To begin with, I think we can all agree that the title is awful. Because it is awful, and cutesy, and glib in the worst way. But the show is good–really good–and it gets better the more you watch, in the kind of way that makes it impossible to stop watching, or imploring your friends to watch, or writing vague, shocked reactions to plot twists on Twitter. And there’s only thirteen episodes! So of course you’re finished with it, and you don’t know what to do with yourself now.
If you’re not finished, go watch it now. It won’t take more than thirteen hours. We’ll wait.
So: you’re finished, if you weren’t already, and you don’t know what to watch or read next. Here are a few suggestions.
If what you miss is…Exuberant, explicit love stories between doe-eyed prisoners
Then what you need is…I Love You, Phillip Morris [Apple TV | Netflix (DVD only)]
If what you miss is…true-life stories with shocking endings
Then what you need is…I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang [Dailymotion] [Amazon | Indiebound]
If what you miss is…hearing about the lived experiences, struggles, and needs of incarcerated women
Then what you need is…Silja Talvi’s Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System [Amazon | Indiebound]
If what you miss is…Lesbians; ensemble shows that can pass the Bechdel test; explorations of gender identity
Then what you need is…Chica Busca Chica [Wolfe Video (DVD only)], Girltrash! [Blip], Lovers and Friends [Blip]
If what you miss is…Seeing trans* and genderqueer roles played by trans* and genderqueer performers
Then what you need is…The Switch [Trembling Void Studios]
If what you miss is…Natasha Lyonne
Then what you need is…If These Walls Could Talk 2 [Netflix (DVD only)], But I’m a Cheerleader [Ditto]
Please also feel free to consider this your Monday open thread. Questions to consider:
1. What is it about Jason Biggs that is so profoundly unsettling and repellant? Is it the eyes? Or something more?
2. You’ve already seen Oz, right? What do you like to pretend happened instead of the sixth season?
3. Will there ever be a show about prison that doesn’t feel the need to begin with a wide-eyed “fish out of water” storyline? (Orange would be fine without Piper. That doesn’t even need to be said.)
4. Did you know Laverne Cox has a recurring column on the Huffington Post? Go read all of the entries now, then come back.
5. Claudette, man. Right? Claudette.
6. I don’t know what to tell you all when it comes to talking about spoilers and how to handle them. Strive for harmony and understanding, I suppose.
7. If These Walls Could Talk 2 was pretty bad, if I remember correctly, but not so bad that baby-butch Chloë Sevigny couldn’t partially redeem it. Am I remembering it correctly?
[Image via Wikimedia Commons]
Tags: female ensembles, laverne cox, natasha lyonne, netflix, orange is the new black, the bechdel test, women in prison
I didn’t want to like this show for really stupid reasons I won’t go into here but I’m really into it (but sadly only 3 episodes deep.) My husband likes it too. I feel like this is kind of what I wish Weeds had been more like. Also? Good for Jason Biggs!
Right? Weeds was…nothing. It all felt too cute and clever by half, but this show is much better. There were a few moments in the pilot that had me on high alert, but it’s done such a good job developing characters who aren’t “‘nice’ white ladies who make bath soaps.”
Weeds started out okay and then just got so ridiculous, like really lady you can’t just get a normal job? The suspension of disbelief the show required became unreasonable after awhile.
I started actively hoping that bad things would happen to Nancy after awhile.
I stopped watching when I realized it was probably not helpful to be thinking “YEAH YOU DESERVE IT” whenever her life was difficult.
BORA BORA BORA, I will never be the same.
Also: I fucking adore this show.
I am only on episode four; going on vacation in four days; I am barreling through the rest, because I won’t enjoy my vacation until I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
BEST SHOW IT IS THE BEST
We’re watching Wentworth now but it is not the same. To put it lightly.
Great so I have to bingewatch this show now so I can come back and read this thread again? (on ep. 2 only – glad to hear it gets better)
Ahhh I’m only halfway through episode 3 and I would bingewatch tonight but my bf’s brother is visiting and neither of them are particularly interested (although sometimes I like to make the bf watch things that make him squirm, because, learning!) so I have to wait until Wednesday at the earliest wahhh
(first world problems, for sure)
Monday Open Thread!!!
I find Jason Biggs neither unsettling nor repellant. I think he is absolutely adorable on the show! Like, he is maybe not for sexytimes, but definitely for snuggletimes. Amirite, ladies?
He looks like the love child of Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway.
