OITNB Season 3
Usually, I like to know what everyone is reading for the weekend, but I definitely know what everyone will be watching! OITNB is back on Netflix.
For Netflix subscribers the return of the crazy popular prison show Orange Is The New Black was much anticipated. (warning potential spoilers)
The "accidental' early release of the series, even better...now only if there had been cake.
Orange Is The New Black offers much that no show ever has. First, it slams us inside an unseen world – not just a women’s prison but its toilet stalls and secret storerooms. While our guide is the blonde yuppie Piper, we expand to meet Black women, Latina women, a Haitian, lesbians, a transvestite, the poor, and the elderly – all minorities generally sidelined. Now Remember All their Faces offers a guide, not just to characters, but to each one’s deeper significance as we meet Flaca the flirt, Soso the hapless activist, and Janae, who’s learned to keep her head down. The book also analyzes themes from community and corruption to the series’ poignant cry for reform. It unfolds the real facts of federal prison to show where the program exaggerates and where it offers the utter truth.
With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187–424—one of the millions of people who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns to navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of behavior and arbitrary rules. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with small tokens of generosity, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison—why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they’re there.
I watched a few episodes before going to sleep. The first episode, much like the pilot had me a little on the fence. But hang in there I did and it picked up pace rather spectacularly. All of the usual suspects were there except for Vee 'Lorraine Toussaint' of course whose memory is still stubbornly kept alive by Suzanne-Crazy Eyes 'Uza Udoba'. Poussey 'Samira Wiley' is on a spiritual journey of some sort and Taystee 'Danielle Brooks' keeps it real. Sophia 'Laverne Cox' is back making the inmates pretty inside and out while trying to parent her son from a unique double perspective.
A kinder, gentler, dare I say more feeling Red 'Kate Mulgrew' has surfaced. The disfunctional family triangle of Dayanara 'Dascha Polanco', John 'Matt McGorry' and her mother Aleida 'Elizabeth Rodriguez' continues as the future of the baby hangs in the balance. A truthful light is shown on the situation and it may not be so pretty. See what Gloria 'Selenis Leyva' is brewing in the kitchen. Our favorite docile self imposed mute Norma 'Annie Golden' has her own thing going on now.
And then a dame walks in. Yep, Alex 'Laura Prepon' returns and is drawn back into the manipulative cat and mouse game with Piper 'Taylor Schilling' whose truthful reveals are... well...selfservingly Piper. It's a far more combustible, physical relationship that they are both forced to finally deal with.
Strange alliances are made as the future of the prison hangs in the balance and we see Nicky 'Natasha Lyonne' well, lets just say crash and burn. And yes Pennsatucky 'Taryn Manning' is at the wheel.
And then a dame walks in. Yep, Alex 'Laura Prepon' returns and is drawn back into the manipulative cat and mouse game with Piper 'Taylor Schilling' whose truthful reveals are... well...selfservingly Piper. It's a far more combustible, physical relationship that they are both forced to finally deal with.
Strange alliances are made as the future of the prison hangs in the balance and we see Nicky 'Natasha Lyonne' well, lets just say crash and burn. And yes Pennsatucky 'Taryn Manning' is at the wheel.
New characters, new drama and new struggles are dealt with as only the cast of OITNB can.
I am sure there is way more crazy, emotional on the prison bus to come. Season 3 of Orange Is The New Black is available on Netflix on your streaming devices and apps. If you have not boarded the train of OITNB crazy from the beginning, definitely binge watch season 1 and 2.
Check out my Twitter list ActorActressModel @she_reads1 to follow some of the cast's tweets.
Check out my Twitter list ActorActressModel @she_reads1 to follow some of the cast's tweets.
Since this is a book blog at the end of the day, I have to stay true to the theme and recommend two books that you may want to check out:
Orange Is The New Black offers much that no show ever has. First, it slams us inside an unseen world – not just a women’s prison but its toilet stalls and secret storerooms. While our guide is the blonde yuppie Piper, we expand to meet Black women, Latina women, a Haitian, lesbians, a transvestite, the poor, and the elderly – all minorities generally sidelined. Now Remember All their Faces offers a guide, not just to characters, but to each one’s deeper significance as we meet Flaca the flirt, Soso the hapless activist, and Janae, who’s learned to keep her head down. The book also analyzes themes from community and corruption to the series’ poignant cry for reform. It unfolds the real facts of federal prison to show where the program exaggerates and where it offers the utter truth.
With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187–424—one of the millions of people who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns to navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of behavior and arbitrary rules. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with small tokens of generosity, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison—why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they’re there.
