Orange Is the New Black: Season 2 (2014) [Netflix (HD)]
Comedy | Crime | Dark humor | Drama
Tagline: Every sentence is a story
From the creator of Weeds comes a heartbreaking and hilarious new series set in a women's prison. Based on Piper Kermans acclaimed memoir, Orange Is the New Black follows engaged Brooklynite Piper Chapman, whose wild past comes back to haunt her and
results in her arrest and detention in a federal penitentiary. To pay her debt to society, Piper trades her comfortable New York life for an orange prison jumpsuit and finds unexpected conflict and camaraderie amidst an eccentric group of inmates.
Storyline: The story of Piper Chapman, a woman in her thirties who is sentenced to fifteen months in prison after being convicted of a decade-old crime of transporting money for her drug-dealing girlfriend.
2.01 Thirsty Bird - Piper is awakened in solitary and, without being given any information, is forced to board a bus and a plane to whereabouts unknown. After she lands, and finally realizing she is in Chicago, Piper assumes she has
been transferred for killing Doggett and attempts to adjust to her new surroundings. Following an altercation with other inmates, and later seeing and speaking with Alex, Piper discovers she is in Chicago to testify in the trial of Alex's drug boss, Kubra
Balik, and the stay is temporary. Alex suggests to Piper they lie in court about knowing Kubra, fearing he will exact revenge if they tell the truth. However, Piper wishes to tell the truth. Several flashbacks from Piper's childhood reveal her complicated
past. Piper meets with her lawyer, who strongly advises her to tell the truth. In the van on the way to the trial, Alex pushes one last time for Piper to lie about knowing Kubra, saying she (Alex) will be screwed over if they don't tell the same story.
Piper gives in and perjures herself at the trial. Afterwards, Piper's lawyer washes his hands of her. Alex then informs Piper that although she planned to lie, she told the truth, which complicates matters for Piper, who now faces perjury charges and
additional time. Piper shouts angrily at Alex, who is being led out of prison, ostensibly to be released.
2.02 Looks Blue, Tastes Red - A flashback shows young Taystee—then referred to as Tasha—at a Black Adoption Festival, trying to find a permanent home. She meets a drug dealer who later becomes a mother figure to her. Eventually,
Taystee starts working for her in the drug trade. Pennsatucky is revealed to have survived her fight with Piper, and is released from solitary after a month. She makes a deal with Healy about what she will say about the fight, and in exchange she gets her
teeth fixed. Daya has been constipated for the past five days, and her mother and Mendoza compete to solve the problem. Red's commissary funds run short because she no longer controls the kitchen and cannot aid her outside criminal associates. During a
visit from her son, it is revealed that she has a grandchild. Red is taken in by the older inmates. A mock job fair gives Taystee a chance to show off her business smarts with a Philip Morris representative in a mock interview. She gets the mock job after
Flaca puts her hand on the rep's knee during the interview. At the end of the episode, Taystee's mother figure shows up as a new inmate, Vee.
2.03 Hugs Can Be Deceiving - Piper returns to Litchfield along with an Asian inmate named Soso, whom she comforts until Soso becomes too annoying. Taystee's mother figure Vee returns to disapproval from Taystee, and it is revealed
that Vee and Red know each other from Vee's previous incarceration. Larry meets with a journalist who wants to use Piper as a source for a story about fraud and embezzling by the administration at Litchfield. Daya becomes frustrated with Bennett when he
doesn't know how to smuggle in prenatal vitamins, but he later realizes that his prosthetic leg would work well. In flashbacks, it is shown that Suzanne was always marked as different, and was pushed by her mother to show that she is just as worthy and
talented as others. At her high-school graduation, she is urged to sing during the ceremony, where stage fright leads to an embarrassing outburst, similar to her non-performance at the Christmas pageant. It is discovered that Suzanne became distraught
after the pageant and punched Piper into the snow. This makes the fight between Piper and Pennsatucky look like they were equally responsible. Vee uses Suzanne's outcast desperation to manipulate her, and begins her bid to take back power in the prison.
2.04 A Whole Other Hole - Boo and Nicky engage in a contest to see who can sleep with the most women in jail. Vee offers to help Poussey sell her hooch to other inmates. Poussey declines. Red starts a garden as a cover to move
contraband into the prison herself. Larry and Polly begin to bond more as Polly's husband is away on business. Lorna finds out that her love, Christopher, is marrying another woman. While driving Rosa to cancer treatments, Lorna breaks into Christopher's
home, dons a wedding veil found there, and takes a relaxing bath, nearly getting caught when he comes home. Flashbacks show Lorna's past as a scam artist and reveal that Christopher was never her fiancé, but a man she stalked after a single date, leaving
threatening messages and trying to put a bomb in the car of his actual girlfriend.
