I have not watched OitNB yet, but I keep hearing it is awesome.

so, IMO:

1) I like that the cast is pretty diverse generally, but the lead actress is really fucking irritating at times (which I suppose is part of the point), but a fraction of the time her storyline or performance stops the momentum of the show dead.

2) between flashbacks and other shit, the lead's personality can vary wildly. There was one ep (~ep 9 or 10) where I honestly wondered if they were going for a multiple personality disorder thing or something because I did not understand her acting choices at all.

3) there were some statements made about prison life in ep 1 that are constantly violated in subsequent episodes. I get that this is supposed to be a comedy/dramedy but it hits realism very rarely. The prisoners are OFTEN unsupervised, there is very little physical threat to the inmates (in general).

I'm not looking for Oz for women or anything, but the way they deal with stakes is uneven.

4) American Pie guy who plays her fiancé is someone I just want to punch in the fucking face.

I have about 1-2 eps left I think.

The only discussion I've seen of that show was Jasika Nicole being grumpy that a show is finally set somewhere totally black-dominated and the lead is still white.

She's the lead because the show is loosely based on real-her's memoir, but she's not the POV character in every ep. Structurally it's kind of similar to S1 of Lost.

She's the lead because the show is loosely based on real-her's memoir

For Jasika's record, she wasn't criticising the author's choice, since, you know, memoir. But that plenty of black people write memoirs about shit, and so rarely do we get those to screen.

It's depressing what rare birds Kerry Washington and Maggie Q are.

At least Megan Rath is in the mix too.

But that plenty of black people write memoirs about shit, and so rarely do we get those to screen.

That's a totally fair point. I do think the show does a decent job of spotlighting mostly non-white characters, even if it does inevitably circle back to Piper's story in the end.

Most of the black people in jail don't look like Meaghan. There's an upper limit on how empowered Halle Berry makes people feel, though no detriment of her own.

I've heard nothing but good things about the series. I will definitely have to consider it for binging this weekend.

I'm almost all the way over True Blood and am now mostly just watching for the few pretty people I can still stand: Jason, Jessica, Lafayette (even though he's just turned into a Mammy cliché now). I don't expect quality camp like they used to serve up anymore but good heavens, the wigs from the flashback scenes this past episode put me in mind of the worst bad Buffy/Angel flashbacks. Eric Northman looking like straight up Goldilocks? Oh, hell no!

I couldn't even tell you why I'm still watching. Although the incandescent fairy sex last week was pretty funny. I don't know if that was the intention, but it made me laugh.

I was reading some interviews with Jensen and Jared where they talk about how they feel about their characters, where they feel protective of them, where they feel like they're friends of them, parts of them.

Ryan Kwanten seems like a great guy. I wonder how he feels about Jason. GOOD LORD. Although people are pretty much unlikable or boring or both.

I can't believe I thought the guy who set up his death was the shifter on the run with the black mundane. Hello PAYING NO ATTENTION.