For casts that pass the Bechdel test: Orphan Black. It even passes the Reverse Bechdel (no men have a conversation that is not about a woman). Plus there is the awe and wonder of Tatiana Maslany. (And there’s a bisexual character.) Everyone watch it now.
Wait – so if something passes the Reverse Bechdel, men only have conversations between themselves about women? (so like, it fails the regular Bechdel test if the genders were reversed?)
My mind is doing backflips….I think I need more coffee.
Wait…I might have messed that up. I don’t know what to call it, but the dudes only take about the ladies. Someone else can name it.
Jason Biggs is good on the show, but I honestly am not into the Piper/Larry drama. I know it is a “fish out of water” show and Piper is supposed to be privileged and clueless, but she is just a narcissistic mess. The other characters are way better. I wish we had seen Poussey’s backstory.
Poussey and Taystee ARE THE BEST.
Yep. I find it very difficult to care about Larry. I’m telling myself that maybe that’s the point?
Obviously she’s the least compelling character (although I’m all for more female anti-heroes, and I think she might come closest to classic form), but I like that the show uses Piper to blow up the idea that you could use, I don’t know, is middle-class the word? skills to navigate prison. Like, “Hey, I’m a bright person with a strong instinct for self-preservation, no discernible anti-social tendencies or issues with authority, and tons of experience dealing with bureaucratic structures! Surely I’ll play by the rules, make nice with the guards, keep my head down and get through this.” No. Not even a little.
And Jason Biggs is a fucking mouthbreather.
The thing about Piper, though, is that she DOESN’T keep her head down and try to work within the system. She always, always thinks that she has an inalienable right to run her mouth self-righteously whether she is correct (sometimes) or not (often) or said mouthing off is warranted (in her prison situation, almost never), and then she relies on her privilege to save her. At the end of the season she’s still that same chick who got bitten by the dog after lecturing the homeless kid, and she never, ever seems to learn a lasting lesson from making the same mistake over and over again. I love to hate Piper, but that’s one of the things I adore about this show; it’s all about bad decisions and their consequences and it shows characters repeatedly make bad decisions that are consistent with their personalities. No unrealistic, “Whoops, screwed up big time there, guess I’ll never ever do that again and have my happy ending now!” Most of the characters, like real people, just aren’t that self-aware.
(Hope that comment doesn’t spoil anything for anybody who expects Piper to become likeable by the end of the season.)
I don’t think you’re wrong about Piper, but I think the show’s pretty clear about the fact that it’s impossible to do prison “right”. The guards are power-mad, or just incompetent, or in over their heads. By the time policy decisions get to the inmate level, they might as well have been handed down by a game of telephone. The dumb shit people do–and no one avoids doing dumb shit–has unpredictable consequences.
Good point, didn’t mean to imply that everything would be sunshine for Piper if she behaved better. She just has the luxury of being able to get away with more dumb shit than most of the characters, or suffer a lesser degree of consequence for it (most of the time).
I think you really hit it on the head with the ‘no *right* way to do prison’ observation; the show also does a great job of showing that even making the “right” decisions regarding self-preservation in a given situation often ends up spiraling and resulting in unintended consequences.
I watched the whole season with my friend, (a gay man) who said Jason Biggs is cute, and I didn’t even know how to react, because I have never understood his taste in men, and now I never will, and I’m still just “wah?” about it.
I got so fucking anxious in the first episode, because that is one of my great fears come to life, being put in a place where your ability to interact socially has a huge affect on how safe/comfortable your life is, and then saying one thing wrong, and just fucking up royally with someone important. Fucking terrifying.
Don’t want to spoil things, but there is so much to react to in this show, I don’t even know what else to write.
I haven’t seen this yet, but I Love You Philip Morris is a heck of a movie. Watched it with some friends last Thanksgiving (or two Thanksgivings ago?) and it was weirdly perfect for the moment.
I was expecting a trainwreck due to how many delays the movie had – that usually correlates to internal problems with production, rewrites-reshoots and the like. Turns out the movie was always great but the studio was freaking out about it and buried it for reasons that remain mysterious and not at all obvious in any way.
It is a fab movie. I saw it in the cinema with a friend of mine and she came out looking mildly shell-shocked because she was under the impression it was going to be more romcom-ish. I would argue that it is awfully romcom-ish, but undeniably not what she was expecting in that vein at all.
