‘Wentworth’ Makes ‘Orange is the New Black’ Look Like a Middle School Melodrama

Wentworth poster

Written by Amanda Rodriguez
Wentworth is an Australian women’s prison drama that is much grittier, darker, more brutal and realistic than Netflix’s Orange is the New Black could ever hope to be. This bleak realism also makes Wentworth‘s well-developed characters and situations much more compelling than its fluffier American counterpart. Don’t get me wrong; I really enjoyed Orange is the New Black. The stories of incarcerated women are always important because they are a particularly marginalized and silenced group. However, the over-the-top, zany approach to characterization that OITNB utilizes for comedic effect renders the characters less substantive overall. Consider the lesbian-obsessed prison worker Caputo who has a mail order Russian bride or the insane abortion doctor murderer and ex-meth addict Pennsatucky Doggett who believes she has a calling from Jesus or the flame-haired Russian mobster cook Red played by my beloved Captain Kathryn Janeway (er, I mean Kate Mulgrew). Very colorful. Very little depth.

Pennsatucky is one craaaaaaaazy lady.

Though OITNB and Wentworth deal with similar themes, Wentworth (based on an Aussie soap opera from the 70’s and 80’s called Prisoner) takes a no-holds-barred approach to subjects like officer sexual exploitation of prisoners, turf wars and hierarchy, sexuality, the inmate code of silence, gang beatings, gang rapes, prison riots, and the brutality of the crimes that landed these women behind bars. Because the Australian prison system is different from ours, my first glimpse of Wentworth Correctional Centre left me comparing the prison to middle school with its catty girls and basic rights stripped from the inmates, much like the ones that are stripped from children, i.e. rules govern when they use the restroom, showers, bed times, how they spend their free time, classes are mandatory, and they are allowed no privacy save that which they sneak. The finale of the first episode (“No Place Like Home”) concludes, however, in a chaotic riot with a body count, leaving a major character dead. I rapidly revised my initial reading, realizing that the women of Wentworth play for keeps in a way that those of OITNB do not.

The show evokes a primal sense of self-preservation amidst the complete absence of the basic human need for safety. It is unflinchingly honest in its representations of women who’ve committed terrible acts, lived complicated lives, and must continue their struggle for survival in the place that’s supposed to give them structure and rehabilitate them but in actuality further hardens and traumatizes them.
The racial diversity of Wentworth‘s cast leaves a bit to be desired. One of the primary prison guards, Will Jackson, is played by Robbie Magasiva, a Samoan New Zealander.

Mr. Jackson escorts our heroine, Bea Smith.
Aboriginal Shareena Clanton portrays the integral matriarchal role of prisoner Doreen Anderson.

Doreen Threatens to cut Bea in order to keep the child she protects on their unit (that’s right, Aussies have kids in prison).

Lastly, there’s Frankie Doyle’s steady girlfriend, Kim Chang, played by Korean Ra Chapman.

Kim walks with her lover Frankie.

To be fair, I don’t know enough about the racial/ethnic composition of Australia to know what would constitute a balanced representation. In addition, though, there isn’t as much lesbianism as one might expect from the show either, though the lesbianism depicted is as graphic as the rest of the series. Though there are more lesbian characters in OITNB, I often wondered why their relationships were so censored on Netflix that can call its own shots…was it an effort to not exploit lesbian sexuality as so many shows typically do or was it to not “turn off” viewers?
On Wentworth, Frankie Doyle is the only major LGBTQ character along with her minor character girlfriend, Kim. We also find that the “Governor” Erica Davidson harbors a secret attraction to Frankie.

Governor Erica Davidson steals a covert look at Frankie.

Erica Davidson is one of the more interesting characters represented in the show. Erica becomes Governor through semi-devious means, but she continues to claim that the welfare and rehabilitation of the female prisoners are her number one priorities. The show constantly pits her genuine empathy for the women against her career ambition. Her sexuality is gratifyingly complex. We are given background on her relationship with her (male) fiance who is very vanilla when it comes to sex. Erica fantasizes about a fetish club she once visited as part of her pre-Wentworth lawyer work. When she asks her fiance to pull her hair during sex, he loses his shit. They don’t have a conversation about it, like, say a couple might if the man requested anal sex or a ménage à trois; instead he issues an ultimatum. They almost end a five plus year relationship because her request makes him feel inadequate. He asserts that she may have picked the “wrong guy.” He stifles her sexual curiosity completely. The repression of her sexual fantasies exacerbates Erica’s desire to step outside the bounds of sexual propriety as is evinced by her lesbian attraction to an inmate, a woman who constantly challenges her authority. The complex sexual power dynamic at work between Erica and Frankie feeds into Erica’s fantasies. The psychological context given for Erica’s sexuality gives her much more depth than, say, Piper Chapman from OITNB, whose sexuality is the cause for much debate but is given little room for its inherent fluidity.

