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Comments on Orphan Black
TRANS CLONE!!!
I'd said back in season one that this was something I'd really like to see them try, and they DID! I don't have a basis for weighing in on the actual portrayal (though I'd be interested to hear from any trans folks on my flist who want to throw their 2 cents in?), and I recognize that a cis woman playing a trans guy is inherently problematic for fairly obvious reasons (maybe slightly less so in this case because due to the nature of the canon, there's no way around it -- but still extremely loaded and uncomfortable). However, I liked that he was explicitly trans, and that the other characters accepted him as a guy despite having only had experience with female versions of that genome so far. And also that Felix gets too much of an incesty vibe off the whole situation to be interested. XD (I don't think Felix would care about the actual plumbing; he doesn't seem like the type ...)
I haven't really talked about this season much yet, have I? I'm delighted to have the show back on my screen and I'm definitely enjoying it, although season two feels somewhat weaker than season one (and some stuff I'm pretty sure is directly retconned, like Donny not knowing about the clones -- as much as I'm enjoying Alison and Donny's hilarious downward spiral of total failure at life, I can't really see why Donny would have gone to the lengths he went to in season one, especially refusing to talk under actual torture, if he believed it was all a sociology experiment).
Delighted to see Vic come back, just when we thought he was gone forever, and still be his total weasel self! Though I kinda wish Detective DeAngelis (name?) wasn't being portrayed in such an antagonistic way, because she's actually doing the right thing. We all like Art for helping Our Heroes, but let's face it, he's been suspended and he's running around abetting Sara and Felix with their deeply unwise schemes, while DeAngelis is trying to catch a legit murderer (Alison).
The Rachel-on-Paul rape scene was deeply uncomfortable, and Rachel is a fascinating villain while still being eleven flavors of DNW. Loved her inner Rachel freaking out in 2x08 while her outer Rachel maintained her poker face.
I truly cannot tell how many layers of double-cross Paul is currently pulling, or which side he's going to come down on when it inevitably comes to choosing a side.
I love how this show sails past the Bechdel test so handily in every single episode that it really isn't even a measurable yardstick here; nearly every character with agency is female, while nearly all the guys - with the occasional exception of Felix and Art - are reduced to the typically female roles of love interest/plot prop/victim (or comic relief or villain - but what they tend not to be is central characters whose thoughts we are privy to and whose decisions drive the action). While it's not something I would want every time, the role reversal is rare enough to be refreshing - ETA: Okay, thinking about this some more, I think it's specifically that, given too many characters to tell everyone's story, they chose to tell the women's stories and leave the men's unrevealed, rather than the other way around as it so often is.
The sheer effortlessness of the show's portrayal of multiple complex, dynamic, interesting women at the forefront of the action continues to delight me, as does its fairly equal weighing of het/lesbian/gay relationships.
The show has certainly upped the ante on the creepiness of its reproductive body horror this season, which I have fairly negative feelings about, especially where Helena's storyline is concerned. The thing I wanted most for Helena last season was to see her form connections with other people and have a chance to learn to person again. I was pleased to see her come back because I hoped she'd develop beyond "creepy, stabby woman-child" but I'm not really feeling like that's happening, even though there are flashes of it now and then. And it bothers me that the one person she'd started to bond with (Sara) abandoned her to the police and then the creepy farm-cult people.
COSIMA, DON'T BE DEAD! (I don't watch the previews so I don't know if we know anything about this in the next episode - don't tell me!)
I'm a little disappointed in the lack of a Felix plot this season; he's still been generally stuck in the role of helper/confidante and (in the frame-up plot) distressed damsel. However, we've had every major character from last season plus Rachel and Mrs S getting big roles, so there's really no room for everyone to have equal screen time.
I don't know how much of this they can possibly wrap up in just two more episodes.
I'd said back in season one that this was something I'd really like to see them try, and they DID! I don't have a basis for weighing in on the actual portrayal (though I'd be interested to hear from any trans folks on my flist who want to throw their 2 cents in?), and I recognize that a cis woman playing a trans guy is inherently problematic for fairly obvious reasons (maybe slightly less so in this case because due to the nature of the canon, there's no way around it -- but still extremely loaded and uncomfortable). However, I liked that he was explicitly trans, and that the other characters accepted him as a guy despite having only had experience with female versions of that genome so far. And also that Felix gets too much of an incesty vibe off the whole situation to be interested. XD (I don't think Felix would care about the actual plumbing; he doesn't seem like the type ...)
