ORPHAN BLACK

March, 2013 - Present

1 Season

10 Episodes

I started watching this series because I read somewhere on the internet an enthusiastic review that convinced me. I watched 2 or 3 episodes and as I wasn’t really hooked on it I stopped watching. However, soon after I decided to catch up on it just because of Tatiana Maslany.

Orphan Black is a science fiction canadian/US TV Series about human cloning and its implications. Sarah Manning discovers by chance that she has a clone when she witnesses her suicide. Sarah, astonished, takes the identity of her clone (Beth) in order to find out who she is and what’s going on. She discovers really soon that Beth wasn’t the only clone. 

With a well-conducted storyline, the show gives us intrigue, mystery, secrets, murders, chases, humour... all the ingredients for a good thriller series, but in my opinion, it could be one more of several if it wasn’t for the brilliant acting of Tatiana Maslany who plays seven different characters (clones). Every clone is completely different from the others in the way they move, look and speak, so it’s worth watching the show just to enjoy that. She was the reason why I saw the whole first season. Besides Tatiana, I also want to emphasize the acting of Jordan Gavaris, I loved the way he played his character too.

The media has talked a lot about Orphan Black and has acclaimed Tatiana for her performance, and the show is receiving several awards. Nevertheless, the idea of one actor playing different characters is not new. Recently we said goodbye to Fringe where because of the existence of parallel universes and different timelines we could see different versions of the characters.

I have to admit that I didn’t like Orphan Black at the beginning because it seemed to me like  they were copying Fringe in some respects, and that’s why I stopped watching in the first place. Tatiana Maslany did great work with her characters, I’m not denying that, but I’m surprised that she attracted all that attention when there was a series that did the same thing before (not only with one actor but with nearly all of them) giving us incredible performances too... and nobody noticed it then.

On the whole, I’d say that although it’s not my favorite TV Series at the moment, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the storyline, the intrigue and especially the acting. Check it out and decide: