The Order - General Discussion

[paulvdb]

Netflix Orders "The Order" - New Horror Series
 

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10 episodes, one-hour long

Synopsis: College freshman Jack Morton joins a fabled secret society, The Order, where he is thrust into a world of magic, monsters and intrigue. As Jack goes deeper, he uncovers dark family secrets and an underground battle between werewolves and the magical dark arts.

The Order is a magical and terrifying journey to uncover our true selves...and the monsters that hide within.

Premiere date announcement:

[paulvdb]

Trailer:

[pootlus]

The trailer looks absolutely terrible.  So much bad acting.

[Chaos Theory]

The trailer looks predictable but honestly if I went by trailers o wouldn’t watch anything.  I am burnt out on vampire (100 year old vampire falls for sixteen year old girl) stories.  I haven’t seen a decent werewolf story since the American version of Being Human.  If this is even barely watchable I will enjoy it simply fir the werewolves.   

[Anela]

So far, it's a predictable teenager gets into magical school, meets popular, pretty girl, deals with a couple of bullies, and then there's a werewolf thrown in. The guy who plays one of his teachers, is the one who played a werewolf in True Blood, so I hope it isn't him.

[Cigale]

Ooooh!  Another Ivanka look-alike!

[Anela]

24 minutes ago, sisterspoon said:

Ooooh!  Another Ivanka look-alike!

She reminds me of someone else, but I can't think of her name. Oh, I think it's Sarah Lancaster! But I'm not sure.

Edited March 9, 2019 by Anela

[NeenerNeener]

OK, I got all the way to the end and I've got questions, but I don't want to spoil the last 5 or 10 minutes for anybody:

Spoiler

When the witches knocked out the werewolves and then grabbed all the magical stuff in their basement, did they manage to get the skins to separate from the kids, too, or are they just going to wait for each student-Knight to die and the skin to magically return to that box they stole?

[Chaos Theory]

I really wanted to like this because I have been looking for a good werewolf story.  This is not that.  It is more magic then werewolf which is disappointing.  It is also for too teenage melodrama for me.  None of the characters were particularily interesting.  I guess I have to keep looking for a werewolf story and just watch the American version of Being Human for the fifth time.

[Anela]

11 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

I really wanted to like this because I have been looking for a good werewolf story.  This is not that.  It is more magic then werewolf which is disappointing.  It is also for too teenage melodrama for me.  None of the characters were particularily interesting.  I guess I have to keep looking for a werewolf story and just watch the American version of Being Human for the fifth time.

I liked the English version. Didn't watch much of the American one.

[quazimodo]

The trailer was awful so I had low expectations going in. I ended up enjoying it. The knights were all fun and it was more interesting when the focus was on them. The romance between the Jack and Alissa was boring though so I pretty much skipped those scenes unless they were plot related. I wouldn’t mind seeing a second season especially after how this one ended. 

Spoiler

Honestly though Hamish and co should have really moved out of the house, hidden their magic collection and taken precautions after Vera and the Order became aware of it.  Hoping if there is a second season  their werewolf metabolism “heals” the memory loss .

Edited March 10, 2019 by quazimodo

[Whimsy]

13 hours ago, Anela said:

I liked the English version. Didn't watch much of the American one.

I watched both versions of Being Human and enjoyed both, but the British one just a little bit more. 

Anyway, on to this.  I had lots of time this weekend to just relax and binge so I binged the entire series.  It wasn't super high caliber, but it was entertaining enough.  I liked the werewolves more than the witches.  I'll wait to comment more to see if anyone else comments.  I don't want to spoil anything.  

[Anela]

I'm on episode 8, I think. I'm really sleepy, but I was just thinking that someone adjusted awfully quickly, to being a werewolf. I'm also amused by the fact that nobody has come looking for them, wondering why they aren't in class. How fast is all of this supposed to be happening? 

[Kelda Feegle]

I have seen it, it's not great but I did finish it so that's something.

Always happy to see Matt Frewer.

Jack looks like a young Kevin Bacon and once I made that connection I couldn't unsee it.

I thought Vera was Shannen Doherty for a while.

Hamish is a great mixologist.

[Whimsy]

22 hours ago, Kelda Feegle said:

I have seen it, it's not great but I did finish it so that's something.

Always happy to see Matt Frewer.

Jack looks like a young Kevin Bacon and once I made that connection I couldn't unsee it.

I thought Vera was Shannen Doherty for a while.

Hamish is a great mixologist.