I haven't really talked about this season much yet, have I? I'm delighted to have the show back on my screen and I'm definitely enjoying it, although season two feels somewhat weaker than season one (and some stuff I'm pretty sure is directly retconned, like Donny not knowing about the clones -- as much as I'm enjoying Alison and Donny's hilarious downward spiral of total failure at life, I can't really see why Donny would have gone to the lengths he went to in season one, especially refusing to talk under actual torture, if he believed it was all a sociology experiment).
Delighted to see Vic come back, just when we thought he was gone forever, and still be his total weasel self! Though I kinda wish Detective DeAngelis (name?) wasn't being portrayed in such an antagonistic way, because she's actually doing the right thing. We all like Art for helping Our Heroes, but let's face it, he's been suspended and he's running around abetting Sara and Felix with their deeply unwise schemes, while DeAngelis is trying to catch a legit murderer (Alison).
The Rachel-on-Paul rape scene was deeply uncomfortable, and Rachel is a fascinating villain while still being eleven flavors of DNW. Loved her inner Rachel freaking out in 2x08 while her outer Rachel maintained her poker face.
I truly cannot tell how many layers of double-cross Paul is currently pulling, or which side he's going to come down on when it inevitably comes to choosing a side.
I love how this show sails past the Bechdel test so handily in every single episode that it really isn't even a measurable yardstick here; nearly every character with agency is female, while nearly all the guys - with the occasional exception of Felix and Art - are reduced to the typically female roles of love interest/plot prop/victim (or comic relief or villain - but what they tend not to be is central characters whose thoughts we are privy to and whose decisions drive the action). While it's not something I would want every time, the role reversal is rare enough to be refreshing - ETA: Okay, thinking about this some more, I think it's specifically that, given too many characters to tell everyone's story, they chose to tell the women's stories and leave the men's unrevealed, rather than the other way around as it so often is.
The sheer effortlessness of the show's portrayal of multiple complex, dynamic, interesting women at the forefront of the action continues to delight me, as does its fairly equal weighing of het/lesbian/gay relationships.
The show has certainly upped the ante on the creepiness of its reproductive body horror this season, which I have fairly negative feelings about, especially where Helena's storyline is concerned. The thing I wanted most for Helena last season was to see her form connections with other people and have a chance to learn to person again. I was pleased to see her come back because I hoped she'd develop beyond "creepy, stabby woman-child" but I'm not really feeling like that's happening, even though there are flashes of it now and then. And it bothers me that the one person she'd started to bond with (Sara) abandoned her to the police and then the creepy farm-cult people.
COSIMA, DON'T BE DEAD! (I don't watch the previews so I don't know if we know anything about this in the next episode - don't tell me!)
I'm a little disappointed in the lack of a Felix plot this season; he's still been generally stuck in the role of helper/confidante and (in the frame-up plot) distressed damsel. However, we've had every major character from last season plus Rachel and Mrs S getting big roles, so there's really no room for everyone to have equal screen time.
I don't know how much of this they can possibly wrap up in just two more episodes.
no subject
Ah, that's right! I felt like Donny was competent and menacing last season, especially how he held it together under torture, and that made little sense in a way because he'd known Allison since school; had he been recruited so young? Had he faked his entire adult life? And now he's a clown.
I might watch the glue gun scene again to remind me exactly what was asked and answered, but Donny's arc would make more sense if he was shown to be one thing (sinister monitor) or the other (naive dupe).
no subject
Like you said, they seem to have settled on clown/dupe for his characterization this season, but that's really hard to buy in light of some of what he did in season one. And, at the very least, he kept up the pretense LONG after it was pretty clear that his deceptions were causing Alison to crack - long after it went past the point of just not telling her stuff and straight into openly lying to her - so he might be a well-intentioned dupe, but he's still kind of a jerk.
no subject
Even so, it's a little iffy.