Orphan Black

In its third season, Orphan Black is both falling victim to its complexity and is all the stronger for it.

We enter the third season following a shocking discovery that adds a delicious new dimension to the series: Dyad is only one of two cloning projects.

The good news is, Sarah, Cosima and the other clones retain most of the real estate in this gorgeously grimy biothriller, and watching the established characters relate to each other is still a lot of fun.

Matters are only getting more complicated and dangerous for Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) and her sister clones as season three of Orphan Black gets under way. The consolation is that this is good for viewers, who get to enjoy watching the show skillfully weave ever more complex entanglements.

Some story points, annoyingly, are dropped between the April 18 and April 25 episodes.... Even with a terrific supporting cast, Maslany is this show.

A menacing batch of Project Castor boy clones (Ari Millen) proves some spark. More please. Orphan Black needs a jump start of imagination that can produce stories worthy of its electrifying star. [17/24 Apr 2015, p.105]

There are sufficient twists in the new episodes that keep the action moving while preventing me from revealing too much. The pace is swift, the tension runs high--except, perhaps, for the Alison clone, whose suburban soccer mom is used most frequently for comic relief.

The plot focus this year will surely be on the discovery of a male series of clones, Project Castor, all played by actor Ari Millen. It’s a welcome re-set that may prevent Orphan Black from becoming more complicated than it already is.

It’s always interesting--Maslany is particularly transcendent when she acts as one clone disguised as another clone, which occurs again in season 3, and the show even finds a way to introduce waterboarding into its already politically charged narrative. But Orphan Black lost its grip on the story sometime early in season 2, and introducing even more characters has not proven to be a way to reclaim it.

There are enough converging storylines to keep those who have become invested in the program hooked right up until the end.... From the perspective of someone who never fully bought into the premise, however, the series remains a modest diversion, with curiosity about the current story tempered by the dizzying contortions.