This article contains spoilers for the first episode of “Orphan Black: Echoes.” Sometimes a new television show illuminates the limitless possibilities of the art form. And sometimes it reveals that art form’s struggles.
“ Orphan Black: Echoes ” is precisely what the title implies — a far-off reverberation of an original event, in many ways mirroring the state of television at the moment, scrambling to reclaim its former glory. This is not to damn “Echoes.” If it was not attached to a masterwork, it could be viewed as a perfectly serviceable, mildly futurist contemplation of the perils of life-replicating technology, deeply rooted in “Frankenstein,” and the vast “what have I wrought?” genre of science-regret that rose in its wake.
In the pilot, which aired Sunday on AMC, Lucy (Krysten Ritter) wakes up on a living room sofa. She is immediately, and kindly, questioned by a woman in a white coat (Keeley Hawes) who is very interested in the state of Lucy’s memory. When it becomes clear that Lucy has no memory, of anything at all, things get a bit .
.. agitated.
Soon enough, Lucy has broken out of the living room, only to discover that it is just a set in a warehouse full of all sorts of funky “science” equipment — weird X-rays, slowly turning fans and a box full of pink goo that contains a half-formed human. The scientist appears and gently informs Lucy that she is the result of cutting-edge technology, a flesh and blood “print-out” of human tis.
