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How Orphan Black's Helena is Harry Potter Without Hogwarts

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I just realized that I never shared this post on my own blog. I submitted this post to Black Girls Nerd Out (@weblackandnerds on Twitter) comparing Helena from Orphan Black and Harry Potter from, yes, Harry Potter. The two characters had a lot in common, so read about their similarities through the link!

Orphan Black’s Helena has lived a rough life. Every episode opens up a new way in which her horrible childhood led her to be the dangerous, awkward, socially inept, starved for love, clone-killer that she is and was. In Season 3 Episode 5, “Scarred by Many Past Frustrations,” Helena reveals this little tidbit: “In convent, I lived for 4 months in a broom closet. I do not rot.”
My Harry Potter-obsessed brain immediately thought of another character who was forced to live in a broom closet as punishment, Harry himself. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Helena is Harry without his Hogwarts education. (I’d also say, without magic, but there’s definitely something more about Helena.)

Read the rest: How Orphan Black’s Helena is Harry Potter Without Hogwarts — Black Girls Nerd Out

ConStar Clicks Featured Image

ConStar Clicks

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The 2015-16 TV season is fast approaching, and with that comes endless articles on various trends and the state of television today. This week’s ConStar Clicks features a few of those articles and a couple of older ones. Click away!

Over on NPR: Television 2015: Five Shows They Will Never Stop Making including: The Adventures Of Mr. Superabilities And Detective Ladyskeptic and Healing Dr. Chilly. 
Another NPR piece: Television 2015: Are We Done Hating Television? which discusses how movie stars are moving to TV, which used to be a shocking thing, as TV was what movie stars did when they couldn’t get movie roles. Now things are different.

Disdain for television is so old and so powerful that HBO used to try to repurpose it into something useful, like fuel made from old French-fry grease. That’s what “It’s not TV. It’s HBO.” was.

Another great line:

Disdain for television is so old and so powerful that HBO used to try to repurpose it into something useful, like fuel made from old French-fry grease. That’s what “It’s not TV. It’s HBO.” was.


TV NOW: Are You Cheating On Your TV Shows? [Seat 42F] considers the sheer amount of television that is on the air today and the way social media and other factors force us to choose which shows to watch live and which to save for that DVR/Netflix binge

Total scripted television shows rose from 340 shows in 2013 to 371 shows in 2014 and now there will be over 400 shows at the end of 2015 — that is an increase of over 60 additional television shows in the past 2 years.

Also:

It became essential to triage which TV shows had to be watched immediately or LIVE or suffer the repercussions.

An important question is asked: Is TV Writing the Best Job Ever? [Huffington Post]
(and answered by TV writer Jane Espenson, who’s worked for some of the best SFF shows on TV, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once Upon a Time, and Battlestar Galactica.)
This piece on the BBC America Anglophenia blog wonderfully explores how Tatiana Maslany perfects the various accents and dialects she performs so flawlessly on Orphan Black:

In playing these diverse characters, the Canadian-born actress has the Herculean task of defining each individual through speech and behavior without tripping over into Saturday Night Live-level caricature. And that’s not even accounting for the performances in which a clone pretends to be another clone. Nuances are layered on nuances.

If you’ve ever watched Orphan Black, you know those nuances are serious! Also why hasn’t Tatiana hosted SNL yet?!

Clone Club MVP Orphan Black Finale

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Just realized I never shared my Orphan Black MVP post here! For shame! In typical corny fashion, the MVP for the final episode of Orphan Black’s 3rd season was everyone, every member of Clone Club. This includes everyone who was at the Bubbles dinner (Sarah, Cosima, Alison, Helena, Donnie, Mrs. S, Scott, Felix, and Art) and poor, self-sacrificing Delphine. It remains to be seen if she is a current or former member of Clone Club.
Click through for all my breakdowns of what made each character a key member of clone club in the Orphan Black finale.
While you’re here, you can click through to my HelloGiggles article on Tatiana Maslany‘s well-deserved—and long fought for—Emmy nomination!
Also I never shared my post about Paul’s MVP week! Here it is! So sorry to have already forgotten you, Major Dieden….

This week's 'Orphan Black' Clone Club MVP: Donnie and Helena, hands-down

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I love Orphan Black MVPs and this week’s episode made my choice especially fun. Only one more week of decisions to make!

Another week of hard Clone Club MVP choices. Mrs. S stepped up and literally took the stage and Sarah used her endless determination to find the Castor original, but this week showcased the show’s best comedic pairing to date: Helena and Donnie. We were going to dedicate this week’s MVP to Donnie alone, but his strengths are magnified by Helena.

Click through to recap why Donnie and Helena were the BEST this week. Love this pairing so much! This week’s ‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club MVP: Donnie and Helena, hands-down

It's a tie for this week's 'Orphan Black' Clone Club MVP: Krystal and Helena

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This week’s Orphan Black MVP(s) are up! I cheated and picked two because I can do that.

It's a tie for this week's 'Orphan Black' Clone Club MVP
Twins are ‘creepy.’ Turns out, you’re pretty creepy, Krystal.

