Well when you write it all down like that, yeah I guess you're right. Maybe it's because there wasn't one immediate ending scene, like the screwdriver fight or Rosa's hit and run. It was nice to see everyone actually enjoying themselves for a change Nicky had better be back next season!
That is the same reaction one of my friend's gave me when I told him that I've never seen The Matrix. I've only seen The Phantom Menace.
That's like saying that I think that bikes are stupid, because I only rode that one without a seat once. Star Wars is a creature of it's time, and you should have watched it in it's time. Oh? This is the third age of Star Wars? You can actually host a Star Wars party for your friends, and watch a couple movies while getting a little tipsy and hanging out, outside on the patio with the cool people who still like to smoke.
I never said Star Wars was stupid. I have seen bits and pieces of the first one and The Clone Wars but I could never get into them.
I don't need cliffhangers, and I'm glad this season didn't have one. I enjoyed the small stories. It's prison, not Hoth. I was happy with the character development and overall powerlessness of both staff and prisoners under the system. That powerlessness lent its own weight to the story. The lack of Nicky was BAD. I asked in the other thread, and yes I will now go back and read more of this one.. was there a RL reason for it? Because Nicky was quite the bright light and losing her like that took something away from Orange this season. And no, Morello without makeup didn't make up for it.
I think Natasha Lyonne has been really busy with other projects so that might be the reason, and yes it was a huge loss to this season.
He's Guy Gardener. He's a Kiwi, I think, and he says crazy things. The scary thing is that even when he sounds crazy, they still make sense sometimes.
(Through episode 9) They're making Piper into a real scumbag this season. Spoiler: episode 9 Making her brother party to a criminal conspiracy, getting somebody thrown back in prison so she can start banging her again then kissing someone else. A majority of the cast is a lot more sympathetic than Piper this season, which is kind of hilarious as she was originally the character the audience was meant to identify with. I wonder how hard Piper Kerman is laughing when she sees this.
I actually didn't mind Piper this season and SHOCKINGLY I liked Alex who I have disliked greatly and found unpleasant to look at in previous seasons. Both of them looked a little bedraggled this season and Alex seemed to develop more personality than just smugness so they improved. Ruby Rose: Totally over rated. Poor actor, very unnuanced, meh. Only personality trait, attitude and an accent.
I've always disliked Alex too but even I felt a little sorry for her because of Piper's behaviour. Stella was a complete waste of a character.
I think the reason the first two seasons worked well was that they had a good balance of satire and oversexed melodrama. This season has shifted the balance to almost exclusively oversexed melodrama, which has become super-hyper-oversexed. If I want to watch soft lesbian prison porn I can get that without the thirty hour backstory. Also I would rather see Piper take less of a role in the show but still be the yuppie out of her element than the weird hedonistic risk junkie she is this season. I'm just not believing the transition. I like the way Soso spends all this time lamenting her loneliness, then the moment somebody reaches out to her emotionally she laughs at her for being Amish. Yeah, maybe the reason you don't have friends has nothing to do with being half Asian.
I think watching Piper with Alex this season it finally dawned on me that Piper is truly a nasty shallow self absorbed head case. As in, ANYWHERE not just because her mommy is mean and she's in prison. She simultaneously became more watchable and unwatchable
"You hold them cheap, his cliffs of fall, you who have not hung there." Piper's as much a product of her environment as the others. Jenji spoiled us on a panel 1-2 years ago when someone asked why Piper has to be so whiney and she answered, "Why can't she be whiney?" I think since Piper was supposed to be our avatar into an unknown world, we want to see her survive, improve, succeed since that's what we hope for ourselves in any situation. But I suspect Jenji has something else in mind for Piper Chapman. I think she is going to use her as an example of the unwanted consequences society can get from incarceration. A woman who was self absorbed but not a risk to society before her incarceration, has turned into a woman who has all the worst aspects of her personality blossom and who comes out (?) a definite detriment to society. If she comes out at all. Her "its not hurting anyone side business" could land the young correction officer, not to mention her brother and sister in law in jail too, but that's secondary to her need for a nest egg when she gets out in 5 months. As for Alex, to me she's less of an irritant this year because she isn't doing everything she accused Piper of doing in the first season. She's more a victim than a bitch this season and she comes to a self awareness of that when she stops herself from beating Lolly into a pulp.
Okay, they could really dial back the sexuality a bit. They ran to the point of diminishing returns, then ran right past it, up to the cliff of egregious exploitation, then kept running like Wile E Coyote. I'm all for the amount of sexuality needed to express the story but this season goes well beyond that point to the point where it's just plain annoying.
I remember reading a quote from the show creator that she basically likes to include nudity and sex just for the sake of nudity and sex, even if it isn't necessary for the story. Ever since then I've had a little less respect for her and OITNB. The nudity and sex doesn't bother me, but to have it thrown in just because? It gets annoying. I think I've watched 7 or 8 episodes now. I think that season 1 will always be the best, but right now this season is about tied with season 2. We'll see how the rest of it goes. I wish they would give more backstory on these folks. The flashbacks never seem quite fulfilling enough, they should be longer and/or more frequent. Maybe I'm just spoiled because I'm rewatching Lost right now.
Season 2 is the best IMO. I like it better than season 1 because it focuses less on Piper and has a more compelling villain. If in the scene, it makes sense for characters to be naked or having sex, I'm all for it. Just when it's obviously thrown in just to titillate me, it just kind of gets in the way.