Unité 9, the Canadian Orange is the New Black

In an ever-increasing TV market where competition for dominance of audience attention is a high priority, adapting long-term serials (Game of Thrones) or high concept premises (a notebook that kills people) are used to increase market share.  Another under-utilized but successful feature is to have an episode that explores a theme that's Ripped from the Headlines.  Some shows manage to take this further, and base their premise on that very controversial subject, since it'll be fresh in their audience's memory, and people are starved for any meaning behind said issues, because people relate more to stories than dry facts.

A running background subject on DaVinci's Inquest was the lack of police competence on the Pickton Murders (before he was finally caught)  The Good Wife was created as a response to a devoted woman standing by her husband, Eliot Spitzer, despite his infidelity.  Likewise, Unité 9 was borne out of a response to Karla Homolka, a Canadian female serial killer.  When she was convicted, there were complaints that she seemed to be enjoying her captivity, and having what amounted to a good time.  To people outside, they felt that she should've been deep in misery and not yuking it up, despite her imprisonment.

Danielle Trottier had the idea of doing a series on a women's prison after reading a report from Louise Arbour, on the Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston 13. She then took five years of research, particularly by regularly visiting the penitentiary in Joliette. She met several inmates, "intelligent, sensitive people, extremely generous in the change process."  It's no great secret that Unité 9 is based on the Joliette penitentiary.

Marie Lamontagne, a teacher and a widowed mother of two girls has been sentenced to jail due to her attempted murder on her father.  In addition to seeing Marie deal with a side of the justice system she's remained willfully ignorant about, we also get to see how her family deals with having their sole living parent in jail.  Saying they're upset about the whole thing is putting it mildly.

As a former schoolteacher, Marie Lamontagne is less naive than Piper Chapman's wide-eyed innocence, which can become somewhat annoying at times.  Even so, Marie is still shocked at the extent of the prison system, which no previous knowledge could possibly prepare her for.  Orange is the New Black is more of a comedy than a drama, and Marie is shipped off to Lietteville instead of Litchfield, a minimum to medium security prison, with Max and Solitary holdings for high-risk troublemakers.

Men's prison shows like OZ, are claustrophobically limited within their prison walls, but women's prisons have the advantage of showing life outside the walls.  We see interaction of the guard's home life, as well as the prisoner's family reactions.  Unité 9 primarily devotes time to a singular unit, housing up to 6 women, with occasional snippets into Unit 7, the hardcore drug dealer group.  The focus may be on a smaller group of inmates, compared to Orange, but the emotional baggage is just as heavy, if not heavier.  (Be sure to expect a lot of emotional crying)

In some ways, its amusing to see the similar parallels between the two shows, and how they handle them.
A typical American sentence can go all the way up to 150 years to life (served consequently), while the maximum sentence one can get in Canada is 25 years, giving at least the prospect of an "out" rather than dangling false hope before the inmate's eyes.

While criminals are kept in a secure location, it's recommended that they fill their days with worthwhile activities.  Whether it's sewing men's underwear in the sweatshop, doing yardwork / cleaning duties or handling the commissary, even if such menial chores may not always be up to their intellectual capability, the important thing is to keep busy.  The biggest threat to their mental well-being isn't time, but boredom.

The most remarkable and striking feature of Unité 9 is how different Canadian women's prisons are from American ones.  Where American prisons are built around intimidation and punishment, Canadian prisons are built more around the principle of rehabilitation.  These facilities are built around the premise that the women criminals need to understand that what they did was wrong, and that their actions have consequences.  In fact, you could call this a plainsclothes prison.  Usually, the general mandate around prison is that you're supposed to wear one kind of uniform to remove all sense of individuality.  But in Lietteville, you're allowed to bring in 35 items (socks, shirts, pants, shoes, underwear) for the duration of your stay, whether it's for six months or 25 years.