This week’s Orphan Black didn’t make picking an MVP very easy. There were so many good scenes and moments that it’s almost impossible to keep track, but let’s try. We loved everything Scott related! We loved Felix for being so kind and for his American accent! We loved the lovely Mexican diner owner who didn’t rat Sarah and Helena out to (a lightly toasted and fried) Doctor Coady! Basically we had such a hard time picking an MVP that we cheated and picked two. Sorry not sorry.
Our MVPs are Krystal and Helena. Krystal, for her heart and her sacrifice, and Helena for her humor and her awkward facial expressions.

Click through to find out why! It’s a tie for this week’s ‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club MVP.

'Orphan Black' Clone Club MVP: Alison Hendrix and her pink hats

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Alison might be my favorite #CloneClub clone, so I was delighted when we got to see so much more of her on this week’s Orphan Black.

Congrats to Alison, our pick for this week’s Clone Club MVP. Why is this episode her episode? Because of the way she triumphs over all the obstacles that come her way (which are many).
We’ve been waiting for Alison to get her moment in the spotlight and for her story to connect just a little bit more to the rest of the overall plot, and this week that finally happened. Alison’s campaign for school trustee is usually so isolated from the other story lines, but thankfully it’s now a bit more connected to Felix and Cosima. Applause.

Read more at  ‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club MVP: Alison Hendrix and her pink hats

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Orphan Black Clone Club MVP Week 5: Mrs S Takes the Stage

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Also known as that time Maria Doyle Kennedy replied to the MVP post!
Over on HelloGiggles, Mrs. S was this week’s Clone Club MVP!
Felix and Mrs S

Siobhan Sadler (aka Mrs. S) is not someone who is easy to trust. Even the pieces of backstory revealed in this week’s “Scarred by Many Past Frustrations” episode had me side-eyeing her, wary of the information. We’ve been groomed by her foster daughter Sarah to distrust Mrs. S, and with cause. However, Mrs. S’s genuine concern for Sarah’s absence proves her own claim that she’s always looked out for Sarah’s (and Felix and Kira’s) best interests. I love her complexity.

I say a lot more about Mrs. S’s complexity and why she is a template for how we should take newest flawed mother Dr. Virginia Coady (the Castor Clones’ mother figure). Clicky click to read more: Mrs. S is our ‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club MVP of the week.
THEN, the HelloGiggles Twitter account shared the post on their social media (I think that means they like me!):


Then someone added Mrs. S actress Maria Doyle Kennedy to a tweet:


and she responded:


I’m not under the impression she read the article, but she acknowledged my post and knows that I thought she was fantastic last week!
EDIT: Three Weeks Later.
I’ve learned that the Official Orphan Black Facebook Page shared this post! Seems like once you start talking about Mrs S, everyone wants to share! Sad I only learned this three weeks later though…

Click through to see the original post
Click through to see the official Orphan Black FB page post

‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club MVP Week 4: Helena and her teeth of steel

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An angel of death is still an angel.

We were only about 10 minutes into this week’s Orphan Black episode and I already knew who the Clone Club MVP was going to be. While Sarah patches up Mark, Alison confronts an old boyfriend, and Cosima contemplates finding a new girlfriend, Helena is all alone with her imaginary scorpion and yet seems to have more control over her situation than any of the others.
Click through to read more of why I chose Helena this week. And check the previous MVPs for this season of Orphan Black so far over on HelloGiggles.

‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club MVP of the Week: Art; plus some thoughts on Beth Childs

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This week’s Orphan Black Clone Club MVP was hard to pin down. When I started this series, I wanted to just focus on our Leda clones, our Tatiana Maslanys. But this season has expanded its storytelling past the ladies on to an ever-growing cast of characters spread out across this world, so it’s only fair that the MVP nominations extend to the entire cast. This week’s MVP was hard to choose—Gracie almost made the cut—but Art is truly one of Clone Club’s Most Valuable Players.
This week on Orphan Black, Art helps Sarah track down one of Johannsen’s (Gracie’s father who impregnated her and Helena) former allies, who might have information on the Castor and Leda originals.

Read more: ‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club MVP of the Week: Art.
And can I just say how interesting it is that they’re still including Beth in the story? She died three seasons ago and her presence is still felt throughout Clone Club. I would love a flashback episode or series of scenes that explore her life before she killed Maggie Chen, showing her partnership with Art. What drew him to her? Did she love him back? What did her early relationship with Cosima and Alison look like. And what were her final hours like, the decision to kill herself must have taken a lot, she already knew Helena was coming after them. Was she heading her off at the pass or was that not even in her mind? Ponder Beth with me and let’s appreciate Detective Arthur Bell.

Orphan Black Clone Club MVP Week 2: Seth

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Week Two of Clone Club MVP is up on Hello Giggles! This has been a fun way to recap the episode. This week, I wasn’t expecting to pick the male clones… I wanted to focus on the girls. But they successfully drew me in to the Project Castor clones, so I had to give them the MVP for that. Click through to read more!

Each week, we’re recapping Orphan Black by choosing a Clone Club MVP. See past recaps here. 

This week’s story was once again very Sarah driven, but with the new Project Castor clones given more spotlight and personality. We saw four of our boy clone brothers: Seth (mustache) and Rudy (scar), Mark (who ran off with pregnant Grace), and the unnamed military brother who waterboarded Helena. I give Seth the Most Valuable Clone award for this week. May he rest in peace.

Read More: ‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club MVP of the Week: It’s Seth, hands down.

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