Orange Is the New Black is back and it’s better than I imagined. The Netflix series centered on a women’s prison premiered its second season Friday and, despite my earnest intentions to pace myself, I couldn’t help but get through 12 of the 13 episodes (Thanks a lot, autoplay).
One of the striking differences this season is the fact that this is no longer The Piper Show. Yes, our blonde convict is still a major player, the thread throughout the series. But as Piper becomes more acclimated to prison life, she begins to share much more in common with her fellow prisoners, and we get a look into those women’s backstories — in such a fulfilling way. If you weren’t already invested in Red, Poussey, Morello and the other inmates, you will be after learning the very different and often surprising reasons they ended up in Litchfield. As for Piper, she’s hardened (perfectly if not cheesily represented by her selection of a 40 over a bottle of champagne on a night out during her furlough)— but not to the point where last season’s character is unrecognizable. If anything, the shift makes her more likable. For now, I’m holding off on the finale. I don’t want it to end!
Photographer Jeff Friesen has shot series of fun images using LEGOs for what’s culminated in an upcoming book, The United States of LEGO, available this September. In the series, each state is depicted in a scene full of colorful bricks and plastic yellow people (See Ohio here). Another, titled “Bricksy,” uses the popular toy to recreate various Banksy pieces.
Poet and thespian of our generation James Franco basically recounted Lindsay Lohan’s pursuit of him for Vice’s Fiction Issue. This “work of creative writing” that I’m just going to assume is completely true claims LiLo shamelessly came after Franco while they were both staying at Beverly Hills’ Chateau Marmont. In the end, she settled for a bedtime story reading of A Perfect Day for a Bananafish.
I’m not sure which part crushes my childhood memories the most: The fact that the Parent Trap ginge has fully blossomed into a desperate trash monster; or that Daniel Desario is actually a pseudo-intellectual douche/tattletale; or that I now have to burn my entire Salinger collection.
Nicolas Cage may have done his share of shitastic films in recent years, but you have to hand it to him: dude has a sense of humor about himself. This fact was illustrated recently in a photo of Cage, at a Guns N’ Roses concert with Andrew Dice Clay, dressed to the nines in a T-shirt with his meme-face on it.
Anyone remember Clone High?
The MTV toon depicted a high school for clones of historical figures throughout time, was weirdly hilarious and, thus, was cancelled after one season in 2003. The creators, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, have since put out a successful string of productions: 21 Jump Street (and its sequel, 22 Jump Street, in theaters tomorrow), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The LEGO Movie. They talked recently of revisiting Clone High as either a show or movie — read more here.
Lil' Kim welcomed a baby girl this week, Lil' Lil' Kim. Sorry. But seriously, Blue Ivy, North West, Jermajesty, all y’all epic-named babies watch out. Royal Reign is in the house.
In things that are making me feel feelings this week: the Dumb and Dumber To trailer.
