If the character Larry Bloom from Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black were a dessert, he would be an expired jar of rice pudding. He is unnecessary, unloved, boring and he leaves viewers wondering why he is still there.
Thankfully, it seems this out-of-date dessert is finally being tossed in the trash.
Jason Biggs, who played Larry on the show for the past two seasons, will not be making an appearance in the Netflix original next season, which is set to premiere sometime in June.
“Larry will not be in season three,” Biggs told the New York Daily News. “But there’s always a possibility he can come back.”
Orange Is the New Black is different from most hit shows because the main character doesn’t necessarily have the most interesting storyline. In fact, as the series progressed through its sophomore season, I found myself barely caring about Taylor Schilling’s character, Piper Chapman, at all, making her ex-fiance Larry’s storyline even more superfluous.
The other vibrant and beautifully written female characters who inhabit Litchfield Penitentiary make it hard to focus on the drab neediness that Piper and the baggage of her privilege — including her ex-fiance — exude. As the show progresses, viewers are able to delve into the lives of these other characters, enthralling women who see the worst aspects of the American prison system.
And that makes Larry all the worse, because he’s just a narcissistic man-baby.
He tries to further his own writing career at the expense of his imprisoned lover. He then goes on to engage in relations with his ex-lover’s best friend, knowing full well that his ex-fiance will inevitably have to deal with this information while coping with the hundreds of other trials that come with being behind bars.
Basically, if Larry isn’t on screen being boring, he’s on screen doing something absurdly annoying. Plus, Larry isn’t a character viewers love to hate (like the devious Pennsatucky or the cunning Vee); Larry is a character viewers hate to hate. He isn’t necessarily a devious villain, but he is far from being a lovable guy. As the show progressed, he just seemed to take more and more time away from characters with actual purpose.
Larry wasn’t always such a nuisance. In the very beginning of season one, Larry was an important aspect of Piper’s life. He was a vaguely interesting and occasionally amusing WASP-y contrast to the diverse group of women portrayed in the prison.
Now, it seems, the writers have made the right choice in giving this character the boot. With Larry’s exit, the show’s third season hopefully will be able to focus more on the plethora of interesting characters who call Litchfield their (temporary) home.
