oh hello

This genre-spanning thriller about human cloning is so committed to its out-there premise that it employs a science advisor to keep its fringe genetics on the up and up. Like all great science fiction, the BBC America show spins out from an all-too-real premise: the commodification of women’s bodies by those in power. But Orphan Black’s true secret weapon is virtuoso actor Tatiana Maslany, who’s slipped into the skin of 11 different characters and counting, from a cockney con artist to a tightly wound soccer mom to a fanatical serial killer. A show that could get bogged down in its million conspiracies remains compulsively engaging thanks to whip-smart dialogue and that mesmerizing central performance. JS