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

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?

just some light wikipedia reading

PITT* has eluded systematic study by police researchers who heretofore
have been interested in studying more visible police behaviors (such as
arrest and use of force). Although overlooked, it is a serious, extralegal
police action that has resulted in lawsuits and the death of dumpees.

*i.e. Diesel therapy

no, i wasn't kidding. i just didn't understand how bad a practice it is compared to prison-life generally.

A rule of thumb that I think applies and that I just made up is that if there is an opportunity for prison officials to behave in a reasonable, humane manner, they usually won't.

My very limited anecdotal women's-prison knowledge comes from some interviews I did with a few young women serving life w/o parole sentences for their roles in a particularly horrible carjack-murder case. They had been locked up for a few years at the point I talked to them, and they didn't have any major complaints with prison per se. One of them told me she was the happiest she had ever been in her life -- since being convicted, she had come out as gay and now had a girlfriend who was also her cellmate, and was working in the prison hair salon. Granted, "happiest she'd ever been" was a low bar for her -- she'd grown up basically ignored by her mother and raped by her step-father (who went to prison himself on that charge), and she was only about 18 when she was arrested. Granted also, she was two years into a life sentence, and I don't think she really grasped or believed that she was never getting out. Still, nothing I heard from them makes OITNB seem all that far-fetched.

Diesel therapy is mentioned in the OITNB book. transferring to a new location sounds rly awful. and yeah, prison differs greatly depending on where it is and why people are there acc to OITNB book.

my apologies. i didn't get it before, but i do now the article notes that, "(o)n the surface it sounds benign. What could be the problem with making a prisoner ride in a bus for hours at a time?" but find out, by reading the excerpt. it's graphic and terrible.

cool

opening scene from season two.

Ooh, S3 already a go! http://www.imdb.com/news/ni57154350/

laura prepon, givin' away storylines ("#oitnb#alexvause#backtothebighouse").

OITNB making me strongly consider subscribing to netflix streaming service.

Do it already!

You'd find out why Piper has gone all BA Baracus for season 2, since the season 1 finale shows you why.

i know why, but i want to see the whole story! even the split-second of that scene didn't make piper seem tough.

over on the netflix recommendation thread, scott seward posted a youtube clip of a full episode (or more!) of another netflix in-prison original program, called jailbait. it looked even more grim and grittier; i got through about 20 minutes of it before i felt claustrophobic from the whole "you're trapped in prison for a long time" vibe.

(maybe piper did seem tough in that scene, but i didn't see all of it. gotta get netflix)

he really said this?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmwkwHoCYAAxy75.jpg

if so, lol.

daniel esq the amount of enthusiastic and analytical posting you've done on a thread dedicated to a show you've never actually watched is one of the weirdest things i've ever seen on ilx

wether it's a bizzaro trolling effort or not, i'm into it

ty

it's performance-art, really.

keep it up!

One of my friends has been running a tumblr posting OITNB stills with Madonna lyrics on top of them. Orange Is the New True Blue

S2 released tomorrow, right?

YES!!

the animal the animal

so tempted to play hooky from work

So I guess you ended up getting Netflix and watching S1?

oh nm, that was Daniel, Esq 2

Nee-anderthal, nee-anderthal, trapped trapped trapped till the cave is full.

lol