Watching TV series together with a loved one is annoying at times. Sometimes it is difficult to find a production that suits both people. We tried "Atypical" - it was good, but it didn't grab my other half and I'll finish it myself sometime. After several unsuccessful attempts, I remembered "Orange is the New Black", which was recommended to me by two friends over the years - Kuba, known more widely on Polish YouTube as Buki and Krystian. My girlfriend and I got so hooked, I didn't even have to ask if we would turn on another one, I just did. Once again, I managed to miss a very good series, so we can enjoy a great show. You don't even know how fucked I am, that now I have to wait for the weekends to get to know the continuation of Piper Chapman and her friends from prison.
Who is Piper Chapman? An ordinary girl with the so-called "good home". Daddy's educated, pretty and seemingly polite daughter, who ends up in prison because of drug smuggling. She didn't do it for herself or the money. Ie. to be strict it certainly had some influence on her decision, but the main reason was her girlfriend. I'm absolutely not surprised, Alex Vause looks so insanely intimidating, attracting people with her alluring, mesmerizing gaze that most guys and some women would do anything for her after a few intoxicating nights. At one point, the matter went wrong and Piper had to leave the warm house and say goodbye to her fiancé. A new reality awaits her - a stay in one of the state's prisons for women. Some feminists, at least Polish ones, like to say that "violence has a gender". This series clearly shows that feminists rave about this aspect, and women are not that different from men, and sometimes they can be even worse. As my two good friends said, if men were to be eliminated in terms of physical aspects, they would prefer to have them as enemies, because apparently it is easier to get along with us, e.g. we are less vindictive.
In the first episode, we see Chapman getting ready to change his home. She says goodbye to her friends and family, spends her last intimate moments with her fiancé, and thinks about what she will do and what she will avoid while in prison. As is often the case in life, expectations more or less diverge from what we will actually do. The prison stay also fell short of her expectations. It is true that it does not go to the worst place, but it is also not a school trip, where it depends on the good humor of adult caregivers. Food is, to put it mildly, tasteless, sanitation not much better than crap hostels, earns a pittance by doing different jobs, everyone has you right in the middle of your ass until you show strength, are useful, or have a position that shouldn't be taken lightly. There are also occasions when someone commits sexual harassment or rape. But I will write about this later, now I will come back to the summary of the first episode. Piper gets a bluff early on telling the chef that her food is hideous. As you can guess, the cook does not like it, who serves her a roll with a tampon for breakfast. This is a sign that the girl will not eat anything until the so-called The redhead won't allow it. As if that was not enough, her ex-girlfriend ends up in the same prison, and Piper understands that she has to give up most of the values she knew at large and learn to live in a new reality. It is all the more difficult as Piper comes from a good home where she was practically safe, so prison is a different world for her. She had a light life, did not have to fight to survive or toil hard to earn her dream studies, unlike her current friends. Fortunately for herself, she's not stupid and learns quickly how to survive in a new environment and not repeat her mistakes ... or at least some of them.
Although the action of the series takes place mainly in one location (apart from flashbacks of prisoners and showing the characters living outside the prison), the series is not boring and cannot be accused of being monothematic. Sure, due to the fact that the prison is a closed space, the pool of possible interactions or threads is limited, and thus it is difficult to avoid some repetition, but because the characters are different, we cannot complain about boredom. I have only seen season 1 and most of season 2 with my girlfriend, but I know from several sources that the same can be said for the others. I heard from several sources that 3 sucks, but then it's okay. Well, at worst, I'll go ahead, unless there really is anything that interests me. And in both seasons, there are many interesting threads, both for one or the other sex. I'll start with what sells best: sex. Orange is the New Black has sex scenes mostly involving lesbians and, to a lesser extent, straight couples. So far I have not seen any rape scene (not counting a few individual scenes in which there was sexual harassment, e.g. Chapman by a guard with a mustache), but considering how often the characters of the series mention it, it will probably happen sooner or later will appear. On the contrary, at this point in time, homosexual ladies are eager to have sex with each other, whether in the shower, in warehouses or in a prison chapel. The ladies also play with their own hands, stealing from the kitchen hard vegetables with a shape similar to a penis or using items found in prison, such as a screwdriver. Since prison does not give many opportunities to calm one's emotions, but causes a lot of stress, there are many disputes between prisoners. These are often solved by force or submission to a stronger person. Heroines can't always solve their problems through persuasion or trade, so physical factors are often decisive. Body weight, height, reflexes, ruthlessness and amount of aggression. It is not without reason that the characters say to watch out for those who have elevated testosterone levels, and the women say to themselves - "You will beat her in a 1vs1 fight, you are big, and she is a twat".
