Murtz On The Scene: Exclusive Interview With Orange Is The New Black‘s Uzo Aduba & Taylor Schilling

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TORONTO – Every so often, a show comes around that redefines the way television is made and the way that television is watched.

Survivor popularized reality television for a primetime audience.

Lost introduced the concept of the serialized flashback, and had viewers entranced every week during its remarkable run.

Breaking Bad forced its fans to reexamine their definitions of the hero and the villain as Bryan Cranston’s Walter White effortlessly towed the line between both.

Last year, Netflix changed the game by introducing us to Orange Is The New Black. Sure, we all know about the video streaming service where users pay a monthly fee to watch anything they want to at any given time, but the series about Piper Chapman’s experiences in a women’s federal penitentiary proved that the broadcaster is also capable of producing its own quality content, offering a show that rivals anything that currently airs on ‘regular’ TV.

The dramedy, based on Piper Kerman’s memoir about her time in a penitentiary, was created byWeeds mastermind Jenji Kohan. Taylor Schilling plays the aforementioned bisexual lead, Piper, who is forced to adjust to life behind bars after she is caught smuggling a suitcase full of drug money to her former girlfriend Alex Vause (played by Laura Prepon).

Featuring one of the strongest supporting casts around including Uzo Aduba, Jason Biggs, Taryn Manning and Natasha Lyonne, the brilliance of the show is the way that it depicts the harsh realities of prison while still presenting it with wicked wit and hilarious one-liners.

To say that Orange Is The New Black is addictive would be an understatement. Channeling its inner can of Pringles, it is impossible to simply devour just one episode at a time and I have no shame in admitting that I hungrily consumed all 13 episodes in one sitting (and I am willing to bet that after hearing that admission, you are nodding in agreement instead of shaking your head in contempt).

The second season of any show is where it can truly be critiqued. Will it live up to the hype of an initially successful first season? Will the writers abandon a formula that worked in favour of trying something new only to have it resoundingly fail? Or will it exceed all expectations and completely outdo itself in terms of offering great acting with a solid story while also creating an overall desire in its audience to continue to skip the countdown to the next episode just to get to it faster?

In the case of Orange Is The New Black‘s second season, it’s definitely the latter.

When watching the new season, the first point to make is certainly to discuss the introduction of Vee Parker to the series. Portrayed flawlessly by Lorraine Toussaint, Vee is the new villain of the series as the former drug kingpin previously pounced on abandoned and underprivileged kids to push her wares on the street. In addition to the past she shares with another ‘delicious’ fan favourite character from the first season, when Vee joins the ladies of Litchfield for a second stint behind bars, it’s clear she is there is reclaim her position as the prison’s top dog. As you can imagine, this doesn’t sit well with Red (Kate Mulgrew) and their showdown is the central storyline in season two.

In addition, now that we have gotten past the first season’s point of showing how Piper earned her stripes (or in her case, earned her beige uniform), this time around the story seems to focus on everyone around her. The flashbacks continue as we find out how a pre-Litchfield Gloria (Selenis Leyva) was ratted out for selling illegal food stamps and learn the absolutely shocking truth about Morello’s (Yael Stone)
“fiancée.”

Truthfully, the storyline that I wanted to see the most in the second season also turned out to be the most compelling. We all wanted to see how Sharon Warren (Uzo Aduba) turned into ‘Crazy Eyes’ in the first season and as we learn more about her struggles in the new season, it’s clear that she is the perfect metaphor for all of her cellmates. Namely, that there is a lot more to them then what landed them in the respective positions that they are in.

While some have argued that Orange Is The New Black glamorizes prison, I would argue that it conceptualizes a place that we don’t really know a lot about.

During a recent junket in Toronto, I caught up with Taylor Schilling and Uzo Aduba to find out more.

We discussed the differences between the show’s first and second season, the double-edged sword of playing characters that become popular and Litchfield’s new antagonist. I also offer my suggestion for a potential new title for the show in its third season. Finally, I ask Udo Aduba to show me how to do the ‘Crazy Eyes’ that have made her character so popular on the series. This one is can’t miss.

Check out the video above!

The second season of Orange Is The New Black is exclusively available on Netflix.com

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.