This SHOW, this show, I almost bought the book that inspired it when I finished watching but fortunately I read the reviews first. Then I read more about Piper Kerman and I read her husband’s Modern Love columns and now I hate Piper with the fire of a thousand suns instead of previously just finding her extremely irritating.
I want to know if I can make Vause’s eyeliner shape happen on my eyes.
Vause’s eyeliner is GLORIOUS. So is Nicky’s.
YES, and Maritza’s.
Maritza’s is like super intermediate level eyeliner, and I could never, ever replicate it.
It’s kind of amazing that she’s a consultant on the show and yet the show paints her as being so completely un-self-aware. Maybe she’s unable to see how unflattering her portrayal is on the show?
READ LARRY’S ACTUAL COLUMNS: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/fashion/28Love….
(Even though Larry is the worst).
Also I just finished watching it again for the second time.
Larry really is the worst.
The worrrrrssssssssst.
THE WORST.
The absolute freaking worst.
Ugh, I feel like he is even more annoying in that column than he is on the show! Something about the repeated use of “our women” is grossing me out.
Also: “I didn’t know there was a Trader Joe’s in CONNECTICUT,” and also that towns other than New York have good food or coffee.
I thought that column had potential (and it crashes and burns instead), but ick yes – “our women” reeks of entitlement and ownership to me, even if it’s not meant that way.
“But she is still a pretty, blond Smith grad who looks as if she descended from Mayflower stock: the last girl you’d expect to end up behind bars.”
The. Worst.
HOW IS HE WORSE IN REAL LIFE.
I’m kind of loving to hate him now
Also, when presented with a choice between Jason Biggs and Laura Prepon wearing glasses, who would hesitate for even a SECOND?
Seriously.
not even me and I’m unambiguously straight.
LAURA PREPON’S VOICE YOU GUYS
Seriously, even blindfolded: Jason Biggs says “hello,” Laura Prepon says “hell-” ON IT
AND THE TATTOOS.
I am not attracted to a lot of women, but Laura Prepon on this show oh my yes.
OK I know this is like seven thousand years late, (in internet years) but SPOILSIES I just watched the episode where Vause threatens Pensyltucky with oral sex, and I’m NOT liking that at all. I mean that was straight up, I will rape you, not good.
Do I file it under “complex character who is neither good nor evil” or “comedic misfire”?
DITTO.
for me it’s a little less the glasses and more the putting on/taking off of them that just wow
I tried to watch it this weekend, but presumably everyone else in America was watching it and it broke Netflix, so I read the book instead and GOD ugh she is so annoying. Will I still like the show?
Maybe. Probably. I think so. There are a few squingey moments in the first ep, but it moves from strength to strength after that. Also: Laura Prepon’s voice.
Just finished Ep. 1. Assessment fair. Also, taking own glasses off and lazily but sensuously fondling ear-stems in re: Laura Prepon, so,um, thx, I think.
I haven’t read the book (saw the reviews first), but I get the impression the show rises way above its source material. After briefly introducing Piper as a fish-out-of-water heroine of sorts, it proceeds to present her as a snotty self-important idiot who gets (satisfyingly) called on her shit by other characters, and uses her to show how unfairly she benefits from her white rich person privilege in comparison to other inmates. The other characters are fantastic and have rich, satisfying storylines. Give it a shot!
I skipped the book entirely because reasons and Piper is an irritating fifth business until near the end of the season, when she snaps in an entirely satisfactory fashion.
Also, all the secondary characters are uniformly amazeballs. Except Larry. Larry is a marionette made of a slightly generic-looking Writer Dude.
I binge-watched it this weekend. I am part of the problem, and I am sorry.
One thing I really really like about the show was something that I think would make me intensely irritated by the book: her flaws are obvious to us and everyone, but she truly, deeply believes that she’s a good person by virtue of being ‘nice’ and scolding her fiance to use cloth bags at Whole Foods. (Admittedly, I’m being a little extra harsh because I identify.)
So I will second/third the “maybe.”
I haven’t seen the show so don’t know who Claudette is but I am now looking forward to loving Claudette.
CLAUDETTE!!!! That is all.
Ahem. It is MISS Claudette, if you please.
On episode 3 and it’s all I can do to not sit myself down for the next 24 hours and finish the rest of the season!
In re: #4: How sad is it that I am surprised to watch a show that treats a trans story with sensitivity–I was ready to cringe and feel disappointed, and was fairly impressed instead.
Re: #2, I am also available to talk about Beecher and Keller AT ANY TIME, you guys.
