Orange Is the New Black (TV Series) Thirsty Bird (2014) User Reviews

Dark and witty

[laura-bonaventura1 · 10/10 · 11 June 2014]

I am not going to write any spoiler, I promise. I am watching season 2 again and the only thing I can say about this episode is: outstanding.

If you did not watch season 1 you will probably not give a chance to the show after this episode. True. But honestly, you will not understand a s**t on the next episodes too. What would be the meaning of watching Game of Thrones starting from season 3 or 4? God knows.

Many people hates Piper, I am aware of that, this is mostly a Pipercentric episode: many people just hated the episode too. Fine. I didn't. Piper is dumb, selfish, terrible, whatever: human beings are exactly like that, get over it. And by the way, Taylor Schilling is a ridiculously good actress, worth to watch her.

This episode is deliberately dark and confusing, as much as Piper is. It's a love it or leave it, to me it's 10/10.

A Good Strat

[ankitdasofficial · 10/10 · 12 July 2020]

The first episode of the new season i.e. the start of the new season is very good. A new twist in the story or a surprising factor can be said that the story has turned out very well. Nice to see some new cast. The ending of the story is also very different and interesting. The dialogue delivery, the acting, the cinematography and finally the direction, are all awesome.

The perfect episode.

[smithgw-90183 · 10/10 · 11 March 2019]

Ok, this review is 4 years behind but I could not let pass my urge to put into words how wonderful 'Thirsty Bird' is. It is by far my favourite episode that I can watch time after time. I have just started watching Season 4, but there will be no spoilers here. First off, I'm a huge Taylor Schilling fan, especially her talent for comedy. Schillings way with her super expressive face and body language coupled with perfect timing and voice acting, pitched perfect for each scene and encounter makes a wonderful Piper Chapmen, my favourite character in OITNB. Chapmans self-delusional nature makes her think she's a murderer about to be put on trial. How stressful is that for anyone plus the nature of the American justice system in treating inmates like cattle. No wonder she broke down on the plane. This episode is directed by Jodie Foster and you can tell with great camera angles allowing Schillings facial expressions, especially the crying scene, to give massive empathy with her character. Foster may also have overseen the writing and helped to determine the direction of the script. I was as relieved as Chapman when she finally found out from Alex she had not murdered Pennsatucky . That's the thing about OITNB, it really throws your emotions around. Other highlights include Chapmans bus journey from the airport to Chicago Max with a soundtrack of 'Pulaski at Night' by Andrew Bird. So emotional, spot on for the moment. Thinking the male prisoner on board the plane who turned around and called her 'First Class' (look at Chapmans expression, brilliant) was a rapist when negotiating with him in Max to get a message to Alex. "What do you want, a kiss", I couldn't stop laughing long after leaving my house. Oh there's just too many highlights and I remember thinking at the time there's no way that the team at OITNB can keep up this level of perfection for every episode in the future. Graham. UK.

With 95% of season 1's cast nowhere to be seen, we are stuck with Piper, Alex, and the type of characters which bring 0 interest.

[Amari-Sali · 6/10 · 10 June 2014]

To me, if you never saw the first season and wanted to see what the hype was all about, this episode would make you think this show is vastly overrated. For, as creator Jenji Kohan said, Piper is nothing more than a Trojan Horse. Which is highly visible for without Red, Taystee, Crazy Eyes, Sophia, Poussey and etc, this seems like something which would get canceled in one season if it was on an actual network.

Topic 1: Where Am I Going? - Piper

After what happened with Pennsatucky, Piper has been in solitary confinement. That is until she ends up getting taken in the middle of the night, put on a bus, a plane, and another bus, and then finds herself in Chicago. Why? Well, for the trial against Alex's former boss Cooper who ran the drug cartel which allowed Piper and Alex to travel the world. But before the trial can happen, Piper has to get adjusted to her new roommates.

