…And I’m pleasantly surprised by both of them.
COMMUNITY
You guys know how I always expect the worst. Look forward to it, actually, cuz it’s so much fun piling on. But last time around COMMUNITY made me smile. And my girlfriend, who’s a major Dan Harmon fan, even laughed.
For the first time this season, the show didn’t seem forced. The craziness grew out of the moment instead of seeming randomly injected in. Maybe there’s hope for this series, after all. I’m even looking forward to the next ep for positive reasons.
Sooo disappointing for a snark like me!
ORPHAN BLACK
This show has me hooked. I’ve read everything the web has to offer about what’s supposed to be going on in it, but only now, 3 episodes in, am I seeing any of it on the screen.
Other people might be put off by this, but to me it’s exciting cuz rather than a sign that the series is moving too slowly, it’s strikes me as just the opposite. Thre’s so much story and emotion and conflict packed into each ep that they move like drones aimed at your neighbor…meaning there hasn’t been time yet to explain any of the arcs.
Which I think is very, very cool. It’s much more fun for me to lean forward and let myself be captured by this paradoxical view of UK street life. And what a paradox! It’s ugly, it’s an awful way to live, it’s beautiful, it’s a great way to live…
In other words, it’s complex. Just like real life.
Oh, and the star, Tatania Maslany, is terrific. At this point she’s been, what, about 6 different women who are really the same woman except they aren’t…and she’s absolutely credible as them all.
Complexity! It’s a wonderful thing. That’s why I’m crazy about the complex girl watching me type this–
OMG. Wait! Am I really singing the praises of these two shows not because of anything going on with them but because I’m getting pretty damn close to being in love?
If that’s the case, then in the words of The Fly, “Help me!”
But help me what?
I’m cautiously optimistic about Orphan Black. However, I think it is set in Canada. The train in the first episode was going to New York, but the pile of money in one scene was multicolored, not US green. Plus, she has to change her accent to become Beth, and everyone else except her brother has a North American accent. The clincher is that they drive on the right side of the road.
Well, then, whose seedy/beautiful underworld is being portrayed then? Some alternate universe’s? That wouldn’t be bad either. In fact, I kinda like that.
Thanks for pointing it out, Robs.
munchman
I did some research, and found that the show is filmed in Toronto, and for once that city plays itself. They have mentioned real Toronto street names. I guess Toronto has more of a seedy underworld than I knew.