I read an online review of Orphan Black the other day from a source in England, they are just getting it shown over there now, and the biggest complaint he had was the crummy British accents. They sound just fine to me and I watch a lot of British TV, but I’m not from there so…
The reviewer compared OB to a show called Utopia which I had never heard of. He said the way they were similar is that it put seemingly ordinary persons in extra ordinary positions and watched how they reacted. It had a six episode series run earlier this year on Channel 4 and after watching half of them I see that similarity, but that is the only one.
It is beautifully shot in very wide screen with a bright palette. The top image is from the opening shots of episode 2, click to see it full size to appreciate it. After episode one you see that there are two parallel story lines that will intersect sometime. The soundtrack is kind of quirky, but fits the show to a T.
If Orphan Black was a movie it would be rated PG, Utopia on the other hand would be rated R. While I have been busy spreading the word and coercing my co-workers to watch OB, the violence in Utopia is so Quentin Tarantino-esque that I don’t know who I would recommend the show to.