Holy doodle, here we go.

So the first thing I want to talk about is in my opinion one of the best shows on television. The lead actress is so incredible she causes an uproar when she doesn’t get an Emmy nomination, and then again when she doesn’t win. This show is making people realize that Science Fiction is an incredible genre that deserves recognition and shouldn’t just be thrown to the side during award season. The show I’m talking about is Orphan Black.

Orphan Black opens by introducing us to one of the main characters, Sarah Manning. She is, in the words of Paul, a “punk rock hoe”, who has come to her home in Canada to get her daughter back Kira back from her foster mother Mrs. S. Things don’t exactly go as planned though when Sarah runs into a woman on the train platform who looks exactly identical to her. Think Parent Trap but with a less happy “reunion”. Then as soon as they look at each other the woman, looking defeated, turns and walks on to the tracks getting hit by a train and killing herself. Then Sarah steals her purse, decides to have her foster brother say that Sarah is the one who killed herself, take the dead woman’s identity, con her bank and steal all of her money, and then run away with Kira with all of the money she steals. And that’s just the first 15 minutes. The rest of season one involves corporate espionage, illegal cloning experiments, a Ukrainian serial killer, murder, and a kidnapping. And again, that’s only season one. The show only escalates from there.

Now It is a clone show, so there has to be someone playing two characters right? Or twins who are both actors play the characters! That’s it! Yeah no that’s not it. This is the reason that people cause an uproar when this woman isn’t nominated for an Emmy. Tatiana Maslany plays every clone on the show. Oh and she also plays clones pretending to be other clones. She’s so good, she confuses her own mother when she’s watching the show. As of now shes played: Sarah, Cosima, Alison, Katja Beth, Helena, Rachel, Jennifer, Tony, Krystal, as well as a tiny imaginary scorpion named Pupok. The title of this post is actually one of my favorite quotes from Alison. Along with holy freaking Christmas cake and what the dickens.  

This show’s importance doesn’t just sit with the incredible acting done by the entire cast, but with its incredible plot that introduces all different kinds of people and doesn’t define them in their “typical” roles. There was a transgender character on the show in an episode along with multiple gay and lesbian characters. There may even be a bisexual character but due to the nature of the show to not focus on that aspect of people’s lives we don’t know for sure. The show focuses on people and how far they are willing to go to protect the people they care about. It also shows how families aren’t always blood. Family is what you want it to be and the people in your life who will fight for you and do whatever it takes to protect you. This isn’t always an easy task and sometimes sacrifices have to be made, and those aren’t always easy to make. Felix summed it all up when he told Krystal (an unaware clone), “The only thing you need to know is that you are one of a kind. You’re a survivor, Krystal, and you’re not alone.” People are stronger when they band together. Sarah starts off the show fighting for herself and by herself, but by season 3 she has the equivalent of a small army backing her up. They are stronger together and face the unimaginable and sometimes they lose, but they do it together.

The show deals with a lot of issues such as bodily control, forgiveness, family, protecting those you care about, sacrifice, gender roles, LGBTQIA issues, and the empowerment of women. If you are looking for mystery sci-fi adventure thriller that also tackles serious moral dilemmas then this is definitely the show for you.