--- title: "Orphan Black" year: 2013 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/orphan-black" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-09-17T18:25:40.559443+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T18:25:41.020829+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Orphan Black (2013) Created by Graeme Manson, John Fawcett · MPA TV-MA · Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 71 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* Tatiana Maslany plays five women and the one in the fleece gilet and headband is the frightening one > Tatiana Maslany’s several performances hold this clone thriller together for five seasons, and they are worth the time on their own. The conspiracy around them grows a new head every year, and somewhere in the fourth we stopped keeping notes. ## Synopsis Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) gets off a train and watches a woman with her own face step in front of the next one. She takes the dead woman’s handbag. The woman was Beth Childs, a police detective with a flat, a boyfriend, Paul Dierden (Dylan Bruce), a partner, Detective Art Bell (Kevin Hanchard), and money in the bank. Sarah wants the money, her daughter Kira (Skyler Wexler), kept by her foster mother Mrs S (Maria Doyle Kennedy), and a way out of town. Her foster brother Felix (Jordan Gavaris) helps; her ex Vic (Michael Mando) does not. Then a second woman with her face turns up, and a third, and one of them keeps a bright suburban kitchen. ## Review *Orphan Black* opens with an old trick, the stranger who takes a dead lookalike’s life, and spends fifty episodes on what happens when the lookalikes keep coming. Sarah Manning, a thief with a bad boyfriend, steps into a dead detective’s shoes and inherits the detective’s question: why are there several of us? John Fawcett and Graeme Manson created it, and it ran for five seasons of ten episodes each. The acting is the reason to watch it. The plot is the reason you may stop. Tatiana Maslany is the whole show and she knows it. Sarah has London vowels, a leather jacket and a habit of looking at exits. Alison, the suburban mother, has a fleece gilet, a headband and a glue gun. Cosima, the geneticist, talks with her hands, wears her glasses pushed up and says “totally” as punctuation. Maslany changes the breathing, the neck, the speed of thought. Debra Hanson and Laurie Drew’s costumes do the first ten seconds of each identification and she does the rest. The first time two of them shared a frame, one handing the other a mug across a kitchen island, we stopped seeing the trick inside a minute, and then felt oddly uneasy about how quickly we had. There is a scene in the first season in which one clone has to impersonate another, badly, in front of people who know her, and Maslany plays a woman playing a woman she does not like. We laughed for most of it and were tense for the rest. She has good company. Jordan Gavaris’s Felix, the foster brother, is a painter with a brick loft, a bathtub in the middle of it and the only reliable moral sense in the cast, and he gets the best lines. Maria Doyle Kennedy plays Mrs S with an Irish flatness that gives nothing away for a long time. Kevin Hanchard’s Art is a decent policeman slowly realising his partner was not who he thought. Kristian Bruun makes Donnie, Alison’s husband, a man out of his depth in his own hallway. Matt Frewer, as Dr Aldous Leekie, lectures on improving the species with the smile of a man selling conservatories. Aaron Morton, David Frazee and Michael Marshall shoot Sarah’s city in grey and underpass orange, Alison’s cul-de-sac in bright flat daylight, and Cosima’s lab in amber, so you know whose episode you are in before anyone speaks. Ian Brock and John Dondertman’s production design does the same work: the loft is paint and exposed brick, Alison’s house is beige and labelled. Trevor Yuile’s score is a low electronic pulse with little tune in it, which suits a show about people who are not sure they are individuals. Eight editors are credited across the run, and the switches from creepy to comic within a scene are cut cleanly enough that we rarely noticed the join. The trouble is everything outside the sisters. A biotech corporation wants them. A religious group wants them. Then the military wants them, and each season adds a faction, a file, a laboratory and a man in a good coat explaining the previous season. Ari Millen is handed a set of his own to play later on, and the show is less sure what to do with them than with hers. Dylan Bruce’s Paul is written as a mystery and played as a blank. By the fourth season we were bored by the conspiracy, then cross about it, because the scenes that were working, three women arguing in Alison’s kitchen, were being rationed to make room for it. As a clone story it never settles between the thoughtful and the pulpy; as a study of nature and upbringing it has one real idea, that the same woman raised in a squat, a cul-de-sac and a graduate programme would be three people, and it proves it every week with a single actress. Watch the first season in a week and decide then. The 18 certificate is earned, mostly by Sarah’s side of the family, and Alison would not approve of any of it. *Fi1m score 74, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Orphan Black, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason: Tatiana Maslany. The reviews return again and again to her work in multiple roles, praising the way she makes each clone feel like a different person rather than a costume change. Beyond the performance, the consensus is that the clone conspiracy emerges quickly enough to hold attention, that the series balances