A thread for Netflix's women-in-prison dramedy ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

Just finished the first season - it picks up in a serious way in the second half, and that's not to suggest the first half is at all bad.

so this is good? i've heard rumblings about it being good, but i need some ammo to convince the wife to give it a go.

I liked it a lot, and you'll know if it's fr you by the end of the second episode (when it becomes clear that they'll be focusing on a whole bunch of inmates, not just the pretty blonde lead)

yea i was out by end of ep 2. could see it turning out 'ok' but not for me

Without saying too much, I was surprised at how moving many scenes were by the last few hours, not to mention, occasionally, very tense.

I'm on ep 2 now, glad to see oth inmates' stories starting because the tv-pretty lead is the least interesting person so far. Also don't tell me, I'm just going to hope Jason Biggs cheats on her soon and then breaks up w her in some craven way because I hate him and then I won't have to look at him anymore.

It's not that I don't feel for her, it's that there's a certain kind of focus group-approved "pretty" that's so innocuous that it reads as a visual blank to me. I feel the same way about Donna on The West Wing, I want to like her but her face barely registers.

I'm starting ep 6 tonight and p hooked. I initially had the same thoughts regarding the lead (kinda bland, didn't make huge impression), but I've really warmed to her. She really does a great job looking exhausted and shitty by the third or fourth episode.

we are on episode 6 tonight. we dig it.

this show has the longest intro credits sequence ever. other than that i like it? sorta? its weirdly uncompelling. also every scene with biggs and the lead is torture, and the side plot abt the guard/inmate romance is completely terrible. also weirded out abt the fact that moustache guard seems to be played for laughs despite him being pretty much super rapey and terrible.

yeah its weird that they go reno 911 with that guy but maybe that just sets him up to be more menacing later cuz at first you think he's just a joke.

that regina spekter theme song has grown on me. don't think i have every knowingly listened to her before.

i bailed on Weeds early on. i wanted to like it, but i just didn't care what happened to anyone. i like her.

you know sexy weeds mom. i like her. this and weeds can have a forced quirky thing that is just normal on a lot of t.v. like this. sometimes it works. i hate american pie dude on this show. i don't really enjoy looking at him. which sounds mean, but his energy bugs me. his aura. plus he's such a phony. i can't believe him as an adult human in the world. i think he must live in a backlot in hollywood somewhere. phony baloney.

They do some stuff with Pornstache late in the season that alters our perception of him a tiny bit; it's a nice touch.

I kind of hate the theme song, if only for the way it clumsily/obviously underlines the themes. Also, TOO LONG.

the theme song is way loud too.

almost as bad as the entourage theme song. very enjoyable show

remember the first time you heard the sopranos theme song? also very loud. and long. took some getting used to. this song is very attention-getting like that. i get used to things SO fast though. then i barely notice them.

this was prett good, i thought!

pretty good

also, natasha lyonne! i didn't realize how much i missed you, girl. good to see you.

One of the actors lives in my neighborhood and I saw her at a caf on Saturday. I automatically clocked that I knew her, the idea floated up to my conscious thought level that she was that character, my rational side said, "Don't be ridiculous" and dismissed it, and I kept getting coffee and stuff while mulling it over, trying to figure out who she really was to look so familiar. Dumb brain.

i was looking at the imdb for this yesterday, it's interesting how the cast is a mix of people with very little experience and people who have been around for a long time and have been in stuff you recognize. like pennsatuckey (one of my favorite characters) is taryn manning, who was in eight mile, crazy/beautiful, etc.

she was in sons of anarchy too, wasn't she?

and the inmate who never talks was cliff clavin's gf maggie o'keefe from cheers

never watched sons of anarchy but i think so

love taryn manning in this. love everybody really. i'm just glad to see natasha lyonne with a good role to play. she's had her "troubles", right?

only a few episodes left of the season, i think i like this show a lot. i think i have the opposite of scott's reaction to the theme song. it's getting worse and worse and longer and worse.