Hmm.. I don't see the young Kevin Bacon, but his attractiveness kept fluctuating for me.  I think it's just the pretty blue eyes.

The actress who plays Vera does look like a young Shannen Doherty, but I knew I saw her in something so I had to IMDB her.  I think I remember her from The Arrangement.  Which was horrible and I am embarrassed to have watched it for the little bit I know. 

[Anela]

8 hours ago, Whimsy said:

Hmm.. I don't see the young Kevin Bacon, but his attractiveness kept fluctuating for me.  I think it's just the pretty blue eyes.

The actress who plays Vera does look like a young Shannen Doherty, but I knew I saw her in something so I had to IMDB her.  I think I remember her from The Arrangement.  Which was horrible and I am embarrassed to have watched it for the little bit I know. 

I recognized her from Hannibal. 

I still don't know how long this was all supposed to be going on for. It seemed like it all happened in the first week or two. 

[Catfi9ht]

Wow. So much wasted potential with bad writing. The list below is just a smattering of my gripes.

• The Order is supposed to be an all-powerful society, but 5 of the 7 recruits they select are morons and one of their current members is a moron which undermines the authority they continuously try to project.
• The Order places a recruit in charge of a finding werewolves without any supervision.
• They made Jewel Staite into a bad actress.
• The Order has a typical fraternity hierarchy requiring unquestioning authority which is bad and lazy writing.

I'm not sure which was worse, this show or Hemlock Grove. Looks like Netflix needs to put better horror writers on retainer.

[Chaos Theory]

19 hours ago, Catfi9ht said:

I'm not sure which was worse, this show or Hemlock Grove. Looks like Netflix needs to put better horror writers on retainer.

The first season of Hemlock Grove was actually pretty good it just got steadily worse as the budget got worse.  This wanted to be the college version of a Millennial Supernatural romance horror story and it didn’t work.  

[BooBear]

On 3/15/2019 at 1:26 PM, Catfi9ht said:

Wow. So much wasted potential with bad writing. The list below is just a smattering of my gripes.

• The Order is supposed to be an all-powerful society, but 5 of the 7 recruits they select are morons and one of their current members is a moron which undermines the authority they continuously try to project.
• The Order places a recruit in charge of a finding werewolves without any supervision.
• They made Jewel Staite into a bad actress.
• The Order has a typical fraternity hierarchy requiring unquestioning authority which is bad and lazy writing.

I'm not sure which was worse, this show or Hemlock Grove. Looks like Netflix needs to put better horror writers on retainer.

Netflix needs to slow down and start making good series. There is too much blah on there now.  All of these bothered me. But I had two weird things.

• What is with Jack's hair? It was gross greasy not good greasy. He also didn't seem that attractive to me (and looked nothing like his dad).
• Why were people not losing their minds when kids were being killed off at this school in the early episodes?  

I recognized Vera from "Ginger Snaps" which is a great series about werewolves.

[AngelKitty]

Just finished episode #3. So far I'm liking this. There are no characters that are particularly annoying. Clay being a golem was hilarious. And who doesn't like Matt Frewer?

I'm not reading any posts since I don't want to be spoiled.

[Adira]

I enjoyed this show, but it's no The Magicians.

[Watchingtv]

The Magicians is much, much better all around for sure. 

People weren’t freaking out about the killings more because a spell was cast. It freaked Jack out because his friend that was killed by Clay was instead changed by the spell to have been killed in a biking accident. He mentioned the people being killed to his grandfather and his grandfather didn’t know about it (again, because of the spell). 

I missed that the stuff was taken from the basement, I thought we were shown the stuff taken from Jack’s house and Edward’s house.

Aside from them still being werewolves, there is the dangling thread of the eviler twin, psychopath sister that should appear anytime and the missing (but broken) machine to talk to the dead.  

[Anela]

I didn't keep up with the Magicians, after the first season. It was too odd, and I wasn't in the mood for it.

[paulvdb]

‘The Order’ Horror Drama Series Renewed For Season 2 By Netflix

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Netflix has picked up a 10-episode second season of horror drama series The Order, from Canadian production company Nomadic Pictures (Hell on Wheels, Van Helsing), with Jake Manley (Heroes: Reborn) and Sarah Grey (Legends of Tomorrow) set to reprise their roles. Additional casting for season 2 will be announced at a later date. Production begins this summer in Vancouver with premiere slated for 2020.

[P2C2E]

This was just terrible! I finished it, but man! The writing is bad, the acting is bad. Yeesh.

[iMonrey]

I've watched the first 2 episodes but it's not really holding my attention. I'll probably get around to finishing it at some point.

