Orange Is the New Black

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Luke M
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:21 pm

Orange Is the New Black

#1 Post by Luke M » Sun Jul 14, 2013 7:09 pm

I haven't actually seen this one yet because I'm too poor to renew my Netflix subscription. However, my Twitter feed has been pretty positive about the show. Anyone watching it?

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Murdoch
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#2 Post by Murdoch » Sun Jul 14, 2013 8:28 pm

I haven't seen it yet either but as a huge Weeds fan (at least of the first half of the series) I can't wait to see Kohan's vicious satire tackle the prison system.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#3 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:53 am

Well, I have seen the first episode...and it's just alright. It's got the quirkiness of WEEDS but replaces the satire with sentiment. The gratuitous nudity in the first five minutes threw me and I half-expected a "Caged Heat" send-up. Instead, it was mostly sweet (in a bland sort of way) and predictable. I'm thinking the prison storyline in the penultimate WEEDS season might have been more effective than what may happen here, but I'll check out a few more episodes before saying more.

zeroman987
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#4 Post by zeroman987 » Mon Jul 15, 2013 5:57 pm

I was not too impressed by the first episode and also thrown for a loop by the very gratuitous nudity. However, the show really picks up. It is a little sentimental at times and can feel cartoonish, but for the most part it is really well executed and funny.

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Luke M
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#5 Post by Luke M » Sun Jul 21, 2013 1:51 pm

I finally caught this and agree that it picks up. I've only seen the first 2 episodes but found the 2nd one to be far superior, I believe, or hope at least, that it revealed the format for the rest of the series.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#6 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:50 pm

The third episode (directed by Jodie Foster) is superb as well. I'm very pleased that the plotting opens up to exploring the back stories of the other inmates and, in doing so, the drama seems less contrived and the satire is sharper (also happy that the first person narration appears to have been abandoned after the first episode). I only got twenty minutes into the fourth episode last night before the streaming became unwatchable, but so far it seems that the pilot was a poor indicator of the season's quality.

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domino harvey
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#7 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:56 pm

Based on the volume of unfunny gif sets this has been generating on my Tumblr dashboard, this show is more than just wall-to-wall sex jokes, right?

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#8 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Jul 22, 2013 1:13 pm

Prison sex jokes to this show are a bit like the pot jokes on WEEDS: they're definitely milked, but the subject matter goes far beyond with humor found in a wide variety of situations. And, as with WEEDS, I'm hoping that the reliance on sex jokes will diminish as the series carries on.

zeroman987
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#9 Post by zeroman987 » Mon Jul 22, 2013 6:12 pm

Roger Ryan wrote:Prison sex jokes to this show are a bit like the pot jokes on WEEDS: they're definitely milked, but the subject matter goes far beyond with humor found in a wide variety of situations. And, as with WEEDS, I'm hoping that the reliance on sex jokes will diminish as the series carries on.
While the sex jokes do continue, there is an attempt to "freshen" them up a little bit.

As Roger Ryan mentioned above, I agree the inmate back-stories go a long way in making it less contrived. One thing I liked was their use is uneven and event specific; the back-stories are not formulaic and they only occur when relevant.

I also want to revise my earlier comment about it becoming cartoonish: I actually think that they are doing a good job making the characters likable and seemingly light-hearted, but at the same time conveying the bleakness of reality of the situation they are in.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#10 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Jul 30, 2013 11:00 pm

This show is absolutely delightful. Managing to deftly balance the reality of a women's prison with the quirky comedy of a show designed for teenage girls about the perils of high school is likely tougher to pull off than it seems here. And unlike the latter, this is absolutely something that is best appreciated by adults - we're not forcing ourselves into the mindset of people we aren't, but rather, through Taylor Schilling's absolutely excellently acted and accessible main character, we're experiencing the plot in 360 degrees.

Great great stuff. Through two episodes I'm willing to call this the best hour long dramedy I've seen since Freaks and Geeks. I hope it can live up to the lofty expectations it's created for itself.

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Luke M
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#11 Post by Luke M » Fri Aug 02, 2013 8:32 pm

mfunk9786 wrote: Great great stuff. Through two episodes I'm willing to call this the best hour long dramedy I've seen since Freaks and Geeks. I hope it can live up to the lofty expectations it's created for itself.
I would say around the 7th or 8th episode this show goes from very good to great.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#12 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Aug 02, 2013 9:16 pm

Wow! Looking forward to that, then. I wish the guards (one in particular) weren't so cartoonish, but I'm still absolutely loving this show through six episodes. It is so much it's own thing that there's nothing to really compare it to outside of some of the structural tropes it borrows from Lost and, as I mentioned, some boarding school/high school dramedies.

