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

i watched weeds for so so so much longer than i should've, pretty much 95% due to mary louise parker thought the usual 'it came on in the summer' helped also. avoided this cuz it didn't even have mary louise parker but it's a much better show. it does however get that smug cartoon characterization that weeds did insanely. show pokes fun at smug npr liberals but that is totally its viewpoint. it's somehow better and worse w/ this than tv sorkin. far more watchable than any recent tv sorkin obv. far far more watchable.

i don't remember why but i think there was some weird racial stuff?

i'm not entirely sure this show doesn't skew in the same direction, but i can't really explain it too clearly, so maybe i'm punishing it for weeds' sins. i have really enjoyed it, though there's a certain soapy vibe to it that i'm uneasy with - it's so much better than this, but sometimes it feels like Desperate Housewives Behind Bars. but it *is much better than that.

"show pokes fun at smug npr liberals but that is totally its viewpoint."

totally. in a post-american beauty world, you just have to hope that the humanity and humor outweighs the piety or flatfootedness.

"it's somehow better and worse w/ this than tv sorkin."

sorkin doesn't really understand what human people are like, so almost anyone is gonna look better to me by comparison.

http://jezebel.com/laura-prepon-is-no-more-for-orange-is-the-new-black-1141083629

whatever. like Prepon has something to do

something BETTER to do that is. oh well, their love story wasn't really a favorite plot thread of mine

I love that Laura Prepon has never fixed her bottom teeth, it makes her double sexy.

Taylor Schilling is pretty good in this, but to me she'll always be Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged Pt. 1.

http://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/6a852fb3b3692e88034a90dfde991c40/tumblr_mr16cvodzg1qdetafo1_1280.png

"Taylor Schilling is pretty good in this, but to me she'll always be Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged Pt. 1"

that's what you get for watching that movie

FInally finished the series. I liked it, but worried from the first episode that Kohan won't be able to resist total darkness with this show (like what happened on Weeds). The final scene didn't really do anything to lower my anxiety.

had no idea the actor that played Mendes = Nickolas Sobotka from The Wire

whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Me, neither! I even looked him up on IMDB for some reason and spent some time looking at his photos because I was shocked at how not creepy, nay almost handsome, he was.

WHAT WHAT WHAT

duh

^ great post

He seems so much SHORTER in OITNB than in The Wire.

he lost height for the role

lol

n/a otm -- he has the same exact face only with a mustache on it!!

Also, fun fact: he is Liev Schreiber's half-brother.

just finished watching this. The 'scared straight' ep was the BEST. I too did not realise that was Nicky Sobotka!

I know, right? Now that I see it is is sooooooo obvious, but I was just so creeped out by that character that I didn't make a connection!

so jodie foster directed an episode of this?

also taryn manning is fucking amazing in this show, as everyone else already said

it took me forever to place piper's mom - she's the mom from strangers with candy

^^^yes!!! Thank you. I could have just imdb'd her I suppose.

This is exceptional, three episodes left for me!

Natasha Lyonne's character is my favorite out of the core cast; love the Taystee/Poussey interaction, they should have a sketch comedy show, a staple of which would be White Women Talking To Each Other.

So psyched for more of this!

The animal the animal

lmao @ the animal the animal

is this show good? this show seems good!

judging based on scattered youtube clips only.

It's great!

excited for the new season. was the laura prepon returning / not-returning thing ever resolved?

shouldn't be watching any of this. should be engaged in religious thought, with the pc off. but we're all beyond tired. and this show seems good! and prison seems like a scary place.

http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/orange-is-the-new-black-real-alex

this article is interesting. i was trying to figure out if my interest in the story was more based on (a) prison life, and how someone like piper survives in prison or (b) the sexy, sweet, tortured relationship between two very attractive female characters. still not sure.

On the whole, Wolters says that the true story would be “so wretched and stinky, it would quite possibly result in a collapsed universe. So I guess it’s a good thing Piper and Jenji stick with the fun little tidbits.”

and yet she's working on her own memoirs! i'm glad she is; i'm morbidly fascinated with the "real story" of prison life. what i know comes from msnbc's lockup, which looks very different than what's on orange is the new black.

whatever the reason, this show really got under my skin. considering signing-up for netflix just to watch new episodes when they air.

It'll be released all at once.

season 2 trailer is finally here and "it looks amazing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e99SkdcB2UU

Early on, I half-expected that prison-Vause would end up being revealed as Piper's hallucination, i.e. I've watched too much sci-fi.

trailer does a good job of (a) making piper seem totally different (in season one, she was sweet and frightened; in season two, she's hardened and vicious, and -- amazingly, i think -- you can see the change on her face and in her demeanor); and (b) shifting the emphasis away from piper (and alex) to the other characters.

i'm still drawn to the piper/alex story, but this trailer seriously plays with my expectations. the season one story set up alex as the sexy, in-control seductress, and piper as the almost cooing girlfriend. the trailer for season two ... well, it all seems different. besides, i read rumors that alex won't be in season two very much, anyway. this new trailer is totally compelling, but i wonder if people aren't going to like the "new piper" very much.

I didn't like the old Piper very much, so I'm looking forward to this.

i read rumors that alex won't be in season two very much, anyway.

Originally, she wasn't going to be in it all until they sweet-talked Laura Prepon back for a small amount of time.

not that i care that much, either way, but i was trying to figure out why i liked the old piper. maybe i see people i know in her "sweet, innocent" character, and empathized with her being thrown into terrible circumstances. maybe i thought she was hot, and liked the love story with her and the alex character. i saw a tweet today, from the atlantic, that kind of made me feel guilty; it implied that piper's central-role in the show was because u.s. audiences are assumed to "need a white, pretty, privileged face to sell a story that's really about everyone else."

Originally, she wasn't going to be in it all until they sweet-talked Laura Prepon back for a small amount of time.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, April 17, 2014

glad they did. i like her character a lot.

I couldn't figure it out. What's on Laura Prepon's plate that is SO MUCH BETTER than one of the best dramas in production at the present time?

Tom Cruise

Like I said.

I hear he's good with motorcycles

amid listless sleep, i had dreams about this new trailer. mostly dreams like, "what's worse -- general population or solitary confinement"?