Erica fantasizes about sex with Frankie within the prison walls.

Lastly, we’ve got Wentworth‘s heroine Bea Smith. Wentworth is a sort of prologue intended to give the backstory for the woman Bea later becomes in the series Prisoner (which many Aussie fans have already watched). In many ways, Bea and Piper aren’t so very different. They’re both women out of their element, gentle by nature. Neither woman wants to rock the boat, but both are possessed of a streak of moral righteousness that alternately gets them in trouble and gains them respect. Both undergo major transitions before the end of their first seasons, the prison setting actually accentuating their buried inner violence and pushing them to acts of vicious aggression.

Bea Smith from Prisoner on the left, and Bea Smith from Wentworth on the right.

Bea’s pre-prison life, however, is not as ideal as Piper’s perfect upper middle class New York existence. Bea is a hairdresser whose husband brutally beats and rapes her on a regular basis. Bea is imprisoned for attempting to kill him when she finally snaps and decides to fight back. Piper’s crime is an isolated incidence of non-violent drug trafficking that she did simply as a youthful thrill and to help out Alex, her then girlfriend. Though she, like Piper, is bewildered by prison culture when she is first incarcerated, Bea is no stranger to darkness. Though Bea and Piper both undergo major personality shifts by the end of their first seasons, Bea’s prior life, her family, and her meek disposition are truly and permanently eradicated by her stay in prison (and she hasn’t even had a hearing, nevermind trial and sentencing, as the first season closes).

Wentworth cast

I think I’m asking too much from Orange is the New Black. In fact, I know I am. It’s a mainstream show that focuses on the marginalized stories of women in prison, many of them LGBTQ. Shouldn’t that be enough subversion to keep me happy? Walking into the show, I’d already watched a couple of seasons of the British women in prison drama Bad Girls, and then after seeing Wentworth, I knew that I wanted more from the trope of women and prison than Orange is the New Black could provide. I didn’t want these important, often untold stories turned into humorous fluff in order to make them palatable to an audience. I didn’t want the complexity of the lives and struggles of these women to be minimized in order to keep them within their pre-determined stereotype boxes for the sake of simplicity and a huge, mainstream audience. I’ll keep watching OITNB, but I’ll keep turning to Wentworth for stories about ostracized women with fascinating psychology, depth of character, and complexity of emotion and motivation. 

41 thoughts on “‘Wentworth’ Makes ‘Orange is the New Black’ Look Like a Middle School Melodrama”

  1. I haven’t watched Wentworth (but now plan to), but on Orange is the new black… I read an article comparing the book (an auto-biography) and the show. Most of the characters from the show were based on the real account, so I guess a little credit is due. Of course, there are the odd embellishments, but it is a “TV” show.

    One of those is the lesbian relationships. The author of the book (who becomes Piper in the show) said that she saw very few “actual” lesbian relationships, including the one between her and her ex-girlfriend, which, according to her, didn’t happen. Most couples were like teenage friends, just lonely women, who kissed and held hands just for the sake of sanity.

    For me, the zany nature of Orange… helps to binge on the show (which is the Netflix model) and still get into the stories. I have been watching HBO’s Capadócia (HBO Mexico) and it’s very hard to binge, because it’s too much in every episode. It’s great, but it’s also exhausting.

    Oh, and just ’cause: my sister lived in Australia and, by her accounts, I think the ethnicity is probably well balanced. But, I haven’t been there myself or seen the show, so I’m just adding some second hand information here!

  2. Quick note – the lesbian-obsessed prison worker with a mail-order bride in OITNB is Healy, not Caputo.

    That aside, this is a fantastic article and I’ll have to check out Wentworth.

  4. Great Article. I will definitely be checking out Wentworth. I am a big fan of OITNB and am glad that we have shows that are telling these stories about women behind bars. I think OITNB does a good job of blending the comedic and dramatic and am hopeful that the next season will explore more the gritty underbelly of our prison system. I may however be changing my tune after viewing WentWorth. I’ll keep you posted!!!!

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  14. Great article, save the diversity comments. If you haven’t been to Australia then why would you even make that comment? It is plenty diverse for Australia. It is not the USA. It absolutely kills OITNB. I love the angle that there are multiple socio paths that are willing to eat their own as they climb for power, scary concept that makes you wonder how much of that occurs in actual society!