One is a single mom who lost damn near everything but her home once being put in prison; then there is her sidekick, the muscle; a girl who seems to be a simple stooge of the single mom; and then this really creepy woman who is highly into astrology, as well as Piper. Things don't start off well with the majority of her new roommates since Piper kills a cockroach which was a quite prized one since the prisoners use cockroaches to transport cigarettes to each other. This is also the method the single mom uses to make cash so you know she is quite upset Piper is messing with her money.

Problems don't end there though, the prison itself is inter-gender and with one Black guy seemingly into Piper she automatically fears he may rape her. But she ends up needing his help to communicate with Alex who is in a different unit. So for her panties he delivers the message, leading to Alex trying to prep Piper for trial.

Topic 2: When to lie - Piper

A good portion of the episode has flashbacks to Piper's childhood to establish she has always been a bit of a goody two shoes trying to be honest and respectable even at the cost of friends, or even her mom's feelings when she discovers her dad is cheating on her. With a talk with her grandmother though, she realizes that you can't tell the truth every single time and expect right to triumph. The truth hurts in ways that make lying sometimes a better option. Something which comes to mind during the trial.

Topic 3: F*** You – Piper & Alex

When it comes to talking about the trial, Larry's dad is Piper's lawyer and tells her to tell the truth despite her fears. Alex tells her to lie because, frankly, who knows what her former employer could do. After all, the Black guy who Piper gave her panties to was a hit man. So there are ways Piper could get messed up in her current prison arrangement. Which perhaps is what she was considering when she got on the stand. For while she seemed very committed to telling the truth, as she practically refused eye contact with the prosecutor, she made it seem as if she knows nothing of Cooper and strictly was only focused on Alex. Something which Alex seemingly didn't say as well for we end the episode with Alex apologizing for telling the truth and her being transferred perhaps. Leaving Piper utterly alone, likely to have perjury added to her rap sheet, and still stuck with her new, weird, and uninteresting, roommates.

Almost dumped the series because of this episode.

[JamieClay · 2/10 · 10 June 2014]

Half of this slow moving episode is Piper being moved around by big mean menacing men to a mysterious 'destination unknown' where she eventually is thrown into an odd 'coed' prison world where she knows no one and not ONE person of authority will tell her why she is there.

WTF? If this is how the penal system works? No wonder it fails us. In all my years of watching law shows, I've never seen this sort of treatment of a prisoner (short of a POW film.)

Oh, to further pad the 'mystery half' of the episode we get a bunch of flashbacks to little Piper in her formative years, learning about how relevant the truth can be in the real world. Back story can often help define a character and this was OK story wise but because they wove it into the 'mystery move' segment, we didn't care.

*****SPOILERS******

SO, we were about to stop watching altogether when suddenly a dandelion blooms in the turd pile - Alex is also at this prison and somehow knows why. In all this time 'clueless in Chicago' hasn't been able to contact her lawyer or get ANY official information as to what's going on but the script allows for Alex to 'be found' by Piper, so she can dish the details.

I guess Alex came in on a different bus, flight, bus, (and ho' inspection)? Also, what federal prosecutor would let TWO witness for the same trial be held where they could exchange notes about the case?

Feh - at least with the mystery out of the way, the rest of the episode becomes a little more likable but only marginally with the icing on the cake being Alex (seemingly) betraying Piper. Yay.

I have to ask, in what prison system to they have Men and Women prisoners in the 'gen pop'- apparently this is normal somewhere? Can a prisoner really be transferred like this without notice and without being able to contact their lawyer? I can't imagine the writers made this up without some research.

If you cut 15 or twenty minutes of the 'misogynous mystery move' from the first half, the episode would have been more entertaining (for us).

If that mystery segment is real, raw and accurate then that's new ground for a prison show, it certainly could have been delivered to an uninitiated audience better.

This first episode kept us from binge viewing more. We're hoping next batch of episodes is better crafted.