Orphan Black: Echoes: Full Season

November 13, 2023 6:19 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

Set in the near future, Echoes takes a deep dive into the exploration of the scientific manipulation of human existence. It follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unravelling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal. Spinoff of Orphan Black.
posted by Kyol (16 comments total)

I haven't actually watched this yet, but I figured I could drop in a placeholder for when people figure out where AMC+ is in their streaming landscape since Orphan Black was pretty well received on FF. The whole season looks like it was released at once on November 3rd, which doesn't usually lead to useful episode-by-episode posting when viewers are likely to binge it and forget which episode had any given plot point.
posted by Kyol at 6:23 PM on November 13, 2023

AMC effectively ding dong ditching the whole season sans promotion doesn't sound very promising, and the original show kinda fell apart halfway through. Still, I will eventually check it out, I guess.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:34 PM on November 13, 2023

Yeah, I first found out about it from someone else's "recent tv and movies" dump, and when I went looking all the fansites were still showing the release date was TBA, so AMC just stealth releasing it is.. uh. Yeah. But IMDB claims it was released on the 3rd of November, so I guess it's out?
posted by Kyol at 6:38 PM on November 13, 2023

I have AMC+ through Amazon Prime and this definitely isn't available there. Has anyone in the US managed to watch it? According to Wikipedia it was only released on the 3rd in Australia.
posted by mmoncur at 7:53 PM on November 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

The entire season is available on arrrrr in quality formats.
posted by porpoise at 1:38 AM on November 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Tatiana Maslany was by far the best thing about Orphan Black. The writing started out good to decent and ended up decent to barely acceptable, but it was always a treat to watch the clones and marvel that it really was all one mega-talented actor. Without her, I don't think I'm interested.
posted by rikschell at 3:17 PM on November 14, 2023 [8 favorites]

This does have Krysten Ritter so I'm interested. I'll watch it even though the original Orphan Black was ultimately a mess (I'm due for a rewatch, though, and I own the box set).
posted by edencosmic at 5:56 PM on November 14, 2023

This show is quite bad, but hits the sweet spot for a hate watch, or maybe a mock watch. On paper, maybe the idea that having a bunch of people play genetically identical people at different ages sounded good, but it is nothing like the party trick of having one person play many people so convincingly. There is very little progress between iPhone 15 and 42. On character convinces another that an elaborate sonic fence around a gigantic property is operated with a “clicker.”
posted by snofoam at 4:33 PM on November 20, 2023

Still watching, still mocking, pretty fun. Somehow, despite there being almost no effort to make anything in 2050 look more advanced than what is here today, there is a flashback to 2009, where a teenager has a home that is maybe technically possible, but totally unrealistic for a teenager to have. The fanservice cameos have been less than serviceable, though I feel like Felix got one good line after two episodes, I have just forgotten what it was. Teenage printout of billionaire somehow has a memory of a previous printout, despite the fact that he was not a scan of that printout, so couldn’t possibly have that memory.
posted by snofoam at 5:59 PM on November 22, 2023

Does it have clones-impersonating-clones-impersonating-clones farce episodes, and if not why not.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 7:02 AM on November 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

Does it have clones-impersonating-clones-impersonating-clones farce episodes, and if not why not.

No. Rather than having a bunch of identical/similar clones, they only have clones who are genetically identical, but very different ages and played by different actors. On the one hand, smart, because they were never going to strike a second time with an actor who could pull it off. On the other hand, it is a sequel series without the one thing that made the original so captivating.

It’s just the soap opera vibe with none of the fun, really.
posted by snofoam at 5:13 PM on December 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

So 3 episodes in and honestly it's not the worst sci-fi show this season. It has some kind of dumb bits and bringing in the early cameos that they did was, just, like, _weird_, but it's more compelling than at least two other shows I'm watching at the moment?
posted by Kyol at 6:11 PM on December 12, 2023

And yeah, I absolutely don't get why the Boston billionaire is having his teenage printout try and "become" him, match his speech patterns and memories and whatnot. Like, it's not you, my dude?Nobody is ever going to think that you went from a middle aged dude to a teen anyway, so what's the endgame here? If it's just to have a cloned scion, sure, ok that's "fine". Or does he just think that by having the clone study him, he will eventually make the same decisions that he would, so his legacy will continue, unchanged?
posted by Kyol at 5:31 AM on December 20, 2023

Got through it. Not liking the whole concept that Kira (the little girl from the old show,) is now the ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD who has built a tissue printer, etc. And then you know, this billionarre gets it and now he's seemingly operating it by himself.

Too many guns. I don't think I'll be back for next season, that last scene was pointless.
posted by Catblack at 8:24 AM on July 2

I just finished episode five, and I’m hate watching it now. It seems like it’s a great lesson in how easily money and talent can be wasted if writing and directing is not also high-quality.

I loved Kristin Ritter in Jessica Jones, but this role seems to be falling completely flat. So many scenes feel like actors reciting lines at each other. There’s no motivation, there’s no stakes, and they act so unrealistically about the world they live in, that I get pulled from the narrative at the drop of a hat.

Example: she finds out she’s been printed. In this world, that seems like it should still be a crazy thing. Not something anyone understands when you say it.
But she doesn’t say anything like, “I know this is hard to believe, but….” And no-one says, “What the hell are you talking about?“

The obvious (to me) way to do this is, “You know that company that prints hearts and organs? Well they printed me!” And then the other person would be like, “That’s impossible!“

None of the mysteries are interesting, and we just spent a whole episode learning how much Kira loves Hellen, when we knew the whole time she would die or whatever. And then Kira would be driven to break the rules. But even so, doesn’t she know that without memory-level resolution, it’s not Hellen? And even if it did work, it’s Hellen in young-Hellen body, which would be weird for their relationship.

And you could maybe explain it by Kira not thinking rationally, only they don’t show that either. She’s so stoic, just like everyone in this show. Gahhh.

I’m thinking I’ll go back and watch season one of Orphan Black again. Gosh, that show was good and fun!
posted by LEGO Damashii at 4:29 PM on August 12 [3 favorites]

Just found this on my Roku and was all settled down to binge it but it was a teaser that ended after two episodes. Came here to see if it was worth continuing and looks like…not? I wasn’t hooked by what I’d seen so far. Keeley Hawes, usually excellent, was miscast. Krysten Ritter, I too kept confusing her with Jessica Jones. Partly due to the same set up, mysterious loner with handsome boyfriend and motherless daughter. Though original OB suffered from the muh daughter! syndrome too. It’s like you can’t have a woman in a high stakes situation that doesn’t involve a child. Cheap emotion. Felix, another absolute favorite from the first season, wasted here. (sigh)
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:29 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]