They're also given a limited budget for cooking food, which is to be shared with the rest of your residents.  As a result, most prisoners opt for cheap meals consisting of pasta, chickpeas and rice, which isn't very nutritious or healthy.  Furthermore, if you show signs of rehabilitation, you're allowed to go out with an escorted guard, who'll be wearing plainclothes to help the prisoner around so they'll get used to the idea of getting back into the world they've been away from a long time.  If the prisoner shows further signs of improvement, they're allowed to go out via unescorted leaves, provided they come back to the prison on time.

In an Olivia Goldsmith book, Insiders, one of the fallacies that's pointed out is that Men's prisons are built around the premise that when released, they're not allowed to have outside contact with people connected to crime.  But with women, they're wired differently, and are less likely to be repeat offenders.  When they're released, chances are that the women prisoners will have little outside contact, and the support system they've developed inside the prison may be more reassuring than the people outside.  Depriving a woman of social contact is like keeping a flower from water and sunlight.  It'll shrivel away and die, otherwise.

In fact, the interior of a woman's prison is very unlike the cold sterile walls of an American prison.  Our first glimpse of a woman's cell looks more like the interior of an apartment than anything else.  There's the main room, with a kitchen, dining table, rooms for the individual prisoners, a bathroom and a washing room.
It's like a small community than anything else, and there's a panic button (as well as an intercom) in case things get too overheated, and the guards can come anytime the alarm goes off.

"Don't need 'em.  They're in our minds.Sometimes they seem lacking 'cause we end up forgetting we're in prison,
but there's always someone to remind us we're really here."

The lead character was surprised at the conditions as well, telling her daughter (with a pay phone inside the unit/apartment yet!) that it was nothing like the prisons seen on TV.

What's also surprising is the amount of interaction between the prisoners and the guards.  The general consensus is that guards are supposed to keep the prisoners in line and under control (as outlined in the Stanford Prison Experiment), but there's a certain amount of camaraderie and companionship that borders on respect.  If there are any valid complaints, they'll be given consideration, and there's guidelines to help make the transition run smoothly.  Not that it's all smooth sailing there.  Guards who are more accustomed in men's prisons who are transferred to women's prisons (due to work shortages) aren't used to the amount of interaction involved, and may be more comfortable keeping the prisoner / guard hierarchy separate.

Unité 9 follows some of the same themes as Orange, such as electing an Inmate-Committee President, and holding a concert, but the way they build up and prepare for those events changes on an episodic basis. Events take their time in playing out, and scenes will often shift to show other developments happening elsewhere at the same time.  It's very much of a slow burn.  Yet despite juggling multiple simultaneous plots simultaneously, there's never any confusion as to what's going on, despite the lack of expositionary dialogue.

And then there's the warden... oh boy, the warden.  Normand Despins borders somewhere between domineering and consolidating, being firm but fair.  He always says he has no time for complaints, yet always manages to listen.  (Whether they come from the guards, chaplain, parole officer, or the prisoners themselves)  As long as they make their argument compelling, he's willing to hear them out.  He'll support some recommendations while tearing down others for renovation and upheaval.  He'll consider the best available choices, but prefers to toe the bottom line.  He wavers between being an Obstructive Bureaucrat and a Reasonable Authority Figure.  It's just Marie's bad luck that he's implementing his Zero-Tolerance policy from experience in Men's prisons (due to complaints that Lietteville is too lenient) the same day she's being arraigned.

Another high selling point is the amount of natural dialogue and varied facial expressions among the women, giving a kalediscope range of emotions between the cast.  Very often in American shows, there's a high amount of philosophizing and speechifying in dialogue to make a point.  In Unité 9, things are shown factually and in a naturalistic roundabout way, showing you the events as they occur, and having no agenda present.  The fact that it's written by a team of three women also helps keep the relationships believable at a relatable and identifiable level, rather than showing a failed and broken prison system, filled with hierarchies and power struggles.  In fact, Unité 9 is closer to the book version of Orange is the New Black than the show, where Piper managed to make friends in prison and keep her fiancé.

