The second season of Orphan Black premieres this Saturday on BBC America at 9 pm EST, and I am so excited that I want to tell you all about it. I think it’s the best show on TV right now, and definitely the most feminist. So here are five reasons why you should watch the season premiere on Saturday and/or mainline the first season immediately. This post contains some spoilers, but none of them are major plot points.
1. It showcases the talents of the incredible actress Tatiana Maslany.
Orphan Black is a conspiracy thriller about women who are the subjects of an illegal human cloning experiment, and have to struggle with how that affects their lives and identities. All six of the clones on screen are played by one actress, Tatiana Maslany, who makes each of the characters instantly distinguishable by her body language and speech.
- Meet Helena, Alison, Rachel, Sarah, Katja, and Cosima.
2. It fails the Reverse Bechdel Test.
If you haven’t heard of the Bechdel Test, it’s a test of gender representation in media invented by the cartoonist Alison Bechdel. It has three criteria: a) there must be at least two women, who b) talk to each other, c) about something other than a man. Only half of all movies pass this test, most often because the female characters never talk to each other; they are defined by their relationships with men.
By contrast, female characters and their relationships with each other are so central to the story of Orphan Black that when talking with a friend I realized that Orphan Black not only passes the Bechdel Test, but fails the reverse of the Bechdel Test. We couldn’t think of a single time when two male characters talk to each other about something that isn’t a woman.
3. It has queer characters who are so much more than stereotypes.
Left: Delphine, Right: Cosima
Felix
Cosima and Delphine are biologists at the University of Minnesota. Cosima’s innocent heart and Delphine’s moral ambiguity combine in a relationship that’s fascinating to behold. Their sexuality is not central to either of their characters, but neither is it inconsequential.
Felix is foster brother to Sarah, the clone who is Orphan Black‘s main character. He is very out and femme, but he is much more defined by his unswerving support of his sister than by his sexuality. He is also a sex worker and unashamed of it. None of the other characters judge him for it either. Such a sympathetic representation of a queer sex worker is sadly rare.
4. Many kinds of families are represented.
Sarah, the main character, is a single mother. Orphan Black also features foster mothers, surrogate mothers, adoptive mothers, divorced parents, unrelated people who choose to be family, and related people who choose not to be.
5. A central theme of Orphan Black is the individuality of women.
In the media, as in the world at large, women are all too often treated as interchangeable. One cardboard love interest or sidekick could easily be swapped out for another without substantially changing the story. The clones of Orphan Black are interchangeable in a literal, physical sense. Indeed, they successfully impersonate each other many times over the course of the show. But the fact that they’re genetically identical only serves to highlight how utterly individual they are. Their ambitions, motivations, and histories are all unique, and they could never truly replace each other. They represent the potential of all women to become. After all, in this show, one genome can unfold into so many possibilities: a depressed police officer, a punk rock con artist, a perfectionist soccer mom, a bohemian biologist.
Probably my favorite moment in the show is when a character asks Sarah, “There are nine of you?” and she replies, “No, there’s only one of me.” It gives me chills because it’s relevant to the life of every woman. Whenever we are caged in by stereotypes telling us how all women are, we want to scream back, “I’m not all women! I’m me!”
The villains of Orphan Black view the clones as interchangeable parts. But these women know better, and fight to keep their dignity. Their battle for individuality inspires me to fight for the autonomy of all women.
What a beautifully written review. Definitely makes me want to watch it. I’ll dig around for it. Thanks for the heads up!
I watched this show because of you. THANK YOU.
I would also just like to say that Helena is amazing. I don’t know what it says about me that she’s my favorite character, but there you go.
Oh! Also, it passes the reverse Bechdel test a couple times via Felix’s conversations with other guys. For example, he talks to the morgue attendant about non-Sarah-related things, and with this dude in his bed one time.
It’s kind of a stretch. He mostly talked with the morgue attendant about Sarah, and the conversation with his client was perfunctory. It reminds me of when people are trying to find examples of Bechdel test passes in most mainstream movies.
Watched it. It’s everything you said and more.
Yessssss I am going to convert all the DDPeople to Clone Club
Just a quick point to mention. In your picture of 6 of the clones you label the 3rd as Rachel. I’m pretty sure that’s Beth. Rachel’s hair is shorter and more blonde. Also strangely I think she looks least like the other characters.
Though this programme is amazing. It did take a while for me to get into it, but I’m so glad I did. Probably my favourite programme on TV right now.
Thanks for turning me on to this. A great thing to binge on when you’re home sick!
Very interesting analysis! I like it! And I love how it has diversity among female characters which you hardly ever see. The only “problem” I have with it, are the characters of Delphine and Cosima. When they talk about how they never considered being bisexual and that “sexuality is a spectrum”. I know they were pretty much saying that’s how it is for ALL people. But it still didn’t sit well with me. Especially since people’s sexuality, and especially women’s sexuality, is still in a way not taken seriously with certain parts of the media and with some people. Although I can remember only a small few media representations of men’s sexuality that have done that too. It would have been a nice change to actually have the character’s gender’s be reversed and have D and C be men and talk about how they are discovering that their sexuality is a spectrum and discovering being bisexual. And have a female character be gay. As in TOTALLY gay.
Interesting point, especially given the juxtaposition between the representation of Delphine’s sexuality (fluid, “sexuality is a spectrum,” never considered being bisexual) and Felix’s. You’re definitely spot-on that the show falls into stereotypes of women’s sexuality being a spectrum while men’s is not.
I’m interested to see what they end up doing with Tony, who’s only appeared in one episode so far.
Actually, it was only Delphine who talked about sexuality being a spectrum. There is no evidence one way or another to indicate whether Cosima is 100% gay or not. In fact she had a badass line this season when Rachel said, “So, you’re gay,” and she said, “My sexuality is not the most interesting thing about me.” So basically, it’s not anyone’s business unless Cosima wants it to be. I love that.
There’s no evidence in the show itself– but Maslany has said that Cosima is bi in several interviews. And that certainly informed how I watched it (yes, I googled the show and read a few reviews before starting on it). I agree with the part about her badass line, and that the show itself treats Cosima’s sexuality in a very refreshing way (as not central to her character’s identity as a quirky scientist).
Lovely review and thoughts – discussed some of these topics with my boyfriend, and we rattled off lots of other things from the male characters storylines – how closely they follow the kinds of stories often dished out to female characters in other shows.
The men are all there solely to service the female characters’ drives and needs. Donnie is a weak, frightened little mouse of a man, who now only comes into his own by following his wife’s rules and lawlessness. Sarah’s love interest is left holding the baby while she goes off and has adventures. Dr Leaky is put in his place by no less than two senior women. I think the startling thing about all of this is that (even from my male perspective) – none of this feels contrived or like some weird Margaret Atwood distopian scenario. This all feels real.
Oh, and of course, the strongest most capable characters in the show – all mothers (Mrs S, Sarah, Allison). No shit!
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I was just thinking about Orphan Black and the Bechdel test, and trying to come up with examples for the reverse Bechdel Test. (And Googling, so I found your post.) I was considering Felix and Nicholas’s date, and Henrik and Mark’s conversation while inseminating the cow, but I concluded that those are both very much impacted by the women, even if the women aren’t directly discussed.
The remaining candidate, another scene that aired after this post, is the conversation between Felix and Tony. Sarah and Beth were discussed in that evening’s conversation, but I think that there were long enough fragments of conversation on other subjects to qualify. But it’s an interesting way to qualify.
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