creepy and comic tones with some skill, and that it treats its audience as intelligent. The reservations gather around the premise. More than one review notes that the identity-swap setup is familiar, even where the critic thinks the show gets away with it. Variety goes further, calling the drama mediocre, the early plot close to nonsensical, and the cloning conceit its only distinguishing feature; it also thinks the lead is wasted, which puts it at odds with every other review. The spread is wide: one clear detractor against five admirers. ### Reviews we read (6) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the series thoroughly impressive and wildly entertaining, calling it one of the most intriguingly entertaining new shows of the year with real heft despite its sci-fi elements. They single out Tatiana Maslany's fantastic performance in multiple roles as the standout element driving the addictive and compelling story. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/orphan-black-tv-review-431483/) - **Empire**, William Thomas (70/100, inferred): The critic notes that while the trading-places setup is somewhat familiar, the quick-emerging clone conspiracy keeps the show engaging. It praises how the series balances creepy and comic tones without missing a beat. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/orphan-black-review/) - **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (70/100, inferred): The series starts with a troubled young woman assuming the identity of her lookalike after witnessing her suicide, leading to complications and the discovery of more identical women. It is smart, sometimes funny, stylish and intriguing enough to persevere with. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/sep/21/orphan-black-tv-review) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (35/100, inferred): The review deems Orphan Black a mediocre drama that squanders its lead and feels like a familiar sci-fi take on identity-swap stories. It criticizes the plot as borderline nonsensical at first and lacking distinctiveness beyond the cloning gimmick. [Read](https://variety.com/2013/tv/news/tv-review-orphan-black-spies-of-warsaw-1200327035/) - **Paste**, Josh Jackson (8.8): The critic praises Tatiana Maslany's extraordinary performance playing multiple distinct clones, highlighting how she makes each feel unique, and notes the show's intriguing mystery and blend of sci-fi with themes of identity. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/orphan-black/orphan-black-season-one-review) - **Den of Geek**, Marc Buxton (80/100, inferred): The pilot introduces a morally ambiguous con artist protagonist in a fresh sci-fi conspiracy about clones, with strong performances and respect for the audience's intelligence. It singles out Tatiana Maslany's chameleon-like acting and the grounded humanization of the lead character for praise. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/orphan-black-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Graeme Manson, John Fawcett - **Creator:** Graeme Manson, John Fawcett - **Director:** John Fawcett, David Frazee, Ken Girotti, T.J. Scott, David Wellington, Helen Shaver, Aaron Morton, Grant Harvey, Brett Sullivan, Chris Grismer, Peter Stebbings, Vincenzo Natali - **Writer:** Graeme Manson, Alex Levine, Chris Roberts, Russ Cochrane, Aubrey Nealon, Karen Walton, Renée St. Cyr, Tony Elliott, Aisha Porter-Christie, Jeremy Boxen, Will Pascoe, Nikolijne Troubetzkoy, Jenn Engels, Peter Mohan, Sherry White, David Bezmozgis, Greg Nelson, Kate Miles Melville - **Cinematography:** Aaron Morton, David Frazee, Michael Marshall - **Editor:** Jay Prychidny, D. Gillian Truster, Brett Sullivan, Reginald Harkema, Stephen Lawrence, Stephen Philipson, Stephen Roque, Matthew Anas - **Music:** Trevor Yuile - **Production design:** John Dondertman, Ian Brock - **Costume design:** Debra Hanson, Laurie Drew - **Producer:** Claire Welland, Tatiana Maslany, Alex Levine - **Cast:** Tatiana Maslany as Sarah / Cosima / Alison / Helena / Rachel; Dylan Bruce as Paul Dierden; Jordan Gavaris as Felix 'Fee' Dawkins; Josh Vokey as Scott Smith; Maria Doyle Kennedy as Siobhan 'Mrs. S' Sadler; Michael Mando as Victor 'Vic' Schmidt; Ari Millen as Mark / Rudy / Miller / Ira; Kevin Hanchard as Detective Arthur 'Art' Bell - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 30 March 2013 - **Genres:** Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: buy, uhd - Apple TV: buy, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AT, AU, CA, DE, FR, GB, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Hugo Awards 2015: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (won) - Critics' Choice Awards 2013: Best Drama Actress (won) - TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama 2013: TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama (won) ## If you liked this - *Dead Ringers* (1988), Fi1m 87: Jeremy Irons as twin gynaecologists; Cronenberg’s cold Toronto and one actor’s two faces — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dead-ringers.md) - *Utopia* (2013): British conspiracy thriller in yellow and green, funnier and nastier than this - *Counterpart* (2017): J.K. Simmons meets his other self across a border; spy plot with a brain - *Never Let Me Go* (2010), Fi1m 73: The clone story told quietly, as an English boarding school elegy — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/never-let-me-go.md) - *Killing Eve* (2018), Fi1m 82: Two women, one hunt, and the same knack for switching from funny to frightening — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/killing-eve.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/orphan-black