This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.
Orphan Black TV Sci Fi Drama Series, Canada, 5 Series 2013-2017 BBC America and Temple St Productions, DVD
Sets an almost impossibly high standard for entertaining, intelligent drama.
A street-wise hustler is pulled into a compelling conspiracy after witnessing the suicide of a girl who looks just like her.
The very first thing that happens in the pilot episode is that Sarah Manning arrives in Toronto by train.
There she notices a woman who is distressed, at the other end of the railway platform. Sarah was an orphan, so she is shocked to see the woman at the other end of the train platform looks exactly like herself. She is even more shocked when the woman jumps in front of a train, committing suicide.
Possibly because Sarah is a hustler and an opportunist, but perhaps also because she is curious, Sarah grabs the woman’s handbag from the station platform, taking her ID and house keys. She has no idea what a can of worms she is about to open.
If you like hustles, cons or stings, this show should draw you in straight away. This show would also appeal instantly if you like mysteries or puzzles because, like the streetwise hustler Sarah, you will be trying to work out just what is going on and you will be doing it at the same pace as Sarah, from the very beginning, one bit of information at a time.
Orphan Black begins as great drama. As we get to know the characters, the drama is balanced by great comic moments until the show becomes a full blown dramedy. A brilliant dramedy.
The underlying conspiracy story of Orphan Black is based on real gene science, so it is technically science fiction, but the story is set in the same world we live in – it’s gene science meets a contemporary police procedural and family drama. The problems the characters face – aside from cloning /corporate conspiracy/ government conspiracy related story problems – are day to day problems in a contemporary setting.
Some of the important characters look identical because although they are not twins or triplets or quads, they are clones. This means they have the same DNA but, like identical twins or other multiples, don’t all look exactly alike. They only look the same at first glance and do, in fact, have different personalities as well as physical differences. (There is nothing inherently creepy about clones unless the clones themselves have creepy personalities.)
Because the story is about clones and because of the timing and nature of the movement that generated the cloning, the clones are white, but the larger world in which the story is told is racially blended and “non-white” people / females occupy positions of power where this would not be historically ridiculous.
Race, gender and sexuality are mostly treated as the non-issues they would be in any Canadian made drama.
Suspension of disbelief
All fiction requires that we buy some sort of lie. Yes, this series is built on real gene science but, NO, there was no company cloning humans when these characters were “born” (that I know of…).
There is much talk in this show of things like gene therapy, gene sequencing and other technical blah blah blah which apparently is all quite “plausible” – the only thing the show’s producers will concede is they stretched the truth about fingerprints: - for dramatic purposes it was convenient to hold that people with the same DNA could have the same fingerprints, but this is not quite true. This lie helps the story, so let’s just roll with it – there are fascinating ideas to explore, and there are some wonderful characters to meet.
The characters are well drawn and complex. Before the first episode is over Sarah has already dragged her foster brother Felix back into her own drama all over again, and he is not only emotionally hurt but at risk because of her.
Although dysfunction would normally put me off, there’s not enough of it to over-ride my love of a good hustle. Besides, I’ve already decided I like Sarah as a person, and I’ve already fallen for Felix.
Before the pilot episode is over, I’m fascinated to meet a third clone and realise I’ve forgotten several female characters are all played by the same actress and I’ve already accepted them as separate characters and can’t wait to find out where this is all going next.
For a while I was confused about why so many strangers in the story were identical, but that was okay because Sarah was confused too. This is not confusion caused by poor story-telling – the confusion IS the story itself; the puzzle is more interesting than a jigsaw or crossword. Right til the end of series 5, to be honest, I wondered if the writers weren’t sometimes making stuff up as they went along, but the truth is I’m a slow and plodding thinker. When I watched the show a second time through from start to finish it all started to make sense and I realised the clues I needed had been in the script all along. All writing contains some mistakes, but the mistakes here are the equivalent of typos – there are no holes in the storylines.
