O'Reilly, Julie D.: Bewitched Again: Supernaturally Powerful Women on Television, 1996-2011.

Miller, Jennifer L.

O'Reilly, Julie D. Bewitched Again: Supernaturally Powerful Women on Television, 1996-2011. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013. 248 pp. Paperback. ISBN: 978-1-4766-0161-8. $40.00.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Charmed. Dark Angel. Joan of Arcadia. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Roswell. Witchblade. Between 1996 and 2006, over thirty different television shows, including those listed here, featured super-powered female characters as their protagonists. Characters on these shows talked with God, saved the world from the undead, fought evil and injustice, used magic, were capable of amazing physical feats, and even traveled through time. The prevalence of such super-powered women on television during these years makes this decade the primary focus of Julie O'Reilly's scholarly study, Bewitched Again: Supernaturally Powerful Women on Television, 1996-2011; she even notes that this "should have been a 'golden age'" for such characters (2). Yet many of these characters had their power curtailed or limited in some way, leading to the paradox at the center of O'Reilly's work: "can these female characters truly be considered powerful, much less superpowerful, if they do not have the opportunity to embrace, develop, or utilize their abilities fully and/or freely?"(4).

After posing this question and laying out her overall structure in the Introduction, O'Reilly uses Chapter 1 to examine the primary precedent for super-powered females on the small screen: Samantha Stephens, the central character of Bewitched, a popular show about a witch married to a mortal man named Darrin who disapproves of Samantha's use of magic and attempts to repress it. Over the eight seasons of Bewitched (1964-1972), Samantha struggled with Darrin's decree as she worked to be part of a "normal, happy couple" (24). O'Reilly notes that the image of Samantha as the perfect 1960s housewife was enhanced by the media's representation of the actress who portrayed her--Elizabeth Montgomery, a woman known in the media as much for being the loving wife of William Asher, one of the show's producers, as she was for being the star of the show itself. In this chapter, O'Reilly highlights other shows from this era as well, including I Dream of Jeannie (1965-1970), The Flying Nun (1967-1970), and, slightly later, The Bionic Woman (1976-1978), but chooses to focus on Bewitched because of its longer run. Although O'Reilly does acknowledge the scholarship that considers possible ways in which Bewitched subverts the patriarchal family structure, ultimately she sees the show as the first in a long line of many to depict super-powerful women constrained by the expectations of their societies.

The heart of Bewitched Again is O'Reilly's analysis of four key ways in which the female protagonists from the "golden age" are limited in ways similar to Samantha Stephens from three decades earlier. Thus, Chapter 2 examines the way the super-powered female body is misread, focusing in particular on the recurrence of the question, "What the hell are you?" in series including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, and Birds of Prey. O'Reilly contrasts this question with the more traditional query, "Who are you?" arguing that this distinction highlights how subjectivity is denied to the super-powered woman in question, instead relegating her to the status of an object. As a result, a super-powerful woman is then labeled a "freak," and "she must conceal [her powers] or face the consequences, whether those consequences result in harm to herself or her loved ones, isolation, or self-doubt about her own true identity" (62).

After this examination of super-powered women as "freaks," O'Reilly analyzes three other main facets of super-powered females on television: the way in which they are expected to be selfless, the levels of surveillance that monitor their actions, and the patriarchal legal systems to which they are held accountable. In Chapter 3, she argues that super-powered women are expected to use their powers only for selfless reasons. For example, in Dark Angel, the protagonist Max has been genetically modified by a group called Manticore so that she has superhuman strength and speed. When she wants to plan a vacation to relax, her boyfriend instead hopes to use the time to investigate the deaths of a group of protestors; when Max complains that she wanted to "kic[k] back," Logan sarcastically responds, "Because that is the most important thing" (78). More provocatively, O'Reilly claims that these super-powered women have been so indoctrinated into this selfless role that they cannot imagine a world where this selfless calling does not exist.

In Chapter 4, O'Reilly turns to the various ways in which super-powered women are inescapably observed by others (both seen and unseen), identifying both official institutions that watch these women (such as the Watchers' Council in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as well as nosy neighbors, boyfriends, and family members (such as Isabel's parents in Roswell). Here, too, O'Reilly points out the degree to which this social constraint is internalized by the protagonists of these shows. The ubiquity and effects of this surveillance present super-powered women with yet another paradox: how do they avoid the invisibility historically afforded to women while also avoiding the gaze that objectifies them? Finally, in Chapter 5, O'Reilly examines the ways in which super-powered women remain subject to patriarchal legal systems, such as the all-male Elders and Tribunal that oversee Piper, Prue, and Phoebe's actions on Charmed. As a result, although these women have extraordinary abilities, these abilities "are sanctioned by an institution; therefore, to maintain their powers and/or supernatural status, superpowered women are obligated to follow the rules and regulations of the sanctioning institution" (131). Overall, O'Reilly uses these four areas of inquiry to demonstrate the wide-reaching effects of limits placed on super-powered women.

