Lucy

Fantastic acting, tense and gripping writing combined with unique and diverse female characters ensure that there is no sci-fi show quite like Orphan Black. It’s given us 5 years of varied female characters, strong lead roles and meaty supporting roles which compliment each other wonderfully. It also raises interesting questions and discussions of free will, controlling human life, ethics of scientific research, politics of scientific change, motherhood and themes of family.

Season 5′s focus is on stopping Neolution, ending the reign of PT Westmorland and finding out what exactly is going on with the mysterious island. As with all seasons of Orphan Black, the build up takes a few episodes, but the payoff for the remaining 2/3 of the season is worth it, taking time to introduce a few new characters to help tie up loose ends. In particular, it was great to find out what was behind Kira’s abilities (a loose plot thread from season 1).

Sarah stays true to herself, her sisters and her family throughout. Her moral compass is something truly remarkable and you can see how and why she makes every decision she does. As the most complex character on the show, it was refreshing to see her admit to her difficulties in the season finale and break down in tears over her own self doubt about motherhood. A stand out scene from the season for sure, and it really cemented Sarah as one of TVs best and most genuine characters.

Tatiana is amazing as always in playing so many clones, giving each a distinct personality and I still forget sometimes that they’re all the same person! Each main clone (Sarah, Alison, Helena, Cosima, Rachel) all had their own episodes to shine and explore their individual stories which worked well. It was also nice to see supporting characters all have a moment to shine. Scott, Felix, Arthur and Donnie have all been around since series 1 but really were on top form in season 5 having an important part to do to save the clone club, in their own unique ways.

Although the season promised to bring the clones ‘closer together’ there wern’t actually that many scenes where there were 2 or more clones (I know filming it is expensive but still). However this is the first season where all the clone club was working together towards the same goal, and becoming closer as a family which was great to see after 4 seasons of character developmet.

It was obvious that not all characters were going to make it to the end, and the characters who were bumped off were the right ones (or at least the ones I didn’t think would get to the end). And best of all, there was no “wait actually they’re alive” moments to really make the deaths valid and emotional. (Though bringing back a couple of characters just to kill them off again was a wee bit unnecessary).

The season wraps up everything nicely, and delievers plenty of fan service without going too over the top. I was surprised that half of the final episode was dedicated to ‘aftermath’ - most show you’re lucky to get 10 mins of content after the ‘big finale’. I definitely appreciated seeing all the clones rally round Sarah and continue to support each other, even without the threat of Neolution. I gotta admit to crying a fair bit when Helena named her twins, probably my favourite scene from the finale :)

I’ll really miss the twists and turns of Orphan Black each week, and the clone club family. Such good characters and complex females having lead roles is a rare occurance, especially in sci-fi dramas so it’ll be a while before anything fills the Orphan Black shaped hole in my life. And if Tatiana Maslany doesn’t get to do any project she wants after this, then I’ll eat my hat.

What a great feel-good show! The team of experts are a wonderful group of guys, who obviously get along well, and this infectious positivity is what all the men on the show desperately need. Each of the guys has their own expertise to bring to the table and they genuinely help to bring out the personality, style and confidence of the men they makeover.

Honestly it's definitely a guilty pleasure show, but it is such an uplifting one that I don't feel too guilty watching and weeping over all the men's lives who get changed for the better.

Season 12 was a solid season that had to overcome some writing difficulties - introducing two members of the team, as well as hide away from the firing of another. The show was also brave enough to do an interesting two main arc to liven up the back end of the season. The show veterans managed to pull off a nicely rounded (if not that original) story, complete with cliffhanger!

The individual case stories are solid, and Mr Scratch is a reoccuring theme throughout the season, without being too overbearing. Stand out episodes include 12x02 which highlights JJ and Will’s relationship, 12x07 which gave insightful backstory into Tara’s character and 12x09 featuring the returning storyline of Rossi and Yates and dramatic climax of their relationship.

The back end of the season bravely deals gives a storyline featuring Spencer Reid and his mother dual prominance with the usual ‘cas of the week’ stories. In episode 12x13, Spencer gets arrested and has no memory of the crime. Over the course of the final 10 episodes, pieces of the story are revealed leading to a stand off between an unsub from last season, teaming up with a one off chracter from season 4 (which was weird, until I realised it was one of the actors own children playing the role). It was quite the emotional rollercoaster, and the first time for a long time that one of the main characters has been in great personal danger (that hasn’t been resolved almost instantly) so it packed a punch at times.

Most of the actors have been playing their characters for over a decade now and deliver great performances effortlessly. Pleased to see the return of Prentiss to the team, which felt effortless and bought a much needed dynamic to the group. Agent Lewis still needs some more fleshing out, and new characters Alvez and Walker didn’t have huge amounts to do but I have high hopes for season 13.

Sidenote: It is really refreshing to see such a representative cast on a crime drama show. There are four female actresses (half the team), ethnic diversity, the characters differ in terms of job, background and profession too with Spencer being the only white male - and not your typical crime drama protagonist at that. It is definitely the best representations of from law enforcement I have seen on a tv show in some time - keep it up CBS!