On 3/26/2019 at 10:15 PM, Anela said:

I didn't keep up with the Magicians, after the first season. It was too odd, and I wasn't in the mood for it.

I felt the same about The Magicians after Season 1. But it got steadily better in Season 2, and Season 3 was excellent, probably my favorite show on TV. Season 4 has been a bit of a mixed bag but it's hard to top what they did in the third season. 

[NJRadioGuy]

At times Alyssa really reminded me of Elanor Shelstrop from The Good Place. I think the writers got that too, since in that dream sequence where she's in the knight's dream, she's in a surreal-looking field and exclaims "Holy Fucking Shitballs." Nice shoutout to that show.

I'm still in the middle of the series and it's interesting, but the writing and acting are just terrible. And yeah, I'll be back for Season 2.

ETA: I finished the series two days after posting the above and it definitely got a lot better in episodes 6 through 10, although I really hated how they left everything at the very end.

What the show got right, IMO, was getting us interested in The Order and setting them up as the heroes, then slowly turning the tables as it progressed. 

Edited April 16, 2019 by NJRadioGuy
Finished the series.

[Panopticon]

On 4/14/2019 at 3:24 PM, NJRadioGuy said:

At times Alyssa really reminded me of Elanor Shelstrop from The Good Place. I think the writers got that too, since in that dream sequence where she's in the knight's dream, she's in a surreal-looking field and exclaims "Holy Fucking Shitballs." Nice shoutout to that show.

I noticed that too. 

Speaking of The Good Place, my feeling was that I will take a memory wipe or ten from that show because it’s brilliant, but all I could do with this memory wipe finale was roll my eyes and think I couldn’t stomach another season. (Which I guess begs the question of why I watched the entire first season. I dunno.)

[NJRadioGuy]

8 hours ago, Panopticon said:

I noticed that too. 

Speaking of The Good Place, my feeling was that I will take a memory wipe or ten from that show because it’s brilliant, but all I could do with this memory wipe finale was roll my eyes and think I couldn’t stomach another season. (Which I guess begs the question of why I watched the entire first season. I dunno.)

Yep. I guess by now most folks here in this forum have gotten through the first season. Memory wipes and resets are the trope I hate the most, except in very limited circumstances (The Orville, S2 final two episodes used it well). This was gratuitous and S2 will waste far too much time resetting the world. I'm now far more interested in the werewolves/Knights than I am The Order itself. But to The Powers That Be, pleasepleaseplease give is a brief homage or even a quick tip-of-the-cap to the world of Blutbaden and woging next season? Maybe Silas Weir Mitchell (Monroe) could be a guest professor or something? My dark little heart would grow three sizes that day!

[festivus]

I had put this one on the backburner because I thought it'd just be a Magicians knockoff but it really wasn't.

It was no Magicians in quality but I still enjoyed it. Mostly because the werewolf story was a different take than the usual and I don't care for the traditional werewolf stories. I liked this one though and the Knights were my favorite characters especially Hamish. 

I was totally bored with the love story between Jack and Aylssa, good lord it was so bland. The 5 second love story with Todd Randall and Killith was more interesting. I hope we don't have to suffer through J/A again in season 2. 

Why did they get an actor like Sam Trammell and then kill him off by the 4th episode? That made no sense to me and I kept expecting him to show back up somehow. Such a waste.

On 3/13/2019 at 9:29 AM, Kelda Feegle said:

Jack looks like a young Kevin Bacon and once I made that connection I couldn't unsee it.

Yeah I thought he was a what if Kevin Bacon and Christian Slater had a baby.

[DigitalCount]

I second the confusion regarding Sam Trammell's inclusion. Not only did he die super early, but it wasn't even his own fault--he was collateral damage. It's a mind-blowing misuse of an actor, not to mention a character. He seemed like he was going to be an alternate perspective to Pete and Edward who gave Jack some knowledge without being in on the secret, or maybe like he would be revealed as yet another antagonist in the mix.

Jewel Staite's character(s) was another headscratcher, but at least she had the advantage of being introduced when the show was getting better, and she got a pair of twins to play, so I guess she'll be showing up in S2. Did we get the sister's name at any point?

This series has the same problem with POC characters as basically every genre series that's not intentionally trying to subvert that, so there's not much to be gained by going down that road.

As far as the good, I think I was (the only person) genuinely shocked by the ending, though of course the Order wouldn't allow the Knights to continue operating as they had been. It was a mistake on the part of the Knights to assume there was an alliance when it was clearly a temporary ceasefire out of convenience. Not so much the plot itself, but the feeling it gave me reminded me of the Magicians S3 finale.

