3 out of 5

Creator: Graeme Manson, John Fawcett

Covers season 1

Orphan Black is incredibly cool.  From its Amon Tobin opening song to its great looking cast, slick production quality (All the principles’ apartments are masterworks in set design), great effects – there’s never a moment where you doubt these ‘clones’ aren’t actually in the same room – and the high level concept – Tatiana Maslany as Sarah starts meeting several women who look just like her – you can’t deny the coolness.  It’s also nutso.  The show splatters you with wacky from episode 1 – when the German clone steps on stage you too will be doubting whether or not this show is for real – and slips around in its plotting from police procedural to sci fi to twisted family drama to crime caper and so on… BUT, to the writer’s credit, through all the insanity, they realize that the “here’s another clone” shtick will stop being effective and so they make sure to keep the focus on the How and Why of everything.  The problem with pursuing the how and why is that either point resolved will close out a huge chapter in the show… And so enter the biggest problem with TV – drawing it out.  Thankfully we’re not stuck to an American 22-episode season, so at ten episodes we don’t get too much filler… but it’s enough to wear on the show’s suspense.  Because details need to be trickled out, Sarah isn’t initially too concerned about much of anything, and neither are we.  There’s an element of playfulness to the beginning of the series that makes it easy to watch, but not necessarily compelling enough to claw for the next episode.  And once we have enough to work with to ratchet it up, we’ve got subplots lingering that, again, are fun, but distract from a focus.  All that aside, ‘Orphan’ is still very responsibly scripted, not falling back on easy answers to its puzzles, and Tatiana Maslany is TRULY amazing as each character.  You know its all her on screen, but she embodies each role fully – you believe that they’re not just ‘the brainy one,’ ‘the nervy one’ and etc., but rather each individual beings.