What I'm Watching Now: Orphan Black

The Versatile Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning

 A few weeks ago, someone on reddit's sub-reddit r/pics uploaded this striking picture (below) for the BBC America show "Orphan Black", and when another person explained that all 4 girls in the photo were the SAME actress playing four different CLONES, I was SUDDENLY intrigued! I'd seen the DVD sets for both Orphan Black Seasons One and Two at Costco, and for a mere $12.99 apiece, I didn't think it'd hurt to pick it up and check it out!

As Orphan Black begins, we are introduced to  derelict girl named Sarah Manning who has just arrived back in town, only to see a professional-looking woman that looks JUST like her commit suicide by jumping off the platform into a running train.

Sarah Manning meets her Double Beth Childs

A Destitute Beth Childs just before her leap

Quickly getting over the shock, the streetwise girl snatches up the woman's purse and belongings, intending to steal her checks and raid her bank account. With the help of her brother Felix, (a fabulously gay raver and an admitted scene-stealer!), they manage to trick the cops into thinking that the jumper was the derelict Sarah Manning, and thus Sarah assumes the role of Beth.

Meeting up with Brother Felix (Jordan Gavaris)

"This Beth Looks Just Like Me"

"Holy Crap- What are You gonna Do!"

But once stepping into the role of this woman, she finds that this Beth Childs was a police investigator whose last case may have the key to events directly impacting Sarah...

Becoming Police Investigator Elizabeth Childs

On the case with partner Art Bell (Kevin Hanchard)

 Under the guise of the Police Investigator, Sarah-Beth finds the reason that she and Beth look so similar may have a more sinister reason than pure coincidence, and as she delves deeper, she makes contact with other women connected with the case.

Looking over the evidence with Felix

  The next duplicate "Beth" meets is a desperate German girl named Katja who reaches out to her. Apparently, she and the real Beth were working together to gather evidence to expose some criminal activity. Unfortunately, Katja is taken out of the game before she can explain anything more to the confused Sarah.

Contact with Katja Obinger

Her brief interaction with Katja leads Beth to the super-brainy Cosima Neihaus, a scientist student working out the blood connections between all of them, the girl who acts as the level-headed and rational "thinker" for them. It is she who finally explains to Sarah that they are all clones in someone's weird experiment- and their mission is to find out who and why!

Dreadlocked Genius Cosima Neihaus

Time seems to be of the essence as not only are there sinister agents and corporate employees after them, there is another clone out there named Helena (A Russian Girl) who is actually out to terminate her fellow doubles!

The Psychotic Helena

But by FAR my favorite character HAS to be the clone Alison Hendrix, a suburban Soccer-Mom with a husband and two children- having lived and almost Stepford-Wives existence, she is everything Sarah is not- Prim and proper and OH! So BITCHY!

Soccer Mom Alison Hendrix

Already Butting Heads

The Highly Strung Suburban Mom!

Reluctantly Cooperating with Sarah.

Alison is SO freaking funny- sooo uptight and fastidious, everything she does in her prissy style makes you laugh, and the scenes with her and Felix have to be the best! Ahaha, I tell you, Desperate Housewives ain't got NOTHIN on THESE TWO!

Alison Bonding with Felix

Dealing with the Neighbors, LOL

At the end of Season One we are introduced to a fifth clone, that of the super high power-executive Rachel Duncan, and unlike Cosima, Alison and Sarah who are banding together to get answers,, THIS woman may well be the direct LEADER of their ENEMIES! A VERY sleek and icy-cool character, a femme-fatale, if you wish!

Rachel Duncan

I gotta say, while there may be some flaws with the story (a lot of the time I'm frustrated watching the show, thinking, why in the world are they doing THAT?!), watching actress Tatiana Maslany playing all these different characters is SUCH a JOY to behold- so awesome, she really shape-shifts into the roles, and some, (especially Allison and Rachel) are so convincing I sometimes start believing they are ACTUALLY played by different actresses!

Sarah, Alison and Cosima meet up

I was just getting started on Season Two of the series when  I had lunch with a friend who, when I gushed to him about how much I was loving Orphan Black, told me "Didn't that show just get cancelled?"!  I paled and yelped out, "What!!! NO WAY! I was JUST getting INTO THAT ONE!" Once home, however,  I ran online to read up on the show's status...and whaddaya know, just DAYS before our lunch, it was announced that Orphan Black had gotten picked up for a Fourth Season! WHEW!

Right now I'm halfway through Season Two, and am trying to pace myself slowly because I know that the DVD set for Season Three doesn't come out for a few more months....months I will be on pins and needles waiting!!!

