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http://grantland.com/features/orange-is-the-new-black-netflix-season-two/?print=1 1/5
TV
Brilliant Orange
The return of Netflixs stunning success, Orange Is the New Black.
BY ANDY GREENWALD ON JUNE 4, 2014
If were being honest, Orange was never meant to be the new black. In early 2013, as Netflix prepared
its big push into original programming, its priority was House of Cards, and with good reason: That
series had the glittery Hollywood pedigree of director David Fincher, the dishy locale of Washington,
D.C., and, in star Kevin Spacey, ample servings of both ham and cheese. Whatever funds remained in
the PR budget after Cards February debut fell to Arrested Development, a heavily hyped resurrection
project that had the majority of the Internet blueing itself in anticipation. That both shows ultimately
disappointed the former with its hot air, the latter with its lumpy sprawl
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was almost irrelevant.
Netflix was much more interested in your attention than your acclaim. Unlike the broadcasters it seeks
to usurp, Netflix needs only to spark interest in its projects, not maintain it.
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A curious customer is a
consistent customer. Under Netflixs subscription plan, youre paying if you watch every episode or
none at all.
1.
Enough time has passed; can we be real about Arrested Development? The fourth season was a disaster worthy of
the Bluth Company.
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2.
Its inertia like this that gets Hemlock Grove a second season.
Compared with those big-ticket projects, Orange Is the New Black arrived like unglamorous inventory.
Adapted by Weeds creator Jenji Kohan from Piper Kermans memoir, the series dropped onto the
Netflix servers with a thud a week after Independence Day. Unlike with Cards and Arrested, there were
no A-list celebrities to promote, no preexisting fires to stoke. The series had a high concept preppy
blonde is sent to a minimum-security womens prison but a remarkably low-key, almost
improvisational feel. With its enormous cast and yo-yoing tone (from ferocious to farce in the time it
took to conduct a strip search), Orange seemed like the sort of established showrunner passion project
that can be indulged only by a company flush with cash and distracted by all the potential ways to spend
it.
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It also seemed like the kind of series that would require an analog virtue Netflix had previously not
shown much interest in: patience. Spicy, salty, and laced with unfamiliar ingredients, Orange was a
strange fit for Netflixs otherwise predictable buffet. How hard would it be to convince an audience
accustomed to the instant gratification of bingeing to sample something new?
3.
See Cincinnati, John From.
Not hard at all, as it turned out. Freed from the whiplash parabola of anticipation/disappointment that
had fueled Netflixs previous shows, Orange simmered and bubbled throughout the long, hot summer.
In the midst of a cultural landscape desiccated by the heat of a million takes, the relative quiet
surrounding the series was like an oasis.
To watch felt more like a thrilling discovery than an obligation. It also felt like an antidote. As the heavy
footprints left by a decade of swaggering, same-y male antiheroes receded from view, here finally was a
show committed to real diversity. Not just in terms of the casting though with its preponderance of
black and brown faces and multiple sexual orientations and gender identities Orange looked a lot more
like the country than most series that purport to reflect it but also in terms of the stories it was
willing to tell. Oranges protagonists had all committed crimes, but that was what they had done, not
who they were. First and foremost, they were women: lively, strong, hilarious, heartbreaking women.
Freed from the predictable, hectoring roles of mothers and wives though not, you know free the
inmates of Litchfield penitentiary were allowed to be just as fucked up and fascinating as TVs men. It
had to have been as refreshing to the actresses as it was to the audience. Instead of relying on the dull
glow of fading stars to do the heavy lifting, Orange gave us an entire galaxy.
As a result of this, Netflixs choose-your-own-adventure programming style finally made sense
artistically as well as commercially. Unlike Cards foaming froth, episodes of Orange were as broad as
they were deep. One could dive in, but it was also possible (and possibly even better) to soak them up
slowly. Each hour made things darker and weirder; every installment allowed another character to
shine. It was too good to resist. After initially ignoring Orange, I cannonballed in a few weeks after the
premiere. Though I had friends who didnt start their sentence until the holidays, I dont know a soul
who was able to begin the show without finishing it. Netflix stubbornly refuses to release any specific
viewership data, but the company was sufficiently shocked by Oranges quietly mushrooming numbers
to admit it had become the most-watched series on its servers. Doing time and encouraging the
taking of it had paid off in a major way.
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Time is both the central subject of Orange Is the New Black and, potentially, its burden.
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As the show
returns for a second season this Friday (once again all 13 episodes will arrive en masse), the biggest
question isnt what it can do its whether it can do it all again. And for how long. Piper Chapman, the
shows unexpectedly punchy lead, played by Taylor Schilling, is serving a sentence of just 15 months.
Thats the sort of inconvenient detail that can be ignored in the stressy and uncertain early days of a
series, when the future isnt guaranteed and is largely unwritten. (Case in point: The sparkling Danielle
Brooks was originally signed for only two episodes. When Taystee popped off the screen, Kohan had to
scramble to find a way to get her back behind bars.) As Orange settles in for a long run Season 3 was
commissioned last month Kohan and her writers must gently pump the brakes on their story, even
as the clamor for more and more plot grows louder. All TV shows rely on flimsy mechanisms to keep
their ensembles together a paper company in Scranton offered more job security than the IRS but
Orange unites its characters against their will in a place theyre desperate to escape. A generation ago,
M*A*S*H stretched out the Korean War for eight years longer than it actually lasted. I wonder if
contemporary audiences, as vigilant about accuracy as they are about emotion, would accept such
creative liberties today.
