Orphan Blind

Intrigued by the promos, I watched the premiere episode of Orphan Black, the new series on BBC America.  The show captured my interest, so I watched the second episode.  The second was as good as the first, so I am ready for the third episode.

The underlying premise, if you are not familiar with the show, is that a woman, named Sarah, witnesses another woman commit suicide by throwing herself in front of an oncoming train... but not before Sarah realizes that the suicidal woman looks exactly like her... a twin.

Because the suicidal woman left her purse on the platform before stepping in front of the train, Sarah, being somewhat ethically challenged, picks up the purse and makes off with it.  She later concludes that the suicidal woman’s life was better than hers, and arranges to have the dead woman identified as herself and to assume the identity of the dead woman.

Complications ensue.  With twists and turns that hold my attention despite a couple of lapses in plausibility.

Among the complications – and key to the show’s ongoing plot – is that additional women begin to appear who look exactly like Sarah.  In a tour de force acting opportunity for the show’s star, Tatiana Maslany, these women may look the same but are vastly different characters, distinguished by their backgrounds, mannerisms, and speaking voices.

But there is a problem... and it is me.  For years, I’ve joked that criminals would like to have me as a witness to their crimes, because I have great difficulty discerning the visual differences in people and things.  If I were to meet you for the first time today, I could not later describe what you looked like or what you were wearing.  If you returned tomorrow, I would likely not recognize you.  If asked to describe someone... I can’t.  It takes me a long time to learn new friends and associates.

People often say they are no good with names.  I’m fine with names, it’s faces I can’t remember.

The problem, then, for my enjoyment of Orphan Black is that I do not recognize the various roles that Ms Maslany is playing.  Because she is wearing different clothes and makeup, and because she is speaking in different dialects, I see only distinct characters.  I don’t recognize Sarah’s twins.

This is not a fatal flaw, I still very much enjoy the show and I catch on relatively quickly to what’s what and who’s who.  But I do so through context and dialog more than through visuals.

And I’ll be watching this week.

Where is The Big Guy When We Need Him?

Recently, Virgin Atlantic airlines’ owner Richard Branson publicized the addition of a new route to the carrier’s schedule by wearing a kilt.  Appropriate enough, given that the new route will take passengers to and from Edinburgh Airport in Scotland.  But as part of the publicity he lifted the kilt to reveal briefs lettered with the words "Stiff Competition."

We were reminded immediately of a long-ago episode of the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, wherein the down-in-the-ratings radio station’s staff created an upbeat and catchy jingle for an advertiser... a funeral home.

The commercial was likely to be the one that pulled the station from its financial doldrums.  The advertiser – a riotously dour caricature of a funeral director – was making a substantial purchase of airtime, and the station’s staff was excited by the prospects of raises and better times ahead.

But Arthur Carlson, the radio station manager portrayed brilliantly by actor Gordon Jump, declined to run the ads and turned down the lucrative account.  Clearly pained by the economic impact of his decision, Mr Carlson nonetheless stuck to his values and told his program director, “Where I come from, that commercial is in bad taste.”

At the time that this episode first aired in 1979, the notion of there being any remaining sense of taste in advertising was already somewhat quaint, and Mr Carlson’s decision was plainly old-fashioned.  But there was a message in his having put principles ahead of profit.

Branson, already a billionaire, needs an Arthur Carlson to tell him that his promotion is in bad taste.

(Want to hear the Ferryman Funeral Home jingle from WKRP?  A somewhat obsessive fan of the show has posted it here.)