With summer comes the heated spirit of television awards season, in case all those FYC popups and banners haven’t properly reminded you. We’ve already got the CCTAs under our belt, and TCA nominations came out earlier this week. But now is also the time for members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to cast their ballots for the Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, which will officially be announced in mid-July. In this ballot period, the Internet is already ablaze with nomination and even win predictions. Almost every year, there’s a dark horse favorite who the critics rally behind. This year’s decided dark horse is Canadian actor Tatiana Maslany, and a win for her — even just an Emmy nomination — could mean a whole lot to the television world.
If you haven’t heard of this Tatiana Maslany or the new BBC America sci-fi series “Orphan Black” she leads, you missed out on one of television’s best surprises this year. In the pilot, Sarah Manning witnesses the suicide of Beth, a young woman who inexplicably looks exactly like her. Seizing the opportunity to empty Beth’s overflowing bank account so she can make a new life for herself, her daughter and her foster brother Felix, Sarah takes on Beth’s identity, only to find herself pretending to be a cop caught up in a messy internal investigation involving a civilian death. Sarah’s life takes an even sharper turn when she starts to run into other lookalikes: Beth wasn’t a coincidence. Sarah’s a clone.
Cue the eye-rolling. Human clones are an all-too-common sci-fi premise that often lacks compelling substance. But “Orphan Black” spins a thrilling tale that’s more piercing and intelligent than anyone could have predicted.
And to say Maslany leads the series is an understatement. She’s its cornerstone. She’s Sarah. She’s spiraling soccer mom Alison. She’s blood-thirsty maniac Helena. She’s science wiz Cosima. She’s Sarah-as-Beth, Alison-as-Sarah, Sarah-as-Alison, Helena-as-Sarah-as-Beth … OK, you get it. She plays a whole lot of characters and has a shooting schedule unrivaled by anyone else on television. But watch “Orphan Black,” and you might just need to remind yourself just one woman is behind so many characters: That’s how convincing she is. You’ll forget they’re all Maslany.
So Step One: Watch “Orphan Black.” BBC America thankfully compiled a list of ways to watch here. Now, try this test (even if you’ve already watched, look! I’m giving you an excuse to re-watch! You’re welcome!): Take away the physical distinctions of each of the clones — Cosima’s dredlocks, Alison’s bangs, Helena’s blond mane. Hell, even take away their accents. Even without the obvious markers, the characters are still remarkably different from each other, because Maslany brings physical nuances to every performance. Watch her hands. For Alison, they’re kept close to her face and chin. For Sarah, they’re fiddling with something. For Cosima, they’re all over the place.
I probably spent too much time studying Maslany’s physicality. In fact, if I’d paid as close attention in Econ as I did to the nuances of Maslany’s acting abilities, I probably would have done a whole lot better in Econ. But I’ve simply never seen someone with such mesmerizing versatility before. It’s not unlike watching a magician. Not even Anna Torv or Nina Dobrev — two women who similarly give commanding performances as multiple characters on their respective shows and whose talents I’ve endlessly praised — can compare. No one can compare. No one performed like this this year. I can’t recall ever seeing a performance on TV like it.
So, yeah, Tatiana Maslany deserves an Emmy nomination. She deserves a win. But if the ATAS chooses to recognize her greatness, there are implications for not just “Orphan Black,” which has already been renewed for a second season slated for spring 2014, but for genre television as a whole.
The Emmys do not favor fantasy and sci-fi series. “Game of Thrones” recently proved fantasy could win big, but still lacks an arsenal of performance awards. Peter Dinklage is the only cast member to hold an Emmy.
In this so-called Golden Age of television, dramas grounded in reality dominate. In critic Alan Sepinwall’s “The Revolution Was Televised,” he examines 10 shows that changed TV drama forever. Of the 10, three are genre series — “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “Lost” — and with the exception of the last, despite their critical acclaim, these shows weren’t met with an abundance of nominations that shower the book’s other subjects, like “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.” Technical awards, sure. But performance awards? Forget about it. Is that because Charisma Carpenter or Alyson Hannigan or Katee Sackhoff or Mary McDonnell weren’t giving award-worthy performances?
Hell no. On the contrary, they and many of their fellow castmates gave countless chilling, heartwarming, heartbreaking performances — performances just as powerful as anything found on “normal” television. Another test: Watch Carpenter’s performance in “Birthday,” the 11th episode of “Buffy” spinoff “Angel” ’s third season and tell me homegirl doesn’t deserve all the retroactive awards.
And today, amazing performances happen on genre series every week. Nina Dobrev isn’t the only “Vampire Diaries” star with immense range: Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Candace Accola and Matt Davis have all displayed adeptness for duality. But the only awards we can ever hope for them to win are an endless stockpile of oversized neon surfboards (the confusing trophy of the Teen Choice Awards). Ksenia Solo and Anna Silk have done compelling work on “Lost Girl.” Dinklage isn’t the only actor making “Game of Thrones” great.
But while some of these other performances go largely unnoticed by mainstream awards ceremonies, all eyes are on Maslany this year. In truth, her accomplishments in the first season of “Orphan Black” exceed the work of other sci-fi actors. But that’s because they exceed the work of all other TV actors this year. And a win for her is a win for sci-fi, as well as proof that the Emmys are becoming less stagnant and predictable (wishful thinking!).
Still doubting Maslany’s magic? You probably didn’t watch “Orphan Black.” In which case, why are you still reading this? You have a show to watch.