In Orange is the New Black, every episode ends with a flash of orange before fading... to black.  Whereas with Unité 9, every episode ends, not with a cliffhanger, but the desire to see what happens next.  The next episode opening continues from where the last episode left off, and the brief snippet before the title credits (lasting just under a minute) gives what would normally count as the cliffhanger.

I am interested in seeing EVERYONE'S progress, and don't feel disheartened if I don't see someone for a long time, because I find pretty much everything that happens to be immensely immersing.  From the brief snippets of the prisoner's contact with life outside to the guard's office politics.  And the multiple meetings - meetings with staff to discuss various prisoners' behavior and potential improvements, to inmates meetings with psychologists, parole officers, and priests.  Not to mention that the prisoners can get shuffled around without a moment's warning, and their reactions to being locked up in Maximum or Solitary is different for each personality.  No two encounters are exactly alike.

In fact, Unité 9's only complaint could be the low number of racial diversity, but that's also an example of Truth in Television, since the prison it represents also has a 90% white prisoner rate.  An online discussion of the show delved into some interesting facts:

IRL there probably wouldn't be many native/metis women in that specific penitentiary - years ago, Corrections Canada set up healing lodges for native women to cater specifically to their needs. They are still incarcerated, but there is an emphasis on using First Nations culture and practices to help in rehabilitation"  It seems like that wouldn't be enough beds to mean that there are no Aboriginal women in other institutions though, right? Like, considering the proportions.

Update: I found a report from 2005 with the ethnic breakdown of women offenders in federal institutions in Canada, this is so interesting - the federal women's institution in Quebec (Joliette) only has 2.7% (2 people) of its population as Aboriginal women, where the other institutions are all much higher - the lowest is 11% for GVI (Ontario), 17.5% for the Atlantic and 34% for the Pacific region, and they just go up from there for the Edmonton institution and the ones in the Prairies (one federal, one psychiatric, one healing lodge). Wow.

So, yeah! Having a prison show elsewhere in Canada without Aboriginal women would be a lapse of varying severity depending on where you are - but for Joliette (where 90% of inmates are caucasian, whoa) this does make sense.

P.S. In 2005 there were ZERO Black women in the federal psychiatric institution, the Edmonton Institution for Women, and the Fraser Valley Institution for Women (and the healing lodge). So basically no Black women in federal custody West of Ontario. Wow. This has been a very intriguing report.

There have been plans for an English remake, which would be cast in Kingston (Ontario) rather than Quebec, which has a higher POC rate, and different crime rate.  The only other French-Quebec show to be adapted to English was the cop show 19-2 (No relation to Car 54 Where are You?) which focuses more on settling domestic disputes than solving mysteries every week.  Though the second season (in both languages) opens up with a strong contendor with police procedure and post-traumatic stress during a school shooting, which was inspired by actual cops affected by the Dawson College shooting.  So far, there's been a creative difference of interest in the production, which wanted to cut the number of episodes from 24 to 12, which would drastically cut into the tension and buildup.

Only the first two episodes are available online via Vimeo, and it's doubtful how long they'll stay there.  There used to be a Youtube account that had English subtitles, but the user was later banned, and there aren't any available downloads that aren't related to The Unit, the show about Super-Secret operators.  Your best bet is to rent or order the DVD series with its (high quality) subtitles intact, or start to learn Québecois French, knowing that religious sayings such as sacrament, câlice and tabarnak are swear words.  Despite its length, watching the later episodes of Unité 9 don't feel like a chore, and viewers are actively anticipating the outcome of the 3rd Season's finale resuming next month... but I'll refrain from revealing any spoilers.

A page from Peter Bagge's Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story

The only other worthy Women's Prison show worth watching I'm aware of is Wentworth, but I haven't seen any of it to judge it worthy, though from general descriptions, it sounds close enough to Unité 9.  Any show about Women's prisons that makes lesbianism the least interesting aspect earns high marks in my book.

