Orphan Black: Echoes - season 1(2024) - Review

As you would guess from its title, Orphan Black: Echoes is a sequel to the popular TV shows Friends. Wait, that’s not right. It’s a sequel of Orphan Black and is set 40 years in the future. Echoes tells the story of Lucy, a woman who awakens one day in a secure facility with no memory of her past.  Although she escapes, a couple years later it becomes clear that someone is trying to find her, and so she sets out on a mission to discover who she is. Along the way, she meets others who share more in common with her than she would otherwise expect.

Like it’s predecessor, Echoes has an intriguing premise as it explores cloning, eugenics and what it means to be a person. It is tied to Orphan Black through the character of Kira, Sarah’s daughter from the original series. But you need not have seen Orphan Black to watch. It does help to provide some context, but other than a few moments and a couple cameos, Echoes provides enough information to watch on its own. There were many times though that I wondered if this was an intended sequel or simply an original, yet similar idea, that was tied to Orphan Black to target that fan base more directly.

Krytsen Ritter and Keeley Hawes are the leads of the show, and both are very good. The rest of the cast can be a bit of a mixed bag, but to be fair, the writing doesn’t do anyone any favours. The dialogue can be exposition heavy and clunky at times. It’s very inconsistent and a little too predictable for the most part. Most of the characters are certainly underdeveloped. That may be somewhat intentional with characters that don’t remember their past, but it’s hard to connect with any of them.

The pacing of this season is also problematic. The first half of the season is way too slow and spends too much time on exposition rather than advancing the story. The second half of the season is much better as it is focused more on story. Still, it can lag a bit too much whenever the script feels it needs to overexplain something. As the show approaches its finale it does find more solid footing and even offers a couple of surprises I wasn’t expecting.

Echoes does suffer in comparison to its predecessor. While the concept is different in the details, there is enough similarity that Echoes doesn’t feel as original. It certainly pales in comparison in terms of script and pacing. And you can’t help but compare the performances here to the mind-boggling performance of Tatiana Maslany. It’s probably not fair to compare and there’s really no need for that type of performance here. But while I loved Ritter and Hawes, I couldn’t help but long for Maslany to show up.

Ultimately, Orphan Black: Echoes is decent, but never equals its predecessor. The basic story is very interesting, but the execution does lack at times. Fans of the original may find enough to enjoy, but if you’re looking for the same level of storytelling, this isn’t it. It certainly isn’t something that fans of Orphan Black need to see. The premise and the performances of Ritter and Hawes kept me positive enough though. I would probably watch a second season if there is one but would not be too heartbroken if there isn’t. Hopefully, if there is a second season, the showrunners figure out some of the issues as there is an intriguing premise with lots of potential.

Have you seen Orphan Black: Echoes? Are you planning to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.