2.05 Low Self Esteem City - The bathroom that Gloria and her girls use has plumbing problems and feces coming out of the shower drains. Vee's posse go head to head against Gloria's Latinas when they infiltrate the Ghetto bathroom.
Fig, the assistant warden, refuses to fix the Latina showers due to budget problems, and limits the shower time to 30 seconds as a fix. As tensions rise between the blacks and the Latinas, Vee and Gloria make a deal in order to calm things down.
Meanwhile, Cal and Piper's mom visit Piper in the prison and inform her that the reason her father hasn't come to visit is because her grandmother is dying. Piper is devastated, and asks Healy for a furlough. Boo and Nicky continue their contest over who
can score the most points with their sexual conquests. While Boo goes after the "small pointers", Nicky spends her time trying to bed Fischer, one of the prison guards, to no avail. In flashbacks, it is revealed that Gloria was a victim of domestic
violence, and that she was arrested for committing fraud with food stamps traded at the store she runs.
2.06 You Also Have a Pizza - Love is in the air as the inmates prepare for a Valentine's Day party. Red begins importing items through the pothole in the greenhouse with the help of her son, Vitaly. Larry asks Piper to be his prison
mole so that he can write articles about the prison's finances. Piper begins questioning prisoners and guards to find out more about where the prison's budget money is really going. Flashbacks detail Poussey's romantic history with another girl whilst
living on an army base in Germany. The girl's father discovers the two making love, and uses his power to send Poussey's family back to the United States. Whilst confronting her girlfriend's father, Poussey is ready to pull out a gun and attack him, but
her own father intervenes before the gun is revealed. At the Valentine's Party held at Litchfield, Pennsatucky is outlawed from her former group of friends by Leanne. Poussey and Taystee argue. Flaca and Maritza share an intimate moment in the kitchen.
Pennsatucky and Healy also share a moment outside of the prison. Larry goes over to Polly's with all of Piper's things, and he and Polly share a kiss, right before Pete returns home from his trip. Caputo invites Fischer to come see his band perform in a
local bar, however she invites Luschek, Bell and O'Neill to come, too. Later, as Caputo performs with the band, he notices that Jimmy, an elderly inmate suffering from dementia, has escaped from the prison and is sitting in the bar listening to the music.
2.07 Comic Sans - Due to Jimmy's escape, Caputo demands that the correctional officers and guards start monitoring the inmates more closely, and imposes a minimum quota for shots written. Flashbacks show Black Cindy as an airport
security guard prior to her arrest. She is shown searching through people's bags, and she steals an iPad for her sister's birthday (later revealed to be her biological daughter). Taystee gives Nicky a cigarette in exchange for postage stamps for Vee. Red
smuggles in estrogen pills for Sophia. The Spanish girls continue to request contraband from Bennett. Sick of being taken advantage of, he threatens them with shots, much to Daya's dismay. Vee's girls continue to exchange cigarettes for contraband and
favors from various other inmates. Daya, Flaca, and Morello all ask Chapman if they can help with the newsletter. Poussey refuses to involve herself in Vee's business, but Nicky encourages her to get on Vee's good side. Polly comes over to Larry's house
in an emotional outrage, and the two have sex. Cavanaugh is released from prison, supposedly on compassionate grounds. It is suggested that she will be left out on the streets to die.
2.08 Appropriately Sized Pots - Piper faces a new backlash over special privileges; Caputo feels pressure to toughen up, resulting in administrative changes.
2.09 40 OZ of Furlough - Piper's relationship with Larry faces a real-world test when Piper returns home on furlough. Larry admits to Piper that he slept with someone else. Piper attends her grandmother's funeral, which turns into
her brother's wedding. Red's efforts to redeem herself in the eyes of her former posse are finally rewarded. The history of Red and Vee's relationship at Litchfield is explored through a series of flashbacks: the last flashback revealed that Vee had taken
control of the black inmates, intending to usurp Red's kitchen smuggling enterprise, ending with Vee's posse brutally beating Red. Corrections Officer Mendez (a.k.a. Pornstache) returns to Litchfield. Bennett reveals to Caputo that Daya is pregnant, and
suggests that Mendez must be the father.
2.10 Little Mustachioed Shit - The guards get tougher in a bid to turn up prison contraband. Daya's pregnancy is revealed. Mendez is fired and arrested because he is believed to be the father. More history of Alex and Piper's
relationship is explored in flashbacks. Piper figures out that Larry and Polly slept together. Vee tries to join Red's business in the garden.
