On Netflix: Same Old Routine on 'Orange is the New Black'

After a powerful and manipulative tornado named Vee ripped through Litchfield in season two of Netflix's hit dramedy series "Orange is the New Black",  things have come back to normal, or even the monotonous, in the follow-up season that premiered a few hours earlier of its June 12 release.

The season starts off quite soft with a Mother's Day celebration at the clink which was a nice breather after everything that had happened at Litchfield in the last season. This allowed us to get reacquainted with a few of our favorites: Red is out of the infirmary; Daya is still pregnant; Poussey, Taystee and Black Cindy are doing whatever they do; and everyone else is everyone else.

Taking a turn for the worse, Alex is "magically" back at Litchfield, continuing a tireless plotline of Piper and her (former) lover still crossing paths at what seems to be the only women's prison in the country - or one of two, after another was temporarily featured at the start of season two.

As the show slowly gets its footing. We find out Litchfield maybe closing, Alex and Piper are angrily in love with each other, and Bennett and Daya are engaged, yet the baby drama doesn't end when Pornstache's mother gets entangled in a shakedown scheme to adopt the baby.

This appears to be the main driving points of the season this year, and with the regular order of 13 episodes it's going to be a long one, and one that will focus strongly on the show's most uninteresting character: its lead, Piper.

It's hard to have a show about any lead character when they're not interesting after the first season. Seeing Piper struggle adjusting to prison life was great, but with all of the time after that focusing more and more on Alex it becomes a drawn-out exercise of whining and a never-ending carousel of emotions that doesn't stop in every episode.

Seeing that season three will, once again, focus on that on-again, off-again relationship, Piper and Alex's only plot on the show has already been played out, but how to compensate for that?

Sure, there are a bunch of funny, endearing and colorful cast members in this diverse ensemble, but nothing they bring to the table can bring the show back up to it's great second season with Lorraine Toussaint's scene-stealing performance as Vee. No subplots or actions are leaving me with an urgency to keep going to the next episode. I keep watching because it feels like a chore: you may want to hold it off until later, but you half-ass getting through it just to be done.

The show is as masterfully created as it ever and the cast is flawless as always, but nothing at Litchfield seems to be going on. The characters are routine and the biggest plot points are ones not even being built up to amount to much by season's end.

Rating: C

On Netflix: 'Happy Valley' is 2014's Best New Cop Show

Sarah Lancashire as Sgt. Catherine Cawood in the miniseries "Happy Valley".

West Yorkshire Police Sgt. Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) charges onto the screen in just the first three minutes of the entire miniseries with her backstory. She's 47, divorced and has two kids (one dead, and one who doesn't talk to her). She has one grandchild, and her sister, a recovering heroin-addict, lives with her. That's how she introduces herself to a man, and us, who's threatening to light himself on fire at a playground after a break-up with his girlfriend.

Sgt. Catherine Cawood is the tough, yet fragile lead character in "Happy Valley", a BBC One production named after an area of West Yorkshire known for its drug problem. But drugs isn't the focus of this series. Instead, it toes the line of a "Fargo" storyline, with an extortion/kidnapping plot and a likeable female officer at the center. Though, this story doesn't have as much humor peppered into it as the Oscar-winning film.

On Netflix: English 'Southcliffe' is Grueling Account of a Massacre

Sean Harris portrays Stephen Morton, a man who goes on a shooting rampage in "Southcliffe".        Channel 4

Southcliffe (England, 2013, miniseries/drama. English, color, four episodes.) In a world where every place seems like a target for tragedy, the English miniseries "Southcliffe" takes a look at its effects on a small market town.

Recently picked up by Netflix - who erroneously calls it a Netflix Original - for streaming, "Southcliffe" delves into long accounts of a small town's ways of coping with the deaths of 15 people and the wounding of 20 more after a man goes on a random shooting spree in the small Kent town. Clocking in at just over three hours with four episodes, this miniseries focuses on the pain and heartbreak of loss, and not the act of violence itself.

