As unfortunate as it may be, science fiction usually doesn't get the good breaks on TV that family comedies and cop/hospital dramas do, and there are relatively few examples of series that make it past a couple of seasons before getting canceled. Thankfully, BBC America not only had enough faith in the twisty clone drama Orphan Black to put it on the air in the first place, but the network also listened to the critics and the fans and kept the renewals coming. The last renewal has been handed down now, as Orphan Black will return for Season 5 which will be the seestras final hurrah.
Just like each of its previous seasons, Orphan Black will bring ten episodes to Season 5, and I can't help but think that these could be ten of the most exciting episodes of the entire series, as the series has completely opened its story up once more for Season 4, which has been a big step up from the male clone-driven narrative of Season 3, at least to me. Maybe I'm just greedy for all the Tatiana Maslany performances I can get without having to worry about other clones mucking things up.
No reason was given as to why BBC America decided to set an ending for Orphan Black, though it appears to be a completely amicable situation between the network and the creative team. The drama's best numbers are nowhere near indicative of the show being a ratings hit, even accounting for the lowered curve of cable series, and Season 4 has been the lowest rated season of them all, never reaching more than 300,000 pairs of eyes for live airings. Perhaps there is more happening on the DVR side of things, but BBC America couldn't have been extremely pleased to see the ratings drop like that.
Orphan Black started off with one woman's discovery that she was part of a small "family" of clones, and Sarah's journey over the past four years has put her in company with religious lunatics, evolution-based cults, cops, criminals and everything in between as she attempts to figure her origin story out while also keeping her daughter Kira and foster brother Felix safe. Season 4 changed things up a bit for viewers, kicking off by heading back to the past to uncover the events that preceded what happened in the first episode, and then things took off from there. No reason to get into spoilers here.
Check out the trailer for tonight's episode, the last one of Season 4, below.
Orphan Black will put Season 4 to pasture Thursday, June 16, on BBC America. We can probably expect to see the fifth and final season making its way to audiences in April of 2017, unless things don't go according to the usual plans.
