Orange is the New Black - TV Review

The American prison system is screwed up. I mean America itself is just screwed up, but today we're going to be talking about the legal system and what happens to convicts. But last year I watched Shawshank Redemption and before that I saw the Green Mile and both made me wonder some what prison is like. Like there are gangs and stuff, but can it be friendly as well? Are those in charge abusing their power to make their convicts literal moneymakers for them? Well recently I watched a long while that dealt with these problems, as well as a few more, that really hit me hard. This week we're talking about Orange is the New Black!

Orange is the New Black is a show based on the memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison. It tells the story of Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), a woman who is convicted for transporting drugs years ago for her girlfriend at the time, Alex Vause (Laura Prepon). She is sentenced to 15 months in a minimum-security female prison in upstate New York, Litchfield. Upon first entering the prison she's the fish out of water, continually scared and trying not to make trouble. But it's not easy when a lot of different inmates, including Alex, begin to become a part of her life with their own stories and crimes. Soon a series of events begins to change lives of her and the people (not just inmates) of Litchfield, NY.

This show was recommended to me a few months ago and it has been an incredible experience. It made me laugh, cry, shock me, and angered me. In fact it made me spiral into depression for a while, though I don't feel fully recovered from that crisis. Despite having some lighthearted moments Orange is the New Black is a very realistic and depressing depiction of the United States prison system. Not everyone gets a happy ending in this show, in fact very few people do and most often it gets taken away from them in a horrifying, reality-hitting way. There will be a lot of spoilers in this review because I have to get a lot off my chest with this review.

I'm going to start off different with this review and begin with the villains of the show. In the first two seasons the bad guys are mostly just a few bad guards and some exceptionally nasty prisoners, just like any other media involving prisons. Great way to start the show by reminding us that prison is not a safe place. Later on we do get other antagonists in the show in terms of inmates, ranging from Nazi-supporters/ white supremacists to huge drug addicts really needing a good snort. Now there are a lot less villains than a real life prison in OITNB, even a minimum security prison, but there is enough to keep my eyes open and watchful of trouble.

Our main villain of the series isn't a single prisoner, but the system itself. Specifically a company called MCC (Management & Correction Corporation), which later in the series is rebranded PolyCon Corrections, who are introduced at the start of the third season. They are a private company that took over management duties of Litchfield Penitentiary from the Federal Department of Corrections and they are the worst. I say that sometimes when I'm describing a character or villain, but these people, especially the ones at the top, are the worst of the worst. They are all about making a profit off prisons they own and their inmates, whether it's having them make panties for another company or overcrowding the prisons to "store" more prisoners or replacing all the actually cooked meals the kitchen prepared with slop. Inmates to them are just dollar signs

The main antagonist of this group is a woman named Linda Ferguson, who manages all purchases. She makes Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones pretty moral as a character. Linda is worse because of her ignorance of what she's doing. In the fifth season of the show she actually is stuck in the Litchfield prison and has to pretend to be another inmate after the prisoners riot and the whole place is under control of the inmates. She has to eating the shit food, live in cramped conditions, and do some very uncomfortable things to survive. But when she's back out of the prison and back at her job not only does she not retain any of the horrible experiences she had back then, but makes the conditions for the prisoners worse. Not out of spite or revenge, but just because she wants to make more money off these people.

This made me realize how uttered fucked our prison system is. Criminals in prison should be treated like human beings or at the very least like criminals. They should be offered the humane services and needs like they were people because they are people. They should not be treated like products, like things that can be easily replaced or used as a means to make more money, especially if it's morally questionable. But this is what is happening right now in our prisons. Maybe not the extremes this show might have every now and then, but enough that it just makes me think the human race was a mistake. It is exceptionally hard to win against this system because of how stacked it is against convicted felons and even then people and lawyers will just say things like, "Oh you don't deserve it because you're a criminal," and just go on and on about describing the negatives of a person. Yes, people who are convicted for good reason deserve to be in jail, but there can also be more of them and maybe they also made a mistake.

But even with this reality-hitting and dark look at how the United States prison system likes to fuck people over there is some good, smile-inducing elements in the show. A majority of the characters, despite being convicts, were interesting people with lives, goals, and charm. All of them/ a majority of them were convicted of different crimes, but these women had tons and tons of wonderful chemistry with one another and if I was able to talk them I bet I could have nice conversations with a lot of them. We got Sophia Burset (Laverne Cox), a transsexual who runs a salon in the prison and despite the treatment she gets from other inmates is very upbeat and kind; there's also Marisol “Flaca” Gonzales (Jackie Cruz) and Maritza Ramos (Diane Guerrero), the two besties who are bubbly, girly, and compliment each other's makeup all the time; we also have Suzanne Warren (Uzo Aduba), a mentally ill person who, while having some trouble over her emotions and mental thoughts, is a really sweet woman that grows in a positive way throughout the show.

