Orange is the New Black is the best thing Netflix has ever done. It's kind of important to note I think House of Cards was ok and ultimately disappointing and Arrested Development had individual moments that paralleled the original but was mostly not terribly funny. (I'm not even going to mention Hemlock Grove). If it feels like that note is meant to somehow tamper your expectations, it's not, this is a great show.
I sort of think this show is worth checking just for the fact that it's one of the most unique out there. Nearly every character is female, about half of the women are minorities, one of the characters is a transgender woman, they portray a bisexual relationship in a way that doesn't feel exploitative (well in the early episodes it does), and then there's the source material, a show about a low security women's prison. Nearly everything about this series is original.
But it's a damn good show on its own merits, ignoring the previous paragraph. The show gradually gets better and better until you find yourself unable to stop watching. For a show that doesn't really relate to me in anyway possible, I found myself engrossed in these character's lives. These are sharply-drawn, memorable characters that you can't really help but to root for. Yes, they are criminals, but this is a low security prison, so none of their crimes are the sort where you instantly think they are awful people. The show doesn't shy away that these people are guilty, but shows how and why they are guilty through flashbacks.
OITNB was created by Jenji Kohan, also the creator of the popular Showtime series Weeds. I have never seen Weeds and was well aware that certain people may have been turned off by this show because of how bad Weeds became. While I have not seen Weeds, I say with a fair amount of confidence that this is considerably better than Weeds. I mean it pretty much has to be judging by what I watched and what I've heard of Weeds. So don't let the fact that she made Weeds spoil this for you, and hey if you liked Weeds, this is most likely a better although very different show.
Looking back, I'm kind of blindsided by what the characters became. To use a specific example, there's a character named "Crazy Eyes" who is a caricature in the beginning, but begins to actually form a unique and sympathetic identity. That's why it gets better as it goes along. The characters usually start as a stereotype or caricature, and after they get their own flashback episodes, it creates depths and two-dimensionality that you never knew was there.
The show's character that leads us into this world is Piper Chapman, played well by Taylor Schilling. She's not really that likable to me personally - not that it matters a whole lot. She's rich, privileged, and selfish although to the show's credit, it acknowledges all that. Larry, her boyfriend played by Jason Biggs, is cut in the same mold, although he's a bit more frustrating because prison doesn't "change" him or make him at least aware of it like Piper is. Throughout most of the season, Larry is the least interesting part of the show, and I don't think it's Biggs faults, it's just a whole lot less interesting than the inmates and mostly nonessential to the plot.
It doesn't really help that I'm not that invested in the love triangle of Chapman, Larry, and Alex Vause, played by Laura Prepon of That 70's Show fame. She's alright in this role. She certainly improves as a character as the show goes on. But the love triangle isn't all that interesting to me.
When The Wire starting airing, the world was exposed to some previously unknown African American actors who got a shortage of jobs due to lack of good roles. Well, OITNB does the same thing for women, African American women, and one transgender. Let me go through the cast of characters for you:
Poussey, played by Samira Wiley, and Taystee, played by Danielle Brooks, are one of the funniest comedic pairings ever. They also strike the right note when they need to get serious and are genuinely touching in certain scenes. 'Crazy Eyes' as mentioned above is played by Uzo Aduba, who I really just can't praise enough for making this character into an actual human being. There's Nicky, played by Natasha Lyonne, who may just have stole every scene she's in.
"Red," played by Kate Mulgrew of Star Trek fame, is the Russian chef dictator of the prison. She's not actually that good at cooking, but if you tell her that, she'll starve you. There's Pennsatucky, played by the always reliable Taryn Manning (incredibly typecast, but she doesn't seem to mind here). Lastly, there's Sophia, played by Laverne Cox, who is an actual transgender. She's very good in this and helps gain exposure for transgender women.
There's also more prison inmates, prison staff and prison guards that would make this post altogether too long. A special shout-out though goes to Pablo Schreiber, who plays a character named "Pornstache." He's about as sleazy as he sounds, but he has probably the most memorable one-liners on the show (a large number of them where apparently ad-libbed by Schreiber.)
OITNB benefits from Netflix's structure in my mind, because it's a show that can and will be binge-watched. So future warning to people who have things to do: wait a little to watch this show. When you have a decent amount of time on your hands, you'll finish it within the week. Actually, I don't think this really happened until the middle episodes, but I think a fair warning is necessary. It's addicting.
Certain TV shows I like to review I think of as advertisements for the show in that I really do want the people reading this to watch it. This is one of those shows. I wholly encourage you to watch it as soon as you can. It takes a little to hit its stride, but when it does, it doesn't stop until the season is over and you're wondering when Season 2 will come out. (It'll be quite a while I suspect.)
Playlist
1. "Black Water" - Timbre Timbre
2. "Still D.R.E." - Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dog
3. "The Party & The After Party" - The Weeknd
4. "Whirring" - The Joy Formidable
5. "Accident Murderers" - Nas ft. Rick Ross
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