Clone Club

Clone Club Redux

A couple months ago I started rewatching Rumpole of the Bailey and of the 43 episodes total (7 seasons of 6 episodes plus 1 feature length film) of the show I got through a little more than half before needing a break. Not that I’m not still enjoying the episodes, but the show is from the 70’s so it is kind of tough to watch the typical low resolution format of that time period.

Because I have been revisiting some of my favorite older TV shows, I decided that maybe it was time to rewatch what was a nearly 5 year obsession a decade ago, Orphan Black. I was exposed to this sci-fi show like nothing else before it, all because I saw a promo video for it on io9:

The first thing I was surprised by was that I forgot how much we get to see of our protagonist. I guess BBC America was not afraid to go full cable TV as we get to see a rear view of that male cast member too.

I’m only 3 episodes in of Orphan Black of the 50 total (5 seasons of 10 episodes) and if my recollection is right, it gets weirder as the seasons progress, so I just might not make it all the way through all of this show before giving up too.

Raining Clones

Normally we would be about halfway thru the season on Orphan Black by now, but we are still 24 days away from Episode 1 of the 5th and final season. Wish I had thought about it 16 days ago so I could have watched on episode a night, starting at the first episode of season one and finishing up with episode 10 of the 4th. I guess my next option is to watch all forty in a row, ending just before the premier on that Saturday night, starting at 6:00 AM on the Friday before (I’ll have to take a vacation day.) With the average length of each episode being 44 minutes, that’ll leave 16 minutes between episodes for bathroom breaks, microwaving popcorn and cat naps.

Or I could just play Orphan Black: The Game and hope to complete/solve it in time for 10:00 PM on June 10th. When it first came out on March 24th it was only available for iOS, but just a couple days ago it became available for Android users. I burned up a little over 1/10 of my data for the month downloading the massive game. And I think that is really just the free demo, if I do decide to pay for the whole game I’ll be where I have WiFi access that is for sure.

Too On Point

Allison Hemdrix as Judas

Every time I look at you
I don’t understand
Why you let the things you did
Get so out of hand

Alison Hendrix sings this in the role of Judas during a rehearsal of the Scarborough Community Theater production of Jesus Christ Superstar in the current episode of Orphan Black. This is right after we see her give up the location of our protagonist Sarah, leader of the Clone Club, to the evil Neolutionists. Too on point? Yes, because that is exactly what the show wants you to believe. She of course is just sending the bad guy into an ambush.

You’d have managed better
If you’d had it planned

Is this too, too on point? I’m beginning to think so. The first season of the show was awesome and at times since then has been very uneven. With all the weird plot holes, changing bad guys and weird swapped allegiances I’m not too sure the show runners even had a plan for more than the original 10 episodes. It seems almost Lost-like in its ability to create questions and not ever get around to answering them. If it wasn’t for the magic that is Tatiana Maslany I might have quit watching by now.

Now why’d you choose such a backward time
And such a strange land?
If you’d come today
You could have reached the whole nation
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication
Don’t you get me wrong

And ever since I watched the episode on Friday evening I have had this song stuck in my head…

Only want to know

Orphan Black
Orphan Black
What are you? Where are you leading me?

Orphan Black
Supershow
Do you think you’re what they say you are?

The Martian Part III

So, I’m excited about this Martian movie and it got me thinking, who do I know that might like the book. So I turn around and ask my cubical neighbor and fellow Clone Club member, “Are you a book reader?”

He: Not really, I do listen to audio books when I commute though.
Me: So what kind of books?
He: It varies…
Me: Autobiographies? Mysteries? Non-Fiction? Hard Science Fiction?
He: Well right now I’m listening to sort of a survival story. It is about a guy left behind on Mars…
Me: Unbelievable. That is exactly where I was going…Where are you in the book?

I’ve got a couple more ideas on who to try next week.