Orange Is the New Black (a.k.a. The No. 1 Reason to get a Netflix subscription) is adding yet another reason it love it in its second season.
Veteran actress Lorraine Toussaint will join the cast in Season 2. You probably remember her most recently as Lena’s sometimes difficult mother on the feel-great, two-mama-drama The Fosters. Toussaint’s credits also include regular stints on Body of Proof, Friday Night Lights and Saving Grace. According to Deadline Hollywood, Toussaint will play new inmate Vee, described as a “longtime street tough who ran her own drug business, recruiting children to serve as runners.” Well, she sure sounds like a shot-caller ready to mix it up with the likes of Red and Mendoza.
Other good news on the OITNB front, everyone’s favorite Taystee treat, Danielle Brooks, has been promoted to a series regular. Everyone, let’s recite the Taystee rap in unison.
In more spoiler-heavy casting news (this is your hint: SPOILERS AHEAD), last week it was also announced that Taryn Manning has been promoted to a series regular for Season 2. In other words: Pennsatucky lives! Guess Chapman didn’t beat her everyone’s least favorite methhead/Jesus freak to death with her bare hands after all. Goodness, she cleans up nicely. But still, don’t do meth, kids.
One of the great things about OITNB is the attention paid to its supporting cast. While Taylor Schilling‘s Piper Chapman and Laura Prepon‘s Alex “Makes the Lesbian Panties Drop” Vause are ostensibly the main characters (along with Larry, ugh Larry), the series takes great care to flesh out the other characters and take advantage of its exceptional cast. Whether it’s out transgender actress Laverne Cox as out trans character Sophia or the transcendent Uzo Aduba as Suzanne/Crazy Eyes or the heartbreaking Dascha Polanco as Diaz, we feel we know so many of these characters intimately and in ways that even Chapman does not even understand. This sharing of the narrative matters. It makes this not just a fish-out-of-water story, but a complex chronicling of many women’s lives. By focusing not just on the leads and allowing the diverse cast to shine, OITNB has elevated itself to become one of the best shows currently on television (or your Internet, same difference).
So, excited about the new addition? Ready for more Taystee? Wait, you’re telling me you didn’t binge watch all 13-hours of the first season in one delirious weekend? Get to it. Those maxi-pad shower shoes won’t make themselves.
