Jen's Netflix Review - Orange Is The New Black ALL SEASON (1-5)

One of the reasons I have been quite slow in Steemit lately apart from busy with my new role is having been busy binge- watching Netflix-- LOL. Orange Is The New Black (OITNB) is the craziest binge-watch (as to date) that I have done where I think I lost my entire 2 weeks just to catch-up. I know it is kind of warm now but I just finished watching it and I am sure a lot people especially outside the U.S still haven't heard of it.

If you a fan of this series, maybe we can exchange our thoughts in the comment

How I started to watch OINTB

On a one fine day of lounging on the couch selecting TV channel to watch, boredom just strike as nothing interesting was shown on the TV. Little voice inside me asked to change to Netflix, so I did. At some point in time, while trying to find good movies, I saw the ads of OITNB and my mind just said hey ' I think I heard about this Orange show, OK, MAYBE I just watch episode one only'.

Fast forward..... The rest was history. One word:

'HOOKED'.

OINTB General Facts

If you are not familiar with OITNB, this is the general facts of what the series is all about

• The show started in 2011 and at season one it was renewed by Netflix until Season 7.
• The show is about the life of Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) in prison that then continue to expand to the life of other prison mates
• Currently, the date for Season 6 is scheduled to release in June.
• It is based on a real story of Piper Kerman which wrote a memoir about herself in prison
• Jodi Foster directed 2 episodes of this show
• Jenji Kohan is the producer of OITNB that also produce Netflix popular series 'Weeds'
• The series is classified as both a drama and a comedy.
• There's too many actors and actresses with the majority of them is actresses-- women's prison hehe
• The show tackles many issues as it progresses. Just to name a few, Black lives matters, LBGT, mental health, family relationship, prison discrimination, slavery, injustice, corporate greed, politician and many many others which I can go on for days.

What to have/expect when watching this series

• Keep an open mind, this drama takes you to the ugly truth, silent-truth where nobody likes to talk, nobody likes to go and ignore.
• Lezzies (that's for lesbian or lesbionic as one of the characters points out) activities is out of hand in this one. One must be ready for what Netflix is for-- UNCENSORED. Straight sex? of course they have.
• Be ready to get hooked.
• EEwwweeeyyy guweeeeyy yikes moment. At some point in time, vomiting, faeces and everything nasty just comes up so sudden you can't put your plate down in time (real story)

Review of OINTB

Overall: Bigger than lesbian love story

OITNB is bigger than Lesbian love and inmates stories. It is built to show people how issues in real life are dealt with.
Personally, it brings awareness in an entertaining and creepy way sometimes. The show proved that it can be funny and serious at the same time. How? Among various issues tackled in this series, I'll point a few notable ones.

The escapism of wealthy daughter from family expectation to Heroin. Sounds like just a spoilt brat but drilling down to details, you will feel the empathy to those who do drugs. And then there's a transgender dad who loves his kid but no longer received any respect from his kid after he performed surgery. And then come this Celebrity whose been sentenced to prison but was separated from other inmates to get her special treatment-- sound like someone we know?.
Finally, there's this very moving story of a good lady who accidentally killed a kid after mistaken the kid to a deer trespassing on her property.

Promising actress and actor

There are a lot of new promising actress/actors coming out of it. There's this Nigerian Uzo Udoba who won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress as Crazy Eyes in OINTB. Uzo is just outstanding in OITNB. It was said that she auditioned for most of the lead roles before landing her character.

One other great actor is Pablo Schriber as 'Pornstache'. He is the guard in the prison. Pablo brings clear intimidating guard who is full of himself. Pablo is very creepy when in his character and you can hate him because he is too good. I remember him as a sexual predator in Law and Order where he put Olivia Benson to hell. In OINTB we were not given a lot of him but when he acts, you can see how convincing he is where you maybe run away from him if you see him at a street somewhere. I got the best scene from Pablo, see the video! see how he carry his role. The show misses him by the way.

Finally, there's this Piper and her sexy badass girlfriend Alex Vausse

Source

I just loved both of these characters. They are like can't-live-with-you-and-can't-live-without-you-either relationship. They bring unending drama to the series and as the plot grow, you can see the ugliness and the goodness of their characters. Both of these characters creates heavy fanbase on the net. Alex Vausse played by Laura Prepon is a seasoned TV actress known way back in 'That 70's Show' alongside darling Ashton Kutcher. Laura just destined with her character and the chemistry with Taylor Schilling (Piper Chapman) is a huge plus one for the series. It is not everyday chemistry can be created where your first scene is having a lesbian shower together. As the case of Taylor Schilling, she played this uptight, on-and-off morally-inclined person that have a questionable behavior to be in power. Piper character is not and easy to act where she constantly played this emotional girlfriend, good-turns-bad daughter, unstable fiance, power-driven inmates and a lot more of her.

A That love-me-and-hate-me relationship that plays a huge role in OINTB

This is the favorite scene of Laura Prepon, dryer scene.

Funny scenes

This is just a few scenes of funny moments in OITNB. Enjoy!!! tell me if it's not funny enough lol

Some background: Sister Ingal is trying to get to MAX facility (a punishment facility for inmate)

Some background: Laverne Cox give anatomy lesson to inmate

Some background: Audition for a show for Christmas

Downside

No story is good all the way and this is no exception for OITNB. With too many characters come too many backstories. The viewers are educated with what happened before the inmates were sentenced to prison. This is done in an incomplete way meaning the story is continuous. Up until season 5, it is still not clear why some of the inmates are in jail that sums up the slowness of the process.

Season 3 was the most boring season of all time. With no strong antagonist, the season can be a cut-off binge-watch for some people. The character of Vee played by Yvonne Parker is killing the whole season not because she can't act but because the whole story was a bit dull. According to Jenji Kohan, she loses a lot of writers and get the writer that looks at the story from the angle of viewers-- not as writers. Well, I can accept that because I know creative process is not easy

Some conclusion

Anyway, I am looking forward to what season 6 has to offer. The show is a great addition to real life story. Watching Netflix can be very mindblowing in term of the genre. I recently watched few episodes of 'Black Mirror' and I can say that my brain exploded (yes) because I can't brain the whole idea of it. This series, however, depicted real-life scenario of diverse people sharing their stories for the world to understand. At the end of season 5, where the prison riot happened, there comes a lot of moving scene of survival and friendship.

Take care Steemians!

Jen.

P/S: I blogged about other stuff too!

• Jen's Movie Review- Ready Player One
• Jen's Travelogue - Cappadocia, The Land of The Beautiful Horses [Part 2]