Prison Dramedy: More Arrested Development, Less Oz
Orange is the New Black, the breakout Netflix original series, is a very good show. Even if you don’t like the first episode (a little too slow and bleak for my tastes), keep at it. When you are finished, feel free to come back and read this review; it contains plot details and spoilers.
Orange is the New Black is based on the book of the same name, and chronicles the incarceration of Piper Chapman (the fictional Piper Kerman), a white, upper-middle class artisanal soap maker forced to serve 13 months in a minimum-security prison. Chapman had formerly been involved in a drug-smuggling operation led by her then lover, Alex Vause (played by former That ‘70s Show star Laura Prepon). A few years later while blissfully engaged to Jason Biggs (Larry Bloom), her past comes crashing back to haunt her in the form of a prison sentence. Suddenly she is forced into a foreign environment where all manner of hijinx ensue.
The show is extremely original and entertaining. A diverse mix of cultures and lifestyles forced into close quarters yields fertile and untapped plot lines for television. Despite this, I came away from the first season with the feeling that there is a whole lot less here than advertised.
Orange is the New Black has the feel of something heavier than your typical one hour comedic drama. The opening credit sequence features close-ups of dozens of actual inmates flashing across a dark screen while Regina Spektor’s haunting “You’ve Got Time” blares in the background. It’s powerful stuff that hints at deeper issues for the conscientious viewer. Jenji Kohan, the show’s creator, has spoken of a desire to tell stories from demographics that TV viewers normally don't have access to and to explore injustices in the prison system. And the first several episodes blew me away, frankly. Stark questions about race (“It’s tribal, not racist”), broken families (Daya being slapped by her delinquent mother), mental illness (Crazy Eyes and the “Diablo” lady), violence, and harsh sexuality and are thrust in the faces of the viewer. All this led me to wonder how in the hell the show was going to deal with these issues while maintaining a comic tone. Well… it doesn’t, really. Most of the tension is dialed back to more comfortable levels as the season moves along.
The “tribes” mostly play nice together and intermingle frequently. Close-knit family units pop up everywhere. And the prisoners? Well, turns out they are all wonderful people deep down. Over the course of the season we are told the story of a variety of inmates through flashbacks, and with one notable exception, they are all colorful, kind-hearted people with tragic backstories. The tyrannical Russian chef is actually a loving mother figure tortured by a history of rejection by her immigrant peers. The dark and seemingly violent Janae is a former track star with a sense of humor who fell in with the wrong crowd. Diablo Lady turns out to not be a lunatic at all, but rather an Andy Kaufman-esque genius. Even Crazy Eyes is a misunderstood child-like soul with a passion for Shakespearian acting, of all things. You get the idea. It’s the type of stuff that plays well with the critics and resonates with the NPR crowd. (Criminals: they are just like you and me! Except more interesting!)
The one exception to the rule is Pennsatucky, the irredeemably stupid faith-healer redneck junkie, who constantly clashes with our protagonist. It’s a safe plot decision that sidesteps any racial tension and pits the typical Netflix viewer against a tried and true historic foe.
Unlike the inmates, the guards are mostly loathsome. Piper’s counselor Sam Healy initially comes off as a reasonable fellow who promises to make her stay easier. Come to find out, he’s lesbian-hater with a comically exaggerated vindictive streak (He simply walks away when Piper is being attacked by a lunatic with a razor blade cross? Really?). Counselor Joe Caputo masturbates furiously after listening in on a conversation between Piper and her fiancé. Natalie Figueroa runs the prison in a manner that can only be compared to Rachel Phelps with the Cleveland Indians. Guard George Mendez* is a buffoonish yet malevolent drug-pushing lecher.
*Is Mendez supposed to be Mexican? The name would suggest so, and he has a mustache, but his personality and mannerisms make him out to be just another redneck villain. Perhaps they initially had someone else in mind for the role? I find it hard to believe that in casting a sleazy Hispanic guard, anyone would think of the man who David Simon picked as the face of white cultural decline in Baltimore. (Long live Nicky Sobotka!)
The thing is, I can’t argue with any of the character and plot decisions insofar as the show is concerned. A prison cast littered with inmates who are sociopaths and misanthropes might be closer to reality (it would certainly be more interesting), but it would also greatly increase the likelihood of me turning the show off. At the very least, it would be a very difficult line to toe. Comedies can only feature so much despair. And this version of the show works. Its inmates are the type of people that once you get to know, spending months with them in ridiculously tight spaces doesn’t seem like all that bad an ordeal. For the most part, that’s what happens. After some initial struggles for Piper, all the conversations become witty, dance parties break out spontaneously, and the overall mood is surprisingly uplifting. The tension has to come from somewhere, and the guards play a big part there, as does a love triangle with Larry* and Alex.
