Orphan Black Season 4 (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

If I remember correctly, they've previously said that S5 would be it but it's nice to see some confirmation. Also, I figured that next season would be it since Maslany must be in demand for movie roles.

 

[MarkMel]

Noooooo. But I'm glad they get to put a definitive conclusion on the series.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If I remember correctly, they've previously said that S5 would be it but it's nice to see some confirmation.

I remember reading that as well when I first got into the show. As much as I will be sad to see it end, I am glad that they are sticking with it. It really has felt as if each season was part of a master plan, and I'd hate to see them dilute that by either wrapping up their storyline and then continuing anyway, or worse, dragging out their storyline longer than it should be. I'm glad that they've been able to tell their story seemingly on their own terms. There have been a few shows in the past that I really liked that I thought damaged themselves by continuing past their prime, or abandoning the storylines that had been the backbone of the show. (The CW kept renewing Smallville well past the point where they still had worthwhile stories to tell and Supernatural has gone on well beyond the five year story arc that they started with. Fox made Fringe abandon the continuing storyline of the first three seasons in favor of a new mythology that didn't quite work in their fourth and fifth seasons. I'm sure we've all got shows that some of these things have happened to.)

Anyway, I think it's awesome to hear that it will come to the conclusion that was always intended. A truly great story must have a beginning, middle and an end, and "truly great" is certainly within reach for these showrunners.

 

[Citizen87645]

Dragging things out past their prime is an attribute of United States / Hollywood TV shows, as evidenced by the titles you named. Orphan Black being Canadian has fortunately stuck closer to being like the UK than the US.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Dragging things out past their prime is an attribute of United States / Hollywood TV shows, as evidenced by the titles you named. Orphan Black being Canadian has fortunately stuck closer to being like the UK than the US.

UK shows have the opposite problem - they just don't seem to ever really fell compelled to make them on any sort of regular schedule or in any sort of quantity. It works fine when it's a perfect combination of cast and story and you're willing to wait years between seasons only to get a handful of episodes, but at least speaking for myself, it makes me very hesitant to start anything from there. I'm furious at the BBC for taking an entire year off from Doctor Who - I feel that at its best, television creates an unspoken bond between the show creators and the show watchers, as we both need each other to survive. There's a sort of promise between the two: you keep making the show and delivering it to my house every week, and I will open up my home and my heart and let it in. I feel like taking a two year break between new episodes is taking advantage of the audience and is majorly disrespectful.

I'm also very grateful that Orphan Black isn't on a network like AMC, where they will take a season that's meant to be one story, and split it in half and make you wait a year so that they can get two years of episodes out of one year of contracts. They do shortened seasons to begin with, and then they still do an insane amount of promotion over made up things like a "half season finale," which is just ridiculous.

Orphan Black may have what I'd normally consider to be a shorter than acceptable length season, but they've really made the most of it. I feel there's another sort of unspoken deal with that between showrunner and viewer - if you're gonna be really short, you have to make the most of every episode and not waste any time on filler subplots and unnecessary stall tactics. Orphan Black has definitely succeeded on that front - there's very little in terms of unnecessary subplots or manufactured drama. (I think Felix wanting to meet his biological family and Sarah not wanting him to is the closest this show has ever come to that kind of bad drama, and fortunately they did not drag that part of the story on for too long without connecting it to the whole.) And when they begin their season, they run straight through from start to finish without taking weeks off.

They're really a class act.

I don't know what's up with BBC America this year, though. Is it just me, or are the promos just horrendous? I don't really mind so much that the "next week" previews are so overly stylized as to be almost seizure inducing, but I hate that they place previews during the commercial breaks for the scene you're about to see. Do we really need to have something from halfway into the episode spoiled during the commercial break ten minutes in? Are we such fickle viewers that if we're not assured of what's going to happen later in the episode, we won't even bother with what happens at the start? It's somewhere between obnoxious and insulting.

 

[TravisR]

I'm also very grateful that Orphan Black isn't on a network like AMC, where they will take a season that's meant to be one story, and split it in half and make you wait a year so that they can get two years of episodes out of one year of contracts.

I was thinking the same thing. However, BBC America hasn't announced when the episodes are airing yet so knock on wood that doesn't decide to go half season.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Looking forward to the season finale tonight. Man, the ten episodes go quick.

If I remember correctly, they've previously said that S5 would be it but it's nice to see some confirmation. Also, I figured that next season would be it since Maslany must be in demand for movie roles.

