccer mom "lifestyle" really requires two parents/one income. (This is, in fact, the only thing that rescues me from being a soccer mom.) There's also a lot of Allison's identity tied up in Donnie's job, which may be why she's still married to a person she doesn't like very much.

Is any of that new info, or was that all really transparent already? I dunno, it seems like sort of an embarrassing trope. It's funny but it also hits too close to home.

[dhampyresa]

She's just so pretty. /dreamy sigh (Which is to say: I agree with everything you said.)

No, see, I agree with you. I love what we know about Beth, but it's all stuff we've been told and not shown. All we ever see Beth herself do in person is jump under the train. If you include her running (on film), that's two things we see her do, everything else we know from what the other characters tell us and what we can infer from the narrative. "fine around guns" -> She's a cop (Art) and she told Alison how to shoot (Alison), "fine around guns" -> also Alison (and possibly Cosima) and "is convinced that she has to carry the world by herself because she can't rely on her clone-sibs" -> inference from the narrative. I'm not saying she isn't a great character, because she is, just pointing out that she isn't given as much of a voice as the other clones. Imho, she killed herself because something was seriously wrong with her meds.

Oh okay, wow, thank you! That helps a lot! I hadn't really gotten the "two parents/one income", I thought she had a part-time job. Actually, that may also be why she stays with Donnie: after years taking care of her kids without a job, re-entering the workforce can't be easy, especially in ~this economy. Hahaha, your description is really not what I would have gotten from "suburban", so thanks for explaining it.