Drama
Orphan Black: Echoes
The Orphan Black franchise is back. And its new show echoes the violence, profanity and homosexual romance from the original.
Everything was going just swimmingly for Gala Scott. Her daughter, Kate, was attending a prestigious all-women’s school. Her mom, Julia, is dealing with dementia, but at least she’s being well cared for in a posh nursing home. Gala herself is opening up a very fancy wine shop. And her brilliant husband, Fred, is figuring out how to pay for it all.
Except that, well, he’s not so brilliant. And he’s not actually paying for much of anything.
Gala discovers this, most inconveniently, during the gala opening of her new wine shop. Fred is a no-show. His intimidating collectors are not.
“We’re supposed to meet Fred here,” one says. “To collect what we’re owed.”
“Oh, you must be the caterers!” Gala gushes. “How much do I owe you?”
“Fifteen million dollars,” she’s told. And if she doesn’t get it within 24 hours? They’ll be paying a little visit to Gala’s mother and daughter.
And that gets Gala thinking: Maybe it’s time for a little trip.
Soon, Gala, Kate and Julia are on their way to Spain—to Julia’s childhood home of La Muga, to be precise. Surely those collection thugs would never think to look for Gala there, right?
But the trip comes with its own set of problems. All of Gala’s credit cards have been cancelled and her bank accounts frozen. The only cash she had was what she could tape to her body. Then, when Gala smashes into a grape-laden tractor—wrecking the trailer and spoiling a good chunk of La Muga’s grape harvest—the tractor driver (the smug-but-handsome Amat) threatens to take what little cash Gala has.
Then there’s this: Julia seems to have something of an (ahem) reputation in town—one that still clings to her, even after 40 years.
And while Gala may believe that she’s safe in Spain, $15 million is a lot of money, and those hooligans won’t give up quickly. Sooner or later, they’ll find La Muga and perhaps engage in a little La Murder.
Land of Women (or, as the title screen reads in Spanish, Tierra de Mujeres, is a Spanish-English-language miniseries based on the bestselling book of the same name. Though Apple TV+ hasn’t given the series an age-appropriate rating (pretty much the norm these days), the streaming service seems to be aiming for the equivalent of a light PG-13 dramedy.
While we may hear an occasional s-word, most of the profanity on tap is milder. The romance (and yes, this is indeed a romance) is meant to feel as sweet and soft as a Spanish breeze. And the movie leans into some strong, positive themes, too: the importance of family, forgiveness and second chances.
But Land of Women is a good reminder that light content doesn’t mean green light to see: The show treats sex and sexuality pretty lightly as well.
Julia’s questionable reputation is well-earned in La Muga—so much so that Gala realizes that Julia has no idea who Gala’s father is. (“I was pretty busy back then,” Julia admits.) Indeed, Gala suspects that her birth father just might be any male La Muga citizen over the age of 60.
Kate, meanwhile, has a girlfriend back in the States and a new female love interest in Spain. Moreover, in an Episode Two flashback, we see Kate’s father reminisce about Kate’s decision to “transition,” which suggests that Kate might’ve been someone very different just a short while ago.
Land of Women positions itself as a light, heartwarming story—albeit one filled with unsavory secrets. Fitting that the show comes with a few unwelcome surprises of its own.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Gala discovers that her husband has been keeping some pretty important secrets from her. The biggest? That he borrowed $15 million from an unsavory fellow. As a result, their lives, and the lives of their family members, are all in danger. “Leave New York,” husband Fred says. “Leave the state. I will find you.”
Gala does more than leave the state: She leaves the country—and she takes her dementia-addled mom (Julia) and her daughter (Kate) with her. But she can’t quite bring herself to tell either of them about the serious issues they all face. Instead, she frames the impromptu getaway as a “girls’ trip.”
It’s not the only time that Gala lies. She spends much of the episode lying to both Julia and Kate (telling Kate, for instance, that the trip to Spain is Julia’s “dying wish”). She also bribes Julia to get on the plane—telling her that she can have “two drinks and a shot” if she agrees to board.
We hear several other references to drinking and getting drunk. And Julia, at her nursing home, apparently moonlights as a drug dealer. (We see her trade an elderly gentleman some unnamed pills, likely something used to treat erectile dysfunction, for Xanax.) Julia reminds Gala that Gala started smoking when she was 14. People speculate that Gala sells drugs.
Kate and her girlfriend, Maggie, kiss a couple of times. When Gala makes a face as she watches, Julia asks her if she’s not happy with Kate having a girlfriend. (Gala says the girlfriend part is fine; it’s Maggie she’s not thrilled with.) We see Gala in her underwear as she tapes cash to her body. Julia swims in a river, flashing back to when she was much younger and apparently naked with a man in tow. She flashes and waves to a bevy of villagers celebrating the feast day of St. Vincent. (We see only part of her bare back.)
Someone makes a joke about sagging breasts. In narration mode, Gala reassures the audience that she’s not a “white collar criminal’s stripper girlfriend” or a “drug dealer’s sidepiece.” Julia flirts with an elderly policeman she had a relationship with back in the day. A woman walks around her room in a towel.
Fred’s debt collectors insinuate that they’ll kill both Kate and Julia if they don’t get their money. Gala runs into a grape-laden trailer. Characters say “a–,” “d–n” and “h—” four times each. We also hear one use of the word “pr–k.”
In the last episode, Gala, Kate and Julia tried unsuccessfully to establish Julia’s half-ownership of her childhood home—a home now technically owned by a farmer named Amat. That stint landed them in jail. This episode opens with them being released—thanks in part to the fact that the town’s police chief used to be Julia’s boyfriend. But he’s hardly alone: When they walk out, most of the town’s elderly gentlemen eye Julia as she walks down the street.
But alas, all that nostalgic, um, appreciation doesn’t help the three women fix their car or find a place to stay. And when Gala discovers that Amat has “stolen” what little money they had—money that Amat insists will cover the damages that Gala caused when she ran into his trailer—their situation grows even more dire.
We hear more about Julia’s past, and Gala discovers that her mother has no idea who Gala’s father even is. We do learn, however, that Julia left Spain after getting pregnant, in part to spare her sister any embarrassment.
Kate is an artist. And in flashback, we see Gala admire her paintings—sometimes of partly nude females. (One is bare breasted; another, which Kate is painting in the flashback, depicts a partly exposed backside.) Kate meets her girlfriend, Maggie, during an art class; and in another flashback, Kate’s parents have dinner with Maggie’s parents (a suggestion that the relationship, between these two 17-year-olds, is getting serious). Gala is offended when Maggie’s mother talks about the discomfort her own family felt when they learned that Maggie was attracted to girls. Kate and father Fred reminisce about when Kate decided to transition.
Some again speculate that Gala deals in drugs. We see several people drink wine, and someone holds a beer. Kate accepts a ride from a female mechanic and notices a girlie picture pasted to the truck’s dashboard. (When the mechanic tells Kate that the picture is hers, not her father’s, Kate surmises that the female mechanic is attracted to women, too.)
We hear that Maggie’s father is Catholic. Lies are told. Someone says the s-word, and we also hear “a–,” “b–tard,” “g-dd–n” and “h—.” God’s name is misused four times.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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