Orphan Black: Effects of External Conditions First Watch

September 16, 2014 6:37 AM - Season 1, Episode 4

Alison impersonates Sarah to help her with Kira while Sarah encounters the person responsible for the deaths of other clones.
posted by Pendragon (6 comments total)

Ha! Just watched this episode last night. I've now reached the point where I keep forgetting that Tatiana Maslany is playing all these women, which is really saying something about the quality of her performance.

I thought her mannerisms while playing the psychopath infiltrating the police station were reminiscent, in an odd way, of Heath Ledger's Joker: creating the impression of something deeply awry by making distinctive choices of posture and motion.

I was also completely blindsided by the revelation regarding the shooting. It's a neat trick that the producers pulled off there: by having Sarah work so hard to rehearse a version of remembering events that she didn't actually experience, they sort of slipped that (false even on the face of it) version of the events into my mind as the "actual" event. Like, Sarah was faking it, obviously, but the thing that she was faking, I took as a legitimate premise without much questioning it.
posted by Ipsifendus at 7:25 AM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

I know. I love it when she's playing one clone who is pretending to be a different clone.
posted by Mogur at 8:47 AM on September 16, 2014

It is so hard for me to remember that it is all the same actress that I get a little upset when there's not much Alison in a given week (for example). "But she's so good! The poor actress, having nothing to do this week...oh, except for PLAY FIVE OTHER CHARACTERS."
posted by rednikki at 10:18 PM on September 17, 2014 [2 favorites]

Seconded. Watching the press junkets, I catch myself wondering why only one of the clones gets to be interviewed...
posted by Mogur at 3:47 AM on September 18, 2014

I keep forgetting that Tatiana Maslany is playing all these women, which is really saying something about the quality of her performance.

So glad I discovered this thread! Informal polling amongst my friends reveals that NO ONE knows about this show. I try to sell it to them on the ★★★★★ performance of the lead actress playing all those various roles.
posted by missmobtown at 9:34 AM on September 25, 2014

I've just started watching this and am halfway through the first season. It's one of those shows where I watch two episodes after work and one before, and them am thinking about it all day at work.

I've been wondering if Tatiana Maslany actually got paid more than the other main actors since she's got to be doing two to five times the amount of work every week. IMDb lists her at $50,000 per episode, but salaries for the actors playing Felix, Paul, and Art are all not listed.
posted by johnofjack at 7:27 AM on October 7, 2014