'Orphan Black: Echoes' is a Brittle Clone of Its Parent Show

When Orphan Black premiered in 2013, it had such a wow factor. The drama about genetically identical human clones was immediately engaging and unlike anything on TV at the time. But what gave the series that extra oomph was star Tatiana Maslany’s incredible performance, where she played no less than 17 different characters. That’s a high bar to set and one that AMC’s Orphan Black: Echoes can’t quite reach. But how could it? The bar was set too high. But since TV is currently in its reboot/remake... let’s call it its clone era, you can’t blame the show for trying. 

Set in the Orphan Black universe, Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones) stars as Lucy, a woman who wakes up one day with no memory of who or where she is. She’s handed a picture of a baby she doesn’t recognize. “Who is this? Who are you?” she asks. The how of Lucy is revealed in short order. A scientist (Keeley Hawes) explains that she was printed from a “high-resolution scan,” using a new technology that’s  “four-dimensional printing of human tissue.” (Meanwhile, half the time, my printer doesn’t even work to print paper, but I digress). 

The why of Lucy is less clear. Why did the scientist do this? Who was the real Lucy to her? “What the f*ck are you talking about?” Lucy asks her, which does seem like the only appropriate reaction to discovering you were basically made at a high-tech Staples.

Warning: Light spoilers about Orphan Black: Echoes follow.

Lucy escapes her captivity and builds a life with her boyfriend, Jack (Avan Jorgia), and his daughter, Charlie (Zariella Langford-Haughton). But when an accident lands her in the hospital, Lucy’s past, in the form of a nasty-looking bounty hunter, catches up with her, and Lucy can no longer hide. “I have to find out who I was to protect who I am,” she tells her friend Craig (Johnathan Whittaker). Her search leads her to Jules (Amanda Fix). Jules is not convinced they are connected, even though they share the same scar. “It’s just a scar. It doesn’t make either of us Harry Potter,” she tells Lucy. Even if she is a genetic imprint, Jules is a delightfully typical snarky teen. But, like Lucy, Jules has no memory of her past. She’s told she was in a bad car accident that killed both her parents, and now she lives with foster parents. Lucy and Jules are both haunted by a violent dream they can’t understand.

Ties to the original series are woven throughout (just wait until you learn the name of the scientist), the most direct being Jordan Garvais, reprising his role as fan favorite Felix Dawkins. It’s great to have Garvais back in the role. Less great is the ridiculous and utterly unconvincing wig they put him in, the distracting aging make-up he wears, and the corny lines they have him saying. “I just flew in from New York, and the bags under your eyes would have fit in the overhead bins,” he says upon seeing his niece. Devoted viewers of the original might not even recognize his character if he wasn’t called out by name.

The supporting cast is solid. Jorgia and Langford are compelling as the family gives Lucy the normal life she craves. Reed Diamond is having a blast as Tom, a bad guy with a love for Celine Dion. James Hiroyuki Liao is terrific as the man funding all this, who very likely has a nefarious ulterior motive. 

The show is set in Boston but, for the most part, has that same generic Toronto look to it. As someone who lives in Boston, I appreciated the shoutout to Jamaica Plain and laughed at the mention of Beacon Bayview Medical. The series’ concept of what the year 2052 holds is shaky. We can print people using 4-D technology, but phones and the subway system basically look the same.

Creator, writer, and executive producer Anna Fishko, who also serves as the series showrunner, has captured some of the mystery and the intrigue of the original series, even if this story is more straightforward. Ritter, an executive producer on the series, always makes for a compelling lead (see projects as varied as Jessica Jones and Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23). By the fourth episode, the show has settled into itself. All the players seem to be in place. Answers are revealed, and new questions arise. Flashbacks add more context to the characters. 

But with the show’s weekly rollout, that won’t happen for viewers until July 14. In the current TV landscape, where there are so many shows to watch and many of them available in their entirety instantly, the slow rollout and even slower build-up are asking a lot of viewers — maybe too much.

Orphan Black: Echoes premieres Sunday, June 23, 2024, on streaming on AMC+ and airs at 10 p.m. on AMC and BBC America. The series will air/stream one episode a week on Sundays through mid-August.