Orange is the new Black

[piston]

My beloved and I have purchased Netflix to catch up on the series "Orange is the new Black." If you have not heard, it's about women in jail, not in a max security jail, just in jail.

Let's first get the lesbian thing out of the way: it's a main theme in this whole series but not in any stereotypical way. Lesbians can be conquerors, individuals in need of affection, and even idealists for whom homosexuality and heterosexuality matter not.

Of great interest, of course, is the whole community culture of these incarcerated women, separated, almost by necessity, along racial and generational lines: Latinos, Whites, Blacks, and "golden age" women.

And this community involves, on the other side of the fence, a good many men, some crooked, others women haters, and others, interestingly, trying to fit in somewhere, including in an inmate's genitals.

I'm in awe of the creative thinking, such as an escapee generating so much confusion as to allow another inmate, cancer-struck with five weeks to live, to escape and to kill the original escapee, a psychopath.

There's a lot of thematic revelations here, such as relatives and loved ones who are so self-centered when they meet their jailed counterpart: it's all about themselves and they simply cannot relate with what's going on.

Of course, the underground market is salient because it's so much a source of influence and power. But it's also the source of violence.

Incompetence rules in the jail's administration and, at some point, one wonders why the assistant warden, etc., are not in jail.

Finally, the theme of jail changing you deeply and forever is a powerful magnet.