  15. Correction to article…In Orange is the New Black, it is not Caputo who has a mail order bride. Healy has a mail order bride!

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  18. Great review. It’s worth noting that making an assessment of racial/ethnic diversity on appearances alone is difficult in the Australian context, as not all Aboriginal peoples have darker skin, as in the case of the actor portraying Anderson. There’s obviously no way of telling with the Wentworth characters unless an individual character’s identity and backstory are explored in more detail, however one would hope that the show’s writers are on-top of the stats for Aboriginal overrepresentation in Australia’s prisons (up to 13 times the rate of non-indigenous peoples) and make efforts to reflect this reality in respectful and sensitive ways.

  19. Wentworth is 100 times better than OITNB. I cant wait each week for another episode of wentworth but OITNB i can take it or leave it. The best Australian production in a long time. I cant think of a btter one

  20. I agree heartily that Wentworth is miles better than OITNB (which I bailed out on after one tedious, insipid season), but why the political correctness? Not enough racial diversity among the prisoners? Among the small cast of main characters, there’s Doreen, a black gal; Will, a Maori prison guard; Kim, an oriental lesbian (with more orientals to come in season 3). How much racial diversity is enough? Maybe the author would prefer a quota system for TV shows. Also, why the cumbersome reference to Franky Doyle as “LGBTQ”? She’s gay.

    1. OITNB doesn’t pick up with its character build until season 2.
      The first season focuses almost primarily on Piper, the shows protagonist.
      After audience reviews, the writers realized people enjoyed the other characters a lot more, and they began writing in less and less of Piper.

  21. i gotta disagree – i really wanted to like wentworth because of it’s homegrown nature but it’s still just a soap filmed in some trumped up way too obvious studio. too much of a ‘waterrats’ & ‘wildside’ feel for me. aussie tv has already been there and done that. thumbs down for me

  22. Spent two weeks in Aus…only people of color I saw were two aboriginals…performing…so, yea, Aus not very racially diverse..but love show

  23. Yeah, I just picked up Wentworth and it is indeed compelling! I like to think of OITNB as the minimum security and Wentworth and the more serious Maximum Security Prison, therefore it is more serious, more dramatic. I really love both shows for different reasons. Let’s not make it the usual women against women competition…how ’bout we celebrate that we have TWO awesome female centric shows, one that gives the satisfaction of complex characters while the other gives us the joy of humor, eh? Celebrate peeps. Two is GREAT!

    1. I suppose…but OINTB just isn’t done well IMO. So imma go ahead and not celebrate it.

  25. Love both shows, but in all honesty, I still prefer the original Prisoner Cell Block H over the other two. I remember coming home from school every day back in the 70-80s, and rushing to the television to watch Prisoner. I really like Wentworth, but don’t like how they have distorted every character so much from the original. Most of all, I miss Lizzie’s wit and ‘dry’ sense of humor. Wonderful article Amanda Rodriguez!

  26. I’m not sure about Wentworth yet, but know that OITNB is very accurate in portraying the day to day procedures and routines in a dormitory style prison. I am a male that served 18 months in a medium security, dormitory style prison in Canada, and besides the obvious male vs female personalities/attitudes, the only difference between there and Litchfield was the amount of unsupervised space there was. If an area was not in a direct line of sight to a guard, it was monitored by camera. But almost all other aspects of the prison procedures rang true.

  27. Why did they reuse the cast names from the old soap opera when they have nothing to do with them on this show. Sound like a cheap exploitative way to get people to tune in.

    1. It’s a reimagining (remake/reboot) of Prisoner. They are all the same characters just their arcs have been modernized. Old story arcs have blended with the new. The old actors have met the new. They’ve given interviews. So far they all love it.

  29. One of the best series I’ve ever seen. Superbly written, shot, and directed. Kudos! I hope to see a Season 4.

  31. Caputo isn’t the obsessed one, nor does he have a Russian wife…I enjoy the comparison but let’s get the facts straight.

  32. Orange is the new Black is garbage.Compared to Wentworth!!..Total fire..i can’t get enough..

  33. Wentworth is a drama, not a comedy.
    Completely different genre between it and Orange is the New Black.

    Personally – I think it takes itself far too seriously.

  34. Still love this show in its 5th and final season. Bea is gone but the show is as great as ever!

  35. LOL. P.S Wentworth takes place in a maximum security prison, OITNB in a minimum security facility. Go learn the difference. There’s something very OTT and contrived about Wentworth.

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