If you don’t regularly tune in to shows about global conspiracies, illegal medical research, and genetically identical clones, you may be forgiven for not watching Orphan Black, the serpentine Canadian-American science fiction drama that wrapped up its first season earlier this month on BBC America. (Season 2 will air in 2014.)

But not watching this compelling and surprisingly emotional cult drama—created by Graeme Manson and John Fawcett—means that you missed out on one of the year’s most intense and astonishing television performances. In Orphan Black, Tatiana Maslany delivers a daredevil turn, playing no less than seven different roles, each one with their own mannerisms and secrets.

The New York Times’s pop-music critic, Jon Caramanica, sat down with controversial rapper-producer-fashionista Kanye West at Shangri-La Studio out in Malibu, California, for a highly amusing conversation that spanned several hours over three days in late May and early June. The pair covered a wide range of topics, including West’s upcoming album, Yeezus, out June 18, the Taylor Swift fiasco, his baby with Kim Kardashian, and how he’s the next Steve Jobs.

Here are craziest Kanye West quotes from the must-read interview:

One, two, three, and to the four. Snoop Doggy Dogg and ... Brian Williams is at the door?

Has the veteran newsman traded the anchor desk for the recording booth? Several videos bouncing around the Internet last week made it seem like Williams was bringing his trademark gravitas to the hip-hop game, but it was actually just the latest viral success from Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Remember Paris Hilton?

The heiress-reality star-businesswoman hasn’t been regular tabloid fodder of late, but she was all anyone would talk about in the mid-to-late aughts. The stories came so fast and furious that the Associated Press even imposed a ban on any coverage of Hilton. It lasted a little over a week.

Jerry Siegel initially conceived Superman as a Nietzschean über-mensch with telepathic powers who was bent on world domination. He was a ruthless, terribly bald villain whose first appearance came in the short story “The Reign of the Superman” in January 1933. Later, with the help of artist Joe Shuster, Superman was reimagined as a dashing hero with superhuman strength and abilities. His looks were modeled after Douglas Fairbanks, the actor best known for playing Robin Hood and Zorro during the silent era. In June 1938, Superman—as we know him—debuted in Action Comics No. 1.

The children of Jewish immigrants, Siegel and Shuster are believed to have fashioned their tale as a cultural-assimilation saga modeled after the plight of the American Jew (which may help explain Jerry Seinfeld’s extreme fandom). Man of Steel, the latest cinematic take on Superman, helmed by Zack Snyder, portrays the “last son of Krypton” as Christ.

Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, in theaters Friday, follows a clique of privileged Los Angeles teens who rob the homes of unsuspecting celebrities. The film is based on a true story, documented in Nancy Jo Sales’s Vanity Fair feature “The Suspects Wore Louboutins,” published in March 2010, and much of the film’s dialogue is lifted directly from court documents and police reports.

The real-life burglary group, which included alleged ringleader Rachel Lee, Nick Prugo, Alexis Neiers, Diana Tamayo, Courtney Ames, and Roy Lopez Jr., stole an estimated $3 million-plus in luxury items ranging from jewelry to a handgun from the celebs’ homes, and reportedly used Google Maps, TMZ, and the website celebrityaddressaerial.com to scout the locations. According to police, they would also track their targets via social media and media reports to see when they were out of town. The burglaries allegedly occurred from October 2008 through August 2009.

The Beatles have The White Album. Jay-Z has the The Black Album. Lonely Island has The Wack Album.

“We were just like every great band or recording artist [who] has their seminal album, where they’re officially grown up, where they’re congealed in culture, really,” Andy Samberg, one third of the comedy rap group, told The Daily Beast. “We were like, how can we do our fake version of that?”

1. Brad Pitt, Jackass

Back in Feb. 2002, Brad Pitt appeared in two amazing episodes of the MTV series Jackass. In the first, he ran through the streets of L.A. causing mayhem with the other cast members in monkey suits, and in the other, he staged his own abduction.

After the horror and shock of last week's Red Wedding episode, Season 3 of Game of Thrones ended rather quietly.