Binge Watching: Orange is the New Black

 

After hearing the news of Netflix’s Emmy nominations last week and some chatter around Netflix’s new series Orange is the New Black (2013 - ),  I thought I would check out the series for myself this past weekend.   While the first couple of episodes, “I Wasn’t Ready “ and “Tit Punch” started off slowly, by episode three, “Lesbian Request Denied,”  I was hooked.  Like a page-turner book, I couldn’t stop watching it.

The series is based on Piper Kerman's 2010 memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison.  It certainly can be added to the abundance of TV shows conquering new territory with a cast of its own anti-heroines.  This white-girl gone bad story is a fascinating examination of the transgressive behaviors that occur in a women's prison.  What kept me watching were the compelling stories of each of the main characters, explaining how each inmate has come to reside in Leitchfield's women's prison.  We come to understand each of these women as "normal" people who have come from bad circumstances and how and why they have made the really bad decisions that have altered the rest of their lives.

The well-drawn characters and the actors who portray them are what makes the series compelling.  My favorites include Alex Vause (Laura Prepon, formerly of That 70s Show) as the former drug-runner and ex-girlfriend of Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), Red (Kate Mulgrew, formerly Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager) as the fierce Russian cook, and Pennsatucky (portrayed by Taryn Miller who is a dead-ringer for Lindsey Lohan) as the born-again, psychotic Christian who anoints herself the prison evangelist.  The supporting characters are also good.  While it would be easy to take cheap shots at the characters, turning them into two-dimensional props once seen in bad women's prison movies that would have run on Cinemax late at night, Orange is the New Black makes viewers sympathize with these women and helps us to understand the coded, corrupt society in which they live.  At the same time, there is humor and truth in the narratives.  Like all good series, the final episode "Cant'  Fix Crazy" was gut-wrenching to watch and explains why Netflix has already renewed it for a second season.