2.11 Take a Break from Your Values - Piper finally reaches out to Alex and learns that Kubra wasn't convicted. Piper is told she is being transferred to Virginia. Soso's hunger strike attracts new support that takes on a religious
fervor. Polly leaves Pete for Larry. Healy starts a counseling group, Safe Place. The jail newspaper is shut down. Sister Ingalls joins the hunger strike.
2.12 It Was the Change - Vee's and Red's rivalry continues with several confrontations regarding their competing business ventures inside the jail. The inmates at Litchfield are forced to leave their bunks and sleep in the mess hall
as the storm floods the plumbing system. Red and her gang are concerned about being attacked during the night; on the other side of the hall Vee also warns her posse about Red. As the night continues, Lorna shares an intimate moment with a dying Rosa and
Pennsatucky becomes close to Big Boo in an attempt to uncover details about their 'gay agenda' that Healy had described to her. Figueroa receives multiple angry calls from Caputo and discovers an uncomfortable truth about her husband. Back at Litchfield,
Red attacks Vee while they are alone outside, attempting to strangle her with a piece of plastic wrap. Red can't find it in herself to murder Vee and spares her. The two agree that Litchfield has changed them and they shake hands on a truce. At the end of
the night, Piper escapes the mess hall to find evidence of Figueroa's fraud in her office but is caught by Caputo when the power comes back on. The next morning, while Red is cleaning up the mess made by the storm, she is attacked from behind by Vee and
viciously beaten.
2.13 We Have Manners. We're Polite. - Vee's family breaks apart and turns on her after Nichols's theft of her stash of heroin causes Vee to become paranoid and after Vee tries to get Suzanne to take the fall for Vee's assault on Red.
Chapman reveals Figueroa's embezzlement to Caputo, who reports it to the warden and confronts Figueroa. Figueroa's attempt to buy Caputo's silence by performing oral sex on him is to no avail, and she resigns. Caputo's new role as interim deputy warden
gets off to a shaky start when Bennett confesses to him that he impregnated Daya; Caputo suppresses the confession in order to avoid a scandal for the new administration. Sister Ingalls ends her hunger strike after Red talks to Healy, and Healy gets
Luschek to sign a fake work order to exonerate Suzanne and turn the focus of the investigation back on Vee. Vee, alone and friendless now, escapes from prison via Red's greenhouse storm drain pipe. Rosa is told by her doctor that the chemo is not working
and that she has only 3-6 weeks left to live. Morello intentionally leaves the keys in the van with Rosa, who takes the vehicle and flees the prison in order to taste freedom in the last few days of her life. She spies Vee by the side of the road and
intentionally runs her down with the van as Don't Fear the Reaper plays on the radio. ------------------------------
Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, May 12, 2014 -- What's Jenji Kohan been smoking recently? The force behind the long running Weeds, a series which saw its heroine do a bit of jail time here and there, has now
moved on to Orange is the New Black, a series built entirely around a young, well to do woman ending up in the pen due to a long ago peccadillo. Based on the bestselling memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper
Kerman, the series attempts to forge the same combination of wry humor and convoluted interpersonal relationships that made Weeds so successful. Judging by this first season, Kohan doesn't quite have her mojo working for her, at least in the early
going, but the good news is the series gets markedly better as it goes along. Part of the problem is a structural artifice that sees the show repeatedly cutting away from the prison saga to offer background vignettes about various characters. The creative
team attempts to knit these segues together smartly, but it's an inherently disruptive approach and one which tends to hobble the narrative arc of the piece. The humor in Orange is the New Black is also (perhaps unimaginably) even drier than
Weeds, to the point that some viewers may be wondering if the show is indeed a comedy. It's ironic that President Obama brought the house down at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner with a joke about how the recalcitrant Republicans had
turned on John Boehner, treating him even worse than they have been treating Obama, with Obama scoring big time with the punchline, "I guess orange really is the new black." There's nothing quite as raucously in your face like that going on in the series,
but there's a certain undercurrent of uncomfortableness that may appeal to those who like their humor on the low key and often awkward side of things.
Weeds' Nancy Botwin was a character who at least seemed to always be in control, her mental wheels cogitating all sorts of simultaneously possible outcomes in the hopes she could navigate the treacherous waters of her lifestyle. Of course,
it was all an illusion, as Kohan and her writing team repeatedly demonstrated throughout that show's long and healthy run. With the slightly renamed Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), Kohan is dealing with a character who has absolutely no control
over virtually every aspect of her life, once she's found guilty of an almost forgotten about money running scheme when Piper was a closeted lesbian in the throes of a hot and heavy relationship with drug dealer Alex Vause (Laura Prepon).
