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Orphan Black - Natural Selection
episode 1.1
Canada 2013
produced by Claire Welland, John Fawcett (executive), David Fortier (executive), Graeme Manson (executive), Ivan Schneeberg (executive) for Temple Street Productions, Bell Media/BBC (BBC America)
directed by John Fawcett
starring Tatiana Maslany, Dylan Bruce, Jordan Gavaris, Kevin Hanchard, Michael Mando, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Inga Cadranel, Ron Lea, Skyler Wexler, Elizabeth Saunders, Domenico Fiore, Justin Skye Conley, Diana Salvatore, Nicholas Rose, Ivan Sherry, Marqus Bobesich, Jamila Fleming, Jean-Michel Le Gal, Janette Luu, Denika Ellis-Dawson, Joanne Reece, Audra Yulanda Gray, Eileen Li
written by Graeme Manson, created by Graeme Manson, John Fawcett, music by Trevor Yuile
TV-series Orphan Black
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) is a small time crook, usually struggling to
make ends meet. But now whe has stolen a stash of cocaine from her ex Vic
(Michael Mando), and the money she plans to make from it she wants to
spend on a better life for her and her daughter, presently in foster care.
But then, she sees a woman on a train platform committing apparent suicide
by jumping right in front of a train - and the spooky part is, that woman,
Beth, looked just like her. Something urges Sarah to steal the woman's
purse, and based on the striking similarity between the two and the fact
that the Beth seems to be way better off, Sarah decides to assume her
identity, just for a little while - and when she rummages through the
other woman's house, she soon figures she has hit the jackpot, as Beth
apparently has a bank account worth $75,000 - money Sarah could well use.
So she trains to impersonate the other woman, learns to forge her
signature, goes to the bank ... and gets the money, plus a briefcase
containing Beth's birth certificate, which worries her more than a little, as
the two seem to also share their birthday.
Meanwhile, Vic has of course found out that Sarah has stolen his money,
so she and her gay foster brother/best friend Felix (Jordan Gavaris)
decide to stage her death - after all, if Sarah can go as Beth, dead Beth
can as easily replace Sarah ... and it works out, to a point where Vic and
Felix organize a memorial service for Sarah.
Sarah in the meantime has to find out that Beth was actually an
undercover cop who's under investigation for shooting an unarmed woman,
and she could face consequences for that, even if presently she still
manages to wing her way through the whole affair, and she even manages to
convince Beth's boyfriend she's Beth. But then one day, a woman, Katja
(Tatiana Maslany), jumps into her car who looks exactly like her, tells
her to drive ... and is shot in the head by some sniper. And suddenly
Sarah has to come to the conclusion she has taken a bigger bite than she
can chew on ...
A pretty promising first episode that succeeds in setting up
the overall premise of the series while telling it as a pretty compelling
story of its own - a nice mystery peppered with plenty of action, carried
by a flawed and relateable main character, with plenty of strong to
eccentric characters to add colour to the proceedings. Of course, it
remains to be seen if the series manages to keep up the momentum, but it's
definitely an opener that makes one want to see more.
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