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

that's a good tip. frontline is outstanding.

FWIW, i read articles about both men and women's prisons. men's seem to be worse, unsurprisingly, but what i said above seemed to be true for both male and female facilities.

for instance, this guy's reports from being bounced into-and-out of prison debunk some myths, reinforce some others, and do mention the boredom and drudgery of prison life (in a male prison facility). worth reading, if you can get past the cursing and snark-y phrases.

frontline never disappoints

I dunno, my dog still has fleas.

is your dog a lone-wolf?

and the answer seems to be: it got a lot right!, and prison is often less violent, and more just boring and numbing, than you might think (though the threat of horrible violence is always around).

I think I've heard that the real day-to-day prison struggle is boredom, but I'm not sure the show connects Piper's "who am I becoming??" cri de coeur to it; maybe her affair with Alex is supposed to be some kinda synecdoche that represents that struggle?

piper needs to realize having sex with everyone isnt going to solve all her problems

i think her realization next season is that trying to be menacing toward everyone is what will solve all her problems.

https://s3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/2J9fH84CUIm9rM1cZFHI_Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/tv/2014-04-17/3beb9c50-c5eb-11e3-b76b-3de94b47ea49_OITNB-piper-throat-rip.gif

piper needs to realize having sex with everyone isnt going to solve all her problems

this is why i got so pissed off with weeds!

i think her realization next season is that trying to be menacing toward everyone is what will solve all her problems.

Looking forward to this!

me too! still wondering how we're going to go from this

http://media1.policymic.com/site/article-items/27651/1_gif.gif

to this

http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article3179100.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Orange-Is-The-New-Black--Season-2--Teaser--Netflix-HD-3179100.png

bah. hey, i know there's a netflix thread, but just as a quick question: is the idea that netflix lets you watch a large catalog of movies and original programming on your computer and/or smartphone alone, or can i also watch it on my regular tv screen? and -- beyond OITNB -- is it a worthwhile service.

Grrrr. I guess they've already inoculated us to higher subscription fees, though.

Some media center devices -- like a PS3, maybe XBox? -- let you stream Netflix to a TV.

I use a Roku to stream netflix on the teevee--no additional charge iirc

Some media center devices -- like a PS3, maybe XBox? -- let you stream Netflix to a TV.

― Call the Doctorb, the B is for Brownstein (Leee), Monday, April 21, 2014

i fear if i had a ps3 or an xbox i might never leave the house.

chromecast or an hdmi cable from your laptop will let you watch netflix on your tv

Yeah we do that, or through the Wii

Judging from the way Weeds went, Piper will get all bad-ass, and then someone MORE bad ass will scare the crap out of her. Rinse and repeat until all of the fun is sucked out of the story.

So you're saying I should avoid Weeds.

Yeah. At least in OITNB, that arc seems more plausible than it does in the world of suburban weed dealing.I mean, in this show, it has felt almost too light, seeing as it IS a prison drama. OTOH, I don't really want to watch an Oz-style prison show, so, for me, the humor is what I enjoy about it.

Judging from the way Weeds went, Piper will get all bad-ass, and then someone MORE bad ass will scare the crap out of her. Rinse and repeat until all of the fun is sucked out of the story.

you forgot the part about her having sex with the more bad ass person, but yeah otm

Somebody gave me her Roku because her roommate already had one, but now that I've had it for a year I definitely would've bought one. If you don't "game," it's the best option.

"gaming" and "gamer" are terms-of-art these days, aren't they? world's changed.

you forgot the part about her having sex with the more bad ass person, but yeah otm

So Chapman/Suzannen is going to happen?

Suzanne.

this is better than weeds ever was (and i stuck w/ weeds for a long time). it could go off a cliff eventually but alot of what sank weeds was apparent in that first season or a bad correction to other things in that first season.

We stream Netflix directly through our Blu-Ray player, it's wonderful.

https://31.media.tumblr.com/c4b7ce5830f35684764d0a83a1d0c161/tumblr_n46k63IvAu1qc4q26o6_250.gif

i think i love her.

and now i'm scared of her!

maybe you should watch TWO episodes, see what happens!

not sure i could handle it.

just to show you, i'm ordering netflix.

the frontline doc about solitary is on tonight
you could watch that instead

it's free

i might do both!

we can all see if prison is really just a boring, mind-numbing sleepover camp, or a torture-chamber of murder and rape.

eh, sorry; that was poorly and thoughtlessly phrased. i do wonder about these conflicting article i've now read, though.

Could be both, tbh.

yeah; that's true.

i've had an uncle in prison for over thirty years and my understanding from him and from what i've read is very much the former (minus yr too cute sleepover camp). one of the major criticisms of oz was that there was ridiculously too much murder and rape occurring on the show though that show made no pretenses really of presenting a realistic portrait of prison life. this show seems somewhat more interested in that but it's still pretty open about having to get any of that on the show via 'hot blonde in prison, lezzing up happens plus lol npr yuppies' liposome. it's just accurate enough to make say the women's prison stuff in justified this past season seem more silly.

i've never seen oz. got some of my impressions from msnbc's lockdown, but i (now) realize they might be skewed in their coverage.

i have a feeling this show won't go on forever like Weeds did. Although Weeds went off the rails relatively early on, and it's later seasons were actually much better, I thought.

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."

― Daniel, Esq 2, Thursday, April 17, 2014 5:01 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's always going to be weird when a rich white person is centered in a story about what prison is really like

yeah. actually, that article from the atlantic was praising what appears to be the show's new direction, veering away from piper (and i guess alex) as the "central character," and focusing on the other prisoners' stories.

Where are all you getting this Piper goes over the edge stuff? Based on a few seconds from the new season? She's had her ups and downs already, mean bits, naive bits, etc. No reason to think she will change radically, especially since she is based on a real person. Also, iirc, the show offered plenty of other prisoners' stories. I predict, radically, that season two will be more of the same. That's not a bad thing.

I also imagine prison differs greatly depending on where it is and why people are there. For most people it's probably boring. For others, it's a dangerous full-time job. I can't recall what level prison the show depicts. It's conspicuous (though by no means inaccurate, I guess) that "Orange" doesn't depict any gang activity, does it?

Where are all you getting this Piper goes over the edge stuff?

read it. not that she "goes over the edge," but that she's radically changed, this season. also maybe my imagination, to some degree, based on the trailer for season two, but i've read the show's producers like to play with their viewers' minds (e.g., ads imply one thing, show delivers another).

this isn't totally related but I recently learned about this awesome piece of quasi torture by greyhound the bureau of prisons employs from time to time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_therapy

they basically stick you on a bus for weeks at a time whilst 'transferring' you to a new location

why would this be "the cruelest aspect of being a federal inmate"? you can look out the bus; you shouldn't feel so claustrophobic as you would in, say, an isolation chamber, and you would feel safe, since guards would observe you at all times. you probably couldn't sleep very well, and you'd definitely get sick of sitting, and maybe be physically harmed by so much sitting; not sure how those things compare to conditions in a general-population area of prison.

you're kidding, right?