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

no, for sure, but the Rabbi sitting there and being all, "ask me again," and then saying "yes," and that being enough except that she needed to dip in a mikvah -- i mean at least ime that is a fictional, truncated representation of how conversion works and a rabbi would be pretty irresponsible to imply that it was sufficient for her to convert.

but as a purely symbolic indication of her commitment i found it very moving

Should we be calling her Tova now?

Which was the conversion ep? I watched the first two eps from the most recent season and decided to pass on the remainder, but I will go back for a conversion ep!

It was the finale.

(Finale bonus: you get to see Alex probably get knocked off.)

iirc second to last she meets w the Rabbi to convert and she dips in the mikvah in the finale but the storyline starts up prob midway thru the season

Oh, was it second to last? Hmm, probably a safe bet to watch the final two anyway. They weren't as bad as the rest of the season. (Also, watch the Chang episode. It's really good.)

OK, I am going to cue up Chang and the last two eps--thanking u for saving me from dud eps, which the first two certainly were.

http://www.clickhole.com/article/why-your-mother-and-i-are-getting-divorced-explain-598

god the finale just would not end

they sure got to hang out at that lake without any COs seeming to care or interfere for a long time

they sure got to hang out at that lake without any COs seeming to care or interfere for a long time

There were no COs!

OK, I am going to cue up Chang and the last two eps--thanking u for saving me from dud eps, which the first two certainly were.

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Friday, July 10, 2015 2:26 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i loved the Chang episode

I think the convo with the rabbi was in the finale. It just seemed like such a freaking long ep.

That's because it was 90 minutes!

lol

Even so

wife and I started watching this and idk how I really feel about it - tonally it's a mess. Am I actually supposed to care about these people and their campy yet lazily sketched out "problems"? The writing seems to have Golden Girls syndrome, it's almost a parody of "gay man writes dialogue for women" cliches, and then there's tons of racial stuff that just feels awkward and forced. I can't tell how much the show expects the viewer to invest in the characters and plots as anything approaching realistic (as with, say, the Sopranos), or if we're supposed to just laugh at how ridiculous everything is and enjoy the melodrama (as with, say, American Horror Story).

how far in are you?

middle of season 1

We stopped watching after season 2.

last night we were on this episode where Moustachski from the Wire was trying to ferret out info from the engaged inmate how heroin was getting into the prison and at first it was framed like something threatening/dangerous was about to go down - he even literally threatens her - and then when she insists she doesn't know anything instead of following through on his threat to "stop playing nice" he just... backs off and does nothing?

this felt emblematic of the show's general confusion. It toys with "prison is scary and dangerous!" stuff but then abruptly opts for some silly hijinks a la Laura Prepon is trapped in a dryer

if you stop now you won't get to hear that song 30 more times

I'll say it get's significantly better in the second half of the season.

Said it before, show essentially operates like a lesser MASH.

haha I totally see that - ensemble cast, ostensible horrors of situation occasionally alluded to but usually backgrounded in favor of hijinks (barring the odd "Hawkeye strangles a baby on a bus" finale episode)

when this came on the scene, Netflix original programming was still pretty novel, and having all the episodes at once made it a v new and enjoyable experience

was thinking of polling the Netflix shows. They've yet to really make a great show imo, seems like they're feeling their way through making things that have really clear antecedents from/connections to shows on other networks (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt:30 Rock, Master of None: Louie, Mr. Show:Mr. Show, OITNB:idk uh Breaking Bad?)

If there's another show full of Lisa Hanawalt character designs and sight gags, let me know

I'd say both Bojack Horseman and Making a Murderer are great.

I haven't watched either of those. Got the impression that Bojack was m/l some Adult Swim sort of shit

Bojack is super funny, and surprisingly mature (in the "contemplating adult life and its disappointments" sense).

Bojack is terrible.

Not sure I made it through one episode of Bojack, but it obviously has its fans. Amazon and even Hulu have some great original programming, either airing now or on its way. The latter has Difficult People and the new Aaron Paul show from the Friday Night Lights/Parenthood person.

wow there's a lot more of these than we could possibly poll: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_original_programs_distributed_by_Netflix

"Upcoming Original Programming" does not inspire confidence...

I assume WHAS: The First Day Of Camp would win anyway

you could just poll sitcoms, dramas, animated and docu-series and fairly represent what they've offered. i doubt anyone here really needs to vote for VeggieTales in the House tho my 2yo nephew swears by Dinotrux.

huh feels like the try to pull off some dark SHOCKING moments towards the end of season 1 with the abortion clinic murder and various other subplot climaxes. Also lots of ridiculous monologues ("You betrayed me... that's why I trust you", "I hate you... because I love you!")

honestly the only characters' interactions I find genuinely moving are the two young black women who work in the library, when the one talks about coming back to prison cuz its better than being outside, that was p well done.

shakey did you watch weeds?

nah

for all the dramatic backstory / flashback stuff they've done, nothing ever topped Yoga Jones' relatively brief monologue about what landed her in jail in S1

yeah i watched weeds for a bit but generally never really liked it and grew to hate it so came into oitnb w/ pretty low expectations. the show kinda met those expectations (laughing at smug npr yuppies while nevertheless having the show done from their perspective, smug dimissals of white trash and xians (except yknow xians that are classier and more liberal and probably cool catholic), scary tough black ppl that are actually teddy bears once you get to know them (plus they keep it real!). at the same time it was a lot better than weeds imo. cw i think is the third season is the weakest cuz there isn't a big bad (one reason why i kinda think third season might be the best tbh), but i think first season is the weakest really. show becomes much less piper focused as it goes forward, show creator basically said in interviews the show was her way to smuggle in stories about women of color by telling a story about a white woman. also less cartoonish (though it can still be pretty cartoonish). also it comes out in june when there's nothing else on tv.

yeah the racial dynamics of this show are really conflicted, you can see the gears turning a little too clearly

the more I watch of this the more the M*A*S*H* comparison seems apt. Season 1 ending swung between the ludicrously cliched (a talent show! the black lady sings Amazing Grace! the mute has an amazing singing voice!) to the unexpectedly violent (the exploding oven, the final beatdown/fight). If Jason Biggs was written out of the show at this point I will be grateful.

er not talent show, Christmas Pageant

there is some kind of irony in the audience surrogate becoming an increasingly irrelevant, entitled punching bag mined for laughs, but I feel like this show grinds to a halt when Piper's the focus - by s2 it's so obvious that it's the other characters that are more interesting and where the actual dynamism is. Still a fair amount of missed or fumbled opportunities, but the focus on the non-Piper inmates is where the good stuff is.

also Evil Oprah is a p good villain

also so glad Laura Prepon is gone

I bet she comes back tho

ugh Figueroa's final humiliation felt really gross and misogynistic.

she was always a terribly written one-dimensional caricature, like a drag queen evil bitch boss, but having her comeuppance be in the form of sexual humiliation (and not just once, but twice!) felt viciously sexist.