So, ladies and gentleman, get your popcorn, blankets and beer ready because we are about to head out to a crazy adventure!
Orphan Black is a TV series, but it isn't just any other shows; it is one of the best out there and sadly not a lot of people are watching it.
I am a person who take my tv shows, movies, music critically. I mean, hey, I am about to spend 50 minutes on each episode so I have to make sure it is worth my time, besides, I love shows that get my brain going, not just some mindless entertainment and thank you Orphan Black because it gives me all of those and even more.
The series begins with Sarah Manning, a con artist by trade who happened to in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed a suicide of a woman, Beth Childs who appears to look exactly like her. Bewildered, Sarah takes on Beth's identity as a police detective and discovers deep, dark, and dangerous secrets about her origins.
To make it simpler for you, I am going to list down why I love Orphan Black and why you should really watch it! And why I am pretty sure you will be addicted like I am.
A REALLY POWERFUL LEAD
Ten minutes into the show and I already know that I am hooked. The plot easily piques your curiosity and bewitches you to stay to find out more. And the rest of the storyline is as enthralling. Of course, this is made happened thanks to Tatiana Maslany with her wonderful performance.
GRIPPING, CONSPIRATORY, WELL-TIMED PLOT
A lot of shows start off majestically to boost the rating in the beginning and then totally neglect the storylines later. Orphan Black is not like that, each episode is jam packed with new information, new arcs, new twists and each pieces are important in supporting the entire series to ease into the main conspiracy; not just mindless and useless fluffs just to fill up the time like a lot of TV shows do. Best of all, even with the erratic occurrences happening to different characters simultaneously, the entire show doesn't feel confusing at all. You can easily pick up the storyline even with all the madness going on, and that's what I really like about Orphan Black because sci-fi tv series can get so overly imaginative and confusing at all times but Orphan Black manages to tie everything together while keeping the suspense and entertainment values going.
CHARACTERS DEVELOPMENT
The entire show is about cloning, and how the main character - Sarah Manning along with her clones discovering their origins, purposes and the messy entanglement with their creators.
In the show, the characters actually grow with their experiences along with their emotions. All the characters are not what you expect them to be, one minute you will be hating them for what they have done; another minute you would be questioning their motives, their stands and whether or not you would be doing the same if you were in the same shoes. And the next minute, you would see yourself getting attached to the character you thought you hated in the first place.
The characters are all extremely 3-Dimensional and they grow throughout the shows. There's a lot of element surprises here. Be prepared!
AMAZING CASTS
The main actress is marvellous and with equally impressive supporting actors, actress and with substantial story arcs, you get a mind-blowing show, seriously. A good show cannot only rely on its plot, the casts play very important roles and thankfully, they have picked out all the right ones to represent the characters. And I really like the chemistry between all of them that makes everything feels so right. Oh, and that British accent is something we all cannot miss.
TECHNOLOGICAL MARVELS
I must say the production house behind this show seriously puts in the effort in the technology aspects. Having two identical person in the same screen has never felt so real, for many moments I kept thinking to myself "Tatiana (the main actress) must have twins in real life! This is so real!".
WEIRD SENSE OF HUMOR, IN A GOOD WAY
Despite the dark plot, the show can sometimes be very funny. Watch out for their intelligent dialogues that actually crack you up laughing.
IT MAKES YOU THINK
The show carries more messages than you think. It's not just a simple brilliant written feminist show; It is an indirect representation of our lives in these clones. Even though these women are self-reliant; however in the face of the entire "systems" and the "laws" that been set since ages ago, they keep facing roadblocks; being objectified and have no autonomy towards their own bodies.
These people in the "system" uses these backward laws to govern these women, making claims and modifying their bodies and patenting their genetic codes, thus effectively degrade these people with actual lives to merely company's properties and nothing more.
And also there's the LGBT issues, one of the clones happen to be a brilliant scientist and in one of the scenes where she is supposed to be employed in a big research corporation and all the other person is interested in is her sexuality when it is nothing related to whatever she is going to be working on. Thus her famous quote:
Doesn't this sound exactly like our society works? Stereotypes, labels, objectification and so much more that plague so many people.
Women are haunted by the same "system" and people couldn't look pass one uniqueness of another being just because they are different than what the society dictates them to be.
TATIANA MASLANY
Last but not least, the brilliant brilliant brilliant main actress that makes this show so so real and so so wonderful. The fact that she is juggling 10 characters in the show is not an easy task and what makes it more profound is her ability to insert distinguishable individuality into each characters so perfectly, whether it's the postures, the accents, the way they speak, facial expressions and most importantly it's the eyes.
It's hard enough for an actor to act out or grasp the essence of one character; Tatiana however has been playing all ten. And you could easily differentiate them without any confusion. There are actually plenty of scenes where the other clone has to impersonate the other one; like Sarah impersonation Alison to help her out from her situation, and Tatiana manages to pull all these off perfectly and it's always easy to tell which character she is portraying at the time. If this is not talent, I don't know what really is.
Whether it's the impressive acting skill portrayed by Tatiana and so often proven on screen that she could switch easily to another clone during the impersonation scenes; or the storyline that keeps your curiosity running wild; and the messages that kick your brain thinking; Orphan Black is a good show, ones that deserve more rounds of applause and recognition
Marathon-ing Season 1 and Season 2 throughout the weekends without sleeps is totally worth it.
I just wish Season 3 could come quick enough! And I am just glad to know that a lot of people share the same feel as I that Tatiana Maslany deserves any best actress awards out there! Damn!
