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

Regarding the guy that wrote the column for Vice, I heard that New York state, where he did his time, has prisons that are way less violent and more humane than almost anywhere else in the country.

fwiw, this is that guy's twitter feed. from there, he linked to his articles in vice about prison life. interesting reading.

second installment of that An Ex-Con Reviews Orange Is the New Black series. good reading.

I hope they'll keep this up for all of S2, but it seems like she's said all she wants to say.

it has made me reevaluate the show, to be honest. but on the other hand, i asked this question upthread (i.e., "how realistic is oitnb?") and some posters here said it isn't that far from reality. i'm sure things vary considerably, prison-to-prison, regionally, or even within a facility.

There aren't many (if any) scripted dramas I watch for the reality they attempt to portray. I watch them for the writing and the cast (both of which OITNB is excellent at). If I want to peep into real prison life, I'll watch Frontline or something.

yeah I would imagine it's somewhat difficult to say consistently how prison life is as I imagine it varies. there were some articles that said minimum security prison life is far worse than depicted on OITNB in some places, too.

but obv some of the stuff is going to be off regardless...it's television, not a prison simulator video game (tho that would be awesome).

xpost

prison simulator video game

POOT STINKUM: DOOKPOCALYPSE

I wonder how a real Jack Bauer feels about 24

CARS DON'T EXPLODE *THAT* WAY!!!

nothing about 24 is realistic. let me explain, by way of this 250-page treatise i've written on restaurant napkins . . .

srs question but why is gum contraband in prison? I think they explained it but I probably missed it

Found this on a site about prison contraband...

Gum – A simple stick of chewing gum may not seem nefarious on the face of it. However, its existence in our facilities poses a grave danger. There's nothing quite as unobtrusive as gum on a lock. Yet when a door becomes inoperable it is, in effect, a wall. If you look hard enough in 2012, you will find gum in your facility. Applied to the right lock at the right time, it is a very dangerous commodity.

hm. a partner i used to work for at "biglaw" once said, holding a ketchup bottle, that anything can be used as a deadly weapon.

he was an editor on the yale law journal.

God I love this show so hard. This season started off VERY slowly for me, though, with the whole Stupid Piper thing leaving a stink that stayed for several episodes (seriously, does Larry's dad hate her so much that he wouldn't warned her about the Vausability about not being 100% truthful? OK w/e water under the creek), but once it focused on THE ISSUES (with the compassionate release, and then the nun's story with the forced feeding, which I think was a pulled punch since we didn't get to see it but that way lies torture pr0n) it became extremely powerful.

PS Flaca is a total babe.

Also, why didn't Fig claim some kind of sexual harassment against what's his name to save her job?

i don't think she really wanted to keep it - better to get out with a recommendation than stick around knowing everybody's got something on her

then the nun's story with the forced feeding, which I think was a pulled punch since we didn't get to see it but that way lies torture pr0n

fwiw a) p sure they don't actually force-feed prisoners, they hook em up to Total Parenteral Nutrition and b) i think they made reference to this? red makes some comment about the sister having IVs in her arm or something

i don't think she really wanted to keep it - better to get out with a recommendation than stick around knowing everybody's got something on her

Yeah, I guess easier to slink away. Still, thought she'd be petty enough to try to drag Beer Can Caputo down with her.

she was facing prison and got to slink away w/ a recommendation

Missed opportunity to throw her into the general population imo.

(That's probably not realistic...they'd send her somewhere else, surely)

she was facing prison and got to slink away w/ a recommendation

I've probably been following the Donald T. Sterling saga too closely, keep expecting people in charge to put up a fight.

fucking great ending

waiting for Caputo's 'Weekend at Bernie's' handling of the situation w/ the warden to begin season 3

Just watched the first ep of season 1 and thought it was fucking terrible. JFC.

cool

well the first episode of popular dramas is always the best one so you might want to stop now

Run nuns! Ruuun! hahahaa

Dayanara/Bennett pregnancy subplot is the worst part of this show. They're both so fucking stupid! Just the dumb blank looks on both of their faces all the time--ugh.

lol yes

"Run nuns!" otm

Brook Soso on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/28o7ec/i_am_kimiko_glenn_actress_from_orange_is_the_new/

all her answers are long and rambling like soso's! lol

Hahah I know right???

More of those ex-con reviews from Washington CityPaper:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/film/2014/06/16/the-blonde-bitch-wins-again-an-ex-con-reviews-orange-is-the-new-black-part-iii/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/film/2014/06/19/we-aint-running-after-none-of-you-motherfuckers-an-ex-con-reviews-orange-is-the-new-black-part-iv/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/film/2014/06/25/dildo-making-and-smuggling-cigarettes-an-ex-con-reviews-orange-is-the-new-black-part-v/

Maybe someone already said this, but the child actor that played young Crazy Eyes was soooo good; she precisely captured Crazy Eyes' characteristic physical mannerisms and facial expressions

Those ex-con reviews are pretty enlightening, but some of it's a little "it wasn't like that in my prison so it's bullshit." it may well be bullshit but like, not everything that goes on in tv shows about college went on at my college (that i saw), doesn't mean it doesn't happen elsewhere.

i mean her review of the sex contest on the show is

Ok, so, let’s say for the sake of television entertainment value that all the guards suddenly fell into a coma and all the cameras stopped working, and that this contest actually happened.

while the woman olive is based on said

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

“Usually what you would do was have sex in your jail rooms,” she explains. “You’d have sex anywhere you could: the tennis court, the outdoor squash court, or the rake pile. Anyplace! When the guards aren’t around all bets are off. Everyone goes to it!”

WCP should find a rich wanna-be writer who could tell us if the Jason Biggs character is true to life

Finally finished this, thought this season was so much worse than the first. Fuck Piper, I could not give a shit less about her, her arc, or what happens to her. Splitting up the first two episodes into one centering on her and one completely without her just emphasized how much I do not want this show to be about her. I think Crazy Eyes redeemed it a little bit in the last two eps, but I spent most of the season disgusted at how cartoonish they'd made her character.

I think the end shot of the season makes explicit my problems with the show. I thought ending it right as Rosa is smiling after running down Vee would have been a pretty perfect shot to end the season but, no, they had to get all hand-holdy and point out the DOUSEE-ness of "look, this is just like when Rosa was young and getting her adrenaline from running from the cops". Like, JFC, we got it already.

i loved the season overall but definitely wish they'd either cut rosa's frosted mini wheats moment or gave one to everybody in an OTT wire-style montage (the track star chatting with the airport employee, punk poussey, the nun with red in a track suit, etc) climaxing with the old olive coming back into the prison and seeing old piper

like, if you're gonna go there GO THERE

and yeah uzo aduba is so good but for a while they basically turned suzanne into that picked-on-kid-turned-bully in The Wave, could have used one scene with her adoptive parents (who iirc were portrayed as regular visitors in the first season) to see how her relationship with Vee was affecting things on that front

not looking forward to nichols heroin arc next season

mary steenburgen's coming on next season as pornstache's mom, which makes me worry that we got a custody battle subplot coming

i love steenburgen though, and hope the ensemble can continue to rise above stock story aspects

aw i teared up at the final scene

the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal

the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal the animal

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Hqg3PMWrJ78/0.jpg

THE ANIMAL

THE ANIMAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W4MYJt8c4w

i finished this earlier today and now i miss it, marathon sessions are hard on ya. i liked season 2 quite a bit more than 1, that joint really benefited from the kind of toxic influence that vee provided. and while her demise was a biiit unlikely i suppose she had some kind of catholic-voodoo curse on her so that explains everything.