(SORRY 4 SPOILERS)

want to see pornstache go down so hard and am not enjoying what is happening to diaz. biggs character getting more and more hateable as the series progresses but hasn't been a huge drain on the show like i thought he might. suzanne/crazy eyes contorting in pain listening to biggs humiliate her on the radio killed me. miss taystee already. also how long was wheelchair girl just staring at space in the bathroom by herself before pennsatucky attacked her? where did everybody else she was with go?

biggs character getting more and more hateable

yeah this was definitely written in to the arc of the show, he does a pretty good job at being alternately likable and hateable tho

Love this show. So many great, unfamiliar (to me) actors. Biggs character (and basically all her outside friends/family) a total doofus/moron/narcissist. Including Fake Ira Glass.

xp otm agree it's intentional, i don't think biggs is meant to be 100% sympathetic. def just happy the show didn't turn out to be like 80% about piper's relationship with her fiance

SPOIL: i liked the reveal of suzanne's parents being rich, influential, & white -- thought it was a clever (maybe even too clever) way to subvert expectations of a "crazy" black woman's background

also yes taryn manning is amazing in this

xpost Also, when she starts reciting Shakespeare from memory during the "scared straight" episode.

this show is the best. love crazy eyes.

ANOTHER SPOILER: i was actually genuinely surprised, in a way that tv shows rarely surprise me, when piper hooked back up with laura prepon. did not see that coming at all. maybe i'm dumb.

xxp YES the shakespeare that was so awesome

as for piper and whatshername hooking back up i thought they were pretty clearly setting up for their relationship to eventually go in that direction when biggs told her she wasn't the one who named her, and piper expressing guilt about being an asshole to her, but i didn't expect it to happen so fast or exactly the way it did. i expected piper and larry's relationship to deteriorate more under obvious strain before she hooked up, and not because of it, but i guess that's why it was surprising

i like to imagine taryn manning studied a lot of john malkovich performances while preparing for this role

also this show rules, can't wait for more

heard piper kerman on frrrrrrrrrrrrrresh air today and she sounded exactly like i expected her to: highly articulate thoughtful speaker prone to uptalk during explanations of the most delicate issues

finished it last night, the very end was v cathartic if maybe a little too "dramatic season finale" (esp. with healey looming in the background doing nothing)

i still think it's a weird show tonally, which as was noted upthread is just part and parcel of being a dramedy, but i did really enjoy it overall

i'm liking it more and more -- i think we have like 3 more episodes?

I hate Healy so much he is such a shithead

they really do a good job of shifting healey from "good-intentioned if misguided nice guy" to "huh this guy's kind of a creep" to "total asshole"

all the prisoners are good at heart, all the prison officials are evil at heart ... makes you think

like ... who's the real bad guy, you know?

bloggy voice rant about systemic oppression

i thought the healey story line was taking turns a little too abruptly, but i really did end up enjoying it once it all played out

all the prisoners are good at heart, all the prison officials are evil at heart ... makes you think

um no

well it makes me think

i'm just not sure if you're making a joke here or you just weren't watching the show very closely but i don't think that's really the dynamic.

i'm overgeneralizing a little bit but the prisoners are def more sympathetic and fleshed-out than the prison administration (note that i'm now subtly changing my wording to exclude the guards). healey, the woman boss, and mr. baldy mustache are all pretty scummy, whereas the most "evil" prisoner (doggett/pennsatuckey), while cartoonish, is still sympathized as someone who is clinging to her faith as the only thing that makes her feel like a worthwhile person.

healey, the woman boss, and mr. baldy mustache are all pretty scummy

oh yeah, definitely. i want pornstache to die, slowly and painfully, tbh. and healey certainly turned a bit supervillain a bit quickly.

it's one of those things where I wish they would just slow down and take their time. I was into the more focused, flashback-framed episodes that went in depth (to varying degrees) of various characters and I wish they would just go with that instead of the constant prison shenanigans and hamfisted attempts at addressing contemporary issues and the Piper plot and all that other shit. So much of prison is monotony and boredom, it seems like it would serve as a good platform for character studies, but they aren't interested in that - they'd rather try to do a dozen things at once.

