From a queer minority feminist perspective Orange is the New Black is the best show out there right now.

I will agree freely with this - it's noteworthy just how un-Mayberry the storylines and characters are. It had not occurred to me that this is a reason to celebrate the show, but you're right, it is.

For these reasons, I love Orange is the New Black. But, good things don't last.

You are correct - we aren't to the end of S2. I have noticed, however, that I cared for the characters in S1. There were heroes and villains, and heroic villains and villainous heroes. In S2 I wish for them all to be hit by a truck. Commander Janeway is the only one I give the first fuck about, and that's because S1 was long enough ago that I forgot what a bitch she was.

I view the show as very important - it's too bad it's not on cable but it would never get on cable I don't think.

The same was said about Philadelphia - about f'n time Hollywood made a movie about AIDS, but why did it have to be such a "Compleat Idiot's guide to HIV" Kapra-esque primer? And that's my beef with New Black - okay, women's prison. Oz for girls. There are things worth discussing, no doubt, but I've known a few kidz to spend time in the federal pen and their stories aren't nearly so trite.

I get a real Diablo Cody vibe from New Black - "Hey, peeps - I'm slumming doing this disreputable job so that I can blog about it, shower me with praise for presenting a tidy, bow-wrapped vision of that thing you feel guilty about." That may be unfair but I got really bored with Weeds halfway through Season 2 as well, so maybe it's a showrunner problem.

KB, do you think the thesis of Orange is the New Black could be that prison makes people into animals?

No. Here's the basic story arc of any given New Black episode:

A) inter-prisoner drama that focuses on a prisoner in particular.

B) flashback to that prisoner's life before they were a prisoner.

C) Complication in which that particular prisoner is faced with a choice.

D) Flashback to that prisoner facing a similar choice before they were a prisoner.

E) Prisoner makes the wrong choice and fucks someone else over, blowback to follow next episode

F) Flashback to that prisoner making a similar poor choice, landing them in prison

New Black is determinist as fuck. It basically says we're all chained to the wheel of karma with no hope of escape because humans don't actually have free will.