Not Quite a Pet Peeve: Off-Colour Comics

This week's Sunday For Better or for Worse rerun gave us this little ditty with Elly's inconvenience with store clerks taking their time on the job.

This is very different from the first printing where the employee had much more makeup and blush on.  In addition, Elly's embarassment is much more pronounced in the last panel.

This wasn't the only instance of a reprint having less impactful colouring, as these two strips can contest.


In fact, a large majority of For Better or for Worse Sunday reprints have had a particular amount of toned-down appearance that makes them less dramatic than usual.

As you can tell, quite a lot of it comes from the characters screaming at each other.  For the longest time, I thought this was typically normal behavior.

It was suggested that Lynn Johnson was suffering from some kind of colour blindness for appealing for Magenta and Turquoise which would've accounted for her bizarre taste of mishmash of fancy words that actually look ugly.

However, that wouldn't account for the various previous Sunday comics where her stand-in family would constantly display sudden rushes of blood to the head that were less unsettling than Emily Carroll's His Face All Red.

There have been complaints about reprints of old material given a glossy shiny look that looks unappealing to long-time readers of newsprint comics on lousy paper, and those complaints aren't unjustified.  The paper can be too shiny, resulting in having to constantly tilt the book so the glare doesn't get in your eyes, and the colouring can be garish compared to the earlier toned-down appearance.  On the plus side, the new reprints give Lawrence a healthier shade of brown than his whitewashed earlier version.

This isn't solely limited to FBOFW, but other newspaper comics as well, where records weren't as meticulous in their archival collections as others.

The wife's expression above seems more intense than the one below.  I wonder why?

At first, I thought this one was a misprint in the first Herman Sunday collection, giving the prehistoric man a Bravehart-like tint, but I've got the Sunday comic in question, and it actually appears like that.  It was faithful to its source material.

This isn't the only caveman to be cast in a strange light.  An odd deciption of Wily from BC (Found at another intensive Sunday Comics blog here) can be seen.

This would be akin to those instances where first depictions of cartoon characters such as Wayland Smithers (Black), Vegeta (a natural Redhead) were mistaken first impressions later corrected in later versions. However, all previous initerations of the curmogodeon peg-legged water hater poet have shown him to be as pale as his brethen.

Despite the misgivings these comics might have in being incorrectly portrayed, they provide an interesting contrast to the regular colour schematics of cartoon characters, and provide an alternate vision of what it must be like for someone with colour blindness.

The Flintstones are some of the most iconic cartoon characters despite their formulatic upbringings.  So when it came to being adapted to the comics page, how were they portrayed?  Not with Fred's Orange outfit, and Barney's Brown suit.  Instead, they opted to present them as blue and orange.  The women Betty and Wilma were known for being in Blue and White, which is almost impossible to mess up.  Instead they showed themselves in basic orange and black.  With tiger stripes yet!  (Apparently, Black Pearls are rarer and more expensive, which wouldn't lie with their anachronistic domestic appearance) Whether this was to present a more attractive design for the funny pages is up in the air for consideration.

A random sampling shows the women's dresses changes colours and outfits almost interchangeably.

One thing I've noticed about these Flintstones comics is how many of them end with confrontations with large dinosaur creatures.

In some cases, the warped colour can give a whole new meaning to the background, giving previously passive elements a whole new flavor.  In this Baby Blues, it looks like the father's hair is being drained away as he thinks of his past.

In this Herman, it looks like the boss is gradually becoming greyer, eventually revealing his true nature underneath.

When I first saw this Hi & Lois comic, I thought that Dot intentionally placed a plastic apple that Trixie couldn't eat, since she picked up the same pink apple.

This Garfield comic is an interesting study in contrasts.  For years, I thought this was another iteration of Odie, who'd suddenly jumped owners from Lyman (who originally owned him) to this cute girl, and the two of them shared a history that was never explained or expanded on.  It was only years later that I found out the original colour schematics for this dog were brown.  Draw your own conclusions here.

It turns out that a large majority of Garfield strips staring Odie turn out the be tonetically weird.

