Fifth season of Orphan Black is the final one. It starts exactly where the 4th left off: Rachel becomes the executive of Neolution movement, which is revealed to be founded by a man who’s still alive and is now 170 years old, one P. T. Westmorland. Within first couple of episodes the Leda opposition suffers a grave defeat to Neos, when Sarah and Siobhan and everyone else (except Helena) is apprehended by Ferdinand’s people; and then one more time – when Kira chooses against her mother. With Helena being on the loose, however, there is still hope, and besides Sarah and the company are secretly plotting against the seemingly amicable organization. One of the tactics soon manages to bring a powerful advantage to the rebels, one that becomes Neolution undoing, but in the process of it some convulsive movements threaten to make a mutual destruction type of story.
If I had some doubts in the beginning, especially about all the resurrections, that’s because they raised the level of improbability a bit too much, but that was carefully managed by the writers, and by the 4th episode already the narrative straighten out and the story started to grow stronger with each next episode. One of the most powerful storylines of this season is about the refutation of the myth, which I find pretty cool. The overall development of the story is, of course, science fiction, yet it lies within the realm of plausible and, just as important, – believable, and it uses genuine human relationships for its fuel, including family ones (albeit word family applies here perhaps in a broader sense), and that combination sums up to a fascinating work of cinema – smart and entertaining from beginning to end. The acting is, like before, impeccable, with traditional praises for Tatiana Maslany, who is totally amazing in her consistently perfect acting. The execution in general is pretty great, music in particular, but really – everything.
The finale is very conclusive – and it seems like the end of a straight line, one that is natural and expected, and it was obviously intended that way. The show astonishes me first and foremost with how precise and well-calibrated the narrative is, although not without sudden jerks here and there, of course, but none too determinative. The beauty of the concept intensified by the quality of execution makes this show one of the truly great ones. One of my favourites, that’s for sure.
Year: 2017
Created by: Graeme Manson and John Fawcett
Directed by: John Fawcett, David Wellington, Helen Shaver, Grant Harvey, David Frazee, Aaron Morton
Written by: Graeme Manson, Jeremy Boxen, Alex Levine, Greg Nelson, Jenn Engels, David Bezmozgis, Renée St. Cyr, Aisha Porter-Christie
Actors: Tatiana Maslany, Jordan Gavaris, Kevin Hanchard, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Évelyne Brochu, Ari Millen, Kristian Bruun, Skyler Wexler, Josh Vokey, Matt Frewer, Daniel Kash, Cynthia Galant, Natalie Lisinska, Zoé de Grand’Maison, Kyra Harper, James Frain, Calwyn Shurgold, Rosemary Dunsmore, Jessalyn Wanlim, Jenessa Grant, Elyse Levesque, Stephen McHattie
Time: 7h01m (a. 10 episodes)
Entertaining quality: 5+ out of 5
Art quality: 5 out of 5
Links: Official site | Wiki
®shoomow, 2016
Cinegmatic 