![]() ![]() But it’s with the broader characters that Orange is the New Black blossoms, with Kate Mulgrew’s tough-as-nails ‘Red,’ with Natasha Lyonne’s dry ex-junkie, Nicky, with Uzo Aduba’s Crazy Eyes, a character so fascinating it would be a crime to spoil her here.Dawn Mitchell, gay teacher fired from Cathedral High School will have his day in court - again. Schilling is excellent as Piper, taking her from a comically hipster-esque yuppie to a self-centred train-wreck, and somehow preserving our empathy. Further, some of the characters living on the ‘outside’ slip oddly into caricature Larry’s parents and Piper’s mother in particular seem roughly sketched. ![]() Flashbacks to Piper and Larry’s hip young life intended to serve as contrast to her current misery tends to grate, because we already understand their privilege. The show does, very occasionally, teeter on the edge of unsubtlety. It is sex above all, perhaps, that tends to unite these women, wherever they sit on the spectrum. For Sophia (Laverne Cox), a transgender woman, sexuality is a commodity, something to be bargained with. It is a guilty pleasure, or a stolen luxury, or an exhibition of power. While occasionally graphic, sex in Orange is the New Black never feels gratuitous. "Women fight with gossip and words,” a counselor tells Piper, and certainly, as the venom is slung, you might shock yourself by cheering on your favourite team like some sort of deranged onlooker. ![]() Social minutiae are chronicled and judged. Not racist.”) Guards wrestle inmates and each other for power, sexual or otherwise. The prison ‘society’ itself operates in a highly-charged political landscape, ghettoized by ethnicity (“it’s tribal. There’s no moralizing here, only sad truths. Yoga Jones (Constance Shulman ) is a calming and zen character, but the reasons for her incarceration reveal a darker side. We meet her as an angry shut-in, but her story reveals an entirely different character whose fatal flaw had nothing to do with meanness. Take Miss Claudette (Michelle Hurst), for example, an older inmate whose viciousness has inspired urban legends. These stories are told with honesty and are never overcooked the writers and the cast have far too much respect for their characters to make fun of them or claw at our tear-ducts with heavy-handed misery. It’s a clever technique, allowing for measured and graceful storytelling. The meth head Jesus freak, whom Alex describes as a ’Deliverance extra.’ At first, they are presented in broad, scary strokes – because Piper’s first impressions of them are broad and scary - and then they are unfurled through a peppering of flashbacks to their former lives. Through Piper’s eyes, we meet more archetypes. It’s a plot point that stirs things up for all three characters and further challenges our perceptions of Piper privileged, well-to-do straight girls aren’t supposed to have pasts littered with drugs and lesbian lovers, after all. Despite the fact she’s happily engaged to Larry, she’s stuck inside with her ex-drug-smuggling ex-girlfriend Alex, played with sultry coolness by That ‘70s Show’s Laura Prepon. And without her artesian soaps and perfectly pleasant fiance Larry (American Pie’s Jason Biggs), what does she have? “I became the nice blond lady that I was supposed to be,” she reveals of her life on the outside. In the first couple of episodes we think we've got the show’s fish-out-of-water shtick all figured out as the hilariously green Piper tries to adjust to the lack of niceties in prison, but the formula is quickly subverted as Piper realizes she has no idea who the hell she is without her “WASP” trappings. Orange's most brilliant trick is to play with our expectations by presenting us with archetypes and then twisting them into real people. This just might very well be the future of television, everybody. It’s a multi-faceted show that opens itself up to you the longer you persevere with it, an easy task thanks to Netflix’s generous distribution model. Orange is the New Black is as much about the cast of characters Piper meets behind bars as it is her own self-discovery. If you find the ‘misunderstood white guy/girl toughens up in prison and leaves a better person’ formula wearisome, fear not. Based on the autobiographical book of the same name, Orange is the New Black centers itself on Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), a privileged and naive Brooklynite sentenced to a year in prison for a drug-related crime she committed ten years ago. Netflix is continuing its hot streak of releasing entire binge-worthy seasons of television at once with Orange is the New Black, the latest comedy/drama series from Weeds creator Jenji Kohan. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |