Scan barcode
A review by dr_matthew_lloyd
Orphan Black: The Next Chapter by Heli Kennedy, Lindsay Smith, E.C. Myers, Malka Older, Madeline Ashby, Tatiana Maslany, Mishell Baker
4.0
This review will contain spoilers for the television series Orphan Black throughout, literally starting with the final episode, "To Right the Wrongs of Many". It's been more than two years and you're reading reviews of the sequel series, but I thought it fair to warn you anyway.
One thing that I've loved about the finale of Orphan Black since I watched it two years ago, which was re-kindled as I re-watched it while listening to this series, is that the conspiracy storyline wraps up pretty much halfway through the episode, and is then just... done. Helena gives birth, and then we see where these characters go next - Helena, raising her babies; Alison's music; Cosima and Delphine travelling the world to cure the Ledas; Sarah continuing to mess up raising Kira. Once all this was over with, they still had lives to go back to - well, except Rachel - and that life continued. With some sequel series or expanded universes, you do have to wonder if it's necessary. With Orphan Black, the finale set the stage for it to work.
It's eight years later. Cosima and Delphine, now married, live in Toronto where Delphine has a high-profile medical ethics job while Cosima's career has stalled as a result of her paranoia about the limelight. They play occasional host to junior clone, Charlotte, and undergrad at U of T, and seventeen-year-old Kira when she runs away from her Mom who has moved out of town. In a bid to kick-start her career, Cosima attends an interview at GRIT - the Genetics Research Institute of Toronto - with Dr Nathaniel Sturgis. Unbeknownst to Cosima, Sturgis is under surveillance by CIA operative Vivi Valdez - a woman to whom she bears a striking resemblance....
Here are some things that I loved about Orphan Black: The Next Chapter. The continuing story admits that there are difficulties to surviving in a heavily surveilled world when you are one of 274 genetically identical clones that extend beyond the convoluted conspiracy theories surrounding your creation. The story shifts focus from the four central clones of the television series to focus more on Kira and Charlotte, the children who have grown up with their own problems connected to their clone families, and who have very different perspectives on how they should exist in the world. The bit-parts played by other clones from the series (Krystal but especially Rachel ), and how they react to events in this continuation. And, of course, that it was narrated by Tatiana Maslany, who does fantastic versions of Delphine and Art, can still do all the voices of the clones she played, and is only let down by her complete inability to do Felix. It's impossible to imagine this story continuing without her in some capacity, although the coda was very cool too .
I was less keen - or perhaps better to say, not completely sold - on certain other aspects.I'm not sure that there needed to be a second generation of CIA created clones, given the huge difficulties established in the show with repeating the experiment that created projects Leda and Castor. Had Dana and her 'cousins' played more of a role, perhaps I wouldn't have minded, but it did seem for the most part like these could have all been Leda clones. Then there's my on-going difficulty with the character of Helena, whose sestras always seem to have liberated her from her abusive upbringing as a cold-blooded assassin so that they could use her as their own cold-blooded assassin. I feel like Helena needs a more complicated redemption arc than she's even been granted, but instead she's raising her eight-year-old twins in the wilderness as hunter killers, so I guess that's not going to happen.
The weird thing about the story is that I followed it and it made sense. The labyrinthine double-crossing conspiracies upon conspiracies of the television show have been replaced by the kind of plot you might expect from a group of science fiction writers interested in tech ethics, the ramifications of bioengineering, and good storytelling. A couple of things from the television show seem to have been dropped (Kira's psychic connection to all of the Leda clones, for example), but maybe they'll show up in the next series.
Fundamentally, Orphan Black TNC maintains the feel of the show (assisted by the narration and the soundtrack, to be fair), respects and cares about the characters, while also taking the story in new and interesting directions. It's about all you could want from a continuation of a beloved television series.
One thing that I've loved about the finale of Orphan Black since I watched it two years ago, which was re-kindled as I re-watched it while listening to this series, is that the conspiracy storyline wraps up pretty much halfway through the episode, and is then just... done. Helena gives birth, and then we see where these characters go next - Helena, raising her babies; Alison's music; Cosima and Delphine travelling the world to cure the Ledas; Sarah continuing to mess up raising Kira. Once all this was over with, they still had lives to go back to - well, except Rachel - and that life continued. With some sequel series or expanded universes, you do have to wonder if it's necessary. With Orphan Black, the finale set the stage for it to work.
It's eight years later. Cosima and Delphine, now married, live in Toronto where Delphine has a high-profile medical ethics job while Cosima's career has stalled as a result of her paranoia about the limelight. They play occasional host to junior clone, Charlotte, and undergrad at U of T, and seventeen-year-old Kira when she runs away from her Mom who has moved out of town. In a bid to kick-start her career, Cosima attends an interview at GRIT - the Genetics Research Institute of Toronto - with Dr Nathaniel Sturgis. Unbeknownst to Cosima, Sturgis is under surveillance by CIA operative Vivi Valdez - a woman to whom she bears a striking resemblance....
Here are some things that I loved about Orphan Black: The Next Chapter. The continuing story admits that there are difficulties to surviving in a heavily surveilled world when you are one of 274 genetically identical clones that extend beyond the convoluted conspiracy theories surrounding your creation. The story shifts focus from the four central clones of the television series to focus more on Kira and Charlotte, the children who have grown up with their own problems connected to their clone families, and who have very different perspectives on how they should exist in the world. The bit-parts played by other clones from the series (
I was less keen - or perhaps better to say, not completely sold - on certain other aspects.
The weird thing about the story is that I followed it and it made sense. The labyrinthine double-crossing conspiracies upon conspiracies of the television show have been replaced by the kind of plot you might expect from a group of science fiction writers interested in tech ethics, the ramifications of bioengineering, and good storytelling. A couple of things from the television show seem to have been dropped (Kira's psychic connection to all of the Leda clones, for example), but maybe they'll show up in the next series.
Fundamentally, Orphan Black TNC maintains the feel of the show (assisted by the narration and the soundtrack, to be fair), respects and cares about the characters, while also taking the story in new and interesting directions. It's about all you could want from a continuation of a beloved television series.