Performances are great all around. We all know who needs to win an Emmy for her work on the show. That is not up for debate.
My problem with this show is that there is only so far you can take human cloning. The stated goal of all the great conspiracy from two seasons of television is and has always been to simply make a human clone. There is no great mystery to Orphan Black at all. There is no great purpose to the clones or to any of the projects or factions -- simply a battle for control and a struggle for the clones' continued existence and to find a solution to their own sickness. But there is no greater benefit to the work that went into creating them other than a group of people who REALLY want to have kids and defend their patents.
Season One was fantastic and really hooked me. Then after Season Two, you realize there is no great mystery to be solved here. It is simply a never ending cat and mouse game for the clones to survive against factions that only seek to use them for their own purposes. However, none of this benefits humanity, except possibly the medical community for experimentation as lab rats, or the military to create a perfect solider. Both of these themes have been explored to death during the past 50, maybe even 100 years of science fiction. Aside from that, there is no greater purpose to these clones or to this entire series except to debate the morals and ethics of human cloning and who "owns" a clone.
That's a fine premise for a movie, or for a few episodes of a television show, but to make an entire series simply debating the existence of human cloning is a paltry and pathetic use of the sci-fi genre. To me, this series isn't sci-fi at all, and does not push the envelop, it is merely standard issue drama / action / thriller fodder with some medical politics thrown in for spice.
We know today we can clone humans, and in some dark places of the world, we probably already have, but aside from that and their survival, what's the greater mystery? We cracked the ability to clone a living thing a long, long time ago in scientific terms. There is nothing new here except a series of great acting performances all done by one woman. The rest, once you strip away the outside, is unfortunately mediocre fluff.
It really seems like such a terrible burden to always be looking over your shoulder for that evil corporation that simply wants to profit off you and use your daughter to find out why clones get sick, or that religious group that want to kill you or worse, own you or use you, simply because you exist. This is too tiring for viewers to have to sit through again and again and again. And what happens if all these factions go away and the clones get an injection that stops them from getting sick? Yes, that's right, the clones go back to living normal, tax paying lives as regular people, exactly where we found them when the series began.
Is it so challenging from a showrunner's perspective to reveal at least the existence of a greater plot device for these characters? Say, perhaps, that they hold the key to unlocking the next stage of human evolution, immortality, or abilities beyond our present understanding?
For Orphan Black, yes, that is simply too great of an expectation for this series to undertake.
My problem with this show is that there is only so far you can take human cloning. The stated goal of all the great conspiracy from two seasons of television is and has always been to simply make a human clone. There is no great mystery to Orphan Black at all. There is no great purpose to the clones or to any of the projects or factions -- simply a battle for control and a struggle for the clones' continued existence and to find a solution to their own sickness. But there is no greater benefit to the work that went into creating them other than a group of people who REALLY want to have kids and defend their patents.
Season One was fantastic and really hooked me. Then after Season Two, you realize there is no great mystery to be solved here. It is simply a never ending cat and mouse game for the clones to survive against factions that only seek to use them for their own purposes. However, none of this benefits humanity, except possibly the medical community for experimentation as lab rats, or the military to create a perfect solider. Both of these themes have been explored to death during the past 50, maybe even 100 years of science fiction. Aside from that, there is no greater purpose to these clones or to this entire series except to debate the morals and ethics of human cloning and who "owns" a clone.
That's a fine premise for a movie, or for a few episodes of a television show, but to make an entire series simply debating the existence of human cloning is a paltry and pathetic use of the sci-fi genre. To me, this series isn't sci-fi at all, and does not push the envelop, it is merely standard issue drama / action / thriller fodder with some medical politics thrown in for spice.
We know today we can clone humans, and in some dark places of the world, we probably already have, but aside from that and their survival, what's the greater mystery? We cracked the ability to clone a living thing a long, long time ago in scientific terms. There is nothing new here except a series of great acting performances all done by one woman. The rest, once you strip away the outside, is unfortunately mediocre fluff.
It really seems like such a terrible burden to always be looking over your shoulder for that evil corporation that simply wants to profit off you and use your daughter to find out why clones get sick, or that religious group that want to kill you or worse, own you or use you, simply because you exist. This is too tiring for viewers to have to sit through again and again and again. And what happens if all these factions go away and the clones get an injection that stops them from getting sick? Yes, that's right, the clones go back to living normal, tax paying lives as regular people, exactly where we found them when the series began.
Is it so challenging from a showrunner's perspective to reveal at least the existence of a greater plot device for these characters? Say, perhaps, that they hold the key to unlocking the next stage of human evolution, immortality, or abilities beyond our present understanding?
For Orphan Black, yes, that is simply too great of an expectation for this series to undertake.