Warning: Spoilers follow for the current and
past seasons of Orphan Black.
Surprisingly,
I’ve only written about Orphan Black once
before, in a
massive post about a bunch of other shows two years ago. (Tangent: Man, I was REALLY off
on Last Week Tonight, but in my
defense, the first dozen shows or so, it was still finding its footing.) Orphan Black is one of my favorite
weekly dramas, although with the caveat that the first season is the height of
the series. The show is currently in its fourth, which has done a lot of good
work in righting the ship from the rocky second and third seasons.
The show is
anchored by Tatiana Maslany, who does incredible work as a slew of clones. The
primary one is still Sarah Manning, who’s Irish-y and street smart, but Helena –
the psychotic, Russian-y serial killer and soon-to-be mother – has been my
favorite lately. Maslany gets to alternate between various character types,
with the work being so convincing that I sometimes forget it’s one actress
playing all the roles. In particular, Helena, Alison and Cosima are completely
developed and separate characters played well by Maslany.
The current
season has worked better than the previous two because they’ve backgrounded
some of the super-duper secret conspiracy stuff. I mean, this is Orphan Black, so there is still plenty, like
with a new clone that’s an elite hacker. However, they successfully drift away
from the “don’t trust anyone!” stuff and into a slightly more grounded
storyline that reveals around Sarah trying to follow the leads left by a
now-deceased police officer clone, Beth Childs.
However, one
element of this season seems more pronounced than the last three – There is WAY
more gruesome, gory scenes and images. If you love dental horror, and the idea
of parasitic synthetic beings lodged in people’s jaws, then this is a wonderful
season for you! If you’re like the rest of the human race though, you have to
tolerate these scenes before getting back to the regular storyline. Also, by
the way, season four is darker than the previous three, if you couldn’t guess
that. The latest episode on May 12 featured a badly deformed baby and another
clone who essentially condemned an 8-year-old to die.
While I
think this year the show is greatly improved, the prognosis of the show going
forward probably depends a lot on whether they can stick the landing on the
season four ending and attract some new viewers. The viewing numbers have been
between 210,000 and 270,000 for the first five episodes, which are pretty
dreadful. It’s cofounded by Canada’s CTV and BBC America, and Netflix is also
involved with international distribution, but it’s definitely not a cheap show
to produce. It was a late renewal last year, and there is no word on a season
five yet.
Plus,
Maslany’s price tag probably climbs higher each year, given that the show is 90
percent her, and she’s definitely going to be getting more and more buzz in the
entertainment biz. It would help if the show could find some better talent to
surround Maslany with as well, since she’s basically in the role of LeBron
James on the 2007 Cavs.
She can only carry the meek supporting cast so far.
The picture of Maslany as Krystal, the
bubbly, blonde bimbo of the Clone World, is from this
Wall Street Journal write-up last year. And also, Krystal is awesome, a nice
bit of levity in a fairly dark season.
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