Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Orphan Black: Season Four Blu-ray Movie Review

Send in the clones.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 12, 2017

There’s a fantastic old episode from The Twilight Zone: Season 2 entitled “The Mind and the Matter” which featured Shelley Berman as a curmudgeonly sort named Archibald Beechcroft who, when presented with a book bearing the same name as the episode itself, uses improved concentration powers to first eliminate all humans from the planet and then, after he grows bored, to repopulate it with spitting images of himself, something that turns out to be a pretty big mistake, given Beechcroft’s antisocial proclivities. While the episode’s premise is typically fun in that legendary Twilight Zone sort of way, the presentational aspects are hampered somewhat by an understandable decision to have people wearing what amount to “Shelley Berman masks” to make them look like the episode’s star. Technology has improved in all sorts of ways since 1961, when “The Mind and the Matter” first aired, and in fact kind of interestingly both the premise of Orphan Black and its execution are great examples of that march toward—well, let’s just say progress to make it easy on everyone. Instead of a magical textbook to create copies of oneself, there’s now cloning, which, if it hasn’t quite made it to the human realm yet, seems to be well on the way, despite the obvious moral qualms. But with upgrades in digital compositing, the ability to have carbon copies (or at least characters played by the same performer) on screen at the same time means rubber masks are (thankfully) a thing of the past. Orphan Black is an often intriguing series which gives Tatiana Maslany a veritable field day playing a variety of clones who have at least a passing resemblance to each other but who, unlike that aforementioned Archibald Beechcroft and all of his copies, are rather unique individuals, despite their apparent genetic identity. Orphan Black is one of those shows with such a labyrinthine mythology that it has struggled at times under the weight of it all, with so many competing subplots that some may be reminded of some of the thornier patches of The X-Files, a reference which is perhaps even more salient given some of the developments in the show’s fourth season.

To catch up on this twisty story thus far, our reviews of the series’ previous seasons can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Orphan Black: Season One Blu-ray review

Orphan Black: Season Two Blu-ray review

Orphan Black: Season Three Blu-ray review

The connection to The X-Files, which has often featured rather gruesome events, is perhaps nowhere more evident than in this season’s emphasis on implants in the cheeks of various clones, as well as a certain investigative ambience into spooky goings on that may remind some viewers of the exploits of a certain Dana Scully (if not exactly Fox Mulder). In fact, the opening sequence of the first episode of this season has a decidedly X- Files ambience, as a couple is seen in the woods burying a body. The couple is being spied on by someone in a bizarre looking sheep mask. That individual, who of course turns out to be a (Leda) clone, contacts Beth Childs (Tatiana Maslany), the detective whose suicide in the series’ premiere episode set Sarah Manning (also Maslany of course) on her perilous quest to figure out why there appeared to be duplicates of herself. When the investigation reveals that the corpse has had its cheek rather artfully surgically removed, Beth's interest is of course piqued.

It might seem a little odd for the fourth season of Orphan Black to be revisiting events that predate even the series’ first season (and indeed its first episode), perhaps one clue that the show’s writing team is attempting to go back and fill in certain storylines in order to give “present day” events more context. That said, the information imparted in both this and some subsequent events detailing Beth’s precarious march toward self destruction actually do help develop a number of ideas that run through the fourth season. The series continues to relatively artfully navigate its way through an almost ungainly amount of clones (all portrayed by Maslany), with an emphasis on Sarah, whose hidden location is supposedly known by the Neolution bad guys, as well as M.K., the “sheep head” clone who first contacted Beth and later spills the beans to Sarah, urging her to find refuge someplace new.

In his review of the show's previous year, my colleague Ken Brown mentioned a certain sense of attrition that crept into the third season of Orphan Black, and while in my personal estimation that’s been at least somewhat ameliorated in the fourth year, there’s still the feeling of a creative crew trying to fill in blanks concerning the past while also attempting to stuff the present day activity with all sorts of new information, including development of an already dense mythology. That may be the way Orphan Black most resembles The X-Files, in fact, and perhaps in another sign of “progress”, Orphan Black is starting to experience some of the same entropy that afflicted The X-Files in at least somewhat later seasons.

Orphan Black has had an interesting set of literary allusions in its episode titles through the years, referencing everyone from Charles Darwin to Dwight D. Eisenhower. According to the not always reliable Wikipedia, all of this season’s episode titles are culled from the work from noted scientist Donna Haraway. This season’s episodes are:

The Collapse of Nature

Transgressive Border Crossing

The Stigmata of Progress

From Instinct to Rational Control

Human Raw Material

The Scandal of Altruism

The Antisocialism of Sex

The Redesign of Natural Objects

The Mitigation of Competition

From Dancing Mice to Psychopaths

Orphan Black: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Orphan Black: Season Four is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I'm not quite as impressed as Ken has been with previous seasons of this show, if only because this season is often relentlessly dark (as in dimly lit), something that materially affects detail levels in virtually every episode. Aside from that general murkiness, though, this is another solid accounting of a series that looks fantastic a lot of the time courtesy of smart production design (especially some of the more gothic lair elements that intrude from time to time). Fine detail is often exceptional in the many close-ups, including some gut wrenching moments involving a couple of corpses. The palette is kind of tamped down quite a bit of the time, apparently by design, and some cool color grading also tends to blanch even some more brightly lit outdoor material.

Orphan Black: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Orphan Black: Season Four features a well designed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one which offers consistent surround activity in any number of action oriented sequences, as well as some of the supposedly more mundane scenes where characters are out and about and ambient environmental sounds dot the side and rear channels. There are a number of good uses of LFE and dialogue is always rendered cleanly and with excellent prioritization on this problem free track.

Orphan Black: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Back to the Beginning (1080p; 10:36) documents the efforts to recreate the look of the show's first season for the long arc featuring Beth.


• Body Horror (1080p; 13:13) looks at some of the excellent FX work, specifically with regard to some of the bodies (living and otherwise) in this season.


• Beth, M.K. and Ira (1080p; 10:57) profiles some of this season's clones.


• Closer Looks (1080p; 29:47) is a collection of featurettes devoted to each of this season's episodes.

Note: All of the special features on this two disc set are contained on Disc Two.

Orphan Black: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Orphan Black is one of the more intellectually acute series on television, and it tends to lapse into scientific mumbo jumbo (or the equivalent) at various turns, making its already opaque tendencies even harder to ferret through. The series is still an absolute showcase for the wonderful Maslany, who segues from character to character with a lot of energy, but the writing continues to show some of the frayed qualities that hobbled the third season. Technical merits continue to be strong, and with caveats noted, Orphan Black: Season Four comes Recommended.