The highly anticipated second season of "Orange is the New Black" debuts on Netflix tomorrow, and critics are already raving! Keep reading to find out what to expect from your favorite inmates this summer!
Flavorwire writer Pilot Viruet claims "it's safe to say that Season 2 both sticks to the loose formula the show established in Season 1 (a single episode will focus heavily on one inmate and her back story while the overall narrative pushes forward) and has a little fun experimenting."
It starts off with main character Piper Chapman (played by Taylor Schilling) on her way to a Litchfield women's penitentiary's solitary confinement cells, what they call "the SHU" (Special Housing Unit). If you remember, last season ended with her beating drug addict inmate Pennsatucky (played by Taryn Manning), who went after the middle-class blonde at the Christmas pageant.
Chapman goes stir crazy in solitary confinement, even using her breakfast to paint pictures on the wall. The Washington Post's Hank Stuever notes "The solitude is a good opportunity to think about what got her (and us) to this point. Since entering prison as a fragile and fallen Mary Sunshine from gentrified Brooklyn who was busted on a decade-old trafficking charge, Chapman (inmates never go by their first names) has been slowly discovering her inner thug."
With her gone we learn a lot more about the fellow Litchfield inmates. We are said to be shocked by the back stories of new and returning prisoners.
Elsewhere in the season, Viruet explains "Relationships abound in this season: daughters and mothers (biological and surrogate), exes, new lovers, confusing friendships, fuck buddies, and unrequited love. Then there are the power struggles. There is the quick introduction of Vee (Lorraine Toussaint), a conniving prisoner with past ties to both Red (Kate Mulgrew) and Taystee (Danielle Brooks). Vee reminisces about the good old days when the black prisoners ran Litchfield, and she seems hellbent on making that happen again, setting up racial tensions that divide the prison and will surely end in disaster."
The only aspect stems from Larry's (played by Jason Biggs) story line, Chapman's writer fiancé trying to cope back home. We met him and Chapman's friend Polly (played by Maria Dizzia) at the beginning of last season.
Yvonne Villarreal from the LA Times writes The fictional Larry seems created to be the slightly dull, often self-pitying "normal" boyfriend Piper acquired on the rebound from the wild girlfriend (Laura Prepon) who led her into a fancy life of crime. It doesn't help that Schilling has better chemistry with Prepon.
Perhaps that may be the point, to make the outside world seem deluded and insubstantial by comparison to the reality of prison. But the extra labor is hardly necessary.
Are you ready for season 2 of "Orange is the New Black?" Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.