One of the big tricks the show has in building characters is having at least one episode delve a little into the backstory for each important character in the show. There were some characters that felt big that never got their backstory and some prominent characters who got one, but a lot of these excellently delved into what got these people into jail in the first place. Still, all of these flashbacks brought out a lot of depth to the characters, making them feel very human with strengths and flaws. A majority of the characters do do something that is worthy of jail, but there are some in jail who have made a mistake or don't really deserve what they've gotten. There's murder, thievery, drugs, and breaking the law in other ways. These dives into backstory were very well done in this show.

If I have to pick a favorite character in the show it would have to be the Russian chef, Galina "Red" Reznikov. Kate Mulgrew puts on an incredible performance as this tough, cunning, practical, motherly woman who kind of forms a family with some of the prison inmates. Despite having worked for the mafia I just thought she was a wonderful human being because of how hard she worked to help her family and some of the other prisoners with her food and intellect. She did have a problem with seeking revenge on those who wronged her or her "family," but I felt like she most often was justified in her path to get even with people. None the less she felt like a powerful presence throughout the show, especially when she's in the kitchen directing people about like a professional chef.

My least favorite protagonist of the show is oddly Piper Chapman. Now I'm sure the woman that Piper is based on is not this bad in real life, but holy crap was I continually annoyed and frustrated by Chapman in OITNB. While she wasn't a spoiled princess she was often prissy, overly-clingy, and desperate for attention and affection. Up until half way through the last season did she need somebody to continually give her comfort. Otherwise she was complaining or worried about losing that girl that made her feel loved. Now if she had more personality or less traits that were so annoying I wouldn't be so upset with her, but there wasn't that much to her character other than a bit of a desire to help others. But that was not enough to make her likeable!

I only have one issue with the show and it's kind of a big one: With so many characters in the show I feel like a lot of them, as well as the conflicts they bring to the show, are dropped at certain points with no reason. For instance after season 4 there is a guard who accidentally kills a major character/ inmate in the show. They are mentally broken by what they've done and they're desperate to make up for what he did. But that storyline is dropped not long after that happens and I feel like by dropping it the writers had a reason to keep conflicts going when they could have advanced it and made it very integrated into the plot. There are a good number of plot points that are dropped or solved ridiculously fast throughout the show and I was kind of disappointed. Some of them did involve the corruption of MCC and by the end of the 3rd season my drive for watching the show was to see the MCC fall into ruin, so seeing them do whatever they can to not get in trouble was just infuriating. But... that's also kind of real life.

I have heard that some of the depictions in the show of prison are toned down some, especially at the beginning and I'm kind of conflicted about that. I'm both unhappy by not showing how realistic it can be, but I also think that it's kind of good it was toned down a little because they still tell what happens, but by making it less extreme it helps people get into the show more. I did feel that people were a little too friendly at first when I started the show, but as time went on the show got really damn intense and by the 6th season it definitely felt like a real prison. People get shanked, raped, branded, and abused by guards physically and emotionally.

Actually I do have another issue, but it's a very small one: The passage of time isn't told very often and it can be hard to tell how much time has passed in the show. But even with this small problem I found the story to be continually engaging. Every named character got their chance to shine in some way, shape, or form throughout the show. I just enjoyed how the characters kept bouncing off one another and forming friendships/ relationships. Plus some of them really change as the story goes on, some from sweet and harmless to really damn cruel (or the other way around).

Orange is the New Black was a show that affected me more than I thought it would. I laughed, I cried, I had a few major tempter tantrums, and at least one full meltdown. This show isn't one where people win a lot. In fact the characters we love lose a lot. But this is also a pretty real depiction of how screwed over our system is. There are good people who can help run it, but there's also a lot of very cruel, inexperienced, and/or uncaring people in charge as well. That's one of the main reasons I say this show is worth watching, because we do need to know what it's like in there even if we might not even up in there. That, along with a great cast of actors and mostly strong writing makes me give Orange is the New Black a big stamp of approval!

Tentative Score: 8.75/10

Definitive Score: 8.75/10

I love how in the last episode there is a phone number given at the very end about how you can donate money to help prisons out. It was made by the creators based on one of the characters that dies in the show and it's really sad, but very great that they want to help inmates have better lives. I would normally give out the name, but I don't want to spoil who dies.