i'm liking this season a lot

oh my god have they always been so fucking heavy-handed?? it feels like really "woke" white liberals writing about diversity in really improbable ways that make them feel really good and then patting themselves on the back for it.

like, a black Muslim, and she's a sex worker, oh, and also she's into polyamory and approaches it in the most casual nonchalant way, like have the ppl writing this actually met a sex worker or a person in a poly relationship?

more like Performative Liberal Allyship Is The New Black

i've only seen the first four - do they reveal that she was a sex worker later in the season or did i miss something?

Netflix's main audience stats are millenials IIRC - you can definitely see how the values have infiltrated so much of their programming

i've only seen the first four - do they reveal that she was a sex worker later in the season or did i miss something?

I thought they alluded to it when she was on the diner

i'm the last person to like a show bc it's politically correct but i think there's enough interesting going on that whatever political agenda the writers have seems fairly inconsequential. one thing i really like is that the show is sympathetic about its characters but it doesn't whitewash them - it's clear why they're in prison bc they're impulsive and make poor decisions and are drug users and abusers and sometimes cruel. poussey is really the only char who seemed too good/innocent to be in this show (and iirc her arrest story was pretty unfair as well). (laverne cox' character is pretty angelified too). they do a good job humanizing addicts and murderers and even the staff. it's not as good as the wire obviously but in a similar way it does a good job of making the "enemy" be the institutions surrounding the characters and generally not the characters themselves (some exceptions to that - the guard who brought the gun in seems pretty unredeemable but they made short work of him).

Is there an odd count problem at the end of the season. Just noticed something doesn't quite add properly.
But won't say further.

Also wondering what the duration of time passed in the 'real world' of the season is.
Great cliffhanger ending so sorry to have to wait another year to find out what happens next.
Also just seen it suggested that they might jump forward in the time line to get closer to the present day and incorporate some of what's happening under 45.

Is there an odd count problem at the end of the season. Just noticed something doesn't quite add properly.

Same - at least two out!

i understand the criticisms but i still like hanging with a majority of these characters

just tried to verify the count and if you include the Counterfeit Cunt from Connecticut in their census than there is one person i can't account for.

is this going towards a Lost finale where the prison doesn't really exist or somethin

was thinking the same about count. But not wanting to give details. In case anybody not seen.

Oh & Hadn't noticed until I came across an article talking about the cliffhanger ending, had somehow just thought count was right until then.

Big Toy Story 3 vibes in the finale. Didn't see it as much of a cliffhanger though.

How long are we embargoing open discussion?

Yeah I thought that shit was out the window on streaming shows tbh

How could spoilers possibly matter w a show this silly

I am briefly joining the thread to say that I finally started watching this yesterday. I'm only 1 episode in but I like it way more than I thought I would

I'll return when I'm all caught up :)

S1E1?

See ya in a month!

this series is a real drag. there's been a storyline about makeovers fgs

anything Flaritza does is ok by me

i'm the last person to like a show bc it's politically correct but i think there's enough interesting going on that whatever political agenda the writers have seems fairly inconsequential. one thing i really like is that the show is sympathetic about its characters but it doesn't whitewash them

this is v much the show's savig grace even when it's bad. I thought it was dumb that so many people complained about all the stuff we got with Healey last season. like...this is part of the deal.

(I have not watched the new season yet but idgaf about spoilers)

I've been enjoying the season a lot so far, though the one where we get to see Red's life back in the USSR has been the only dud so far. The "twist" there is predictable (although I do like its message), and maybe the writers were trying to take attention away from that triteness by indulging (boringly) in horror cliches in the present-day story.

ugh what a bleak and underwhelming dud of a season

this is another show where I've just sorta given up on caring abt the characters but enjoy spending time w them enough I guess

just finished it. i liked it and thought some of the beats were genuinely affecting. netflix knows me so well tho queuing up GLOW immediately after the final ep ended since by the end i was powering thru Orange bc i couldn't wait to start watching it.

ugh what a bleak and underwhelming dud of a season

I disagree completely, this season is probably my favorite among all the seasons, since it's so dedicated to killing utopias.

