Written by Tristan Lueck.
Photo pulled from Wikimedia Commons.
** Warning. This article contains spoilers for hit TV show “Orphan Black.”**
Last year, while flipping aimlessly through television channels, I came across a show that I had never heard of before. This alone was strange. I love TV, and if I don’t watch a particular show I at least know what it is and what it’s about. But I had never heard of “Orphan Black,” and I didn’t know of anyone else who had either. So, naturally, I just had to watch.
Within the first 15 minutes, an orphan girl meets her twin sister who, moments later, jumps in front of a subway train and kills herself. This leaves the orphan with all of the twin’s stuff, as well as the twin’s identity. There was also $75,000 involved and some cocaine. I couldn’t wait to watch more.
The show first premiered on BBC America on March 30, 2013. Tatiana Maslany stars as, at this point, four different people. And because of that she was nominated at the Golden Globes for Best Actress in a Drama. Her work portraying Sarah, Cosima, Alison, and Helena also won Maslany four other awards.
These four women are the main characters for the first season and they are all clones. Not actually long lost twins, but “genetic identicals” according to Cosima, the show’s resident science clone. The premise of “Orphan Black” focuses on how each clone was made, who made them, and who is “killing [them] off,” quoted by dramatic soccer mom clone Alison.
In preparation of the season two premiere tonight, I have been watching the entire first season over again. I have watched Sarah, the main clone in the series, watch Elizabeth Childs, technically clone number five, kill herself. And I’m in awe as Sarah steals Elizabeth’s things and seamlessly integrates herself into her life, including her work in the Clone Club. Sarah finds out Elizabeth, Beth, is a cop – one who has shot a civilian in cold blood and one who has $75,000 in a bank account. Sarah also finds out that Beth has been receiving mysterious phone calls and texts on her pink phone. Sarah plays off Beth’s body as her own and, from a distance, watches her own funeral. She cries as her daughter comes to the ceremony and believes that her mother is dead. And then she meets another clone, Katja, who starts coughing up blood and is then shot in the head by some mysterious sniper.
And all of this is in the first episode.
The thing that really grabbed me about this show is the fact that you were rocketed through the plotline. It is definitely one of those shows where you should sit in front of your computer and binge watch in one sitting. Every episode is fueled with tension and, with only ten episodes in the first season, it isn’t a completely life-destroying marathon. The writers also do not hide from the ridiculousness that can come from a show about cloning. There is a man in the show that is so obsessed with the idea of making his own evolution that he made himself grow a tail, which gets cut off by the crazy “angry angel” clone Helena.
I promise you that I did not give even a fraction of the plotline away, there are still more secrets for you to find if you watch. The first season is out on DVD and available online. Everyone should watch what Entertainment Weekly referred as one of the most underrated shows of the year.
Check out the trailer for season two here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfUxpTSnq4o