My favourite line in the series was the very early, very direct line “This isn’t Oz.”
Absolute fourth-wall cracking shot across the bow. SO GOOD.
THANK GOD, I still have a lot of leftover feelings not yet assuaged by my recent google search that turned up this: http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9193/gifiu.gif
Beecher and Keller make my heart/vagina swell.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I requested this on that housekeeping post and now I am so happy that I am SPEECHLESS.
Would pay obscene sums of money for a spin-off show that’s just Taystee and Puse doing their white-person voices.
brb making the kickstarter
Would donate in a heartbeat. Their relationship is possibly my favorite on the show.
MACKENZIE!
Obviously was not even in the same ballpark with my spelling of “Poussey,” but pleasantly surprised I got “Taystee” right.
The two actresses were close friends at Julliard, so I bet that helps with their fantastic chemistry on screen.
I really think “Self Surrender” would be a much better title.
also: CRAZY EYES AND THE SOLILOQUY AT THE TEENAGER. oh man. I hadn’t laughed that hard at television in months.
Does anyone else think Bennett and Daya are so sweet but SO STUPID? Or am I supposed to have conflicted feelings about it because of the whole post-Mendez, “she can’t give consent even if she wanted to” thing?
Even though I DO have conflicted feelings about it (because I don’t in any way think the guard/prisoner relationship is healthy/OK and I think we’re slowly being shown additional ways in which he’s pretty awful and control-y), I’m rooting for them just a little bit.
I think John, like Larry, is a Well-Intentioned Man who is pretty decidedly not a Bad Guy BUT, even though he totally thinks of himself as a Good Guy (and we may/not think of him as one if we actually knew him), he does some pretty terrible things. Because sometimes Good Guys do terrible things. To women.
OMG SO STUPID. Sweet, but so naive and so, so, so dumb. CONDOMS FOR EVERYONE, PLEASE.
What is wrong with me that I didn’t think to mention this until now: You guys know that there is an absolutely a-TROCIOUS movie version of Atlas Shrugged on Netflix? It is the absolute best drunken hate-watch; it is so hilariously wonderfully bad and it’s just delightful to see Ayn Rand’s masterwork given the appropriate treatment. ANYWAY, Piper is Dagny Taggart in that. If you are so inclined, go forth and enjoy.
AND NOW I KNOW WHY SHE WAS SO FAMILIAR AND ANNOYING FROM THE FIRST MOMENT!
I really don’t understand people who think of Piper as the hero of this show (someone earlier called her the anti-hero, which I suppose I agree with. Mostly I just think of her as a vehicle for exploring the other characters). Also I don’t understand people who want Alex and Piper to get together. Alex is so much greater than her on every scale…and really, Piper and Larry deserve each other. They’re both hopelessly annoying and privileged etc. etc…
Yes, Alex can do MUCH better
Alex + Nichols 4E
URGH, I did NOT LIKE the book at all, and I was very side-eying (really, spell check? “side-eyeing” looks more right!) this show, and then totally binged on it ON IT. Laura Prepon WHAT WHAT. And I can’t lie…I was about to say “I kind of like Pennsyltucky” but then realized what I meant to say was “I love how Taryn Manning is playing her” and…yeah. I HAVE A THEORY ABOUT THE LAST EPISODE when is it safe to say it?! WHEN?!
SPEAK!
So Natasha Lyonne is definitely back? Is she doing a good job? I’m a little worried.
Me too. I want her to be healthy and to keep working. I miss her!
just saw this in the nytimes modern love: “…a memoir by his wife, Piper Kerman…”
HERE’S HOPING THEY DROP THAT FACT & REWRITE PIPER’S LOVE LIFE
So good! The way they deal with the stories of the other inmates and the way intersectional oppression is just a FACT that these women deal with and lay out for Piper because she *doesn’t get it* is great. I love the way it handles race and poverty and desperation and the whole thing about how prison doesn’t do a damned thing to actually rehabilitate people and prepare them for a life outside. And the acting is just incredible. It’s sad that we need a show to be about prison to give us a place to watch so many talented actresses of color.
Also, I want a recording of the “Amazing Grace” they sang in the last episode.
PSA: But I’m a Cheerleader has been playing and replaying on one of the Showtime channels for at least the last several days. Go watch it, it’s freakin’ adorable.
What about Mr. Healy?! Why is he on a weird lesbian witchhunt? Please explain…
Does anyone else think it’s weird that someone is named Nicole Nichols? Or did I miss something?