Kohan plays with time repeatedly from the first episode of Orange is the New Black, contrasting Piper's regimented and often threatened existence at the penitentiary with several flashback anecdotes capturing her at various points leading up to her
present sad state of affairs. We're introduced to her boyfriend and ultimately fiancé Larry Bloom (Jason Biggs), a seemingly nice, normal Jewish guy who calls Piper his shiksa and who rather amazingly doesn't freak out when he finds out about
Piper's somewhat questionable past. We also meet Piper's super WASP-y family, who react with typically patrician reserve when they hear of her predicament, offering little bon mots like, "Was that when you were a lesbian?"
The problem with this approach is that it takes several episodes to meet and get to know the main cast of characters, both inside the penitentiary and to a somewhat lesser extent outside. The opening three or so episodes feel anecdotal rather than
organic, though things perk up rather quickly once Alex shows up at the same prison (she's been there all along, simply waiting for the suitably chaotic moment in Piper's life to make her new entrance). The best part of the opening set of episodes is
probably the introduction and development of Red (Kate Mulgrew), a seemingly hard hearted and ruthless bitch of a woman who is in charge of the kitchen. When Piper makes an ill advised complaint about the food in front of Red, lines are drawn and some
unorthodox "food" is served. Mulgrew is absolutely riveting in this completely de-glammed, kind of smarmy but resilient, characterization.
Kohan and the writing team slowly but surely introduce the little groups that make up the strata of cultures in the prison, and critical mass is when we've finally gotten a handle on some of the intrigue surrounding Piper's cellmate Miss Claudette
(Michelle Hurst). While Kohan's kind of quasi- Lost ping ponging between "before and after" doesn't always work (and is in fact perhaps a dramatic miscalculation at least some of the time), in Claudette's story there's a clear connection between
traumatic past events and present day behaviors.
In other ways, Kohan tends to try to make Orange is the New Black fit into some kind of preordained niche that it really isn't meant to. A number of times overly dramatic situations break out, including a late developing arc involving Red and her
hold on both staff and inmates, as well as Piper supposedly coming into her own as a force to be reckoned with. This kind of trite approach may have passing visceral impact and adrenaline raising potential, but it doesn't augur especially well for a more
convincing examination, humorous or otherwise, of Piper's crumbling world.
Kohan's slightly skewed sense of humor can be an acquired taste. I know people who think Weeds is one of the greatest shows in recent television history, and others who find it impossibly self-conscious and precious. Those two groups will probably
feel pretty much the same about Orange is the New Black, but here there's an additional issue with the storytelling style, which tries to do too much in the early going, threatening to disenchant viewers. Those with a little patience will find the
series getting more interesting—and maybe even more darkly funny—once the main characters have been introduced and at least the outlines of their backstories depicted. Orange is the New Black feels like it's still finding its thong-laden feet in
this first season, but considering the fact that the real life Kerman didn't spend that much longer than a year in prison to begin with, Death Row may come for this series sooner rather than later. While not perfectly executed (to continue with our prison
analogies), Orange is the New Black generates enough interest off of its motley crew of characters, brought vividly to life by a great cast, to come Recommended.
[CSW] -2.8- I agree with this reviewer:
I can see why the show garnered such critical acclaim, but it is not for the faint of heart. It’s an unvarnished look into the realities of prison life, some of it sordid, sometimes surprisingly moving, emotionally wrenching, but always
absolutely riveting. Appallingly foul language, explicit sexual material and human nature stripped raw, but with just enough moments of genuine laughter and heart to prevent it from being unbearably depressing. Believe it or not, there’s a sweetly
romantic scene involving chewing tobacco. Full of carefully curated windows into the lives of the inmates, guards, and loved ones on the outside, it forces you to see them not as just fictional paper dolls, but as real people whose stories resonate with
the viewer, whether you want them to or not. And Captain Janeway, how you’ve changed! Kate Mulgrew plays Red, the iron Russian chatelaine of the prison kitchen in a magnificent, charged performance. The writing showcases an infinite spectrum of humanity
and like the terracotta soldiers guarding the emperor's tomb, every one drawn in precise detail but each totally unique. You might not like them all, but you've got to admire the craftsmanship. Enlightening and surprisingly profound, a real slice-of-life
exposé that will leave you changed in some indefinable way. Acts of basic kindness and compassion abut petty cruelty and malicious tyranny, with the narrative pulling no punches. 'Orange is the New Black' is a human petri dish dumped into a crucible but
in spite of all the gritty darkness, there’s some deliciously twisted humor. "
Streamed Netflix (HD) -- [V4.0-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.
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