Clones, Twins & Doppelgangers: TV's Best Double Features

TELEVISION, FOR DECADES, has encouraged actors to showcase their versatility by playing look-a-likes—a weird but persistent subgenre that was jumpstarted by ABC’s The Patty Duke Show. 

- David Bianculli

In that 1963–66 sitcom, the young actress played two roles, bookish British Cathy and brash Brooklynite Patty, often acting opposite herself on a split screen. These look-alikes, as the show’s theme-song lyrics proclaimed proudly without explaining it genetically, were “identical cousins all the way.” And we’ve been seeing double, and more, ever since.

The ultimate example, to date, of this alter-ego phenomenon is on view right now in BBC America’s Orphan Black. Star Tatiana Maslany is partway through her fifth and final season of the sci-fi drama about genetic manipulation, sinister conspiracies and loving alliances. She plays a dizzying variety of identifiably different clones—including streetwise Sarah, brainy Cosima, feral Helena, icy Rachel and fashionista Krystal—and earned an Emmy last year as best lead actress in a drama. It’s an achievement she’s likely to repeat in 2017 (nominations are announced July 13).

But in terms of actors who have doubled their workload by playing clones, twins or doppelgängers, Maslany isn’t just the best of the year. She’s the best ever. And that puts her atop a long, impressive list of TV’s multiple-personality performers, three of whom strutted their stuff this year.