*I actually didn’t care for the Larry angle all that much (though I really enjoyed Polly and Pete). On the whole, conflicts within the prison were a lot more fun and unpredictable.
While the show is great, I didn’t find anything more here than an interesting piece of fiction. Caricatures can really work for comedy, but they aren’t great for extrapolating social truths. I’m no expert, but my guess is that the fictional Litchfield prison bears less resemblance to an actual prison than The Office does to your office. I don’t doubt that some inmates are interesting people fallen victim to tragic circumstances, or that some guards are complete dicks. Thing is, I’ve known some inmates, and I’ve known some guards. If forced to share an apartment with an average specimen, I’m choosing the guard, and it’s not a particularly close.
Comments
Really good review. This was one of my favorite shows this year. I loved it. I also really liked Kohan’s “Weeds” for a few years and even stuck with it when it was a lesser show. I think you mostly nailed it. It’s a light-hearted show for the most part minus the kick in the nuts at the end. I think TV really needs this type of show right now though. I don’t have any real issue with “tv’s violence problem” as Andy Greenwald put it (others have said much the same thing). This show might be less appealing if there weren’t as many violent tv shows on. It would probably still be good because it’s so fresh and original.
Todd VanDerWerff basically summed up my impression of the show back in July:
I can’t wait for season 2. Really glad you wrote this review, GW. Nicely done.
Also, didn’t we know fairly early in the series that Healy hated lesbians?
I haven’t read the book, but I’ve been thinking about it. I’m wondering how closely this all is to the real story.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
Yeah, that’s a good point. At that point, I took it as quirky and mostly harmless (though maybe that was just me), and it turned out to be something more dangerous.
GWQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
I’m looking forward to season 2, as well. I wasn’t keeping track of how many episodes there were while I was watching, so I ended up being really bummed that it ended when it did.
Have you heard anything about it? My first thought was that she’s going to end up in max security, but I doubt they could pull that off… I mean, they would basically need a whole new cast.
GWQuote Reply
This show had some things I disliked. I thought the portrayal of the religious zealot as a villain was cartoonish and unconvincing (this kind of thing was an even bigger problem for me with Weeds, a show I really disliked). I also found the romantic subplot between the inmate and the guard to be rather dull. That said, this was overall my favorite new show of the past year. There were a lot of colorful and interesting characters that you don’t normally see portrayed on TV.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
FWIW, Todd VenDerWerff, whom you just linked, didn’t like the book and said the show is a very loose adaptation.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ GW:
I didn’t know exactly what to make of his initial comment to Piper (one that I can’t really remember at the moment, but I was sure it happened). Pretty sure it was the first scene he was in, which I took more seriously than you do. However, he was in later seasons Weeds and I wasn’t sure at that point in Orange what to make of the Healy character (or any character).
The only thing I’ve heard about season 2 is that Laura Prepon will only be around for one episode. I think that’s good, but I’ve read some people saying it isn’t. There’s only so far you can go with that character IMO and I’d prefer we see Piper interact with the other inmates. I wasn’t crazy about Jason Biggs’ character either and wouldn’t be sad to learn he’ll no longer be in it. I understood why he was in the first season.
dmick89Quote Reply
The rest of the cast is pretty much the same from what I’ve heard with the exception of Prepon.
I thought this show was one of three really good new shows this summer. Rectify might be favorite of them, but this one and Orphan Black were really good shows in my opinion.
dmick89Quote Reply
BerseliusQuote Reply
Good review. Probably my wife’s favorite show of the year.
aaronbQuote Reply
Are we doing TV reviews now? This makes me sorta want to write up Broadchurch, which I finally got through last night. Ripped my goddamn guts out.
sitrickQuote Reply
@ sitrick:
Go for it. That’s one we’ve got saved on the DVR to watch this winter. Heard great things about it.
dmick89Quote Reply
sitrick wrote:
(dying laughing). I just decided to hide it in an aside and ask forgiveness if need be.
GWQuote Reply
@ GW:
I was initially going to suggest you move this to default format rather than aside. I’ve usually done all the Breaking Bad threads as an aside because they have no content in them other than comments. This is a really good article.
I started thinking about it and you’d not only have to include the typical disclaimer about the article containing spoilers, but also likely point out that the comments will too. Then comments here tend to carry over to the next thread so I didn’t suggest it.
I suppose we could just say for anyone who doesn’t want spoilers to stay away from the thread. It’s probably just easier to do it as an aside. It still shows up in the RSS feed and is automatically tweeted and sent to facebook so it has every benefit of the other formats.
dmick89Quote Reply