Orphan Black - Season 3 Discussion

[Christopher]

I don't get why they're still so aloof about it, though.

Because they want to sell their show in the US, and US audiences generally don't care about anything that doesn't treat us as the center of all things. So lots of Canadian shows downplay their setting and try to convey a generic North American flavor. Lost Girl, for instance, has never acknowledged being set in Toronto, just given the occasional subtle clue (e.g. being close to Niagara Falls and cherry-growing country). One of the exceptions is Continuum, which is quite overt about taking place in Vancouver (although it still passes off the famous Vancouver Public Library as the police headquarters).

 

[tomalak301]

I don't get why they're still so aloof about it, though.

Because they want to sell their show in the US, and US audiences generally don't care about anything that doesn't treat us as the center of all things. So lots of Canadian shows downplay their setting and try to convey a generic North American flavor. Lost Girl, for instance, has never acknowledged being set in Toronto, just given the occasional subtle clue (e.g. being close to Niagara Falls and cherry-growing country). One of the exceptions is Continuum, which is quite overt about taking place in Vancouver (although it still passes off the famous Vancouver Public Library as the police headquarters).

I understand the logic behind it, but that is a really stupid reason. It reminds me of some of the feminist reasons I've been hearing about lately, such as the whole black widow thing, or country stations not playing two female artists back to back because they are afraid of losing ratings.

 

[Morpheus 02]

I really liked that episode last night. It was nice to focus the show more on the girls and Sarah and Helena took a back seat to Alison/Cosima which was a nice change of pace. Even the Sarah and Helena parts of the episode were excellent but this was Alison's story, which was just fun. After the major developments of last week's episode, it was nice to take a step back and do a comedy show, and this one was great all the way through. I didn't think it was sitcomy at all, and even if it was, it added to the episode for me, not detracted.

I also thought the stuff with Rachel and Scott was great, and Scott really is becoming one of my favorite characters in the show. He's so likable, and his teaching the game to Rachel was funny.

Looking foward to Rachel with the Eye Patch next week.

Well, someone remarked earlier in the thread (I think it was this thread) that we'd never seen a clone impersonation that didn't involve Sarah as either the faker or the fakee, but now we have, with Cosima press-ganged into imitating Alison. And now we know why it's best left to the con-artist sister. Although Cos did have a moment at the podium where she mimicked Alison's cheerful expression pretty well.

And it seemed the show was kind of metatextually acknowledging their own visual shortcut that "bangs = Alison." All Felix had to do was stick fake bangs under Cosima's hat and boom (or bang), everyone accepted her as Alison.

Still, I found this one a bit too sitcommy, especially with the gag of the swapped envelopes. The Hendrixes are so organized all the time -- wouldn't Alison have insisted on clearly labeling both envelopes? I mean, not with "DRUG MONEY" emblazoned on one, but maybe color-coded masking tape or something.

My favorite visual gag, if it was a gag, was that shot where Siobhan and Helena were sitting opposite each other with Sarah behind them at the bar. The classic, simple split-screen setup would be to have the two Maslany characters on opposite halves of the screen -- Sarah behind Siobhan on one side and Helena alone on the other. Instead, they had Sarah behind Helena on one side and Siobhan alone on the other. It's such a perfect subversion of the old split-screen doubling-shot cliche that I have to believe they did it on purpose, just to show off. (Although there were a couple of less convincing composites with Cosima and Alison in the bathroom, when Cosima handed Alison the packet and hat and then when she walked out.)

I'm more with sjsharksfan39 on this one.

It's nice that the focus is one a different clone, and I appreciate an occasional change in tone. Its like when we get a a"Disaster" or "TRials and Tribblations" episode in STar Trek...it'd be too much to have it every episode...but every so often, it's a nice change of pace.

Also, has anyone noticed just how much Alison has grown in confidence since joining #CloneClub?

As a person, I definitely would not like Alison or agree with lots of what Alison does. But I appreciate what they have done with her as a character.

And I do appreciate just how realisitically "bad" Cosima was at impersonation. Sarah is the "master, but community actor Alison hasn't done too bad, and again, the Dyad drama has strengthened Alison in this area. She also did a good and realistic job improvising from Cosima's mess up.

I can't wait to see it all inevitably crash... unless a future unseen clone will provide an easy way to have an identity change.

