Fawcett co-created Orphan Black, a series in which a single performer plays a dozen characters, frequently in the same frame. The direction is the technical foundation: the split screen and motion control work had to be invisible enough that the audience forgets the premise and reads the clones as separate people.
He came from Canadian film and television, including a horror feature about adolescence and lycanthropy that has retained a durable cult following since its release. Body horror and genre thriller traditions inform the series, and the production's Canadian setting was used specifically rather than disguised as somewhere American, which was still unusual at the time.
Recurring subjects: bodily autonomy, women whose bodies are claimed as intellectual property, and conspiracies that operate through paperwork. His direction keeps the technical trickery subordinate to the performance, and he stages the multi character scenes so that the blocking, rather than the effects work, carries them.
The series demonstrated that a modestly budgeted genre production could compete on performance and craft alone, and it drew major awards attention for its lead performer. His earlier horror feature is regularly cited as a landmark of Canadian genre cinema and is still widely recommended.
For viewers who want genre television built on a technical premise executed invisibly. Suited to anyone approaching the clone series, and to those who should follow it with the earlier horror feature about adolescence.
