Orange is the New Black: 2013's Best New Show You Can Watch All Of Right Now

[Lumenskir]

Title pretty much says it all.* After the painfully "You Might Enjoy"-optimized okness of House of Cards and the beautiful misfire of Arrested Development season 4, Netflix finally steps up with an original offering that is amazing.**

*Originally this was also going to be about how TV's Golden Age of Women is upon us, what with this, Girls, New Girl, Veep, Top of the Lake, Orphan Black, Enlightened, etc. etc. happening all this year, but then I remembered that Enlightened got cancelled and Tatiana Maslany and Emmy Rossum didn't get any Emmy nominations and got sad. Maybe when Mad Men, the last of the Aureate White Male Anti-Hero shows, goes away next year we can talk.

**Disclaimer: I've only watched the werewolf transformation scene of Hemlock Grove, so maybe it's good also, but eh.

It's a show about a yuppie white woman who goes to federal women's prison and it's got everything*: Great characters, intricate and fun plotlines, diverse women of all shapes and sizes, honest explorations of the sexuality spectrum, Captain Janeway with an amazing Russian accent, a fully realized transsexual character, harrowing depictions of the ingrained awfulness inherent in the prisoner-guard power structure, Crazy Eyes, cogent criticisms of mandatory minimums, a non-terrible Jason Biggs, and even an Ira Glass-alike.

*Pretty much the only bad thing is that Netflix might start recommending other movies that the stars of the TV show have been in, because then someone might accidentally click on Atlas Shrugged, but that's a very attenuated danger that can't really be burdened on the show.

Well, I guess the other bad thing is that I watched all 13 episodes in about four days, and now have to wait until next summer for season two.

So yeah, it's all on Netflix, everyone either has Netflix or mooches off of a friend's account, so there's no excuse not to watch it.

[Lumenskir]

The theme song is now my soul song and it should be yours as well.

[Bard The 5th LW]

I liked Season 4 of Arrested Development.

[McTahr]

Originally Posted by Bard The 5th LW

I liked Season 4 of Arrested Development.

As you well should have.

[Lumenskir]

I liked Season 4 of Arrested Development.

You did see where I used the adjective "beautiful", right?*

*Mini-Comprehensive AD Season 4 Review: I think there's about 10 amazing episodes worth of new content in season 4, but we were unfortunately given 15 total episodes to sift through; It's an amazing sui generis attempt that falls short of fully realizing its inherent genius. Made me hopeful for season 5.

So I'm rewatching OITNB with my roomie and it really is one those shows with no lagging/extraneous/ff-able scenes. I guess maybe the one guard-prisoner subplot is a little doofy at times, but they aren't shy from pointing out the inherent wrongness that's at the core of the relationships foundation, plus it quickly gets tied into Red who makes everything better.*

*"Those Spanish probably won't even eat her, just cut her throat and drink her blood, or something else superstitious. All I wanted was to eat the chicken that is smarter than other chickens and to absorb its power. And make a nice Kiev."

I've seen a few people sort of hating on Larry, but I think that he's supposed be somewhat hated (especially what he gets up to towards the end of the run), and he's one of the most interesting/direct examinations of privilege outside of, like, Mad Men. I get how that can seem to inherently spiteful, and he doesn't really get called out on it often, but the show is pretty clearly framing him as this guy who's slowly starting to realize that he's making life harder for actually oppressed people, and the fact that his reaction isn't to change but to dig in to his own self-righteousness (and even complain!) is patently infuriating but still pretty human/expected from someone in his position.

Anybody got a favorite character yet? Well, favorite non-Red character. I'm going either Morello or Crazy Eyes, with the option open to revoke if they ever spoil the mystery by actually giving Crazy Eyes some flashbacks.*

*Really, this is all assuming that Sophia+The Sister as a unit is not viable as a single character option.

[tacticslion]

Originally Posted by Lumenskir

So yeah, it's all on Netflix, everyone either has Netflix or mooches off of a friend's account, so there's no excuse not to watch it.

This statement is inherently untrue.

I neither have Netflix nor have any friends accounts that I mooch off of for Netflix.

[Azisien]

I watched the first two episodes and I wasn't really feeling it*. I guess I don't live in quite the same level of prison state yet so maybe this show is a little lost on me?

*Which doesn't mean "bad," but also doesn't mean "good."

[Lumenskir]

I watched the first two episodes and I wasn't really feeling it*.

Please tell me how you feel after episode three. That's when it went from "Huh interesting" to gottabingewatchnow status for me.

I guess I don't live in quite the same level of prison state yet so maybe this show is a little lost on me?

??

I mean, maybe I'm drunk and missing something, but it isn't really about the prison state as much as its about the characters. I think AV Club had it best when it said it was basically a "small town show", it's just the small town is a woman's prison.