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Two years ago,the Netflix seriesJailbirds introduced audiences to the idea of toilet talking, where inmates bellow into their cell’s metal toilets and talk to fellow inmates on the same side of the building as they are. As the show moves from Sacramento to New Orleans for season 2, will the toilet talking continue to come to an end? What do you think?
JAILBIRDS NEW ORLEANS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A shot of downtown New Orleans. Then, in a jail complex, we hear someone bellowing into a toilet, “Bitch, do you know me? Do you f*cking know me?”
The Gist: Jailbirds New Orleans is a follow-up to 2019’s docuseries Jailbirds; this time producer Rasha Drachkovitch’s cameras are on the inside of the Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans. This time, instead of showing someone in handcuffs being led into the jail, we start off with what was popular from the first season, which was in Sacramento: Some toilet trash talking.
A woman named Juicy, who was trying to start her own line of eyelashes before her latest jail stint, is calling down to her neighbor below, taunting her about the things that she’s heard her say. It’s just one of the many loud incidents we see in the women’s ward of the Justice Center. Being a Parish (Louisiana’s version of a county) jail, Orleans Justice Center holds people on short-term sentences and people awaiting trial. Many have been in and out of the jail a number of times.
Even though we see some of the men (who outnumber the women 15-1 at the facility), the correction officers say that they’re mostly laid back; the action is in the women’s ward, where people like Juicy get into it with people, or a perennial named Jamie (aka “Shorty” because she’s only 4’9″), who plays all the angles, whether she’s inside or on the outside. We also meet Harley, who comes right out and says that living in New Orleans is bad for her and that she prefers the regimented life inside. She’s about to be released, and she tells her bestie, Taylor, that she really wants to get herself together this time.
After a discussion about ice dild*s and the use of candle wax to do things other than remove hair, we get to hear more from Juicy, and get more of the “toilet talk” between the women and the men that are locked up on other floors. We then see a commissary dispute between Jamie and an inmate named Magen. Magen, who is from Memphis and thinks NOLA is one of the most evil places she’s ever been, is in lockdown and she put money in Jamie’s account so she can buy her commissary stuff; Jamie, of course, takes all of it for herself. So the COs just remove all of the stuff, because everyone is breaking some rule or another.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Jailbirds, of course, but the entireJailbirds series was likely inspired by Drachkovitch’s seriesLockup.
Our Take: When we reviewed the first season ofJailbirds, we were entertained by the goings on in front of the cameras but a bit chagrined at the fact that the women depicted on the series had lives and hopes and families, and feared that they were being exploited a bit. We’re not sure we feel that way about this new season.
Much of it is because Drachkovitch’s cameras have found inmates that have spent so much time inside that they feel that’s where they’re more comfortable. Also, at a certain point, you have to just sit back and let the toilet talk wash over you and not worry as much about the inner lives of these grown women, all of whom know that the cameras are there.
Does that sound cold? Definitely. But when inmates like Jamie are almost proud of the fact that they lost a finger during their last venture outside, but was happy she got to keep the “THUG” tattoo spelled out on her knuckles, you have to realize how willing these women are to participate.
The difference between this season and last, at least so far, is that it seems that Drachkovitch is concentrating on perennials, on people who admit that life outside does not suit them well. Some, like Juicy, have ambitions for when they finally get out, but none of the people the first episode concentrates on declare that they’re innocent or that they are shocked by what goes on there. There also seems to be a ton more toilet talk; maybe this was something that’s common to all large jail facilities, but it also feels like something that Drachovitch and her crew encouraged based on the response to Season 1.
What was interesting was to see the corrections officers lay down the law, but in a more den-motherly tone than anything. They also seem to be there for the inmates to talk with and get advice from, even if half their interactions are adversarial. That, and the idea that criminal justice in New Orleans is still weighed heavily against the BIPOC population, will add some needed dimension to this season. At least we hope that’s the case.
Sex and Skin: Besides the nauseating ice dild* talk, there’s a “Never Have I Ever” game that gets pretty explicit.
Parting Shot: Magen, who is having the intense commissary dispute with Jamie, admits to the producers that she’s in the Justice Center awaiting trial on a second-degree murder charge.
Sleeper Star: Jamie is definitely angling to be the series’ star, getting on camera with just about everyone else. Also, she’s lived a pretty rough life if she’s 31 and already has gray hair.
Most Pilot-y Line: The toilet talk is funny, sure, especially when other prisoners and the COs wonder how people can stick their faces in the toilet like that. But it’s leaned on so heavily that the episode gets pretty repetitive.
Our Call: STREAM IT.Jailbirds New Orleans isn’t there to make you think too much, just drink in the chaos that reigns at a big-city jail. If watching it makes you feel at all guilty, then you’re a living, breathing human. But that doesn’t mean you’ll turn it off.
Will you stream or skip the prison docuseries #JailbirdsNewOrleans on @netflix? #SIOSI
— Decider (@decider) September 26, 2021
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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