Orphan Black - Season 2

Title: Orphan Black

Broadcasting Station: BBC America

Official Synopsis: Season two of BBC AMERICA’s dramatic conspiracy thriller, Orphan Black, hits the ground running with Sarah (Golden Globe® nominee Tatiana Maslany, Parks and Recreation) in a desperate race to find her missing daughter Kira (Skyler Wexler) – a wild pursuit that brings her head-to-head with ruthless pro-clone, Rachel (Maslany). This season also rejoins Sarah’s clone sisters Alison (Maslany) and Cosima (Maslany) as they struggle to keep their clone world a secret and pick up the pieces of their broken lives – all while dealing with the harsh reality that no one around them can be trusted. 

Official Page

Official Trailer

  *This TV series has been rated TV-MA, for mature audiences.*


STEPH SAID

Rating: 

Review:

Politics and power plays are at the center of this season. This season is all about trust; the main clones, along with the viewers, won't be able to decide who to trust. Everyone seem to have a hidden agenda, which leads to many scams, betrayals and lots of suspense. The episodes were so packed, that many times the development of the story was implied through one line. For example, why waste time telling a new character the clone story when the viewer already knows it? Better skip ahead to when the character is fully informed and is O.K. with the idea of clones. This leaves more time for plot development. This is how TV should be: quick, resourceful, and rich in drama.

I still cannot believe that Tatiana Maslany hasn't received an Emmy nomination. She is so wonderful, that I regularly forget that it is her, the same actress, who portrays all of the clones. Maslany is so great, that you can tell when she is acting as a character who is acting as another. She can act as Sarah acting as Alison or Cosima, and you can tell. Maslany is also full of surprises. Just when you begin to believe you have seen it all, she goes on to act as a man. I was speechless. She even looked more “manly” Jordan Gavaris, than who plays her foster brother.

Thoughts about recurrent/minor characters are as follow. A) Angie is getting on my nerves. She is the character that I disliked the most. I dislike her even more that I dislike Rachel. B) I don't know what to think of Cal yet, since I barely know him. C) I was glad to see Helena again. I know she is evil, but, to me, she is only misguided. That is why she is so crazy, and yet so gullible and naive at the same time. D) Scott's personality added a nice touch to the story. The scene where he is playing a board game with his friends, and Cosima joins them was pretty funny. E) It was so nice to see Death – I mean Ben, as a minor character. F) Last, but not least, is Donnie. He surprised me this season. He went from an annoying idiot to a budding bad-ass in one episode.

The ending was both surprising and promising. I didn't see it coming. I was a bit lost during the final minutes of the finale. It had too much coded talk too fast, at least for me. Still, the big message came across easily enough. And, once I knew what is was, I was left craving more Orphan Black.

Orphan Black - Season 1

Title: Orphan Black

Year: 2013

Broadcasting Station: BBC America

Official Page

Official Synopsis: Sarah [is] an outsider and orphan whose life changes dramatically after witnessing the suicide of a woman who looks just like her. Sarah assumes her identity, her boyfriend and her bank account. But instead of solving her problems, the street smart chameleon is thrust headlong into a kaleidoscopic mystery. She makes the dizzying discovery that she and the dead woman are clones… but are they the only ones? Sarah quickly finds herself caught in the middle of a deadly conspiracy and must race to find answers about who she is and how many others there are just like her.

*This TV series has been rated TV-MA, for mature audiences.*

STEPH SAID

Rating:

Review:

This new series caught me by surprise and hooked me from the get go. Orphan Black is a marvelous and intense roller coaster ride from beginning to end. Every episode will have you on the edge of your seat; you won't know who to trust or what to believe. Your whole world and reality will be turned upside down.

The first half of the season is more intense and thrilling. The main characters are focused on covering their tracks and running away. However, halfway through the season the intensity starts to decline, which was good, because I thought I was going to get a heart attack watching the first episodes. During the second part of the series the main characters focus on getting some answers and understanding their life. 

That second part is what I didn't enjoy as much. Don't get me wrong. It was good, interesting and intriguing. But, at this point many characters and subplots were introduced really fast and the episodes felt packed and unnecessarily complicated.

Every actor of this TV series was fantastic. My biggest surprise was 7-years-old Skyler Wexler. Her enactment of Sarah's daughter, Kira, was perfect. Her performing caliber was equal to the adults' in the series. Nevertheless, the actress that shines the brightest is Tatiana Maslany, who plays the clones. She excelled at her various performances; managing to create a completely different character for each of her roles. Her performance of each  clone is unique. Maslany didn't conform with using various costumes to differentiate each clone. She used different language, attitudes, personalities, traits and mannerisms, and the result was extraordinary. I still have trouble wrapping my head around the brilliance of her performance, how one actress managed to make so many women that look alike behave so different.

*SPOILERS below*

I wasn't too happy with the ending. I loved the progress made and the new questions that were posed in it, but I didn't like Cosima and Sarah's reaction to the patent. I mean, this is a sketchy company that got away with something as huge as human cloning, they can get away with anything. The only way to break them is from the inside. No matter if Sarah and Cosima signed or if they didn't, Neolution (or however the actual organization is called) would still own them. However, if they had signed the contracts maybe they would've had more liberty to find some answers. Neolution gave them an opportunity and they didn't get it, now things will be done Neolution way. Which means things will be a lot harder and painful for Cosima and Sarah. Being on the run and trying to break an organization that is tracking your every move and that won't think twice before killing someone that is in the way is not an easy feat. They should have signed and tried to gain the organization's trust. 

Fortunately, this didn't put a damper on the series. I still love and recommend it. Hopefully, it will make something good out of this situation on season two.