Orphan Black Finds a Home

Article first published as Orphan Black Finds a Home on TheTVKing.

BBC America's latest venture, partnered with a Canadian production, is Orphan Black, a dark, twisty, genre series. As the pilot, "Natural Selection," begins, Sarah (Tatiana Maslany, World Without End) is returning to town, on the run from her drug-dealing boyfriend, Vic (Michael Mando, Les Bleus de Ramville), from whom she has stolen a stash. Sarah's intention is to get her daughter, Kira (Skyler Wexler, Alphas), whom she abandoned, back, and run away again with kid and money from the stolen drugs.

But it doesn't work out quite that way. It isn't that Sarah's plan is flawed; it is, of course, but that's not the issue. Instead, Sarah completely throws out her old play book when a new opportunity arises, but going into the second scheme blind, she flails and can't make the clean escape she hopes to.

See, while Sarah is standing on a subway platform, she sees someone that looks just like her jump in front of a train and die. Sarah finds the woman's purse, and, after realizing the mysterious Beth has a large bank account, decides to assume her identity. The intention is to only take over the persona for the time it takes to make a withdrawal, but circumstances conspire against her, and she is soon trapped in the new role.

I don't think Sarah is just being greedy and foolish when she decides to become Beth, although given her less than stellar background, it's likely that both of those play into it. Instead, we get the extra layer of Sarah having grown up in the foster system, not knowing her family or where she comes from. Seeing Beth is a tantalizing lure, a chance to discover her origin, and maybe even find the parents she never knew. Most anyone in Sarah's situation would be drawn into Beth's world.

Unfortunately, Sarah acts rashly. Knowing that she doesn't have time to get Beth's money before the woman is declared dead, Sarah asks her foster brother, Felix (Jordan Gavaris, Unnatural History), to go to the morgue and identify the corpse as being Sarah. This is effective, of course, but Sarah realizes too late the implications of being considered dead, not only trapping her in Beth's swiftly unraveling world, but also making her daughter that much harder to get back.

Sarah is a very sympathetic character. She may have made a lot of mistakes, and the "Pilot" shows she isn't done making them, but she also has a heart, evidenced by her love of her daughter, and she's put in a situation where we feel for her. Confused and curious, intelligent and resourceful, Sarah's emotional center is easy to understand, whether one can relate or not, and her rocky upbringing excuses some of the criminal behavior.

Beth isn't so lucky. She is under investigation after having shot someone, and she's a cop. She has a live-in boyfriend named Paul (Dylan Bruce, As the World Turns), and a partner named Art (Kevin Hanchard, Savage Planet), who wants her to resolve the shooting issue, something Sarah will have trouble doing, since she didn't actually shoot anyone.

We're quite a bit into this review, and I haven't even gotten to the sci-fi hook yet. Sarah is a clone. I think. The promos for Orphan Black point to this situation, and not only do we meet Beth in the "Natural Selection," we also meet a Russian doppelganger, too, who is soon murdered. So on top of everything I've just mentioned, which makes for quite a bit going on in Sarah and Beth's lives, there's a whole conspiracy that will need to be explored.

Orphan Black is dense and fast paced, but don't let that scare you off. Somehow, it lays out each piece of the puzzle in a way that one can grasp, even when tossed down into chaos. We certainly don't know what's going on by the end of the "Natural Selection," but despite the brisk movement of the story, it's not difficult to keep the individual elements straight. It's a masterfully written story, surely developed into a fully-formed world that will be shown to us bit by bit.

By necessity, the series rests mainly on Maslany's shoulders. Those who have seen the commercials know that she will be playing several characters on a regular basis, but even just with the two short-lived ones in the "Natural Selection," she does an amazing job of differentiating them from Sarah. They may look alike, but they don't feel like they're the same person, with completely different facial expressions, moods, and body language. She has a firm grasp of who is who, and balances them brilliantly.

I did feel the weak spot is that Paul is taken in by her so easily. He notices that her hair is longer, but he still falls into bed with her. Of course, perhaps Paul already knows about the clones, realizes this isn't his Beth, and decides to sleep with her anyway. This would make him a pretty messed up guy, but since Beth certainly doesn't it have things together, either, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that she'd end up with a sleazeball.

Besides Sarah, I really like the characters of Felix and Vic. Felix is Sarah's flamboyant foster brother, and while he cares about her, he is also a scoundrel who looks out for his own neck and wallet. Vic comes in as a total jerk, but learning that "Sarah" has died, falls apart in a way that shows he really does care, even if he didn't know how to show it to her. And by putting Felix and Vic together in this first hour as sort of an odd couple, the series get some entertaining moments. I hope their plots stay intertwined for awhile.

Obviously, crap will hit the fan, and Sarah's scheme will blow up in her face. However, as it does, we have this roller coaster thrill ride of very well-made television, a sort of deeper Ringer with better character development and more complex interactions. Well done, indeed.

Orphan Black airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET on BBC America.