4.
Its also the key word in Regina Spektors divisive theme song. Some love it. Id rather spend the night in the SHU
than hear it again.
Judging from the first few episodes of Oranges second season, its a question being asked in the
writers room as well. Everything ends, Piper says at one point to a new arrival. Even prison. It just
wont end any time soon. The wonderfully disorienting season premiere those still hanging by their
fingernails from last years violent cliffhanger should expect to linger awhile longer devotes its
entire hour to muddying Pipers already dicey legal situation. (I wont spoil anything, but rest assured
that just as Laura Prepons sultry Alex got Piper into this mess, she continues to keep her in it.) The
action occurs far from Oranges familiar halls, giving Schilling another chance to play befuddlement
like a Stradivarius. And its also a winning showcase for Kohans inimitable voice. In just 50-plus
minutes she introduces us to an entirely new coterie of scary monsters and super creeps, from a face-
licking, tongue-biting amateur astrologist to a panty-sniffing dude who terrifies Piper until she learns,
to her great relief, that hes not a rapist, just a hit man. As ever, Kohan is admirably unafraid to play
around with the sharp stuff. Still, the bits that stick tend to be the ones that take you by surprise. After
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spending a season in the insular, female-dominated world of Litchfield, its legitimately jarring to see
Piper suddenly at the mercy of leering, jabbing, dismissive men. I think I moved beyond stress into
something more disturbing, she says of her internal state, though the implication is that shes been
parked there much longer than she realizes.
As good as Schilling is in the role notice the way her eyes have deadened as Pipers optimism has
faded, the way her cheekbones appear to have been sharpened like shivs there exists a not-
uncompelling argument that Orange might be better off without her in it. After all, the ensemble is
strong enough without her. (It goes without saying that it would be better off without Jason Biggss
Larry, Pipers vestigial nebbish.) Interestingly, the seasons second episode tackles this criticism head-
on. With Piper still waylaid from the events of the premiere, the hour is wholly devoted to catching up
with all our old friends, from mouthy Nicky (Natasha Lyonne, still dispensing premium vinegar) to
silent Norma (Annie Golden). Though Pipers presence lingers dandelions dont blow away that
easily I cant say she is much missed. At least not at first.
Instead, its almost dizzying to be reintroduced to so many phenomenal personalities so quickly:
Theres Red (Kate Mulgrew), wallowing in her reduced circumstance! Theres Daya (Dascha Polanco)
being battered back and forth like a pregnant pingpong ball between two mothers Aleida, her real
one (Elizabeth Rodriguez), and Gloria, her surrogate (Selenis Leyva)! Theres even room for a new
character, Vee (Lorraine Toussaint), a heroin queenpin who arrives with a mysterious connection to
Taystee (Brooks has a deservedly enhanced role in Year 2). Though fierce, often bloody conflict fuels
the shows plot beware the return of Taryn Mannings feral terrier Pennsatucky its the genuine
warmth that provides nearly all of its pleasure. Oranges best moments are often the emptiest: Poussey
(Samira Wiley) pissing off Black Cindy (Adrienne C. Moore) in a heated game of charades; Sophia
(Laverne Cox) squeezing into a cocktail dress at a job fair. Denied the world, these women are forced to
improvise their own, often with surprisingly tender results.
As the inmates struggle to fill the long hours and days ahead of them with petty grievances, with
inside jokes, with loud, potentially unsanitary sex in the toilet stalls its easy to imagine Orange Is the
New Black eventually moving on from Piper. Rather than continuing to gin up ways to keep her in the
joint beyond her original sentence perhaps she failed to work the requisite number of shifts at the
Park Slope co-op? the show could simply divvy up her camera time among the other cons. Few
showrunners are as naturally digressive as Kohan Episode 2 features disquisitions on constipation
and Monsanto so it shouldnt be a problem. And as long as there are actors like Uzo Aduba playing
characters like Suzanne, a.k.a. Crazy Eyes, itll likely be essential viewing. The third episode, built
around Suzannes backstory, is particularly devastating, an undelicate, unexploded land mine of race,
liberal guilt, adoption, and anxiety. You could make the argument that another show might tackle
some of these messy topics more elegantly but, to be honest, I cant think of another show that would
dare to tackle them at all.
The truth is, Im not ready to see Piper trade in her jumpsuit just yet. In its first season, Orange Is the
New Black was about a stranger in a strange land. Using her privilege and relative stability as a life
preserver, Piper was able to float on the surface of Litchfield. It wasnt until the very end that she was
irrevocably pulled under. In Season 2, with Piper no better (and potentially much worse!) off than her
peers, the show has finally collapsed the iffy borders that separated the haves from the have-nots, us
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from them. Everyone is gen pop now, milling about and mixing in disturbing and provocative ways.
In prison, there are no tourists and being scared straight is an oxymoron: Whether they show it or not,
everyone is equally terrified. What if I dont make it out? What if I do? The beating heart of Orange Is
the New Black is actually a ticking clock. Your time in solitary is nearly up.