8 Current TV Shows That Don't Treat Audiences Like Idiots

3. Orphan Black

We've all been gobsmacked at Tatiana Maslany's acting as Sarah Manning, the con artist who's just trying to get by and look after her daughter. Oh, and her performance as Beth Childs, Alison Hendrix, Cosima, Helena, Katja, Rachel, Tony.... Each of these characters having their own lives, values and motivations. Motivations that mean they all €“ in general €“ operate with their own interests in mind. But Orphan Black doesn't handhold the audience with this. It allows the watcher to keep track and work out, at any one point, if that particular character is working for themselves, the Dyad Institute or even someone else. There is a great level of trust in it's audience. Not just in understanding those motivations but in keeping up at every stage of ever-unfolding mystery. We have to remember the clues to earlier episodes, be clever enough to deduce where one clone is impersonating another and piece together the puzzle even as Sarah and her clones do. But that investment is well worth the pay off. This flip-flopping of allegiances makes Orphan Black such a great show on top of the already top-notch award-winning acting. Keeping track of the various characters, their lives, their motivations and allegiances makes this show both a pleasure and a puzzle.