Just finished rewatching season 1 in preparation for Friday – a day when I have pretty much scrubbed all obligations off the schedule so I can do a completely insane binge watch of the new season.
I’m really impressed, all over again, with how well-constructed the show is, and how subtle the characterizations are. And since season 1 ended with Piper beating the hell out of Pennsatucky, I can’t wait to see how season 2 starts.
Anyone else planning their weekend around this?
Maybe not planning my weekend, but I am indeed eagerly awaiting the new season.
I wonder what the fallout will be for Heely in particular.
I mean, he saw that Pennsatucky had a shiv and walked away. What’s that legally speaking, complicity with attempted murder ?
And sure, it’s probably gonna be a he-said she-said-and-she-just-beat-the-shit-out-of-somebody but out of everything in the series that was one of the most WTF moments for me.
Well, he saw that Pennsatucky had confronted Piper – but he was 20 feet away and her back was to him, so we don’t know that he saw if she was holding anything.
But yeah, there’s all kinds of people we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop on, like Pornstasche.
I’m looking forward to it, want to see how the show develops. IIRC it has already deviated from the book, and may get more deviant in the second season. Be interesting to see what happens to Piper post-Pennsatuckny.
We just finished rewatching season 1 also, but I don’t expect we’ll binge, especially since we’ve already got plans for the weekend. But we’ll watch at least an episode a night, maybe 2.
So many questions - does Red get back to the kitchen? Does the chicken come back? Does Healy ever behave professionally? Does Piper continue to be an entitled bitch? (I really don’t like her at all!) Will we see Miss Claudette again?
I know in reality, Piper did marry her fiance, but I also know this show isn’t a documentary of the book. Regardless, I’m looking forward to the next season. C’mon Friday!!
Yeah, the show deviates significantly from the book – there was no Piper-Larry-Alex triangle; in fact, though she did see Alex briefly later, they weren’t incarcerated together, and Larry wasn’t a writer and didn’t do any of the things, and most of the secondary characters weren’t in it, and …
But back to the show, which is way better than the book – in part because of the unlikability of the main character, which is something we don’t see a huge amount of on TV –
What’s going to happen with Fig? Is the “real” reporter going to follow up on what’s going on with the prison’s finances?
Alan Sepinwall reviews the first six episodes (with no spoilers) and says season 2 is deeper and better than the first.
One of the great things about the series that was touched on by Sepinwall was the way the characters were not simple stereotypes, especially the black characters. In a lot of women in prison movies, black inmates are a) rare and b) barely there, in terms of character development. The second part, which is not much commented on, is that this does not come in the form of dreary, righteous, social moralizing but springs directly from the plot and is, well, fun.
I came for the naked lesbian catfight shower scenes, I stayed for the character development!
Well Pennsatucky is kind of a character stereotype. But the rest of them, yes, they are far deeper portrayals than in other shows.
Huh ? Come on, all of the cliques are pretty stereotypical, which honestly always sort of made me cringe about the show. The blacks are loud and jiving, the Latinas are jealous and fiery tempered, the whites have a quasi-monopoly on weird neuroses and “complex” issues… there are exceptions to all of these of course, but it’s still marked. And a bit annoying, honestly.
I still like the show, mind you. I just wish, say, Taystee had less screentime if all she’s going to be is “whacky minstrel”, y’know ? Yes, she did show hidden depths in a few scenes, which in turn coloured her histrionics as masking for insecurities. Still. There’s a ways to go.
I always figure Piper’s fiance just relieved his pent up feelings with an apple pie.
Yes and no. Yes, she’s an almost cartoonish portrayal of certain fundy types, but her backstory is certainly a contrast. Going from a druggie who had multiple abortions to a fire-and-brimstone preacher because a bunch of protesters made her their cause - that’s not your stereotypical tale of salvation. She’s not particularly likable, but she is an interesting character. I’m really looking forward to what happens with her in the second season.
Have you ever watched a Women in Prison movie, Kobal? They set the bar VERY low, very low indeed. This series is way better than most fictional films about women in prison. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
The conversion due to the protesters making you the cause is fun, but there are plenty of fundamentalists who have had shady pasts. In fact they’ll tell you about them as part of their born-again narrative (I’m not just saying this as a stereotype - I did attend a Pentecostal church for a little while).
In lieu of a formal response, Kobal, I’ll push this response forward and say “This”.
(It was far more succinct and better put than what I would have written)
Nah, I don’t watch porn.
This was not intended as a factual statement.
Joke aside, yeah, I know. And Jenji Kohan’s previous opus (Weeds) was not exactly spotless on the stereotype front. I get by, and enjoy both. But there’s still a tiny Jessica Williams that goes “Wait, what ? Thass *racist *!” in my head every now and again :).
I know people are “saved” from evil lives and they find religion. I worked with more than my share of them when I was in Florida for a couple of decades. I just liked how she was “saved” more as a convenience that she embraced. I like the character - not your typical stereotype.
She’s saved, and yet she’s still completely the same – the clinic shooting and her decision to try to kill Piper were based on identical motives – she felt disrespected, and the only way she can deal with that is to destroy the person disrespecting her.
I haven’t read the book, but I did hear the Fresh Air interview with her. She ended being cellmates with Alex later. I assumed that was in the book, but I guess not?
On Netflix, there is a jail documentary that this show was based off. The prisoners in the documentary are almost identical to the characters on the show. Well after looking for it on Netflix, I didn’t find it but there is probably a Youtube video of it.
I remember I had just finished season 1 of OITNB and I came across this documentary and I was shocked at how close the two were.