Season two premiers tonight at 9 on BBC America. (I’ll get to see it tomorrow when it’s released for streaming.) If you saw season one you probably love it, and you’d hate to miss the second season, so you’re welcome.
BBC America “Orphan Black” page
If you haven’t seen the first season, you really missed some good science fiction and some amazing acting.
Teeny tiny spoiler alert: The first sentence of the next paragraph discloses the premise of the show, which was revealed early in the first season. It’s essential to understanding the show, and also, reading the spoiler in a review is what inspired me to binge-watch the first season, so I’m paying it forward.
The star Tatiana Maslany does the most amazing job portraying nine clones (and counting). There, that’s the premise and the spoiler. Each was raised separately, in different countries, and she portrays each as a distinct individual. And then just to blow your mind further, sometimes she plays one clone impersonating another, and she and the audience never lose track. That’s some recursive acting.
She’s backed up by good camera work and magical post production, and I’ve seen as many as four clones on-screen, interacting, touching, walking in front of each other…this isn’t your childhood cheezy split screen with the actor careful to never cross the invisible center line.
Toward the end of the first season, Matt Frewer appears. I won’t spoil his character, but it’s the cherry on top.
Great show. Watch it. If you missed season 1, it’s out there to binge catch-up.
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Can I Stream It? lists where the show is available online. Nowhere free, I’m afraid, but season one is “free” with an Amazon Prime membership, and “free” online if you have a cable subscription through Xfinity. I just recently discovered vudu.com, which has the unique advantage of distributing real actual HD–!!!1080!!!–but the unique disadvantage that it’s all a-la-carte and nothing’s even “free”. But I just paid $28 for the Orphan Black season pass to see it in Real HD, and I expect to get my money’s worth.