Orphan Black

Sarah Manning is a resourceful small time con artist who has grown up in an orphanage.

After having unsuccessfully tried  to steal from her boyfriend Vic, a large portion of cocaine, so she can  sell it and keep all the money for herself, she is now desperate and on the run, at a deserted train station.

There, Sarah notices a young woman taking off her clothes and leaving her personal belongings on the train platform. 

Soon after she realizes that the woman looks exactly like her, she witnessess her ‘double’ jumping in front of the incoming train and getting killed.

Sarah decides to take the place of the dead woman hoping she can empty her bank account and flee abroad.

Her plan will again run aground and her life will become even more complicated when she finds out that her deceased look-alike, police officer Beth Childs, not only is being accused of shooting an unarmed woman, but is also investigating the actual origins of herself  as well as  of a number of other women with whom not only does she share the same birth year (1984) but also the same DNA.

Having assumed the role of Beth, Sarah will encounter some unexpected  -identical- allies, like the evolutionary biologist Cosima Niehaus and the neurotic housewife Alison Hendrix.

Together they will begin to unfold a very tangled skein of corporate secrets, christian sects, new age prophets and political  and military conspiracies, in order to learn the truth about their 'collective' origin.

Reasons to watch the show?  
Just one: The fantastic Tatiana Maslany.

The award-winning Canadian actress constitutes almost the entire cast of the series, playing over a dozen -so far- versions of herself, with absolute success.

 

Each one of the clones has a different presence, kinesiology, setup, manner of expression and speech and Maslany manages to breathe life into each one, clearly and unambiguously and without resorting to mannerisms.

We do not see a woman with multiple personalities, but many different women with distinctive characters who happen to share the same DNA structure.

And it is because of her virtuosity, that the creators of the show have managed to make the paranoid world of Orphan Black seem plausible.

This year Maslany finally won her first Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Take a look at the impressive -and technically demanding- finale of the 2nd season  with the characters , dancing together, each one in her own unique way. 

Clone dance party 

Maslany’s incredible solo performance, is accompanied by  Jordan Gavaris, lovable in the role of Felix, the gay adoptive brother and Sara’s faithful ally, a role which also serves the lighter side of the show, which refuses to take itself too seriously, anyway.

In the role of Siobhan Sadler, adoptive mother of Sarah and Felix and with her own dark secrets, we find Irish actress Maria Doyle Kennedy, while the role of Dr. Aldus Leekie, the controversial face of the of Neolutionist Movement, is portrayed by  (90’s Max Headroom) Matt Frewer.

Filmed almost entirely in Toronto, Canada, an 100% Canadian production and with almost all the protagonists speaking with British accents, the geography of the series is deliberately vague and therefore somewhat mysterious.

With a labyrinthine plot, where biotechnology meets eugenics and the clone club meets the myth of Frankenstein, Orphan Black not only is one of the best science fiction series that you can watch on TV today and be entertained, but also raises many fundamental issues about the morality of science, the essence of human existence, identity and free will.

Sarah’s personal quest especially after meeting her genetically-engineered  'sisters', who have been brought up under completely different circumstances, make us wonder about everything we take for granted in our lives, the role each one of us plays,  everything we believe that we are, who we really are.

Without taking into account the sometimes low production values -especially in season 1, Orphan Black is an original, fun and enjoyable science fiction series, already considered a cult classic.

You can now stream all 5 seasons on  Netflix.

You can find the greek version of my review HERE

'The Last of Us' had me at Loading Mode