Yeah, Graeme, John and Tatiana been saying at least since the third season that they were planning for five seasons total. I really respect BBC America and Space for embracing that vision and making a firm decision upfront so that they're not in the tough spot that CBS's indecisiveness has put so many shows in: "How I Met Your Mother", "The Good Wife" and now "Person of Interest".

UK shows have the opposite problem - they just don't seem to ever really fell compelled to make them on any sort of regular schedule or in any sort of quantity.

In the case of UK programming, it's a matter of budget more than anything else. There's just no certainty as to when the funding's going to be there. They don't have a predictable TV season with the budgeting that goes along with that like the US does. And the political pressure that the BBC is currently under really has put a pinch on things.

I don't know what's up with BBC America this year, though. Is it just me, or are the promos just horrendous? I don't really mind so much that the "next week" previews are so overly stylized as to be almost seizure inducing, but I hate that they place previews during the commercial breaks for the scene you're about to see.

It's not just you. BBC America is a joint venture between AMC Networks and BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC). BBC America used to operate independently, but the operations have since been centralized with AMC's other networks. So all of the promos are now done by the AMC team instead of an independent BBC America team. The mid-commercial break spoilers of scenes coming up later in the same episode you're currently watching is a bad habit that was brought over from the mothership. AMC has done it with "The Walking Dead" and "Into the Badlands" as well.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

"It's Krystal. She called me, right, and she's got dirt on Van Leir, says that he's connected to Delphine somehow."
"How does Krystal figure this shit out?"
"I've no idea. She's doggedly wrong, but she gets results."

I think they officially announced the fifth season today, because they knew otherwise people would have lost their minds at the plethora of cliffhangers:
Sarah is bleeding out on the beach.
Ferdinand has Mrs. S, Kira and Ira held hostage at gunpoint.
Cosima was able to get the cure out before Rachel started her rampage, and she's been reunited with Delphine, but apparently is trapped in a pit of vipers.
Susan Duncan is also bleeding out, in Rachel's wheelchair in the bedroom prison cell.
The top of Neolution is none other than P.T. Westmoreland, who literally wrote the book on it a century ago and is somehow still pulling all of the strings. Impressed on the lengths Rachel would go, he will see her now.
Alison is having the shits as a result of Helena's unconventional cooking.

 

[MarkMel]

Oh that Rachel is evil. I kept expecting Helena to come in and save the day. It's going to be a long wait until next season.

 

[NeilO]

They even announced the 5th season during the episode itself so if you didn't skip over it you would see that. It is a bit intense with all those cliffhangers. Strange we didn't see anything of MK this episode.

The extended scene business was a bit weird. This time they placed it right where it belonged in the episode. Why they didn't just edit it in is a bit of a mystery, but I guess maybe it isn't there on repeats.

If you saw After the Black you could see Kristian Bruun (who plays Donnie) imitate a whole slew of clones. It was quite humorous. I bet there is a youtube video of it somewhere.

One more thing -- I was glad with how they removed Evie Cho from the board. It seemed fitting.

 

[Citizen87645]

I was a bit confused by Susan telling Sarah that Rachel has the cure, and then Cosima having them all along. What was Susan's motivation for lying about that?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I was a bit confused by Susan telling Sarah that Rachel has the cure, and then Cosima having them all along. What was Susan's motivation for lying about that?

I'm not sure that Susan was lying - I think she believed that Rachel did have the cure, and didn't realize that Cosima snuck it out. And do we know whether Cosima has all of it? Maybe Rachel has the cure too.

 

[Citizen87645]

I'll have to watch it again, but I thought Charlotte gave the stuff to Cosima (since Cosima was locked in the room until Charlotte came for her), which made me assume that Susan had given it to Charlotte since it was her idea for them to get on the boat. But I suppose Charlotte could have done that on her own without Susan knowing.

 

[DaveF]

In the final episode, Cosima stole one of the vials that she'd prepared, before escaping. They showed the rack of vials earlier, and then after Cosima was in the room, they showed again the rack and a slot was empty. It wasn't explicitly shown, but it was indicated that Cosima got one before getting out of the house.

 

[Citizen87645]

Ah, I forgot about her "I'll be right back" moment, however the case she gives Delphine shows three petri dishes with one empty spot.

 

[DaveF]

Gives...Rachel?

 

[Citizen87645]

Cosima gives Delphine the case of petri dishes when they're in the camp together.

 

[NeilO]

At last, Tatiana Maslany nominated for outstanding lead actress in 2016 EMMYs

 

[Citizen87645]

She got an Emmy nomination last year, too.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

When I start getting anxious about how fractured and ever increasingly fucked the world is, at least now I can remind myself that Tatiana Maslany won an Emmy for "Orphan Black" so at least one thing is exactly as it should be.