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Orphan Black
We watched the first season of Orphan Black this past week and I LOVE it! I haven't fallen this hard for a show in awhile. Unfortunately there won't be new episodes until mid-April. (Woe!) I'll create another post for talking about it with ALL THE SPOILERS, but this is the non-spoiler, "here's why you should watch this show!" post.
I don't think I'd recommend this show to everybody. It's very funny but also very dark; if you enjoy shows like Justified, you shouldn't have trouble with this, but the blend of black humor, absurdity, and violence is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. (To give you some idea, there is an entire episode that's built, in part, around a very funny torture scene. It's gruesome and kind of heartbreaking, but also perhaps the funniest torture scene I've ever seen -- not that there's usually a whole lot of competition for that honor. :P) Anyway, black humor + great character stuff = kryptonite for me, but there's murder, torture, suicide, self harm, and some rather dubiously consensual sex, so be warned. Also, I know a couple people on my flist have a pretty hardcore embarrassment squick, and this show might hit that in places.
Now here's why it's awesome: the writing is GREAT -- smart and funny and sharp-edged and twisty and self-aware -- and the acting is fantastic. The star, Tatiana Maslany, is brilliant; she plays several different characters on the show, all of whom are instantly identifiable even when they're pretending to be each other. If you are looking for a show with lots of female characters and queer characters, this show is fantastic about that, and the queer characters get romances just like the straight ones do. It's also heavily focused on themes of family and found-family; I'd even go so far as to say that this might be one of the best shows I've ever seen for presenting adopted family as "real" family in the same way most shows treat blood family. The characters are flawed, complicated, funny, tragic, and very real-feeling. In most cases, you never know quite which way they're going to jump until they do it, but there are always plausible motivations for their behavior.
Without getting any more spoilery than the first fifteen minutes of the first episode, this is a series about a young woman, Sarah, who's hit rock bottom (dealing drugs and massively in debt to her supplier; pursued by her abusive ex-boyfriend; not allowed to see her daughter; no friends and estranged from her family) and standing on a train platform when another woman -- Beth, who looks exactly like her -- commits suicide in front of her. With nothing to lose, Sarah steals the dead woman's purse and decides to assume her life. Of course, people don't just walk in front of trains for no reason, and she quickly finds herself saddled with all of Beth's problems as well as her own.
The first season is only 10 episodes, so it's not a big time commitment, and well worth it if this sounds like your kind of thing!
I don't think I'd recommend this show to everybody. It's very funny but also very dark; if you enjoy shows like Justified, you shouldn't have trouble with this, but the blend of black humor, absurdity, and violence is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. (To give you some idea, there is an entire episode that's built, in part, around a very funny torture scene. It's gruesome and kind of heartbreaking, but also perhaps the funniest torture scene I've ever seen -- not that there's usually a whole lot of competition for that honor. :P) Anyway, black humor + great character stuff = kryptonite for me, but there's murder, torture, suicide, self harm, and some rather dubiously consensual sex, so be warned. Also, I know a couple people on my flist have a pretty hardcore embarrassment squick, and this show might hit that in places.
Now here's why it's awesome: the writing is GREAT -- smart and funny and sharp-edged and twisty and self-aware -- and the acting is fantastic. The star, Tatiana Maslany, is brilliant; she plays several different characters on the show, all of whom are instantly identifiable even when they're pretending to be each other. If you are looking for a show with lots of female characters and queer characters, this show is fantastic about that, and the queer characters get romances just like the straight ones do. It's also heavily focused on themes of family and found-family; I'd even go so far as to say that this might be one of the best shows I've ever seen for presenting adopted family as "real" family in the same way most shows treat blood family. The characters are flawed, complicated, funny, tragic, and very real-feeling. In most cases, you never know quite which way they're going to jump until they do it, but there are always plausible motivations for their behavior.
Without getting any more spoilery than the first fifteen minutes of the first episode, this is a series about a young woman, Sarah, who's hit rock bottom (dealing drugs and massively in debt to her supplier; pursued by her abusive ex-boyfriend; not allowed to see her daughter; no friends and estranged from her family) and standing on a train platform when another woman -- Beth, who looks exactly like her -- commits suicide in front of her. With nothing to lose, Sarah steals the dead woman's purse and decides to assume her life. Of course, people don't just walk in front of trains for no reason, and she quickly finds herself saddled with all of Beth's problems as well as her own.
The first season is only 10 episodes, so it's not a big time commitment, and well worth it if this sounds like your kind of thing!
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