TL;DR – This is an interesting spin on the original, that works well within the framework that was set, even if it does not quite get the tone right in places.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Orphan Black: Echoes Review –

Back in the day, I was fascinated by this small show out of Canada that took a science fiction concept, in this case, cloning, and took it to the extreme with some of the best acting and weird worlds of subterfuge, rebellion, and secret organisations. During Orphan Black’s five-season run, I was transfixed with each new clone and turn in this world, so you better believe I was excited to find out we were coming back to this universe.

So to set the scene, a woman, Lucy (Krysten Ritter), wakes up with no memory of her past life, with only a therapist (Keeley Hawes) to tell her that she has had a procedure and some of the subtlety of her long-term member might not have worked. After being sedated, the woman is not just going to sit around and breaks out when she finds the house is a fake hidden in a warehouse. But worse still is the room full of body parts, a suspension chamber full of red liquid, and an unfinished artefact of a human. Can they print humans now? And who was the woman they scanned to make this body? Am I the only one who has been printed? We will be looking at the series as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

If I could describe the show, I would say it is a drink of Orphan Black with a dash of Dark Angel stirred through with a shot of The Peripheral and then poured over Westworld. So, I would advise you that this is a bit of a slow burn. We get the opening reveal that someone is printed quite quickly, but seeing how that plays out takes a while to come to fruition. Indeed, you will be finding threads to pull at all the way to the finale episode. I liked the slow burn, even if many plot points could have been alleviated if people picked up their phones. Also, we almost guaranteed some of the character outcomes from the moment they arrived in the show. It was wise to hold the Kira reveal to the end of the first episode and then head straight into the Orphan Black theme song.

Things start accelerating once the three facets of the story crash into each other. Of this, I have to give a shout-out to the casting directors for finding three people, Krysten Ritter, Rya Kihlstedt & Amanda Fix, who honestly feel like they could be the same person at different ages. I like the little things you can see, the similarities between their performances that help sell them as a unit. It also allows the various facets of the story to come crashing into each other, which helps sell the narrative. It was that last twist that you need to push everything forward.

The central mystery that develops feels very familiar initially: a lone character hiding from a secret organisation hunting them down. But as we progress, we start seeing a more layered approach surrounding the billionaire at the heart of it all, Paul Darros (James Hiroyuki Liao). We don’t fully understand his plan until the season’s final episode, but the most interesting thing about his plan is that part of it makes sense. Don’t get me wrong, he is an awful person, but once you see his rationale, you can kind of see where he is coming from as long as you ignore all the eugenics overtones, his self-delusion, oh and the casual murder.   

While I very much liked what we got, it is not a perfect series. Much like its predecessor, it struggles with tone and how it moves from its more light-hearted moments to its quite dark sections. This leads to some odd moments that don’t quite work emotionally. Also, for a series set in the 2050s, it feels very future-light. It felt like they jumped as forward as they did so that the reveal of Kira in the first episode could have hit as hard as it did. However, that led to complications, and makeup choices, that the series could not deal with. Both led to some odd moments throughout the show, but thankfully, not odd enough to ruin the proceedings.

In the end, do we recommend the first season of Orphan Black: Echoes? Yes, we would. Now, you should know that this is not a contained season, so that ending might be frustrating for you, and I am not sure it ultimately landed for me, given how quickly it pivots. Also, if you are hoping for a Tatiana Maslany cameo, it will not be there. However, the cast works well and does work well within the framework that started it all. So, if you are intrigued, I would suggest giving it a look.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Orphan Black: Echoes yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Orphan Black: Echoes
Directed by – John Fawcett, Dawn Wilkinson, Ingrid Jungermann, Samir Reham & Jem Garrard
Written by – Anna Fishko, Sharyn Rothstein, Amy Louise Johnson, C. Quintana, Alex Delyle, Julian Camillieri & Alexis Burgess
Created by – Anna Fishko
Based On – Orphan Black by John Fawcett & Graeme Manson
Production/Distribution Companies – AMC, AMC+, Boat Rocker & Stan.
Starring – Krysten Ritter, Keeley Hawes, Rya Kihlstedt, Amanda Fix, Avan Jogia, James Hiroyuki Liao with Jordan Gavaris, Evelyne Brochu, Kathy Baker, Vinson Tran, Reed Diamond, Tattiawna Jones, August Winter, Jaedan Noel & Marnie McPhail-Diamond and Jonathan Whittaker, Zariella Langford-Haughton, Dayle McLeod, Eva Everett Irving, Adam Kenneth Wilson, Liam Diaz, Alex Castillo, Sandy Crawley, Georgia Leva, Dañiella Velasco-Morales, Beatriz Yuste, Tehya Silbermann, Izad Etemadi, Eman Ayaz, Duane Murray, Mei Chung, Natalie Pereira, Yasmin Lau, Dana Abraham, Paul Bates, Edward de Jaun, Alice Hamid, Milan Deng, Jessica Greco & Fodė Bangoura
Episodes Covered – Pilot, Jules, Pegasus Girl, It’s All Coming Back, Do I Know You?, Unless You Trusted Someone, The Dog’s Honest Truth, Attracting Awful Things & Will She Come Again