While the show is feminine centric, there are a few male characters. Mainly in the form of boyfriends, husbands, convicted fathers or prison guards. They are mostly episodic heroes, and few are of high enough quality to please me (hehe, I did it well in an unplanned way). I liked the so-called A porn-mustache, his colleague from work and so far I am not able to mention other male characters that stuck in my memory. I didn't like Piper's fiancé, but it is worth mentioning him, as he was played by an actor known from "American Pie". It is different in the case of women, I can safely say that they constitute 90% of the cast. Showrunnerka made sure that the series presented a wide range of female characters and different nationalities. We have one Slavic girl, Black, Latina, White - you can choose your color. These are very diverse and are often remembered, in a positive or negative way. I liked most of them and would love to describe them all, but unfortunately I don't have that much free time.
When it comes to purely physical qualities, I liked Alex Vause the most. A woman is promiscuous, exudes sex and attracts attention - be it with her facial expressions, body movements or confidence. Every time she made her cute, flirtatious faces or moved similarly, I couldn't tear my eyes away. She is one of those women to whom anger makes her look even more beautiful. In addition, she has an interesting character - she is cynical, pragmatic and likes to get the most out of life. In second place I would place Nicky Nichols, which is a bit uglier than Alex, but exudes sex similarly to her. Unlike her black-haired friend, she is definitely nicer and doesn't use people unless you really deserve it. She is such a nice friend who will cheer us up when we need to, and when we screw up, she will criticize us. What they have in common is a love of sex, they both love to receive and give pleasure. Piper is prettier than Nicky and ... I'll stop there. I wrote about it at the beginning and I do not want to suggest you the later episodes. I also liked Sophia Burset, one of the few transgender characters. She was born male but felt uncomfortable in her male shell, so she underwent gender reassignment surgery. You can see male elements in it (larger dimensions, male body structure), but since Laverne Cox behaves and moves like a woman, I have often forgotten about it. You can accuse Netflix of sometimes forcing LGBT and transgender elements, but the character of Sophie is a great example (like the 3rd season of "Stranger Things") that it can be presented in a very natural and non-invasive way.
Looking at the characters solely in terms of character, I liked Galina Reznikov, Poussey Washington and Carrie aka the most. Big Boo. Galina is the cook with perhaps the greatest power of any inmate. This is due to her skills (all women know how to run a kitchen best) and her tough character. She is a thick-skinned Russian girl who does not give way to herself and you need to have a really big advantage over her to scare her. Poussey is the nicest and least toxic Black heroine. It's not that Blacks are meaner than Latinas or Whites, it's just that a lot of Blacks in this show have some negative qualities (although they are better than Latinas, who can be really bad). Like Nicky, she is a friendly girl who likes to help and be fair to her girlfriends. She was left with Big Boo, a lesbian with a bearish size, a stereotypical prisoner look, but with a heart of gold ... Until someone pissed her off or acted cool towards her. In general, however, she is nice and, like Nicky or Alex, she loves to seduce new girls and treats them as a prey. All in all, I ignored most of the characters, didn't say much about them either, but I didn't want to spoil your fun learning about them. I will try to complete this in the reviews of the next seasons in which I will no longer have such limitations.
How do I rate this series against "Dark", "Stranger Things", "House of Cards", "End of the f *** ing world" and other Netflix series? Very good, I can easily include him in the better half, or even in the lead. If only one season is unsuccessful, and the rest will be of a similar or even higher level, I will certainly be able to recommend it as eagerly as HoC or German "Dark". After all, with so many seasons, it's hard to keep the level all the time. At the time of writing this sentence, it's been a few days since I wanted to post this post, and my girlfriend and I have reached the middle of Season 3 and it's still interesting. When I finish 4 or 5 I will write another review. So far, I rate the series at +8/10 - great job, virtually no flaws.