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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#13 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 10:39 am

Laura Prepon isn't long for this world in the universe of Orange Is the New Black

However, Taryn Manning, Uzo Aduba, and Danielle Brooks have been promoted to series regulars. More Taystee and Crazy Eyes - that's a good thing.

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Luke M
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#14 Post by Luke M » Thu Aug 15, 2013 6:05 pm

Interesting.
SpoilerShow
I was sort of expecting Taryn Manning's character to die.

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Murdoch
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#15 Post by Murdoch » Sat Aug 24, 2013 10:00 pm

Okay, so "Crazy Eyes" Suzanne is the best character on any series right now. This show met my expectations and then some. Not a surprise considering my love for Weeds (the first three seasons of which I'd rank as the best TV comedy period), but Jenji Kohan is the best comedy writer working anywhere. Her satirical wit is a welcome break from so many series today. This series does have the same white girl out of water as Weeds but here it is much more ensemble driven, with Kohan using the lead more to introduce the audience to this world than as a character around which to centralize the series. But it's the other inmates that allow this series to excel, from Suzanne to the former track star. The microcosm that is the prison is wonderfully contrasted with the "real" world, both running parallel but rarely intersecting, and I love how the occupants of both operate on different planes of existence.

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jbeall
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#16 Post by jbeall » Sun Aug 25, 2013 9:57 am

Luke M wrote:I would say around the 7th or 8th episode this show goes from very good to great.
I agree with this assessment. My wife and I really enjoyed the first two episodes, but the next several were uneven as the show struggled to find the right balance of comedy and drama. Around episode 8, though, OItNB really finds its stride and was consistently excellent right through the disheartening and shocking season finale.
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I'm using "disheartening" to refer to the supporting characters' disappointments (e.g. Miss Claudette's failed appeal and subsequent assault on the guard), not my reaction to the show itself. But the shocker came from Piper's transformatoin in that final episode. She had maintained a certain air of being above her fellow inmates, perhaps b/c she's the only obviously haute-bourgeois inmate, and this is readily apparent when she attempts to go along with Pennsatucky's baptism. Offended, however, by the cleanliness of the baptismal "pool," she gives a spiel that reveals again her feeling of moral and intellectual superiority and then walks away as if proving her point is the end of it, not realizing just how deeply she's insulted Pennsatucky and how dangerous the latter can be. After she's cornered in the shower, Piper thinks she's constitutionally incapable of handling this threat, but boy is she ever wrong! But of course, her mauling of Pennsatucky shatters the illusion that she's somehow better than all the other inmates. She's got a(nother) lengthy spell in SHU, to say nothing of added time that ought to bring the duration of her sentence more in line with her fellow inmates'.
Last edited by jbeall on Sun Aug 25, 2013 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

David M.
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#17 Post by David M. » Sun Aug 25, 2013 10:18 am

Question about this - is it a Netflix exclusive forever?

I've been watching it but it's a bit distracting when the picture jumps around from pretty good to sub-YouTube standard (even although I have a 65mb down cable connection). It's also a little scary to think that, piracy aside, in its current form, the show (at least in its current form) is potentially ephemeral.

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tavernier
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#18 Post by tavernier » Sun Aug 25, 2013 2:49 pm

House of Cards came out on Blu ray and DVD, so this will also, I would bet.


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barryconvex
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#20 Post by barryconvex » Fri Jan 17, 2014 1:06 am

Laura Prepon isn't long for this world in the universe of Orange Is the New Black
...this is seriously good news. she redefines the word "wooden" in this role. and that's only when she seems like she actually wants to be there...now if jason biggs could just follow her lead...


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domino harvey
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#22 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jan 22, 2014 10:24 pm

Blu-ray coming April 14th

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mfunk9786
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#23 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:56 pm

Do these updates mean you're not being cranky about this show anymore?

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domino harvey
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#24 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:57 pm

I relay info that may be of interest to others!

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mfunk9786
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Re: Orange Is the New Black

#25 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:58 pm

:( :( :(

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