Orphan Black is the kind of show that makes me want to go door-to-door preaching the Gospel of Tatiana Maslany. It makes me feel frantic with anxiety, gleeful, weepy, excited, and triumphant. It makes me laugh so hard I fall off the couch and it makes my heart grow three sizes. It’s given rise to a nurturing online community (The Clone Club) which uses one of the character’s lines as its motto, “We make a family, yes?” It has healed rifts between people and their parents.

If I found out tomorrow that watching Orphan Black cures cancer and the common cold, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.

Here are five reasons why I’m excited that Orphan Black is coming to BBC America for Season Three on April 18, and one caveat.

1. The acting is amazing.

Orphan Black involves the lives of several women who discover that they are clones. Tatiana Maslany plays all of the clones. To date, she’s played Beth, Katja, Alison, Sarah, Cosima, Rachel, Helena, Jennifer, and Tony.

Maslany rightly gets a huge amount of credit (but not awards) from fans and critics for her performances. She makes each character utterly individual. Props to hair, costuming, and make-up for providing each character with a specific look – but they also have totally different body language, speech patterns, personalities, and quirks.

Maslany’s performances are so powerful that they lead to all kinds of weird cognitive glitches for the audience. For instance, Maslany’s mother has said that in real life, Maslany most closely resembles the character Sarah. So when Maslany’s mom watches the show and Maslany is playing other clones, her mom will catch herself thinking, “Oh, I wonder when Tatiana will be on again.” Every individual character that Maslany plays is played incredible devotion and intensity, and they are all so unique that you can tell who is who even when the clones are pretending to be each other.

Part of why Maslany succeeds is that she’s anchored by an incredible supporting cast. Kathryn Alexandre is Maslany’s double every time two clones are in a scene together, which means that she’s acted in every episode (you can read about the depth of her contribution here). Jordan Gervais takes a part that could be offensive and turns it into a warm, layered character who anchors the show and everyone in it. Maria Doyle Kennedy is like a show unto herself. The show is an acting master class that you can watch for free – and not just because of the insanely talented Tatiana Maslany (not for nothing did Clone Clubber give her the “Best Actress in the World Award”).

 

 

2. The show has an unswerving and uncompromising insistence that women should be in control of their own bodies.

This is a show about women – not the just the clones, but their friends, lovers, neighbors, mothers, and mentors. The clones are constantly struggling for autonomy in their relationships and in their struggles with various groups who want to own them for various purposes. Here’s an excerpt from a powerful essay by Sadie Gennis at TV Guide:

On the series, the female body is a battleground, with the women literally reduced to objects. The more easily controlled or useful the clones’ bodies are (read: able to be reproduced), the more they’re worth to the government-supported scientists and religious fanatics who continuously lay claim to Sarah and the rest of Clone Club.

At a time when issues surrounding women’s bodies and reproductive rights are not just debated, but frequently taken out of women’s hands — more often than not, by the government or religious fanatics (sound familiar?) — this is an increasingly relevant discussion to be had. The fact that it’s playing out on a sci-fi drama on BBC America is far from surprising. Science-fiction has always been reflective of fears currently plaguing society. And by encasing these issues within the trappings of a sci-fi action-thriller, Orphan Black exposes its viewers to radically feminist views without scaring anyone away with the ‘F’ word.

But unlike a lot of what passes for TV feminism, the show’s not just about women being confident or comfortable in their own skin. It’s about reaffirming that their skin, their body, and their decisions are theirs to control. This is the battle all women in America are living with right now, whether they realize it or not. I’m not saying I’m worried about someone owning my DNA, but I am exhausted by people exerting their own values and opinions onto my body. That’s why it’s such a thrill to see the women of Orphan Black reaffirm their agency and fight back against the system, without the series ever resorting to gratuitous sex and nudity.

