I finished ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK last night. Sort of. It was playing in the periphery while I was working because I couldn't not be watching but I really needed to be working. So I probably have to re-watch the last couple episodes, but I get the general idea. And now I need to talk about it.
As you do.
See, I don't know how to feel quite yet. I'm not quite sure. I feel a little bit like Piper; dazed and blank and kind of apathetic.
Here's my unpopular opinion: I don't think Alex and Piper are soul mates. I don't even think they're particularly good for each other. I don't think Piper is her TRUE self with Alex, and some weirdo wasp actress with Larry. I don't think Piper really cares about Alex, really. I am still more interested in Piper and Larry's relationship than a future where Piper and Alex live happily ever after. And it's because with Alex, Piper seems to get lost. When they're together, I know nothing about Piper other than that Alex likes her so much. With Larry Piper has dimension and desires and an end game. Piper has an identity with Larry, independent of Larry. With Alex, Piper's identity pretty much seems to be Alex's Ex-Girlfriend, and/or Girl Loved By Alex. She gets this blank look around Alex; I don't know. Maybe I'm reading this completely wrong. Everyone else seems to disagree (except for Rosey).
Putting Larry and Alex in the same room in a conversation was a brilliant move. And I love how flawed and fucked up all three of them are - and how Alex and Larry blame it all on Piper, because Piper is the one who is not co-dependent. Larry using her situation to get his career back on track was totally icky, especially since he was presenting as if he was in this committed long distance relationship, while simultaneously ignoring her. Alex pulled Piper into drug dealing (she did - the flash back scene in the hotel room where Alex is super stressed out and asks if Piper will be her drug mule again - she had no qualms about using her in her business. That's not loving, that's taking advantage of a 20 something naive sheltered college graduate who wants to be dangerous, and important to the person she loves. Alex should have kept her out of it, if she really cared about her). And then she ratted her out. I fail to see how Piper making the decision to end a relationship and sticking to it (which was a healthy decision) is worse or even comparable to Alex PUTTING HER IN JAIL.
Yeah I know Piper made her own decisions. She deserves to be in jail, I'm not disputing that. But that doesn't change the fact that Alex's decisions put her there.
Jason Biggs' performance during their break-up phone call was heart breaking. I really think he's not getting enough credit for his performance - he's doing pretty amazing things with not great material. He's definitely getting ignored in favor of the ladies, and I think that's a shame. I love lesbians, but I'd like this to be at least a somewhat equal opportunities show. Larry and Piper's brother are amazing, I love their dynamic, and I think Larry is a legitimately interesting character. I'd like to see him more fleshed out, beyond his stereotypically Jewish parents. I also think the male COs (Pornstache, Mr. Healey, that other guy) are completely one dimensional. Even Bennet is pathetic and pretty mean. Can we spend some time on developing male characters? I like some of these guys, I think they're interesting. I'd like the show to treat them that way (especially Larry. I'm biased, I like him so much. And really, Piper's brother, who is just really really awesome).
And honestly? I really like Larry and Piper's relationship. I think it's real and true and I'd hate for it to get upstaged in favor of the bad boy, ahem girl, Alex. I just don't find that relationship to be as interesting in the present, truly. The flashbacks are great, but I'm just not that interested in their relationship moving forward - Piper moved on from Alex a long time ago. Their relationship in the present feels like a big step back for her. A necessary step back while she re-evaluates herself and her life, but still a step back. Two steps forward, one step back.
Every character on the show is limited and defined by where they came from, by their experiences and their past. Larry is a male, straight Jew, and you see him being that person in scenes with his parents, you see what made him and why he is. Alex is a lesbian drug dealer, and you see her becoming that person in the flashbacks with her parents, you see where she came from and her limited options and support. You see Miss Claudette as a teenager being entered into human trafficking, and as an adult following the path set before her, just trying to protect her girls. All the inmates (and the other characters to a certain extent, although we don't get the same level of insight that flashbacks provide into their worlds) are "forced" to be the people they are through their situations. They occasionally break out of those boxes - Crazy Eyes is a great example, she's a bunch of different cliches and surprises all rolled up into a nutso mess. But for the most part the way characters act, the way they see the world, the way they interact with and are perceived by other characters are predetermined - they appear to have little choice in their identities.
All except Piper. Who just drifts around.
She is privileged and white, and so did not experience the same limitations of poverty, racism, or lack of education. Less limitations, less parameters, means less definition. After all, a definition is really just a relationship; something is because it is not something else (semiotics, y'all). Piper could be who she wanted to be. Her only label was WASP, which is probably a big reason she started dating Alex. And now, cut off from the world she though she wanted (but maybe doesn't anymore?), she is the least defined of the inmates, of any of the characters on the show. She doesn't know who she is anymore. She's wandering around trying to figure it out, trying on different personas (and different people). She's lost her identity.
So maybe the point is: Who are you?
What defines you? What limits you? Is it possible to answer these questions cleanly?
It's like Piper is the contrast to all the other characters, showing someone who doesn't have a box, who broke the box and walked away, and therefore doesn't really have an identity. Unlike the other inmates she has more choice (duty, labor) in defining herself. In how she behaves. In who she loves. But her existence also challenges all the other characters on the show, who behave as if they are who they are inevitably. They're not. Piper's experience exposes the "inevitable" experiences of the other inmates to be just what they are: the path that each of them chose. A life is a series of choices, and no one is forcing you to make those decisions. No one is forcing you to be who you are. Identity is NOT inevitable, as much as we tell ourselves it is, as much as we want to believe that there is a true, authentic, real You just waiting to be discovered. There is no perfectly formed You, there is just the self you build through actions, one at a time, bit by bit. And there are no excuses.
That's the great thing about this show. It highlights the corrupt system, the stacked deck, the underdogs. But it doesn't let them off the hook.
***
The other thing I love about this show is just that it's a place for GREAT actresses who would never be cast in such large roles on television. And I'm a tiny bit hopeful this show will help push these types of women into shows not set in a prison, into roles that are not delinquent. And don't even get me started about what a huge deal Laverne Cox is, the transexual actress who plays the transexual character Sophia. These are pretty amazing, wonderful things. If for no other reason, this visibility of unusual characters and actresses makes ORANGE incredible important. Just saying.
Agree, agree, agree.
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