Orange Is the New Black: 'It's F**kin' Funny!'
My binge-watching game has not been very strong this summer. I had an entire list of shows I wanted to get through and I’ve barely made a dent in it. However, one of the shows I successfully completed was Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. The thing with Netflix series is that they put every episode of the season up at the same time. So people binge the entire season in a matter of a couple days and then have to wait a year for another installment.
Because it’s a Netflix original, I always had an “it will
always be there” mentality towards it. I didn’t want to fall into the trap of
watching an entire season or two and then going cold turkey for 11 months. But
alas, that’s exactly what I did. With the enormous amount of fan chatter and
the show's 12 Emmy nominations – I had to check it out.
I knew from the start I would enjoy this as it was created
by Jenji Kohan, the creator of Weeds. Side note: If Mary Louise-Parker doesn’t
play at least a cameo role as a pot dealing inmate at some point during the
course of this show, then what has this all been about?
The entire series is based off the book Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper
Kerman. While it is based on a true story, a lot of the plot has been heavily fictionalized. For example, in the original story, Piper and Alex were never in the same prison. Obviously the made-for-TV version of events would be highly dramatized.
While Piper is perceived as the main character- she takes somewhat of a backseat in the second season. One of my favorite aspects about this show is that it is truly an ensemble cast. Many characters you expect to be background characters are given an actual back story (through the use of flash back sequences) and relevant plot lines in the prison. It's refreshing to watch.
Given that this is loosely based on a true story, what will happen to the series once Piper's 15 month sentence is over? In an interview prior to the first season, Jenji Kohan said:
"The book was really a launching [pad]. The book was relatively conflict-free. Piper is Piper, and it’s not our Piper. Once we took the initial notion of a white girl in prison, it really became its own animal. The characters became their own characters. And also, for legal reasons, we didn’t use a lot of the stories from the book. You start with what Piper’s story was, and then we completely took off and made it our own thing."
She also went on to say "Yeah. We want to build an ensemble. It’s everyone’s story. Piper’s our way in. I’m not that interested in just telling the white girl’s story, week after week. Part of why I was so intrigued by this book is, here’s my way in."
Kerman was released from federal prison 13 months into a 15-month sentence. With the way Kohan has described the show, I could see her continuing without Piper's character- although that would mean losing Taylor Schilling and I'm not ready for that. Or, they could completely fictionalize an event which adds more time to Piper's prison sentence. This is plausible considering Kohan differentiates between the real Piper and the made-for-TV Piper.
I'm excited to see where they go with the series. But now that I'm finished with both seasons, I have to wait until June 2015 for new episodes. Oh Netflix, you are a cruel mistress.
Given that this is loosely based on a true story, what will happen to the series once Piper's 15 month sentence is over? In an interview prior to the first season, Jenji Kohan said:
"The book was really a launching [pad]. The book was relatively conflict-free. Piper is Piper, and it’s not our Piper. Once we took the initial notion of a white girl in prison, it really became its own animal. The characters became their own characters. And also, for legal reasons, we didn’t use a lot of the stories from the book. You start with what Piper’s story was, and then we completely took off and made it our own thing."
She also went on to say "Yeah. We want to build an ensemble. It’s everyone’s story. Piper’s our way in. I’m not that interested in just telling the white girl’s story, week after week. Part of why I was so intrigued by this book is, here’s my way in."
Kerman was released from federal prison 13 months into a 15-month sentence. With the way Kohan has described the show, I could see her continuing without Piper's character- although that would mean losing Taylor Schilling and I'm not ready for that. Or, they could completely fictionalize an event which adds more time to Piper's prison sentence. This is plausible considering Kohan differentiates between the real Piper and the made-for-TV Piper.
I'm excited to see where they go with the series. But now that I'm finished with both seasons, I have to wait until June 2015 for new episodes. Oh Netflix, you are a cruel mistress.
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