Uh... so three episodes into this season. Does it get better?

It's weird to consider abandoning a show I've enjoyed well enough for seasons, but everything about this is falling flat for me, the misanthropy, the pokey plotting, the sexual assault played for humor, the comic bits that feel like placeholders for funnier comic bits the writers never got around to punching up (more characters chatting irreverently about movies, but getting details wrong). Everything about it just strikes me as miserable. Does that gloom ever lift?

A lot of good things happened this season, but the whole premise of it was complete bullshit, and once I figured out the entire season was going to be the inmates holding the prison and it was a bottle season taking place over 3-4 days, I tuned out of caring so much and just focused on details I liked.

I gave up after episode 2

Uh... so three episodes into this season. Does it get better?

It's weird to consider abandoning a show I've enjoyed well enough for seasons, but everything about this is falling flat for me, the misanthropy, the pokey plotting, the sexual assault played for humor, the comic bits that feel like placeholders for funnier comic bits the writers never got around to punching up (more characters chatting irreverently about movies, but getting details wrong). Everything about it just strikes me as miserable. Does that gloom ever lift?

― Evan R, Friday, July 7, 2017 12:55 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i didn't think it got better. i ended up watching most of it, this i was only an episode or two from the end. may end up finishing it at some stage but don't really care at the moment

no, it doesn't get better, but like everyone says it's pleasant when you stop truly caring abt it and just enjoy the amusing moments as they happen.

we just finished s3 last night. i have to pack it in now, s1 and s2 were really good and promising but shit just fell apart. sometimes it feels good to say goodbye to show without finishing it

Yeah don't become like me and try to finish Dexter after not enjoying it for three years.

S4 is a major drop off in quality, no reason to subject yourself to it

really? i thought season 4 was nearly as good as S2. S5 was kind of a mess though.

oh oops, I forgot there were five seasons. I did enjoy S4 quite a bit (that was the leisurely one where hardly anything happens, right? I mean that in a good way). But S5 really burned the show to the ground.

also damn just read this show has been renewed for a seventh season, too. That is one very long one-year prison sentence.

taking steps is easy, standing still is hard

wait, we are to believe that all 5 seasons have taken place in the span of 1 year?

watched the 1st couple eps of S4 and gave up on this. Really enjoyed 1st 2 seasons. Haven't thought about the show at all since stopped watching it. I think the Piper/Prepon softcore soap opera stuff was what 1st soured me on it.

yea for sure that storyline got really old even within s1

S6 began pretty wobbly, but ended up in a good place (for most of what remains of the original cast, anyway).

OITNB has a poor track record with integrating new characters in meaningful ways, and S6 is no exception, but at least the Carol/Barb thing was fun dramedy.

I watched the 1st episode of S6 and it stressed me out SO much, does the whole season go on like this?
like it's not fun for me to watch powerless women be abused???

It's no worse than S5 for this really (which I just rewatched and enjoyed more also) but yeah there's a bunch of depressing evil stuff (worst moment for this imo comes during a flashback to two of the new characters), some lols. I had enough interest in enough characters to keep watching somehow.

Another bleak season - how else could it go? But with the jokes not really hitting and an added sense of rudderless drift from the writers...not sure I could even drop spoilers if I wanted to. 2 eps left to go (165 mins between them).

The first third of the season was so dense that it felt like watching an entire previous season by the time I finished ep4. I soldiered on and finished it, though, and I guess it was about as rewarding as this show can ever get.

I hope that one day we get a womens' prison drama that learns from this show's mistakes.

what do you think of Pete McTighe's Prisoner reboot, Wentworth?