#VoteAlisonHendrix

 

[Christopher]

I'm not saying I object to a change in tone as a general principle.There have been some very funny episodes in this show; heck, I'd never put up with a show whose protagonists are drug dealers and murderers and whatnot if it were just grim and dark and horrible all the time. The humor of this show is one of the main reasons I watch it despite it having a lot of subject matter I'm not crazy about. (Heck, I somehow find Helena a funnier and more endearing character than Alison, even though Helena's crimes are far, far worse. That kind of amazes me.)

But some of the specific "funny" things here did not work for me in this particular case. The switching of the identical envelopes was a lazy contrivance, and a hard one to believe, given what a hyper-organized control freak Alison is. And giving Cosima this convenient determination to go get something from Alison at just the moment when Alison had to leave the rally was another contrivance. You could see the writers pushing the characters and events around to make the goofy misunderstandings and antics happen, and it felt forced rather than organic. My problem is not that they tried to be funny, it's that they didn't succeed so well this time.

 

[bigdaddy]

The season seemed to be hinting at much larger things... then we have an episode dealing with drug dealing. I don't get what the point was of it except to say I'm starting to fell that 10 episodes a ear might be too many, because last night was 100% filler.

 

[tomalak301]

The season seemed to be hinting at much larger things... then we have an episode dealing with drug dealing. I don't get what the point was of it except to say I'm starting to fell that 10 episodes a ear might be too many, because last night was 100% filler.

How can it be filler when that has been Alison's storyline all season long, with the Drug dealing trying to gain constituents and support for her election bid?

 

[Aldo]

When this happened in Season 2, everyone seemed surprised about it, and now here we go again. Everyone is again surprised that we have an episode featuring Alison that plays on a lot of sitcom tropes. In the first season it was the dinner party, and last season it was family day at rehab. The only difference this season is that Cosima was the unwitting participant instead of Sarah.

Just like the previous two, this one really worked for me. After the last two episodes with their heady content and the ultimate death of Paul, it was nice to have something that was a little lighter. For a show that pretty much revolves around Sarah and Helena, it was nice to have them take a back seat and let the other's shine for once. Even Rachel had some interesting stuff to do, and a promise of more to do in the future (maybe even joining clone club?).

I also am not sure how anyone could claim this episode is filler, as it pushes forward Donnie and Alison's story line which has been ongoing since the first episode. And we definitely got lots of development that will propel us to the finale.

Also, I think that was meant to be Krystal in the finale. Either she's wearing her hair different, or they just decided to develop the make up further, I don't think they'd just introduce Krystal at the beginning of the season and then down the road introduce us to another clone that looks extremely similar (what I've noticed of this show is that they try to make each clone distinct, even Beth and Sarah have overt differences).

 

[Christopher]

When this happened in Season 2, everyone seemed surprised about it, and now here we go again. Everyone is again surprised that we have an episode featuring Alison that plays on a lot of sitcom tropes.

One more time: I am not surprised that they did a comedy episode, and I do not object to comedy episodes in principle. My problem is that the specific gags in this one, specific instance were not as funny as other gags in other instances. It is a basic logical fallacy to mistake a specific statement for a general statement. If I happen to say that I didn't find a pizza very good, that is not the same thing as saying that I don't like pizza at all. It's simply saying that particular pizza wasn't as good as I want my pizza to be.

In the first season it was the dinner party, and last season it was family day at rehab. The only difference this season is that Cosima was the unwitting participant instead of Sarah.

No, the difference is that those worked better than this one. Category does not determine quality. Different individual examples of the same category can differ in their degree of success.

 

[Aldo]

I wasn't specifically talking to you, just people in general who seem a little upset or annoyed that they did a comedy episode this season.

And you of all people should know better than to confuse opinion with fact, I loved this episode and felt it worked. Out of the three "Alison episodes" so far in the series I think I place this one second, above the Rehab episode but below the House Party episode, I felt this one was a bit tighter than the Rehab episode, and had some good tension with Donnie and the drug dealer.

 

[Reverend]

Personally, I was entertained from start to finish. I don't care that the central Sarah/Helena boy-clone plot was put on the back burner while Alison and Cosima got to do some crazy Shenanigans with Felix.

