Heard about "Orange is the new black" on another site, and when i IMDb'd it i was hopeful to watch a prison show from the creator of Weeds. Given that Weeds was, at least in the beginning, so successful at portraying the lead female in a situation where the line between right and wrong began to blur and eventually evaporate entirely, i thought a prison setting would allow Kohan to explore new themes with her unique humour and wit.
Unfortunately what I got was a serious about a naive girl who is sent to minimum security prison and has to deal with high school -esque hazing and popularity contests. There isn't a single hardened criminal that we meet in this institution, instead as we are shown through a series of tangential flashbacks, almost without exception every other inmate is a sweet caring human being that through some misstep or miscalculation has ended up serving time in an oligarchic slightly tyrannical resort.
I was left with a sense that the prison setting was somewhat irrelevant.. a similar woman could be having an almost identical crisis of self in a suburban neighborhood. Im not sure if the series is true to minimum security female penitentiaries, but all i could think when the protagonist cried about her current predicament which she almost invariably brought upon herself was -"while shes crying about some fantasy of a life there's a guy in a male prison dealing with constant physical and sexual abuse, and all shes dealing with is the other girls not liking her and a fairly atypical long distance relationship trying to survive her mistakes".
Not a bad show, i feel it would resonate better with the female audience members or someone that didn't have preconceived notions about how bad prison really is. I rated it at a 6 but it is a well made show and for the aforementioned viewer/s might be worthy of more distinction.
Unfortunately what I got was a serious about a naive girl who is sent to minimum security prison and has to deal with high school -esque hazing and popularity contests. There isn't a single hardened criminal that we meet in this institution, instead as we are shown through a series of tangential flashbacks, almost without exception every other inmate is a sweet caring human being that through some misstep or miscalculation has ended up serving time in an oligarchic slightly tyrannical resort.
I was left with a sense that the prison setting was somewhat irrelevant.. a similar woman could be having an almost identical crisis of self in a suburban neighborhood. Im not sure if the series is true to minimum security female penitentiaries, but all i could think when the protagonist cried about her current predicament which she almost invariably brought upon herself was -"while shes crying about some fantasy of a life there's a guy in a male prison dealing with constant physical and sexual abuse, and all shes dealing with is the other girls not liking her and a fairly atypical long distance relationship trying to survive her mistakes".
Not a bad show, i feel it would resonate better with the female audience members or someone that didn't have preconceived notions about how bad prison really is. I rated it at a 6 but it is a well made show and for the aforementioned viewer/s might be worthy of more distinction.