For each of these chapters, O'Reilly provides many examples of ways in which super-powered women are limited in their powers. Her points are made most strongly, perhaps, when she compares these examples to super-powered male protagonists in television shows from the same time period. In Chapter 2's discussion of the super-powered female body, for example, O'Reilly contrasts the language used to describe such women with the language used to describe super-powered men such as Angel (Angel), Jake (Jake 2.0), and Clark Kent (Smallville). She notes that while super powers for these men are merely an exaggeration of the qualities that they are already expected to have, for super-powered women such as Buffy, Phoebe (Charmed), Isabel (Roswell), and Max (Dark Angel), these abilities are a transgression instead that "violates conventional constructions of gender and sexual identity" (51). Superman's strength is admired by the narrator of The Adventures of Superman--"More powerful than a locomotive!"--but similar feats of strength by Buffy and Helena (Birds of Prey) result in their being viewed as "freaks" by those around them, particularly men (51). These contrasts throughout the study between super-powered male and female protagonists very clearly demonstrate the ways in which such women remain limited by repressive social norms, both in terms of how others perceive them as well as how they are allowed to use their power.

After her thorough examination of the "golden age," O'Reilly then uses Chapter 6 to consider shows in the "next generation" of super-powered women such as those depicted in Saving Grace, Bionic Woman (a "twenty-first-century re-imagining" of the 1970s show), and True Blood (153-154). In many of these shows, O'Reilly sees some progress; for instance, she notes that super-powered men in this next generation of shows were more likely to be "object [s] of surveillance" within a show than comparable characters from the previous decade, thus narrowing the gap between the surveillance of super-powered men and women. She notes that many shows featured an ensemble cast, rather than a single super-powered protagonist, including Heroes (2006-2010), Fringe (2008-2013), and Alphas (2011-2012), and also highlights a new theme that emerged in many of the shows from 2006-2011: the search for sanctuary. She writes, "Contemporary series featuring super-powered characters, especially super-powered ensembles, explore salvation through sanctuary, redefining humanity through character and companionship rather than through categorization"(181). She sees the connections among the characters of these ensemble shows as defining "what it means to be human," rather than distinctions between the categories of "normal" and "extraordinary" (or "freak") (181). This chapter helpfully establishes O'Reilly's study as the foundation for understanding current representations of super-powered women on television, as well as shows from the particular time period she addresses.

The scope of O'Reilly's work is impressive, in terms of both the television shows it addresses as well as the theoretical paradigms from which it draws. Although many readers will undoubtedly have the same in-depth knowledge about one or two of the shows that O'Reilly discusses, the breadth and depth of her study set it apart from works that focus on just a few shows. O'Reilly also demonstrates in-depth knowledge not only of shows with super-powered female characters, but also comparable shows featuring male protagonists, as mentioned above. Furthermore, she draws from a number of theoretical approaches, including feminist legal theory, disability studies, choice feminism, and Foucault's discussion of the Panopticon, giving her argument solid footing through extra-textual considerations in addition to her extensive analysis of primary sources. On occasion, the breadth of O'Reilly's approach may open her up to criticism from readers who might believe that she missed a key example (or counterexample) from a particular show. She also does not differentiate between the various types of super powers: alien super powers are considered in the same context as those stemming from genetic manipulation. Rather, she limits herself to examining issues related to differences in gender, and, on occasion, race and sexuality. In general, however, the comprehensive nature of O'Reilly's study, both in terms of textual analysis and theoretical support, creates a compelling argument that these super-powered women cannot truly be considered powerful.

Perhaps the most useful aspect of O'Reilly's work is the connections that she draws between the shows she analyzes and the same points of consideration in the real world. In Chapter 2, for example, she connects the transgressive nature of super-powered female bodies with real-world athletes such as tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. In Chapter 4, she observes how pregnant women receive the same surveillance as super-powered women; she writes, "Since [pregnant women's] bodies are marked by their reproductive abilities (superpowers in their own right), they cannot escape the allegedly well-meaning, but often accusatory or judgmental, gaze of others"(118). The range of these real-world connections demonstrates the importance of O'Reilly's study not only for those interested in fantasy and science fiction on television, but in representations of gender more broadly. As a result, the distinction that O'Reilly makes between powerful and actually empowered can be helpful for understanding the limitations holding back both the women featured in these televisions shows as well the real-world women who are watching.