You Really Need To Start Watching Orphan Black Already. Here’s Why.

January is the worst/best time to be a compulsive TV fan in Australia. Just as you’re finally being lured outdoors by warm weather and boozy BBQs, those pesky American and British networks are tempting you back to the couch with a slew of new and returning series. One minute, you’re packing for the beach; the next, you’re frantically YouTubing the season premiere of Girls, because Lena Dunham’s nude antics wait for no one. Yeah! Screw you, sun!

Also not helping matters: Australian free-to-air’s glorious ‘slow-tracking’ method, which brings hit international series to our shores mere months after their popularity has been globally exhausted (and by which time you’ve probably pirated the whole damn thing, anyway). The latest latecomer to the mix is Orphan Black, which premieres tomorrow night on SBS2. The sci-fi thriller first earned notice last June, not long after Patton Oswalt projectile-vomited a series of tweets praising its knotty debut season — and, more specifically, its star Tatiana Maslany.

I mean, Patton really liked the show. He liked it so much he morphed into a walking, talking ‘For Your Consideration’ ad, trying to land Maslany an Emmy nomination. A few weeks after posting those loved-up tweets, he was still foaming at the mouth. Maslany, he declared to Buzzfeed, “should be nominated because she’s the best actress ALIVE!”

She wasn’t nominated.

But whatever. The show had already crossed from minor curiosity to full-blown cult phenomenon by that point, and Maslany was indeed the primary reason for its unexpected success. Make that the seven primary reasons: as the season unfolds, the Canadian actress ultimately embodies a host of distinctly drawn characters in a feat of acting that, if not exactly “game-changing” or “Day-Lewisesque”, is still a must-see for serious students of the tube.

Orphan Black’s opening moments are deceptive: they carry the air of a middling crime-of-the-week procedural, but almost immediately morph into something far more sinister — and a lot more intriguing. A street-smart young woman named Sarah (played by Maslany) disembarks a train, picks up a payphone and yells down the line, demanding to speak to somebody named Kira. Rebuffed, she hangs up and skulks away, only to notice a woman down the platform placing her jacket, shoes and handbag on the ground. Sarah approaches the woman, who turns around. She is teary-eyed and dazed, and she LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE SARAH!!!! And because Orphan Black is the kind of show that wants your jaw to drop to the rug at least 18 times per episode, she then walks directly into the path of an oncoming train and goes splat.

Bye bye, mysterious doppelganger lady. Hello, Sarah’s new identity!

Just over three minutes into episode 1, and already there are enough unanswered questions to fuel an entire season of plot. What is Sarah’s deal? Who was she calling? Why does she need to see Kira? Who is Kira? Why did ol’ Lookalike McGee kill herself? Why is Sarah swiping somebody else’s life? And about that setting — it’s vaguely urban, like a blander, less impressive version of New York. So where the heck does this thing take place? (Actually, I can answer that last one. Orphan Black films in Toronto, though co-creator Graeme Manson insists the setting is “Generica”, which must be shorthand for those empty, slate-coloured cityscapes often seen in car commercials and, um, Canadian TV series).

It turns out that Sarah and her suicidal ‘twin’ — and this ruins nothing if you haven’t yet seen Orphan Black — are actually clones; as the season progresses, the reason for their existence becomes clearer as more are revealed. Among them are Alison, an uptight and somewhat sadistic soccer mum; Cosima, a nervy microbiology student who likes the ladies; and Helena, the absolutely insane Eastern European religious fanatic whose antics fuel many of the series’ over-the-top plot twists. Maslany plays all of them, meaning she’s front-and-centre for nearly the entirety of each episode. It’s a mind-blowing juggling act, and she makes it look deceptively easy; you’ll almost certainly forget a single actress is bringing each of the clones’ idiosyncrasies alive.

I mentioned earlier that Orphan Black is a ‘sci-fi thriller’, but that’s a very loose descriptor. A surprisingly poignant undercurrent sustains the entire season, most notably in scenes featuring Sarah (the show’s ostensible heroine) and especially once the clones start to interact and learn more about the dystopian horror of their origins. Each clone recognises the crazy dichotomy of their very existence — they’re at once part of a new ‘family’ and totally, horrifically unmoored from anything that resembles normalcy. Their reactions to the situation range from fury and despair to excitement and curiosity, and Maslany plays each emotion at the right pitch.

Maslany has admitted her breakout role is “exhausting”, citing little more than adrenaline and a lack of down-time as key factors in her go-for-broke performance. She’s also cited Gena Rowlands’ searing performance in John Cassavetes’s 1974 film classic, A Woman Under the Influence and Toni Collette in The United States Of Tara as inspirations. If that doesn’t make you keen to check out what she’s up to on Orphan Black, I’m afraid you’re simply beyond saving and should just go back outside.

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SBS2’s Orphan Black run kicks off with a double episode airing this Tuesday January 14 at 8:30pm.

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Nicholas Fonseca is a freelance writer and editor and (sometime) master of film studies student based in Sydney. A former editor at Madison, Fonseca has written for WHO, Sunday Life and Foxtel magazines; prior to his arrival in Sydney, he was based in New York City, where he spent a decade as a staff member with Entertainment Weekly.