‘This is not how I imagined prison to be at all,” says new inmate Brook Soso (Kimiko Glenn), arriving to serve her sentence in the second season of “Orange Is the New Black.”
You can say that again.
The Netflix prison series is that rare show that entertains us in ways we never imagined. Who among us would think the daily lives and endless nights of a wide-ranging group of female convicts could be so, well, liberating.
Jenji Kohan’s (“Weeds”) comedy-drama, already the most popular series on Netflix, never fails to surprise in just how funny, touching and human its characters are.
The action in Friday’s season premiere picks up in the aftermath of Piper Chapman’s (Taylor Schilling) beat down of fellow inmate Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning). She’s hauled out of solitary and sent on a mysterious plane ride, where an encounter with her ex-lover (Laura Prepon) decides her future. Back at the prison, there’s a mock job fair, where the young inmates are led to believe they are perfecting interviewing skills — for positions that won’t be waiting for them when they are released.
And then there’s the arrival of the sinister Vee (Lorraine Toussaint), a psychotic predator who was a drug den mother to Taystee (Danielle Brooks) on the outside. How she forms her own power base on the inside is the story line to watch this season.
Kohan and her writers keep the dialogue firmly rooted in the vernacular of the characters — to gloriously vulgar effect — and the actors deliver their lines effortlessly, using their bodies as exclamation points. Let’s face it: Words like “vibrant” and “animated” do not describe what the cast on this show does, scene after scene. It’s a mesmerizing free-for-all that makes other TV acting look staid.
In fact, you could fill up all the slots on the Emmy acting ballots with these performers — and still not fit everybody who qualifies. Who ever thought Kate Mulgrew, until now so identified with her role as Capt. Janeway on “Star Trek: Voyager,” would reinvent herself as the wily, tough Russian prisoner, Red? It’s miraculous.
And how did we get so lucky to meet Uzo Aduba, the terrific young actress who plays the damaged, funny and moving Crazy Eyes? If she doesn’t walk away with an Emmy this summer, the members of the television academy should be made to take a hiatus — and a long one — from voting.
“Orange Is the New Black” is a cultural phenomenon and worthy crowd-pleaser — and is the one series everyone should watch this summer.