I'm so glad Orphan Black is finally on Netflix!!! Great show esp. for when it was made!
Last edited Thu Sep 18, 2025, 03:14 AM - Edit history (1)
It's a BBC America series from 2012-2017, begun before CGI could make the feats done in this show simple. The direction, editing, and filming techniques are just brilliant, its considered a landmark technical feat, again, for it's era. If you watch for this kind of thing, you'll constantly be wondering at how many of the scenes were put together, and the production feels very much like a labor of love.
I was turned onto it after 3 seasons had aired, which we binge-watched back in 2015 I think it was, then had to wait for the new seasons (there's 5 total). The ending of every season is always a notable episode, with huge cliffhangers, but now one does not have to deal with waiting 
And very UNLIKE "Lost", the ending episodes of Season 5 are humdingers that pull things together PRETTY well, and you won't be left hanging and shaking your head like in that insipid show 
Put it like this, I'm on my 4th run through over the past 10 years, and I've paid for seasons of it when it was on-demand on Prime at one time, (and I have one season on DVD) even though I'd already seen them. It's one of my all-time fave shows 
If you've managed to never hear about this show or know what its about, it's REALLY cool to just start watching it as "cold" as possible, as we did, we just read it was great and checked it out, and we were hooked. Myself by the end of episode 1, my partner after 3 episodes. I advise: don't check the wiki, don't try to learn anything about it. Just known that the lead address Tatiana Maslany was nominated for a number of awards during its run, and I believe some of the technical crew as well. She is pretty freaking amazing in it, and every scene is very well acted, by everybody.
It's basically a wild twisty-turny conspiracy show, with a great many sci-fi elements, but Star Wars or Stranger Things it is not. More like secret advanced technology stuff. It's extremely binge-worthy, and does a great job of distracting one from outside reality. Don't watch it right before bed because there's a sense of SOME kind of peril for a LOOOOT of this show.
Lastly it's also VERY girl-power in nature 
in fact I'd say at least one female is onscreen probably 90% of the time, and these ladies are all bad-asses in their own way, fighting a dangerous "establishment". If this sounds like it could be up your alley, you're almost certainly right 
Disclosure: it is NOT for the faint of heart. Nudity is at a minimum, in fact the only naked body part is the hot gay friend's butt (he paints in like, chaps lol) and only a few sex-scenes, and they're not particularly graphic. These are straight scenes, but there's also gay/lesbian kissing and relationships. There's a trans character for a brief time. Swearing is definitely there, but its sensibly done, fits the scene, not gratuitous or annoying. There IS a fair amount of gore, but a lot of it is of the medical type, like a Bones episode. So yeah, no big there.
BUT it's also pretty violent at times. Some people get beaten pretty badly, there's probably maybe 5 of those, like 1 per season I'd say. People die, often, and it can be bloody, but there's not like brains blown onto the wall level of violence (it ain't Tarantino). There is one suicide, in the first episode but it's over quickly and not graphic (though this character is later seen in the morgue and its not pretty), and it's critical to the storyline. There is a very little bit of self-harm (cutting) by a mentally unstable character but only a few second a couple of times. Lastly there is a little girl that's in constant danger (and absolutely adorable) but except for one accident where she's injured, it's always just implied by the storyline and what's going on around her, what she's in the middle of, she is not subjected to direct peril.
SO, solid MA rating, but not too over the top unless you're fairly sensitive to violence and/or occasional gore, usually medical in nature.
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