bruised orange

Dostoevsky said that the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.  Run Fyodor’s quote through Jimbo’s qualifier that reality is only what it appears to be and the synthesis is that the degree of civilization of a society can be judged by watching its portrayal of prisons in movies and television series.

All of that leads me to Orange is the New Black, an original series on Netflix.

I have to admit that after I watched House of Cards all the way through three times, it left me feeling like I couldn’t wait to see season two.  I have not said anything on this site (until now) about House of Cards, but I will officially go on record as saying that it is about the best thing I have seen on TV for a while.  So, when I heard about Orange is the New Black, I figured it could not be as good.  However, having watched all of the episodes this week, I say it runs a really close second.

Orange is the story of Piper Chapman, a young woman played by Taylor Schilling, who goes to prison for having been involved with drug trafficking when she was younger, and it catches up with her after many years.  Prior to being incarcerated, Chapman is a partner in a startup business and lives with her fiancé, an aspiring writer, Larry Bloom (played by Jason Biggs).  Once behind bars, she has to adjust to an institutionalized lifestyle where her free will as a decision-maker and a small businesswoman no longer is useful and finds that simple faux pas made in the slam can be “epic” screw ups, leading to retribution.

The fascinating thing about this drama is that all of the characters—much like all of us in real life—are flawed, and the prison guards and administrators are the most flawed of all.  We are shown how ill-prepared Chapman is for a life without freedom and how she must conform to a situation that her tools and skills from the outside world are powerless to fix.  Her fiancé may be the single most inept character in the history of drama.  In trying to “help” her, he continually makes horrifyingly awful decisions that put Chapman in frequent danger.  I have to assume that portraying him as a writer was intentional as his words are, for all intents and purposes, what is known in literature as an unreliable first person narration.  He says things that have personal meaning to him but without fully realizing how they are going to be interpreted by inmates, prison staff and management and others on the outside who hear them.  He reveals so much to everyone without having any clue as to the meaning of the words he speaks and writes. 

One of the most interesting relationships is between Chapman and lesbian Alex Vause (played by Laura Prepon from That 70s Show).  It turns out that Vause is Chapman’s former employer from the drug trade days, and a one-time very close friend.  Let’s just say that Vause is a radically different character than the one Prepon played on TV.  The scene where she makes a threat to an evangelical Christian inmate is stunning—one you may want to back up and reply a couple of times just to make sure you heard and saw what you thought you did.

Season 1 of Orange has thirteen episodes and there are so many great scenes that picking a few is difficult but in one scene guard Susan Fischer (played by Lauren Lapkus) comments to Chapman that they had met on the outside.  Fischer said she had bagged Chapman’s groceries at the market where she shopped.  Fischer reminded Chapman she was the one that always forgot her cloth bags but then found them in her purse and everything had to be re-bagged.  Yes, Chapman agreed, that was her.  Fischer then comments that the two of them were not all that different and that she had done some things wrong and it could have been either of them serving time in there.  An interesting comment, as Fischer appears to be perhaps the least flawed character in the entire series.

But, well, then let he of us who is without sin cast the first stone.

Throughout the series we view flashbacks of the various inmates and the backstories of what they did that led them to their stays in the slam.  Some of the inmates were there because of a misstep and some were there because they absolutely, positively deserve to be there.  It helps us to see why the characters are the way they are and foreshadows why we should expect more malice from them and why we should not be surprised that some of them aren't as dangerous as they appear.  Sometimes it seems that the roles are reversed and that the guards and administrators are the evil ones we should fear and we would probably get along just fine with the inmates.

I tend sometimes to get immersed in what I am doing or reading or watching and if I like it, I like it to superlatives.  However, as much as I liked House of Cards and as much as I am lusting for another season of that program to be posted on Netflix, I am now lusting for season two of Orange is the New Black.

I will be ready for both of them.

Now, Netflix, what are you waiting for?  Please hurry it up.