Sometimes it can all get a little overwhelming for the Clone Club. If it isn't their "creators" trying to get control of their lives, it's religious zealots who see their unique genetic predicament as more of an immaculate conception-type deal. You can't blame them for wanting to blow off a little steam, and you can't blame us for wanting to join them. A problem with a lot of shows with a sci-fi or genre bent is they forget the funny. They're either entirely po-faced, because the post-apocalypse is a serious business (I'm looking at you, Revolution), or the "jokes" are as hacky, contrived and uninspired as the romantic subplots (yes, Almost Human, we've seen buddy cop movies before). To be fair, it can be a difficult to balance a relatively straight dramatic narrative, only to pierce the pomposity with a couple of one-liners. But Orphan Black pulls it off with such aplomb, you wish all shows could be like it. There's the ongoing storyline of Alison, the soccer mom clone who's going through an American Beauty-esque suburban breakdown that culminated in an amazingly farcical neighbourhood party that required Sarah, our principal clone, standing in for her; there's the straight-up hilarious weirdness of bad guy Olivier Duval and his, er, unique genetic augmentation; best of all, though, there's Felix. Sarah's foster brother is the heart and wit of Orphan Black, gleefully camp without being a caricature, biting without being stereotypically "bitchy". He's the light amongst the darkness of the show's murky overarching story.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
