Orange Is The New Black Review by Lauren Cates : Pop Culture Leftovers

Orange Is The New Black Review by Lauren Cates

August 5, 2013 7:32 pm | Leave your thoughts

I have a very strong fear of being the token feminist on the site, but at the risk of doing so, I’ve decided to talk about Orange is the New Black, which everyone I know is crazy about. There are spoilers here, so be warned.

First, let’s talk about the promos. If there’s one thing, I hate. I hate. I HATE with every fiber of my being is woman-focused and woman-aimed entertainment that tries to force the idea that everything (and especially everything negative) should be treated as a spiritual experience. If that’s the case, well, I could easily be the most spiritually grounded biznatch this side of the state’s correctional facility.

(Our hero, Piper Chapman even says in the first episode she wants her time in Litchfield to be meaningful.)

A little about me: I remember, with some fondness, the weekend that Eat, Pray, Love debuted in theaters. Why do I remember this? Well, it was also the weekend The Expendables debuted in theaters. If you’re reading into my tone exactly what I expect you to, you can guess which one I saw, and which one I didn’t. If I’m going to invest my time in shallow feel-goodery, I’d rather not watch the one that doesn’t know it’s a farce.

So, I have, to put it mildly, trouble with entertainment marketed towards women who are looking to get their jollies slumming for bullshit enlightenment.

And the first episode was exactly what I thought it would be: naïve blondie-blonde powderpuff Piper goes to prison and is in over her head. Even the opening credits sequence reeks of After-School specials: “These are the faces of women in prison. Don’t you see how human they are? Don’t you? DON’T YOU???”

It was the second episode that finally warmed me to the show. Even though our heroine’s story is still occasionally played for laughs (the uncomfortable “bad touch!” moment at the end felt as it was more filmed as if I should have expected a comedy WAH-WAAAAAAH), I was genuinely moved by the story of Kate Mulgrew’s Red character, and after then, I was wishing for more of the inmates’ stories, which I got, and thankfully so, because they were all small wonderful vignettes of people who don’t have a comfortable life to return to once they’re out.

By the beginning of the third, I was more than thankful this is an online series. Had the first three episodes played out over in weeks instead of as many hours, Piper’s naiveté in later episodes would seem far less cute (“How long have you been in here? And how have you not learned to reorganize your priorities yet?”).

It is, however, nice to see so far that there is one show, just one, that showcases and even dignifies non-white, non-thin, non-perky and non-snarky women. It is a shame, however, that those women have to ultimately be stigmatized by being in prison.

Yes, yes, brand me a hypocrite for my remarks about the opening credits. It’s hard not to have felt that way when the show is ultimately about a white, thin, privileged chick and has a hipsterly title, and that’s what it takes for anyone to have paid attention to the other women.

It’s hard not to get the sense that hipster-girl and her journalist husband weren’t attention-whoring the whole business anyway. The scenes where they fight about him (spoilers) talking about her fellow inmates on an NPR radio show and her subsequent alienation from them and her fiancé seemed more like they were shoehorned in to show how really really not-exploitative this show is. The general air I get from the writing of the character feels like the episode of Arrested Development where Lindsay hatches a scheme to get into society’s good graces by having a husband who’s dying from hair implants and throwing a fundraiser to support the cure for his condition.

With most shows of this kind, I’d have expected by around the sixth or seventh episode that the dreaded Mary Sue would have started peeking out: she of the sad eyes and unsullied virtue, that gosh-durnit, she’s going to survive. That everyone’s going to start turning around their opinions and singing her praises on high.

And eventually, she leads a dance number. Because you can’t have a woman’s starring vehicle without the star leading a dance number. Right, Bridget Jones?

Case in point: in the episode “Bora! Bora! Bora!” she’s called upon to give a meeeeeeeeeaningful ivory-tower speech about life in prison, which nobody from a not-privileged background wouldn’t have rolled their eyes at. The show scooped itself up and saved itself by (more spoilers) having Piper send the local meth-head religious zealot to try to heal the speech’s target.

I was impressed.

I was even more impressed that the show developed a b-story about other prisoners, led by Kate Mulgrew, steeled to (even more spoilers) take down a dirty prison guard.

In truth, I like everyone on this show except for hipster-girl, her douchebag fiancé, and her backstory crew. The rest of the characters generally come across as far more broadly-drawn and nuanced. It seems to me like there’s one show out there that cares about everyone BUT the pretty white girl.

My recommendation is to taste it, but be prepared with the fast-forward for any scenes involving Piper.

Review by Lauren Cates

Orange Is The New Black Review by Lauren Cates

Leave a Reply Cancel reply