MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

In Orphan Black, we discover that the main character, Sarah, has an ever-growing number of clones who look just like her, but who are actually quite different from her. The importance of nurture (as opposed to nature) in determining our path in life is soon made clear. As the clones learn about each other, another message is that all of us would probably treat other people better if we viewed them as being different versions of ourselves. Because just one actress plays all the clones, effort is put into differentiating these characters, not only through clothing, mannerisms, and accents, but also through cinematic style. Enter the 2015 Netflix show, Sense8, about eight people around the globe who are psychically linked. In this case, instead of being genetically the same, they are diverse in race, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation – and yet, they can think and act together. It is their serene acceptance of being in each other’s heads that contributes to the exquisite feeling of togetherness they are experiencing. The characters tend to switch locations multiple times within a given interaction to demonstrate these connections, such as when Wolfgang, finds himself in sunny Mumbai and Kala, finds herself in rainy Berlin. Although there are burgeoning romantic feelings between Wolfgang and Kala, the strongest relationship depicted is between a trans woman in San Francisco, Nomi, and her lover, Amanita. The message in Sense8 is similar to that of Orphan Black (that we would understand people better if we imagined they are an extension of us) and yet the cinematic technique, instead of being devoted to the differentiation of the characters, is in service of demonstrating how the characters are joined together.