Prison drama Orange Is the New Black concluded its first season with heroine Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) brutally beating rival inmate and God-fearing meth addict, Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning). The new season picks up a few weeks later, as Piper is released from solitary confinement and transported to an unknown facility. The audience is introduced to a whole new cast of inmates, along with Yoda, the star of a fleet of messenger cockroaches. Instead of the familiar cast members, the focus is almost entirely on Piper, as she is hauled from her bunk with no explanation. The authentically sinister opening sequence places the viewer in the same disoriented position as Piper, who, despite being posed as the series’ protagonist, has been consistently presented as one of the least sympathetic characters. In her eyes, nothing is her fault, and she is always the victim. However, throughout the season opener, directed by Jodie Foster, viewers are compelled to empathise with Piper, as she undergoes another dislocation and a cutting betrayal.
The series continues to poke fun at Piper’s privilege; we see her struggling to make her own bed, as one of her new cellmates exclaims, “You’re Lindsay Lohan!”. In season one, the series seemed to be undecided about whether Piper really “deserved” to be in prison, or whether she was an innocent victim of infatuation. Following her attack on Pennsatucky, Piper appears to have undergone a transformation, and this episode makes clear that she has become darker, bolder and more willing to ignore the law. As Larry’s father tells her, “You live on a slippery slope and, for some reason, you can’t can’t stop doing raindances.” The episode also resets the relationship between Piper and Alex Vause (Laura Prepon), leaving them in much the same position they were in at the beginning of season one (Prepon is unfortunately set to appear in just three episodes this season, but will return as a regular cast member in season three). OITNB is above all a brilliant character study, and the rich white girl is undoubtedly the least interesting of the characters. Alex’s absence will surely facilitate a deeper exploration of the backstories of Piper’s fellow inmates, as is evidenced in episode two.
After a somewhat slow opener, “Looks Blue, Tastes Red” provides a return to form, as the inmates at Litchfield Correctional Facility take part in a mock job fair and we learn more about Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson (Danielle Brooks). We see a young Taystee trying unsuccessfully to impress prospective parents at the “Black Adoption Fair”, before she meets Vee (the formidable Lorraine Toussaint), a powerful drug dealer who recruits kids as drug runners. Despite anxious first impressions, the episode offers a moving study of family structures, revealing how family groups that look dangerous or dysfunctional on the surface can offer greater nurturing and support than the traditional nuclear family. Vee assures Taystee, “I got you now. I protect my babies.” The episode also explores class and racial disparities, as Vee tells an aspirational Taystee, “You’re from this hood, you don’t get a career — you get a job.”
The series continues to draw audiences into a far more diverse world than is usually presented on screens, filled with women of all ages, races, classes, body shapes and sexual orientations. These are women often neglected by society, and OITNB refuses to dismiss them. In addition to continuing the series’ project of better representation of minorities on television, both episodes contain excellent comic moments, particularly in episode two, when Larry’s dad attempts to persuade his son to start dating again in the unlikely location of a gay bath house: “It’s a nice place, clean. Hey, a schvitz is a schvitz … and I had a Groupon.” If you loved the first season, there is nothing in these two episodes to indicate that you won’t love the second just as much, if not more.
All 13 episodes of Orange Is the New Black will be available on Netflix at 8am on June 6.
