Yeah, I love the *concept* behind the boy clones, the military ideas behind them, but I find them much less distinct and interesting than Tatiana's roles. I'm not convinced the actor was the right choice for the role, and I wish the writers had worked a bit harder to seperate them -- I know it's unrealistic to have them running around outside of the armed forces, but why not send them to *different* forces?
We could have had, to make up a few examples from my limited US forces knowledge...
- a stoic, silent SEAL clone with PTSD who's afraid if he shows his symptoms he'll be deemed defective
- a heavily tattooed Navy clone who really tries too hard to be macho
- an amputee veteran dealing with both the crappy support for injured vets and the even crappier support for injured Castor clones
- a newly wheelchair-bound roadside bombing victim who our grumpy amputee takes under his wing and teaches how to hide his trauma from the mental tests
- a stick-up the butt air force officer who just wants their squad to survive
- a rough 'n tumble infantry grunt who likes wearing pink underwear under his camos 'cos it makes the boys laugh, and lives for his downtime with a pile of fantasy novels and comic books
- a surly, sweary medic who just bloody hates everyone but he'll still fix you up because a man's gotta get paid. They got shipped off to work in the UK for a bit, or worked with UK forces in the US, and came back with a terrible mixed British/American accent and really strong opinions about tea.
- A high-ranking senior engineer who keeps delving into how all the Castor tests work and what's happening to all the other clones. He's got a speech impediment and so prefers to just type and text everything, but if someone tries to bully him because of his stammer or meekness he will not hesitate to pull rank and remind them of their place. He has a *lot* of friends in high places, and a lot of people who owe him favors. He doesn't often call of them but he doesn't ever forget, either.
They could have addressed the
male assault issue (TW: rape) in the US military and delved into why clones like Rudy were so cruel when it came to their own sexuality.
The military has such potential for different personalities, different roles and ways of living, and they never really went into it. It was disappointing, though I still loved the season.