It’s incredibly exhilarating to see these women fight for their autonomy. It’s a revelation to hear one of the clones tell a girl who has been artificially inseminated, “If you don’t want my babies, don’t have my babies.” It’s heart-breaking and heart-warming when a character says, “Did you ever stop to think, once, that this is my decision and not yours?  This is my lab!  My body!”  It’s thrilling to know that a sizeable, passionate audience, both male and female, is rooting for these characters to win their freedom. It’s dizzying to see a series pass the Bechdel Test, the Mako Mori Test, and the Sexy Lamp Test dozens of times in the pilot episode alone. It’s wonderful to see so many different kinds of women represented and to see that their dreams and goals and ideals are respected (eventually, not without some eye-brow raising as diverse characters crash into each other’s lives).

 

 

3. The show embraces LGBTQIA characters (but needs to work harder on including people of color in major roles).

Of the major characters, one is transgender, one is gay, one is lesbian, and one is bisexual. Their relationships are as varied and sexual as the relationships between straight characters, if not more so. Felix turns fetization into a high art, while Cosima resists it, saying, “My sexuality is not the most interesting thing about me.” If you’ve ever wondered why inclusion and representation in media is important, I encourage you to watch some Orphan Black panels online. LGBTQIA people talk about how this show helps them accept their own sexuality, and how watching the show with family and friends has made their families more accepting of them.   Here’s my account of a fan speaking to the cast at San Diego Comic Con, 2014:

A fan thanked the cast, saying that she was suicidal because of her sexuality when she started watching the show. “Before I started watching the show, I was really in the closet,” she said. She inspired by seeing that Cosima was “more than her sexuality”.  She started watching the show with her mom and, “It rebuilt our relationship because she could see that Cosima was more than her sexuality, and she was OK with that…What’s it like to know the effect you have on people’s lives?  You’re saving lives.  That’s what you did for me”.

 

I would love to see more people of color on the show. Art, a major character, is black, and so are several side characters, including a birth mother of a clone or two (she’s a surrogate mother) and Alison’s adopted children. The show also casts people of color in small roles and as extras, so it feels as thought these people are living in a very diverse world. If I have one wish for subsequent seasons of the show, it’s to see more people of color in recurring, significant roles.

 

4. We make a family, yes?

 

I love the theme of constructed families, and Orphan Black has multiple families of different sorts who come together, often in very unexpected ways. There’s a thrill in watching Maslany do her thing, and a “Fuck Yeah!” excitement in seeing these women fight for autonomy, but the heart of the show lies in how the characters relate to each other, and how they strive for connection. Much of the humor lies in these connections and so does most of the emotion.

I don’t want to write more about this because I don’t want to spoil anything. But I love, love, love the way this show handles familiar relationships, regardless of how that family comes together or falls apart.

I think it’s indicative of the show that the real-life fans, The Clone Club, are such an inclusive and caring community. The Facebook group is well moderated, with an eye towards expressing the values of the show – hate speech is not tolerated. People talk about their worries and are supported. There is respectful argument about the show and caring concern about personal crises. There’s disagreement but no trolling. Certainly Clone Club isn’t the only supportive online fan community in the Internet, but it’s interesting to watch the show’s values play out on Facebook every day.

 

5. And the caveat – oh, my poor nerves.

 

Look, we romance people want a happy ending. We want some certainty that things will be OK. And I never, ever, feel certain about this show. There are vast sections of Season One that play out like those dreams where you are in a play and you don’t know your lines or what play you are in and you are in your underwear. There are moments of savage violence, there are (occasionally) children in peril, there are relationships that go bad and break your heart and some that surprise by coming back around.

There’s no guarantee that Season Three will be as good as Seasons One and Two – they have so many balls in the air it seems inevitable for some of those balls to crash eventually. There’s certainly no guarantee that there will be a happy ending. But I can guarantee that if you try watching Orphan Black, you’ll have a hell of a ride.

Be sure to start with Season One or you’ll be lost, plus you’ll miss some of the best moments of the show.  There’s a Season Three Trailer, but it spoils a ton of Season One and Two.

So if you are new to the show, here’s the official Season One Trailer. Beware of spoilers in the comments – it’s impossible to discuss the show without spoiling something given how many twists are packed into each episode.

Season Three airs on BBC America (and is available from iTunes) on April 18.