This show has always had a very wide range (that's kind of the point of the premise, no?) and Alison has always been a farcical comedy sketch waiting to happen. In season 1 I would have said that she was even more unhinged than Helena and it was always funny to see her walking around like a bag full of coiled springs waiting to explode. Her Breaking Clone plan aside, she's become so much more of a stable personality.

My favourite bit had to have been Felix realising he'd stumbled into a comedy farce and exclaiming "This is ridiculous. I'm done!"

 

[Forbin]

In the scenes with Sarah, Helena and S in the bar, I honest to God forgot all about it being one actress in two roles. When they did the behind the scenes thing at the break, with Tat talking about playing the scene, I was briefly startled to remember it was her playing Helena too. Holy mackerel, the woman is a miracle.

 

[Morpheus 02]

In the scenes with Sarah, Helena and S in the bar, I honest to God forgot all about it being one actress in two roles. When they did the behind the scenes thing at the break, with Tat talking about playing the scene, I was briefly startled to remember it was her playing Helena too. Holy mackerel, the woman is a miracle.

i've seen commercials for some other show saying "For your emmy consideration" -- how do we do this for Tatiana?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

"Donny when we're in there, don't use words like copacetic."

 

[Guy Gardener]

HE TOOK HER NAME!!!

I thought it was odd when the drug dealer referred to his highschool girlfriend as Alison Hendricks.

They set up Mr Chubbs an episode early.

 

[bigdaddy]

I'm not annoyed they did a comedy episode this season, I'm annoyed they made it so bad.

Allison doing drugs is just weird, it's completely out of nowhere and so far completely useless to the rest of the show. So now we do a whole episode about it? Doesn't make sense.

The other comedy episodes in seasons 1 and 2 brought some more storylines into play, more so in season 1. This episode just felt completely useless, like the whole drug story line has been.

 

[Christopher]

And you of all people should know better than to confuse opinion with fact...

Where in the world do you imagine I did that? I just said I wasn't as amused by this one. That's clearly an opinion, and I'm entitled to it. I'm sorry I didn't do due diligence and add "for me" after "not as funny," but I never imagined anyone would require such hyperclarity in a conversation that is entirely and explicitly about individual opinions toward the episode.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It should only be illegal to sell drugs to poor people. Poor people let the body count get out of hand, usually over a matter of 10 dollars, meanwhile rich people can handle their drugs and don't force their drug dealers to be anything less than reasonable.

 

[Admiral2]

I'm gonna side with the likes on this one.

No, the ep wasn't comedy gold, and it was sitcommy, but frankly I preferred it to the torture/survival porn we got with the previous two episodes - and before my throat gets jumped down, no, I didn't hate the episodes. I just liked having a story centered on Alison and I can't stand a series that's nothing but DEADLY SERIOUS all the time.

For those of you who found it short of quality: Sorry. Maybe the next ep will be better.

 

[Morpheus 02]

I'm not annoyed they did a comedy episode this season, I'm annoyed they made it so bad.

Allison doing drugs is just weird, it's completely out of nowhere and so far completely useless to the rest of the show. So now we do a whole episode about it? Doesn't make sense.

The other comedy episodes in seasons 1 and 2 brought some more storylines into play, more so in season 1. This episode just felt completely useless, like the whole drug story line has been.

Actually...not that weird...she had an alcoholism problem...and the whole thing of her taking on this drug business -- apparently, many of her friends were taking the drugs. She was basically exploiting this underground secret...which will help her get votes from people who might otherwise dismiss her. (I.e. if she goes down -- so do a lot of other people).

But #CloneCLub adventures have emboldened Alison to do crazy things, and not simply be a follower.

 

[Aldo]

And you of all people should know better than to confuse opinion with fact...

Where in the world do you imagine I did that? I just said I wasn't as amused by this one. That's clearly an opinion, and I'm entitled to it. I'm sorry I didn't do due diligence and add "for me" after "not as funny," but I never imagined anyone would require such hyper-clarity in a conversation that is entirely and explicitly about individual opinions toward the episode.

I may have been a little off when I responded to your post, so if I offended you in any way I apologize. I was merely responding to the fact that you seemed to state with absolute fact that this episode was the worse of the three, when that is clearly your opinion, not mine. That's all I was saying