The Big Book Of Weirdos

Injection #1

Because I've come to trust just about anything Image Comics releases nowadays and always trust anything Warren Ellis writes (Well, gotta admit Supreme Blue Rose only confused me), I couldn't wait to grab the new series INJECTION!
 So far it seems a bit like FreakAngels, where a group of highly intelligent and super powered people get together and somehow break the world. And just like those guilt-ridded teenagers, this group of scientists have to band together to fix the disruption in time they've created.
Great characters and art, can't wait to see where this one goes!

The Big Book Of Conspiracies

I think this might have been the very first "Big Book" I bought after falling in love with the first Big Book, "The Big Book Of Urban Legends".  before i knew it, I was buying up every Big Book i could find, these are GREAT!

The Signature Townshend Guitar Lick

I remember the firt time hearing Pete Townshend’s song “North Country Girl” off of his stellar “All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes” album, and thinking “Hey, that sprightly opening guitar riff sounds like one of his older songs.” Was it “Here For More” off of Odds and Sods? Was it “In A Hand Or Face” off of The Who By Numbers? Going back and listening to the songs, it seems like, to a certain extent, ALL of them! Even the Keith Moon penned tune “Waspman” features those familiar, jangly notes!

 One day I was talking to my co-worker (and fellow WHO fanatic) Jim, and I told him, “Hey you wanna know what I consider the signature Townshend Guitar Lick?” Telling him about the four songs with those signature chords, he thought about, ran the songs through his head, and laughed, “Hey, I think you’re right!” HAHAHA

Have a Listen for yourself!

PS, Don't get me wrong- I Freaking LOVE these chords, Pete Townshend's Guitar work must be my favorite in ALL of Rock 'n' Roll, and DAMN, just listening to these clips, I think I gotta hear more-Howsabout the entire clip of "In A Hand or Face", such KILLER chords!!

MPH

Although the first book "No Normal" of the new Ms. Marvel comic was very innovative and full of interesting ideas, i have to say that by this second book, it was starting to remind me of why I drifted away from the superhero genre in general, and when I realized they were featuring Wolverine in the comic (and not in an ironic way, but in a real “Isn’t this cool that Wolverine is in this comic” kind of way), I realized I was probably not the demographic Ms. Marvel was going for...

Mowgli Meets Steely Dan

While digging Steely Dan's awesome 1974 album Pretzel Logic one night, I was amused to find that the album's closer "Monkey In Your Soul"  really gave me the feel of monkeys swaying along, and though I know it's really the story of a friend with an addiction, I couldn't help but wonder what it would look like if King Louie sung it to Mowgli to convince him they really were brothers in the classic Jungle Book movie.

All-New X-Factor,Vol.3: Axis

The Big Book Of Losers

The Tale Of One Bad Rat #1-4

I originally picked up the series THE TALE OF ONE BAD RAT on a trip to Maui and I remember just reading the entire four issue miniseries of a young English Beatrix Potter-loving girl who flees her home to escape from a sexually abusive household, in the motel room one afternoon, just being blown away by the powerful story and incredible art.
At the time my friend had recommended it to me because Bryan Talbot had drawn stuff for Sandman, but from that moment on, Talbot would always be on my radar ass the person who created this wonderful strip.

FreakAngels, Vol.1-6

I originally read FreakAngels as an online comic which you'd read two or three pages every week but besides the maddening wait of reading a comic  in such small increments over such a long stretch, I never got the handle of viewing a comic page on the computer, and always ended up scrolling around and around to "see" the whole page.

When they'd amassed a books' worth of chapters, they'd release them into beautiful trade paperbacks, and it was these that I really loved reading. And at the end of the whole series, they even offered up a FreakAngels slipcase to house all 6 books, an time I picked up for myself!

Well, the series had its ups and downs, and though the conclusion to the series was kind of subdued, the futuristic story of 12 children born at the same time with strange powers who "break" the world as teens and spend the rest of their lives trying to fix it, is full of so much good stuff, great characters, wonderful, witty dialog, and absolutely nail-biting situations that I 'll read this one again and again!

Fables, Vol.3-11

Lazarus, Vol.3: Conclave

Continuing with the terrific Greg Rucka/Michael Lark epic LAZARUS, the story of the invincible Forever Carlyle!

Wanted

Usually I'm the kind of person who sees a movie based on a comic I love and really hate the movie adaptation...Going in to the Angelina Jolie movie, I hadn't read the graphic novel, and I absolutely loved it! Of course, the fans I knew who HAD read the comic had issues with the movie.
With this in mind I finally checked out the Graphic Novel of Wanted, and pssssshhh....gotta say I didn't like it much. So crass and mean-spirited, unlike the movie where the villains kill "for the greater good" (or what they believe to be the greater good anyway) THESE characters are really unlikeable, evil characters who Steal, Rape and Murder just for the hell of it....and we're supposed to sympathize with them? Uh-Uh.