Last we spoke about Orphan Black: The Next Chapter, I expressed how nervous I had been for a continuation of one of my all-time favorite TV shows in this new, different format, and how it exceeded my expectations. I’m happy to report that six episodes (and five “chapters”) in, aka halfway through this season, I’m still really loving it. Tatiana Maslany’s voice is so calming, and I think it really helps that so many of these characters are people we’ve seen before, so it’s easy to imagine their mannerisms as Tatiana effortlessly flits from voice to voice. Though, I will admit, I’m having no problem envisioning the new characters too, even the ones that aren’t supposed to look like some version of Tatiana Maslany.
I’ll be honest, despite the fact that I’ve loved a lot of them, I have reboot fatigue. I feel like I’m too young for them to be remaking the shows I watched as a teenager, and also, aren’t there any new ideas? So this Serial Box experience (I still don’t know if it’s an audiobook or a podcast or what) being just a new way to continue and expand upon the show I loved instead of rebooting it or trying to unfairly leverage a franchise’s name by putting it in “the same universe” without having much to do with the actual show at all is really refreshing.
This new story, not unlike the show, is funny at times – that Charlotte grew up to have quite the sense of humor – and very mysterious. There are new clones that aren’t from Project Leda; older than Charlotte but younger than the sestras. There are self-aware clones and at least one clone who was shocked to see her own face staring back at her. There’s murder, there’s intrigue. And, just like the show, it’s queer as hell.
We have our resident lesbian and bisexual crazy science duo, of course. Cosima and Delphine have been married for quite some time, and are even having fights about kids and building a house together. They help out Art with Charlotte and Sarah with Kira whenever they can, and are still very much in love.
And since they were such a centerpoint of this story, plus we have bisexual Sarah Manning running about, I was truly and extremely surprised when Kira started working at a non-profit gene company (or something that sounds smarter and sciencier than that) called GeneKeep, where she meets Emmaline, aka Em, is a Métis woman around Kira’s age (Kira is 18 now! Our little girl, all grown up. :wipes tear:) who works at GeneKeep and is FLIRTING WITH KIRA. Kira!!! It’s not entirely clear if Kira returns the sentiment, but she certainly doesn’t seem opposed, and she asks Charlotte how to tell if someone is flirting with her, which is a rainbow flag if I’ve ever seen one, at least in the eyes of me, an Oblivious Gay.
I want to know all of your thoughts and feelings; how are you liking this new extension of our favorite story? Do you think Kira is really queer? Is Tatiana Maslany’s voice also soothing you in ways you didn’t know you needed to be soothed? Let’s have a spoiler-filled chat about it in the comments, like a book club for…whatever medium this story is in.
