Tag Archives: August Winter

Orphan Black: Echoes – Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is an interesting spin on the original, that works well within the framework that was set, even if it does not quite get the tone right in places.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

A hand appears out of red fluiid.

Orphan Black: Echoes Review –

Back in the day, I was fascinated by this small show out of Canada that took a science fiction concept, in this case, cloning, and took it to the extreme with some of the best acting and weird worlds of subterfuge, rebellion, and secret organisations. During Orphan Black’s five-season run, I was transfixed with each new clone and turn in this world, so you better believe I was excited to find out we were coming back to this universe.

So to set the scene, a woman, Lucy (Krysten Ritter), wakes up with no memory of her past life, with only a therapist (Keeley Hawes) to tell her that she has had a procedure and some of the subtlety of her long-term member might not have worked. After being sedated, the woman is not just going to sit around and breaks out when she finds the house is a fake hidden in a warehouse. But worse still is the room full of body parts, a suspension chamber full of red liquid, and an unfinished artefact of a human. Can they print humans now? And who was the woman they scanned to make this body? Am I the only one who has been printed? We will be looking at the series as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Women Talking – Movie Review

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TL;DR –  A stunningly devastating film, brimming with empathy and power in equal measures  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

Warning – This film contains scenes that may cause distress

A mother comforts her daughter.

Women Talking Review –

When I walked in to see Women Talking, I was unsure exactly what I would see. Oh, I expected it to be heavy in tone and subject matter. But I had no idea how they would address that subject, given the immense complexities baked into the scenario. A scenario that was inspired by actual events of the worst kind. However, as I walked out of the theatre, I knew I had witnessed something profound.   

So to set the scene, in an isolated Mennonite colony in rural USA, the women have been plagued by attacks where they wake up covered in bruises on their legs. The community leaders say it is demons or that the women are making it up until one of the attackers is captured trying to sneak into a teenager’s bedroom. The police round up many of the community’s men accused or fingered in the attacks, but instead of supporting their women, the men gather up everything they can sell to go into town and post bail for the attackers. They will return in two days, and the women must forgive the attackers or be excommunicated. They have three choices, do nothing, stay and fight, or leave, which have dramatic repercussions on their lives.

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