- Network: AMC , BBC America , AMC+
- Series Premiere Date: Jun 23, 2024
Critic Reviews
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Ritter and Fix infuse enough charm in their characters for the audience to remain mostly engaged until the end. Although some revelations are gasp-worthy, other plot points — including Darros’ secret plan — feel rather uninspired for the “Orphan Black” universe.
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The original Orphan Black was more fun. .... If the sequel is more dour meditation on loss, mortality and the possibilities and pitfalls of rebirth, the first season builds to some shocking climatic jolts, begging for renewal. [24 Jun - 14 Jul 2024]
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The new show does a decent job threading the needle in terms of providing a connection to its namesake while establishing a separate set of stakes and characters that stand on their own. That said, Ritter’s role isn’t as conspicuously showy as Maslany’s was, which largely defined that series.
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None of the acting shines the way Maslany did the first time around. “Echoes” offers fan service at best but too often it’s just a degraded copy of the original “Orphan Black” series.
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If you make it through the clumsy series introductions and weather the pointless linkages to Orphan Black, Echoes has its pleasures — starting with Fix, Liao, Hawes and Kihlstedt. What it lacks is that thrill of discovery. Compared to Orphan Black, it’s but a distant echo.
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Echoes doesn’t have anything unique to add to the wonderful world Orphan Black built. Even the color palette is paler here. And the few reminders that this is indeed a sequel (with the help of some cameos and references) either feel forced or random.
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A disappointingly mediocre follow-up that lacks the unique spark of the original and isn’t interesting enough to justify how convoluted it is.
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The show’s curiosity about the nature of memory and experience has a poignant allure, but it wastes its questions and answers on stock characters and blank vessels. A few characters from the original pop up, but only in hollow ways that highlight the new show’s absence of chemistry. Copies of copies deteriorate. Echoes, too.
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The series’ concerns with memory are an interesting development from its original ideas of free will, but the writing isn’t strong enough to allow this to truly take off. This spinoff feels like it's coming not only too late but without any real care for the story or its characters.
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It feels less like a sequel to the original, continuing its ideas in a new format, and more like a cheap remake; change a few names, and it could be a completely different project, with almost no throughline to the original beyond Kira’s name.