Sunday Review: Orange Is the New Black (Netflix original series)

Why I'm looking forward to the next episode

By Morris Dean

In the ten days since Netflix's new original  series Orange Is the New Black premiered with all thirteen episodes of Season 1 ready for instant download, I've watched only four episodes. Unlike many other series I've enjoyed scarfing down in a few days, I've never watched more than one episode of Orange on the same day—each one is about 50 minutes long—and the first time I even watched two on consecutive days was Friday and last night.
    What's it about? Wikipedia's answer:

...revolves around Piper Chapman, a woman from Connecticut, living in New York City who is sent to the women's Litchfield, NY federal prison for possessing a suitcase full of drug money for Alex Vause [pronounced the same as my grandfather's Voss], an international drug smuggler and Chapman's one-time lover. Sentenced to serve a fifteen-month sentence, Chapman must survive the hardships of prison life, and she may have to be a different person to do so.

Netflix characterizes the series as "heartbreaking and hilarious." And IMDb categorizes it as "comedy" and "drama." And Wikipedia's opening designation is "comedy-drama."
     But classifying the series as comedy as well as drama is questionable. I think the main reason I haven't wanted to take in more of Orange in one day is that its "comedy" mostly doesn't work—at least it was in the first couple of episodes, which did seem to be trying to get some laughs. But given the nature of the material—going to federal prison doesn't strike me as a laughing matter—much of the humor seemed overdone, laid on. I'm glad to say that by Episode 3, which was directed by Jodie Foster, by the way, the attempts at comedy had subsided and I felt more comfortable with the show.

Taylor Schilling plays Piper Chapman

    Another reason I've been at least ambivalent about the series is that the central character (Piper Chapman) struck me as an ingenue, a type of character I've always disliked—and the main reason why I dislike "gothic horror," which often has a naive young woman stepping into one dark room after another. There's nothing gothic about Orange, but, as my wife said with some disgust early in Episode 4 last night, "I wish she had some backbone! If she had some backbone, she wouldn't have gotten mixed up with Alex in the first place, and she wouldn't be in prison." Indeed, Piper has just been so seemingly clueless about her situation, so unaware of the dangers surrounding her (not just in the other inmates but prominently in one prison guard who uses his power to extort sexual favors), I think I've been put off by her character, however physically attractive and pleasant actress Taylor Schilling may be.

Michelle Hurst plays Miss Claudette

I was heartened later in Episode 4 when she spoke back with confident assertiveness to her cubicle mate (Miss Claudette, played by Michelle Hurst), who intimidates most of the other women by her stern demeanor and the rumors (which she herself may have started) that she can cast voodoo spells. There's hope for Piper.

The reasons I'm looking forward to the next episode, whatever its number may be, are several:

• I want to find out why each of the more prominent characters ended up in prison. (Each episode so far has revealed the trespass of one of the characters, so that seems to be a set design point, and it rounds each character considerably as a human being).
• I want to find out whether the (white) guard who is exploiting the prisoners gets his comeupance. I'm almost confident enough to put that when and how he will get his comeupance, but I'm not entirely sure yet of the series' dramatic/moral values.
• I want to find out how it's going to go with the attractive young (black) inmate and the attractive young (white male) guard who seem to be romantically attracted to each other.
• I want to find out whether the trans-sexual (black) inmate whose estrogen medication has been denied "her" because of budget cuts (and mendacity) will be able to get it smuggled into the prison.
• I want to finally figure out what the title of the series means. (Before I'd seen an episode, I guessed that it was a reference to the fact that American prisons have such a high proportion of blacks—blacks who wear orange jumpsuits there. But the population of the institution portrayed here has many white women. And there are references to the need to keep with "your own" for safety, but so far there have been several portrayals of cooperative, friendly relations between blacks and whites—as well as some uncooperative, unfriendly ones.)
• And at the end of the fifteen months (if we get to the end of Piper's term by the end of Season 1 and don't have to wait until Season 2) I want to find out whether Piper's fiance is still waiting for her....

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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

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