The Orange clad need revolution


A critically acclaimed Netflix original Orange Is The New Black, starts a conversation we all need to have; most importantly America. The issue in the spotlight is incarceration at the dawn of the show’s first season. It gradually shifts to a holistic view of life for immigrants and minorities in the greatest nation of the world. The treatment that prison inmates across the states receive is unacceptable and there was undoubtedly a need to question the system in place.

One of the first web series to be made, OITNB became the face of not only Netflix but also a larger, more necessary revolution. ‘Incarcerated people deserve the power to exercise their basic rights too.’ As the show progresses, the focus shifts to the stories of more than two dozen women, serving time in a minimum correctional facility. Certain moments throughout the seven seasons stand out to the viewer. They showcase deeper emotions and symbolize greater meaning than you can absorb the first time.

In a particular scene from the last episode of season three, the women escape through the faulty prison perimeter and reach a nearby lake. The scene is a culmination of emotions all of them feel while trapped together. There is an unbreakable bond of friendship, motherhood, sisterhood and romance that comes to project the strength of survival in the worst of conditions. While there is an interaction between the women and their inner selves, there is also a sense of fear in many about the unseen tomorrow.

In the final episode of the next season, the death of an inmate is directed in the best possible way, I have ever seen. The rawness of the whole incident brings you to an intense moment where you question the fundamentals of the prison system. Of how unbelievably unjust the powerful can get. How agency can lead to destruction without realisation. How loss of companionship feels and how one life can begin a rebellion for the better. 

In the tenth episode of the seventh and the last season, an achingly beautiful moment is shared by two inmates, two women that develop a mother- daughter relationship over their years in the same trap. The most painful goodbye across the seven seasons. These are women who have been done wrong and sadly found love and acknowledgement in the most unlikely of places. It is breaking down of the complexities of prison relationships.

The last two seasons deal with troubling issue of immigration and deportation. The entire process is criticized for being too harsh, even inhumane in some cases towards the illegal immigrants waiting to be deported to their home nations. However, the most striking issue is that of rehabilitation into the social structure and how the parole system fails most released inmates. It is constructed in a way that most low income released individuals fail to keep up with and end up back in jail. 

Across varied themes and issues the show comes to show women in their true power and grace. It depicts the human side of criminals and the inhumane conditions they adapt to. It is a voice for so many who are unable to find their own voice. Immigrants, Hispanics, blacks, Asians, the LGBTQ community and the poor have been recognized, their struggles celebrated and lives renewed. Orange indeed revolutionized the world of the incarcerated.

 

 


Comments

  1. My small Town Days11 August, 2020 12:47

    It’s the best show, and I love how the blog talks about various aspects and storylines of the show drawing attention to those issues faced by the inmates in prisons

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

25

At 22, I didn't think I'd be 23 and then I was. At 23, I didn't think I'd be 24 and then I turned 24. At 24 now, I think I'll most definitely not be 25. But, perhaps, I will be.  Along the way, I've lost so much of who I was at 20 that turning 25 doesn't seem so much a celebration. Dreams have slipped by in the chaos of making it through every night. Ambitions left behind in the ache of not having enough strength to wake up. People have come and gone and while there have been fleeting moments of joy, nothing has ever seemed to last.  Those I grew up around tell me, you're not the same anymore. And I look at myself and don't see the spark I held in my eyes. Small joys aren't joys anymore. They're chores. Most of them, I'm unable to complete.  I wrote myself a letter at 18, one I was supposed to read at 25. When I read it, I am certain I won't find the girl whom I wrote it for. People I live around now, tell me, I like to suffer. But I...
Read more

Journal entry 2025

TW- Suicide, anxiety, mental health. A few months ago, I rang up my mother crying, unaware of what that conversation would open up for me. While we were talking, she casually remarked how she had never known me to have cried a lot growing up. A simple observation that didn't seem to strike me for the few seconds and then it did. My mother was unaware of how easily or often I cried growing up. And that opened a Pandora's box of unpleasant memories. It struck me that I had cried almost every day for as long as my memory stood correct and that I had mostly cried before bedtime or after waking up. This meant two things, my immediate family did not always know of the crying and that it was not being triggered by an active element. It was mostly without an argument or fight, without being put in danger or harm's way.  Over the past few years, it is well known among my social circles that I can cry at the drop of a hat. Some people, who've known me for over a couple of years k...
Read more