by Paul A. DiNello

BBC America’s critically acclaimed series Orphan Black is back for its third season. Tatiana Maslany once again leads the stylish sci-fi clone series as Sarah Miller, a small time con artist, whose world is turned upside down when she assumes the identity of her doppelganger Detective Beth Childs who jumped to her death from a train platform while Sarah looked on. She soon learns that she and her “sisters” are clones in a clandestine experiment run by the Dyad Institute to manipulate the evolution of the human race. Sarah finds herself threatened from multiple sides as she is pursued by Dyad and the Proletheans, a group charged with assassinating the clones because they are an abomination to nature. Also portrayed by Maslany are clones Alison, a pill popping soccer mom, Cosima, a bisexual biology grad student and Helena, a Prolethean assassin who is also Sarah’s biological twin. At the end of season 2 we learned that in addition to the Sarah clones, code named Project Leda, there is also a series of male clones named Project Castor which are brilliantly played to creepy perfection by Ari Millen.

Season 3 opens with the trippiest sequence involving Helena and her sisters set to the tune of Beach Boys “Wouldn’t it be Nice” and Helena receiving council from an unlikely source. The story picks up with a Castor clone, Rudy, being detained at Dyad headquarters. He refuses to talk but will communicate with Sarah only. A tense back and forth leads to the discovery that Helena has been captured. To complicate matters further a cleaner named Ferdinand (James Frain) is on his way to Dyad to interrogate Sarah who he thinks has been taken prisoner. He is expecting to meet with Rachel, the Uber-bitch clone that runs the show at Dyad but she is otherwise detained recovering from the 8 inch pencil that Sarah drove into her eye last season. Delphine (Evelyne Brochu), Dyad executive and Cosima’s girlfriend/monitor, comes up with a way to ruse Ferdinand by having Sarah portray Rachel and Allison pose as Sarah. Through some kinky rough foreplay Ferdinand reveals that in Helsinki six clones were killed and that Sarah, Cosima and Alison are on the hit list with an assassin already at Alison’s home. Delphine is able to call off the hit at the last moment.

Episode 1 came out of the gates with nonstop action. Episode 2 is much more methodical but no less gripping. Cosima is hot on the trail of tracking down the “Adam and Eve” of the Project Leda & Castor initiatives. All information on the original DNA subjects is presumed lost but I am sure that this will remain a focal point throughout season 3. Cal (Michiel Huisman), Sarah’s one time lover and the father of her daughter Kira, is back with a new home and a new desire to make another go at a relationship with Sarah and Kira but Sarah’s assigned protector Paul (Dylan Bruce) warns Cal that he needs to get them out of town as danger is coming. Throughout the series a subplot has shown that the manipulated DNA causes a rare lung disease in some of the clones. The Castor clones are not exempted from their own malady but with a disease that affects their brains. Rudy, Seth and the rest of the male clones go through continual logic testing to confirm that their minds are sound, but when one succumbs to the illness he is put down by one of his brothers in a scene that not only displays the focus of their mission but the profound love that they have for one another.

Since inception, Orphan Black has entertained with fast paced action, gripping suspense, mysteries around every corner and the thought provoking questions of what makes a person who they are. Is it culture, environment or genetics? Tatiana Maslany shows her complete acting range so well, the viewer can sometimes forget that the various clones are portrayed by the same actress and Ari Millen is more than up to the task of keeping up as the Castor clones. Everything about Orphan Black is top notch from the cinematography to the score to the direction. Orphan Black is must watch television that leaves you thirsty for more, weekly. And lucky for us we still have 8 hours more to enjoy this year.

4.5 out of 5 stars.