The humour is incredibly rich – occasionally situational or general but mostly character driven. The casting, from the most casual extra up, never disappoints.
Among the themes that made Orphan Black interesting for me and/or friends were gene science, the moral questions associated with eugenics, stories of government/corporate conspiracy, religion vs science, psychology and questions of nature vs nurture – all interwoven with a challenging puzzle and awesome, incredibly creative and intelligent humour.
My only criticism is that in season 1, a supposedly intelligent, well educated, modern French woman has an intellectual and sexual relationship with a man who is a manipulative, sexist and condescending twat, and I find it very hard to buy. He even encourages her to pimp herself out, and it seems a bit of a stretch. In later seasons, her personality seems to grow and become more acceptable. Other people think the character works right from the start.
Accents
A few people like to complain about accents in this show. It might be worth remembering that while there once was a time when accents in an English street or council area might not change for generations, that is no longer the case. As an Australian baby boomer who grew up listening almost exclusively, at first, to BBC radio and TV shows, absorbing RP and English regional accents, I think the English accents on Orphan Black are fine from actors who otherwise deliver so very much. The character of Sarah Manning is, in theory, born in an era after accents in English streets and council areas were definitely influenced by population changes due to international and internal migration, changes in employment and a breakdown in the traditional class system as well as UK membership of the EEU and a massive shift in international media. Sarah was born in Wales, spent the first 7 or so years of her life moving from one foster home to another, was raised by an Irish traveller living at first in London and then migrating to Canada – if she spoke with what anyone thought of as a “correct” or specific English accent something would definitely be wrong.
As an Australian I could say complaints that Sarah sounds Australian are ludicrous – but to be fair, I can no longer swear I know what all Australians sound like because the world is changing. I know what my own generation sounds like, and I know what regional accents once sounded like, but electronic media and the influence of international film and TV is incalculable. To be honest our voices and accents often change depending on who were talking with and the situation. I think we need to stop being too rigid and inflexible or precious about what actors give us, or we will end up unable to enjoy anything.
MA 15+ Rating: Orphan Black contains the usual dope, violence and sex with an occasional rude word that we see in this category, but it also contains exceptional stuff that might be triggering if you are in a vulnerable state: I can cope with it, but it was all unexpected first time round so if you don’t mind spoilers, perhaps a warning might be all you need. It’s such a good series it’s worth considering watching it if you can, knowing you are prepared. Anything appearing during a specific scene could be repeated during a recap at the beginning of any random future episode.
Most of the exceptional stuff is idea driven – for example, one soldier has his skull opened and brain exposed as part of an experiment. The idea of it is fairly gross, even though we know it’s not real, and even though we know that touching brain tissue never actually causes physical pain. In season four, a biological “advance” is introduced into the bodies of a few characters that consists of a “mechanical” robot the size of a small maggot. It acts a bit like a computer chip, but the idea freaks people out, and the maggot bot contains a defence mechanism.
One character who had an abusive childhood cuts herself in early episodes – it’s not overly gross to watch, but it happens, and her back has scars in the shape of angel’s wings. Some of the fights show people doing rather brutal things that shocked me at first but made me laugh on second viewing.
Often characters we care about are in situations that seem quite threatening but we eventually find they are safe after all. Further, most of the time if something awful is coming you will get plenty of warning from the situation and the music and so on in time to look away.
Definitely Look Away Warnings Episode 0309 13:40-15:05 Mrs S sings while Ferdinand gives Terry a brutal beating Episode 0309 20:10 – 21:40 Mrs S finds Terry beaten. Episode 0502 33:00-35:50 Ferdinand kills MK.
Bingeability Rating – 10 out 10. That’s right: the writing is not perfect, but even despite that, it is still so good I’ll give this show 10 out of 10. Orphan Black moved me to tears, lots of times. It also made me roar with laughter, lots of times. Orphan Black is definitely on my Desert Island List – if I can’t take my “black orphans” with me, I’m going down with the ship. Lots of these characters will be my best friends forever.
