I've watched the entire series so far and simultaneously done both the Bechdel test and the reverse Bechdel test for each episode. I thought you'd like to hear the results.
Every single episode passes the Bechdel test. The first season has one episode that passes the reverse Bechdel test and the second season has three. Each season has ten episodes so the pass rate is 20%. The first two seasons have a total of 12 scenes that pass the reverse Bechdel test. Eight of those scenes and one of those episodes only pass the reverse Bechdel test because of a certain character in the 8th episode of season 2. I counted him as male but I'm not sure if it's in the spirit of the test to do so.
The third season has had three episodes so far, each of which passes the Bechdel test and one of which passes the reverse Bechdel test. There are three reverse Bechdel scenes. There are quite a few new male major characters in a major role in this season (you'll know what I mean) so I expected there would be more.
I suspect passing the Bechdel test has more to do with the proportion of female characters in general or the proportion of women in the main cast in particular than with their relationships with women or men. A large part of the reason Orphan Black does so badly on the reverse Bechdel test is that Maslany is in almost every scene and plays half the main cast. I think you could explain the generally surprisingly low Bechdel pass rate in movies and TV shows largely with just the fact that most protagonists are male and the proportion of female characters is typically maybe 30-40 percent. For instance, if there were five major characters, two of whom are women, and it was completely random who talked to whom, 10% of their one-on-one conversations would be between women, 30% between men and 60% between a woman and a man. And that's ignoring mixed-sex group conversations which I usually count as fails for both tests.
To test the above idea, I did both tests for each episode of Sanctuary, a TV show with a female protagonist and with slightly more male than female characters. Most scenes failed both tests because they were between a man or a woman or were mixed-sex group conversations. Many times, it was difficult to decide whether to count something as a pass or a fail. Out of a total of 59 episodes, 2 failed both, 7 or 8 passed RB and failed B, 5 or 6 passed B and failed RB and 43-45 (about three fourths) passed both. I admit that these results are probably partially due to whether characters are defined by their relationship to someone of the opposite sex.
I've also watched some episodes of TV shows that focus tightly on a single character and imagined that the character was the opposite sex. The usual pattern in those cases is that the episode passes only one of the tests depending on the main character's sex. This definitely supports the idea that Bechdel fails are largely caused by the generally lower proportion and importance of female characters rather than women being defined by their relationships to men.
I think it's important to do the reverse Bechdel test too, at least in cases where there appears to be even a slight possibility that the test is failed (stories focused on women, there's a large proportion of female characters, stories with very few characters of both sexes etc). That's because we need to know the baseline for comparison and not just look at the proportion of Bechdel passes. Also, the reverse Bechdel test can help explain why the pass rate for the Bechdel test is surprisingly low; we can look at TV episodes or movies that pass B and fail RB and see what they're like compared to things that pass RB and fail B.
no subject
Every single episode passes the Bechdel test. The first season has one episode that passes the reverse Bechdel test and the second season has three. Each season has ten episodes so the pass rate is 20%. The first two seasons have a total of 12 scenes that pass the reverse Bechdel test. Eight of those scenes and one of those episodes only pass the reverse Bechdel test because of a certain character in the 8th episode of season 2. I counted him as male but I'm not sure if it's in the spirit of the test to do so.
The third season has had three episodes so far, each of which passes the Bechdel test and one of which passes the reverse Bechdel test. There are three reverse Bechdel scenes. There are quite a few new male major characters in a major role in this season (you'll know what I mean) so I expected there would be more.
I suspect passing the Bechdel test has more to do with the proportion of female characters in general or the proportion of women in the main cast in particular than with their relationships with women or men. A large part of the reason Orphan Black does so badly on the reverse Bechdel test is that Maslany is in almost every scene and plays half the main cast. I think you could explain the generally surprisingly low Bechdel pass rate in movies and TV shows largely with just the fact that most protagonists are male and the proportion of female characters is typically maybe 30-40 percent. For instance, if there were five major characters, two of whom are women, and it was completely random who talked to whom, 10% of their one-on-one conversations would be between women, 30% between men and 60% between a woman and a man. And that's ignoring mixed-sex group conversations which I usually count as fails for both tests.
To test the above idea, I did both tests for each episode of Sanctuary, a TV show with a female protagonist and with slightly more male than female characters. Most scenes failed both tests because they were between a man or a woman or were mixed-sex group conversations. Many times, it was difficult to decide whether to count something as a pass or a fail. Out of a total of 59 episodes, 2 failed both, 7 or 8 passed RB and failed B, 5 or 6 passed B and failed RB and 43-45 (about three fourths) passed both. I admit that these results are probably partially due to whether characters are defined by their relationship to someone of the opposite sex.
I've also watched some episodes of TV shows that focus tightly on a single character and imagined that the character was the opposite sex. The usual pattern in those cases is that the episode passes only one of the tests depending on the main character's sex. This definitely supports the idea that Bechdel fails are largely caused by the generally lower proportion and importance of female characters rather than women being defined by their relationships to men.
I think it's important to do the reverse Bechdel test too, at least in cases where there appears to be even a slight possibility that the test is failed (stories focused on women, there's a large proportion of female characters, stories with very few characters of both sexes etc). That's because we need to know the baseline for comparison and not just look at the proportion of Bechdel passes. Also, the reverse Bechdel test can help explain why the pass rate for the Bechdel test is surprisingly low; we can look at TV episodes or movies that pass B and fail RB and see what they're like compared to things that pass RB and fail B.