Liked that Lilith freed herself.

So many Smallville/Supernatural one-offs, haha. I want to say Vera Stone is a twofer in that regard? I think once Kepler showed up I thought to myself "okay, this is a bit much." Hiro Kanagawa must be at the top of any "Asian authority figure" casting list, he just keeps showing up in all of my shows. But in genre casting you kind of have to expect the same faces here and there. It's not exactly the sort of thing you want to build a drinking game around, unless maybe you're Hamish.

Also, if you're going to have a show be floundering for one half and solid for the other half, this configuration is better than the alternative (first half good, second half terrible) even though it gives you more of a fan base the other way around. The Netflix binge model makes this less of a factor, though. I do think that once things started colliding in the second half and Jack was being torn in multiple directions by his commitments to his family, the Knights, and the Order, it was actually interesting to see what would happen next. Sad to have lost Pete though.

Looking forward to Season 2.

[paulvdb]

Season 2 premieres June 18.

[Keywestclubkid]

I know this is a stupid gripe but I cant with his blonde hair ......

[festivus]

1 hour ago, Keywestclubkid said:

I know this is a stupid gripe but I cant with his blonde hair ......

Yeah, I just came here to post that. I'm only two episodes in and I hope I don't have to look at that for the rest of the season.

Good to see the professor back. They killed him way too soon in the first season. He's so snarky.

[festivus]

I'm a couple more episodes in and I'm really liking this season so far. It feels like the show has found its groove and it's also funnier. Jack & Alyssa aren't even bothering me, I'm liking how snarky they are to each other. Stick with that and leave the sappiness behind. Love Hamish being hot for teacher.

[juno]

I just finished the second season and I have to say this season was not only better than the first but also absolutely terrific. As Festivus said it is much more funnier, has less romance and more character development.

My MVP of the season is Vera played by Katharine Isabelle. She gets much more screen time and her character has more depth than in the first season.

[tennisgurl]

I marathoned through this in like two days, and I had a blast watching it, cliches and goofiness and all. Vera is definitely my favorite character, I love her snarkiness and how morally grey she is. She does some questionable stuff (especially holding onto the dark magic book) but isn't really a bad person either. I liked the second season more than the first, although I really missed Lilith for the back half. This season they also didn't seem to be taking things quite as seriously, which made the ride a lot more fun

I like the werewolf mythology on the show, its pretty unique from what you normally get from werewolf stories, and I am really hoping we learn more about the Knights and their history. Like, how did they go from what looked like medieval knights guarding an ancient magical order to a bunch of twenty something college kids who make most of their choices based on beer pong? I also liked seeing some other magical factions, like the hive mind farmers market witches. 

Can we just talk about how, in The Order universe, Jason Priestly was killed via a homunculus blood virus in his stomach exploding and is now Ian Ziering wearing a magic mask? Can we talk about that forever?!  

[festivus]

Just finished the show. So they finally give Alyssa a personality beyond simpering and then kill her off. I'd say she's most sincerely dead, they don't tend to bring people back. We may still see her in the collective unconscious.

My favorites are still Hamish, his drinking problem (RIP), and Vera. To the new power couple! 🥂

[Athena5217]

On 6/26/2020 at 3:20 PM, tennisgurl said:

Can we just talk about how, in The Order universe, Jason Priestly was killed via a homunculus blood virus in his stomach exploding and is now Ian Ziering wearing a magic mask? Can we talk about that forever?!  

Overall, this show is not very good, but THAT is genius. I would like a spin-off show with Ian Ziering wearing the face of Jason Priestley. Is there a spell I can do to make this happen?

[peachmangosteen]

I just binged all this in 2 days. What a perfectly stupid and bad little show! I hope it gets another season.

Dammit, Alyssa finally becomes interesting and maybe sorta, kinda away from Jack and they go and kill her. It seems like Jack is going to try to bring her back to life so that should go terribly.

Randall is hands-down my fave but that might be in part because of residual Todd love. I liked Randall/Gabrielle a lot more than I liked the random, 5 seconds of Randall/Lilith. I really liked Gabrielle this season and was glad she got more to do.

I also love Hamish and Vera and I liked their barely shown relationship. A part of me is happy he seems to be trying to kick his alcoholism but also I kinda loved his drinking problem so!