When it comes to portraying crowd scenes, the American comic book had tendencies to go the quick and dirty method by using pale colour schemes among crowd scenes to save time and energy of having to go through colourizing every individual person.

At times, colour can have the element of portraying a prevalent mood throughout.  The very first Asterix book had scenes where entire characters were coloured a deep shade of red or purple depending on their feelings at the time.  This was only shown in the first album, and was never repeated in subsequent books.

Some more miscellaneous comics that I can't think of enough of a clever summary for:

At the time of this strip, Cliff Robertson was still alive.  I suppose the Star Phone also works for actors who everybody thinks are dead, since they haven't been in the spotlight for a long time.

Here's one last bonus - a FBOFW that appeared on July 19, 1986.  If the reprint shows Elizabeth to be less upset than in the throwaway panels, you'll know what was overlooked.  Feel free to make your complaints where applicable.

Copy Pays

Awhile back, I mentioned the fortunate find of acquiring old Gazette comics in my possession.  There are still a few holes here and there (I'm missing most of 1981), but it's a further expansion than I ever expected to go in the first place.  Most of the comics were new to me, but the ones that rang familiar were very revealing.

To get a general idea of how I viewed these comics back then, I'll be removing the dialogue from most of them.  (Don't worry - you'll see their actual contents at the end of this post)  To really get the full effect, re-read these comics without text multiple times before skipping over to the answers.

As much as I paid attention to the characters in their little boxes, I was drawn to these pictures that had similar ones right next to each other, or reproduced elsewhere.  The nature of simplistic character designs is that they're both pleasing to look to the eye, and can be quickly drawn by a trained hand in a hurry.  Whether by accident or design, some poses and profiles are used multiple times, showcasting a certain author signature style.

Even though I had no idea of what the characters were saying, I intuitively knew they were talking, but of what escaped me, so I filled in their text with nonsensical noises.  Somewhat similar to blind people's drawings perception of the horizon, my representations could hardly be called accurate depictions, but they were close enough for my preferences.  At a family gathering, I was told that when I was reading children's books, I could be heard "singing" to myself.  Turns out that long before I converted words to pictures, I was already converting pictures to sound.

Hagar has a weird expression throughout this one.  His vacant stare makes him look like he's stoned or something.

This one is a bit of a cheat, since I actually had this comic in my possession.  But I would constantly reread it, looking at Dagwood's dazed expression while holding his bowling ball, bouncing back and forth between Herb and Blondie.

Taking a slight detour into uncharted territory, a possible reason that there hasn't been an archived collection of The Muppets comic strip is that there's not much demand for the material, and if compiled, could lead readers to easily finding out that much of the artwork was copied after the throwaway panels.  These examples I recently found show the similarities as well as the slight edits to make them seem significantly different.

It's not on the same level of the legendary bad art of Ducktales #3, or certain Archie Sonic comics, but the reuse of art becomes notable after awhile.

As a kid, I was a whiz at a Sesame Street Matching game where there were various boards featuring the Muppet's faces, which would be hidden underneath a row of pieces.  These boards were of varying length, so the same layout wouldn't be used twice.  However, after uncovering various pieces, I was able to determine a certain pattern, and with practice, figure out where the remaining faces lied.  It helped that many of the faces were right next to each other, which helped the memorization factor somewhat.

As such, I was able to piece together connections by seeing similar pictures next to each other, which spurred my interest in trying to make sense of their contents.  I may constantly point out comics that reuse art all the time, but the truth of the matter is, I probably became interested in comics because of copied art in the first place.

One of these things is like the other,One of these things just does belong.Can you tell which of these things is like the other,By the time I finish my song?

One thing that concerns me is that while I can remember what my mental process was when first "reading" these comics, I can't recall the exact Eureka moment when I was able to make some sense from these little scribbles on paper.  One day, they were just random symbols, the next, they were formed words, and any helpful advice I could give to beginning readers struggling to understand a page is lost.

Text for the above comics under the cut: