Favorite new show: Orphan Black on BBC America

Great show! A bit hard to follow sometimes due to the amount of interaction between the characters, but a great story and terrific acting by all cast members.

 

Agreed, this season is way better than the last, when I was wavering whether or not to keep watching. I'm glad I did because this season has been much, much better.

 

I've been enjoying this season a lot more than the last - it's great that we jumped back to see what motivated Beth to jump in front of a train (which is the event that began the whole series), and there's greater focus on the LEDA clones again as opposed to their CASTOR counterparts, which I never really warmed to. I suspect the direction they're going to take with Alison, but I'm concerned as to what can be done for Cosima in the long term...

 

Krystal is an absolute hoot:

"I thought you said Scotland?"
"I love their eye-liner"

Great comic relief!

 

And of course Felix is the best "OK, that's as far as that's going to go..."

 

Love the show... I follow the story but if I were put on the spot to explain it, I'd fail miserably... a buddy at work asked me what it was about and all I could muster up was "a bunch of clones played by the same super hot and super talented chick"

 

I finally got around to watching season 3 on Netflix. As the rest of you, I felt it was weaker than the seasons before, but I still enjoyed bits of it. Glad to hear that season 4 seems to be a notable improvement. This show deserves a good script.

 

Season 3 was pretty bad, I did stop watching the show early on in that season.

I'd like to check this new season out, but does that mean I would have to sit through season 3 in order to understand what's going on?

 

I think you could start season 4 and follow it just fine, then work your way backwards to season 3 later on to fill in the gaps.

 

If Michael Mando is still in it, I'll go for it...

 

He hasn't been around, yet. Never thought of it til now, but while you can totally skip season 3 I think season 1 is essential. They made the very smart decision to go back to the shows 'roots'. The show is dramatically better this season!

 

Yes, that's how I feel too. In fac,t season 3 only serves to confuse the already convoluted story as the writers didn't seem to have a clear sense of where to take the show, so they added more clones, more big bads, etc. About the only redeeming aspect of season 3 were Helena's scenes.

 

Agreed. I wonder if Tatiana's new role as a producer has helped the direction of the show this season.

 

I'm doubtful of that. The producer credit is generally used as a mechanism for an actor to be in a higher pay grade (which is well deserved by Tatiana). I think it's more likely that the showrunners have responded to the plentiful negative comments from the fanbase regarding season 3. I don't know if they made any changes in the writing staff to recalibrate, but whatever the change, it's working.

 

As someone who has been quite active in the "Clone Club" online fan community since the show first started, I've read quite a lot about how Tatiana became more involved with the running of the show ever since the disappointing third season, which thankfully didn't extend to her growing number of awards for what is a truly unique and remarkable performance. Many of the criticisms appear to have been focused on the increasing amount of time her Project CASTOR counterparts were getting, so it's great to see the series being redirected back to concentrating on the female LEDA characters, who have a lot more of a following due to their greater individuality. There are even rumours that the plan for eight seasons and a movie tying up any loose ends has now been abandoned in favour of just six seasons, though it's possible this decision was made due to falling ratings after the last season. Orphan Black was shown on BBC Three here in the UK for its first three seasons, but that channel ended recently. Despite talk of the show being moved into a major prime time slot on BBC One, this ultimately didn't happen, and now fans are stuck getting new episodes through Netflix or waiting for the inevitable DVD and Blu-ray release. Then again, how many are also downloading from less reputable sources, and could this also explain the current season's major decline in viewers, with figures plummeting to nearly half of what they were this time last year? I just really hope that if the plug is prematurely pulled then we at least get a satisfactory early resolution in keeping with the creators' original intentions for the overall story arc, or maybe even a conclusion through the accompanying IDW comic books... Saying that, I have to agree there has been a massive improvement as of late, with a lot of this coming from the new-found emphasis on further explaining why Beth chose to end her life.

 

Excellent episode (8). Things are really motoring along now. Interesting developments in every sub-plot. Once again, I have to commend the show's scientific underpinnings by sticking with real bio-tech terms, clinical and reproductive procedures. And further to that effect, the realistic depiction of the very lengthy recovery period for Rachel. Most other shows would have her back to normal in no time. Excellent season!

 

The saddest person on the show is Kiera. The poor kid has to deal with her loved ones constantly dropping out of her life (on top of everything else!). She seems to have a dark cloud hanging over her head, almost a sense of impending doom (btw, I know she's smart, but is she so smart she doesn't need any type of schooling?). I can't imagine they'd kill her off, but it ain't looking good for Monkey!

 

I agree with all the positive comments. A great bounce back season. I'm liking it so much I'm even watching "After The Black".

My favorite scene of the season is Alison and Donnie telling Cosima they killed Dr. Leake and someone with "science knowledge" needs to pick up his head.

 

So, only one more season left in 2017. Lots to cover before the end.

 

It's been a very good season with the right mix of driving the plot forward, humor, science and villainy. Speaking of humor, my favorite new clone is Krystal - she's so different. She's both superficial and her critical thinking skills aren't too honed, but at the same time she is smart and manages to mostly connect the dots even when working from a false premise (Big Cosmetics).

I loved the scene where she meets her clone for the first time and rejects the possibility out of hand because Sarah is maybe a 7/10 while she, Krystal, was once told she was a 10. And what's more, her breasts are bigger than Sarah's!

 

I just binge-watched all 4 seasons in about 2 weeks.

The only way to go. I would never have been able to hang with this and keep it straight with months/year or whatever between seasons.

I love the show but found it to be pretty confusing at times. This season seemed to explain/tie things up a lot better for me.

I have a question (er questions).. ...At the end of season 3 (I think that is when this happened, things are kind of blurred together for me after my marathon viewing), before Dalphine was shot, she knew the end was near for her, and she went to see Cosima's new gf (Shay? I forget her name) and she gave "Shay" a keycard with numbers written on it and told her to give that to Cosima. It looked like a Brightborn access card of some kind (at the time I don't think we as an audience even were introduced to BB yet though). The inference there for me was that she didn't think she would ever see Cosima again to give her that herself, that she was going to be knocked off first, yet almost directly after that there is a scene where Dalphine DOES meet up with Cosima and basically says goodbye to her in so many words. What was up with all that? Why not just give her the card herself, why give it to Shay beforehand? And whatever happened to that card & Shay for that matter? I don't think either of them (Shay or the card) even surfaced in S4????

Love the show btw. Even the seasons 2 & 3 that most up here seemed to not like. Some of the situations are laugh out loud funny, they get so convoluted, love when the clones substitute for each other, such masterful acting there. How they pull off the scenes with multiple clones interacting together is beyond me, just amazing. Also very cool to see actor Nigel Bennett in this, although his character only lasted about 3 minutes before he got blown away. He played such a dramatic larger than life baddie for 2 seasons in Lexx it would have been cool to see him given a bigger role in this, he can just dominate the screen if given the chance.

I'm very bummed to have to wait a year or whatever to see what happens next, quite a series of cliff hangers to end this season. Almost wish I just waited for the entire show to end to even watch it.

 

Wow, when I switched to Netflix last night, I was surprised by S4 of "Orphan Black". Wasn't expecting that, since S3 only got there a good two months ago and I expected having to wait a lot longer. I'm already 4 episodes in and so far I agree with those who like it a lot more than S3. Maslany never ceases to amaze me.

 

For those waiting for the next season but are already suffering with Tatiana Maslany withdrawal symptoms, here's a movie with Tatiana that might be the shot: Two Lovers And A Bear. It's not exactly the same genre of course, but it will be interesting to see her stretch her considerable legs in a different piece of work.

Two Lovers and a Bear Trailer Starring Tatiana Maslany »

 

I finished S4 last night and I really loved it. I think it might have been the best season since S1, consistent, focused, unlike S2 and especially S3. Though I didn't really like Evie Cho as the villain, she was to stereotypical evil for me. I would have loved to see more of Krystal, she's a hoot. Can't wait for S5, though I might have to for a while.

Maslany rules. After 4 seasons I'm still amazed how she manages to make these characters feel so different from each other. I could swear that Cosima is a lot thinner than the others. And even Krystal thought that she looks nothing like Sarah.

 

Aye. But I think they're actually wrapping it up at the right time, though. It's a shame they weren't able to quite recapture the magic of the first season- I blame the writing. I do agree with the sentiment that this season was an improvement.