Beware, network and cable TV: Netflix is climbin’ in yo windows and snatchin’ yo people up.
The streaming service’s two original series proved to be formidable opponents to well-established network shows — “House of Cards” is racking up Emmy nods, and, according to the Huffington Post, “Orange is the New Black” was renewed for a second season before the first season even premiered on July 11.
“Orange is the New Black,” based on the memoir by Piper Kerman, follows Piper Chapman, a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP), well-bred woman, as her past transgressions — becoming involved with an international drug-trafficking ring with her ex-girlfriend, played by Laura Prepon of “That 70s Show” — eventually catch up with her. This landed her a 15-month sentence in a minimal-security women’s prison in upstate New York.
The prison sentence puts tension on her engagement with a man, Jason Biggs, and her relationships with her fellow yuppie, creative-class friends — one of whom she co-owns a line of artisanal soaps.
The show (thankfully) isn’t limited to Chapman’s adaptation to prison culture and subsequent alienation from her fiancé — a character so spineless and spongy you’ll want to reach through the TV and slap him, especially as he uses Chapman’s sentence as a way to grow his career by writing a column for the New York Times and appearing on NPR to discuss their changing relationship.
Chapman, the viewer comes to realize, is not the focal point of the show. Rather, she’s the jumping-off point for the viewer to experience the backgrounds of the other inmates, from a beautiful transexual woman with a crumbling family life, played by the stunning Laverne Cox, to the sharp-tongued Russian cook who runs the kitchen, to a mysterious older Haitian woman trailing rumors of murder.
Each episode provides flashbacks into the lives of the inmates before their sentence, allowing the women to develop into complicated, highly nuanced characters rather than one-dimensional stereotypes.
While “Orange” is a dark comedy, some of the scenes are poignant, chilling and touching. During the prison’s Christmas pageant, an inmate delivers an impromptu performance of “Amazing Grace,” and the room goes silent. Chapman delivers a gripping philosophical monologue to a young delinquent about the nature of prison life.
“Truth catches up with you in here,” she says as she leans in close to the girl’s face. “It’s the truth that’s going to make you hurt.”
“Orange” also passes the Bechdel test with flying colors — it contains a multitude of named female characters across every race, age and sexuality, and they talk about things other than men. Creator Jenji Kohan, who also made Showtime’s “Weeds,” provides an array of portraits of women we aren’t used to seeing on TV: older women, women of color, trans women and gay women.
One character, the sharp-tongued Poussey, captured the spirit of the show best in one quote: “We’re all just in here because we took a wrong turn going to church.”