At the center of the story is Stephen Morton, a man who takes care of his mum and likes to go on long runs while wearing a lot of Army gear. He meets Chris Cooper, a soldier home from Afghanistan, with whom he eventually takes on a mission practice that plays more like a deadly cat-and-mouse game in the woods. When it's learned Stephen's not a former SAS soldier as was believed, Chris and his uncle beat him in the woods.

The next morning, the rampage begins.

On Netflix: Philadelphia tragedy 'Let the Fire Burn' and 'Mitt's' Presidential Runs

Let the Fire Burn (2013, Directed by Jason Osder. Color, USA, 95 minutes) The 1985 bombing of the MOVE compound in Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek neighborhood was the culmination of a tense standoff between the back-to-nature group and police, resulting in the deaths of 11 people, and the destruction of 60 residential homes. "Let the Fire Burn" is a well-crafted documentary that looks at the buildup to the MOVE/police interactions from the '70s to the standoff. Using only archival footage from newscasts, witness testimonies and the investigation hearings by the MOVE commission, this is a perfectly balanced look at happens when fights between a radical group and law enforcement reach a fever pitch. Pretty in-depth considering it didn't use any modern interviews, and a must-see for anyone interested in Philadelphia history.

Rating: B




Mitt (2014, Directed by Greg Whiteley. Color, USA, 92 minutes) Mitt Romney might be the focus of the Netflix-proudced documentary "Mitt", but he's somehow a secondary character. We follow Romney, but mostly his family, through his two presidential campaigns including the debates and sitting around for the election results. "Mitt" portrays its main character as its own MacGuffin. We hear so many opinions about Romney and what he needs to do to succeed, but we don't actually see the tactics to do so. With not enough interesting scenes or characters, "Mitt" is a bland look at an interesting man at the focus of the biggest story of 2012. "The War Room" this film is not.

Rating: C-

On Netflix: Patrick Moote Is 'Unhung Hero' In Penis Size Documentary

A penis pump is one way Patrick Moote hopes to measure up in 'Unhung Hero'

It's Memorial Day, and instead of celebrating and watching parades and whatnot, I decided to watch a documentary about penis size. Yes, a comedic, light-hearted documentary about the lengths one man goes to to measure up with more average-sized males. I didn't mean for this to happen, but it was too interesting to stop.

It all started in Dec. 2011 when actor Patrick Moote proposed to his girlfriend at a UCLA basketball game. They were front and center in the "mistletoe cam" as the live proposal was broadcast on the big screens throughout the arena. As he proposed, his girlfriend walked away and he stayed there looking completely shot down. Video of the proposal (see below) would go on to create a worldwide sensation causing people to ask why she would let him down.

On Netflix: These Palme d'Or Winners are Streaming Now

Though few may have actually heard of this year's Palme d'Or winner, "Winter Sleep," it's quite possible you've heard of a few others like "The Pianist", "Pulp Fiction" and "Taxi Driver." With a Palme win comes a lifetime of immortality for the filmmaker and a solidified career as a true artist in the world of film.

Looking back at what the hundreds of various jury members picked as the festival's best films, the subject matters have been as varied as the persons who picked them. One year it's a war film, 1979's "Apocalypse Now," another it's about the students of a French classroom, 2009's "The Class." There might be nothing new under the sun, but Cannes always turns up something interesting and fresh, opening the world up to different characters, lives and experiences.

Here is a list of previous Palme winners that you can check out now.

Blue is the Warmest Color- 2013
Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives- 2010
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days- 2007
The Wind That Shakes the Barley- 2006
The Pianist- 2002
The Son's Room- 2001
Pulp Fiction- 1994
Farewell My Concubine- 1993
The Piano- 1993
Barton Fink- 1991
Kagemusha: Shadow Warrior- 1980
Taxi Driver- 1976
The Conversation- 1974 (Grand Prix, highest honor)
MASH- 1970 (Grand Prix, highest honor)