Speaking of Lilith, I didn't miss her per se, especially since the thing with her and Nicole was not entertaining at all, but I did get kind of annoyed that episodes went by with the boys not trying to help her. Also, I loved her hair cut.

The episode with the virus fucking hell! Too soon!

ETA: Oh, also, I liked Jack much better with blonde hair. 

[DigitalCount]

Can someone explain to me why they decided to kill Kepler specifically? Gotta say it was a little jarring and left a bad taste in my mouth when Randall just remorselessly kidnapped her basically right by Maddox and murdered her just because. I get that someone had to die, but Nicole volunteered (not that I wouldn't have had my issues with them killing off Nicole either, btw) and it didn't seem like they had any specific reason to target "Aunt Bitsy." Could they not have abducted a Praxis member, since at least they were actively trying to bring about the apocalypse? With Alyssa distracted the rest of Praxis was a bunch of sitting ducks. Or maybe they could have used the Order's immense resources to track down Jewel Staite's character, since Twin 2 is still in the wind as far as I remember. Or pay Alyssa's side dude a visit, since they probably weren't worried about civil war with the Prometheans any longer.

Also, speaking of Alyssa, what exactly caused her to snap that hard? I get that she was sore about her magic, but she was still able to use it, albeit poorly and in an unfocused manner, which is still better than what she condemned Vera to. I felt like she lacked a proper motive for her actions basically all season long.

[peachmangosteen]

5 hours ago, DigitalCount said:

Can someone explain to me why they decided to kill Kepler specifically? Gotta say it was a little jarring and left a bad taste in my mouth when Randall just remorselessly kidnapped her basically right by Maddox and murdered her just because.

Yea, I was a bit put off by that, too. I thought it was especially messed up that Randall did it after he saw she had Maddox. I thought perhaps that was going to cause him to back off. It was just kinda gross. 

5 hours ago, DigitalCount said:

Also, speaking of Alyssa, what exactly caused her to snap that hard? I get that she was sore about her magic, but she was still able to use it, albeit poorly and in an unfocused manner, which is still better than what she condemned Vera to. I felt like she lacked a proper motive for her actions basically all season long.

Yea, it didn't make any sense at all to me. I still enjoyed it and I preferred kinda evil Alyssa but still I didn't understand it lol.

[festivus]

7 hours ago, DigitalCount said:

Can someone explain to me why they decided to kill Kepler specifically? Gotta say it was a little jarring and left a bad taste in my mouth when Randall just remorselessly kidnapped her basically right by Maddox and murdered her just because. I get that someone had to die, but Nicole volunteered (not that I wouldn't have had my issues with them killing off Nicole either, btw) and it didn't seem like they had any specific reason to target "Aunt Bitsy."

It seems like it should have been more of a Hamish move since Kepler regularly threatens the reign of his princess. But I think a) it was just because it was someone the audience knows, and b) he wasn't going to sacrifice Nicole because of Lillith. And maybe c) there's a plan for an even worse person on the council to fuck things up in the next season (if there is one).

[ursula]

On 7/3/2020 at 3:10 AM, DigitalCount said:

Also, speaking of Alyssa, what exactly caused her to snap that hard? I get that she was sore about her magic, but she was still able to use it, albeit poorly and in an unfocused manner, which is still better than what she condemned Vera to. I felt like she lacked a proper motive for her actions basically all season long.

Alyssa has always been the weakest link on this show. The only thing good about her arc this season is she’s finally dead.

[peachmangosteen]

The Comic Con @ Home panel is July 25th at 6 pm edt.

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The Order is back with another exciting season! This panel will talk about the inspiration behind our favorite secret society, how our characters have coped with the events of season 1, and how we were able to bring some exciting guest stars to the season. They'll also discuss their favorite magical couples and answer some burning questions left unanswered after the finale.

Jake Manley - "Jack"
Adam DiMarco - "Randall"
Thomas Elms - "Hamish"
Devery Jacobs - " Lilith"
Katharine Isabelle - "Vera"
Louriza Tronco - "Gabrielle"
Dennis Heaton - show creator and executive producer
Shelley Eriksen - executive producer and writer
Chad Oakes - executive producer
Mike Frislev - executive producer
Morris Chapdelaine - producer/moderator

 

[Quark]

This season was a hoot. I love that this show doesn't take itself too seriously.

Randall and Lillith (closely followed by Gabrielle) are my favourite characters. I was a bit bummed that Lillith missed a chunk of the season, so I'm glad she is back.

Some of the names of certain things did confuse me :p.

[paulvdb]

‘The Order’ Canceled By Netflix After 2 Seasons