**There may be spoilers throughout, but if you’re caught up through season four, feel free to continue.**
Any good “Orange Is the New Black” devotee knows that the series, created by “Weeds” mastermind Jenji Kohan, is greatly responsible for ushering in the “Netflix and chill” era. The popular streaming service revolutionized the way we consume TV by making all episodes of a season available at once and cutting out that pesky waiting thing. This resulted is what we now refer to as “binge-watching,” essentially marathon-viewing of your favorite show, or the entertainment equivalent of opening and finishing an entire bag of potato chips.
But this model wouldn’t work without content worth becoming a shut-in for, and “Orange Is the New Black” hit a cultural nerve, offering something much-needed in the pop zeitgeist: a show about deeply complicated women played by a diverse array of actresses of all colors, ages, and sizes. A deft mix of comedy and drama, the show became an unlikely hit, and viewers became passionately invested in the ladies of Litchfield Prison, a cluster of rich and unique characters from all walks of life who have rarely, if ever, been shown on TV before.
The trail-blazing series has stumbled occasionally along its way, but the fifth season might be the show’s shakiest yet. Often unfocused and wildly uneven, the series remains as addictive as ever, both brilliant and maddening in equal measure, tapping into our collective cultural anxieties and bewildering us with its intentions. The season regularly feels like a bombastic meditation on our current political and social climate, and with the themes of power, justice, and protest ringing loudly throughout, “Orange Is the New Black” is more relevant than ever, and it also may be at a creative crossroads.
Tell me about “Orange Is the New Black” as though I’ve never seen it.
The dramedy is based on the memoir of the same name by Piper Kerman. The series starts out as your typical fish-out-of-water story as Piper (Taylor Schilling) begins her 15-month prison sentence at Litchfield Prison after she’s caught money laundering for her ex-girlfriend Alex (Laura Prepon), who is snarky and street smart, and also serving a prison sentence at Litchfield. Piper is a self-proclaimed WASP, a privileged Manhattanite who’s planning on launching a soap line with her best friend Harper and begs her fiancé Larry (Jason Biggs) not to watch any episodes of “Mad Men” while she’s away. A likable if not slightly irritating entry point to the series, we follow her as she learns the hard rules and unofficial codes of being an inmate at a women’s prison.
So that’s what the series is about?
Well, kind of and not exactly. Kohan brilliantly shifts the overarching narrative from Piper’s entrance into prison life to a much more sprawling exploration of race, gender, and sexuality by rightly expanding the series to focus on the much more interesting characters she’s serving time with. We learn about these colorful women through flashbacks, inviting us to discover who they were before landing behind bars and in many instances, showing us how they got there. They also play an important part in Piper’s growth. She’s warned that in prison, races stick together, and quickly learns to keep her opinions to herself after being served a tampon sandwich for complaining about the food. The other inmates call her “Taylor Swift” and try to starve her, but it’s not until she stands up for herself that she earns their respect, and learns that she may have more in common with these criminals than she initially thought.
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That sounds quite interesting. Tell me about all the other characters.
That, my friend, is quite a daunting task, so let’s keep our introductions to just some of the main players throughout the series. The standouts include “Red” (Kate Mulgrew), the chilly and maternal Head Chef and leader of the group Red’s Girls; Nicky (Natasha Lyonne), a sarcastic and sweet-faced drug addict with a considerable sexual appetite; Suzanne (Uzo Aduba), also known as “Crazy Eyes,” emotionally frenetic and prone to bouts of anger and frustration; Gloria (Selenis Levya), protective mother figure who runs the Spanish Harlem and takes over the kitchen from Red in the third season; and Sophia (Laverne Cox), a friendly and warm trans woman who does hair and makeup for the inmates.
Is that almost everyone?
It’s not even close, but don’t worry, we’ll touch down on some of the other important players.
Okay, what do I need to know about last season to watch the current one?
A new set of unstable guards takes over a broken Litchfield hoping to restore order, with commanding and borderline sociopathic Captain Piscatella (Brad William Henke) as their leader. After a season of injustice, the women stage a prison-wide protest, and fan favorite Poussey (Samira Wiley) was suffocated to death by one of the white guards. As her death sent shockwaves through the prison, the crime was subsequently covered up, leading to an all-out riot. The season ends with inmate Daya (Dascha Polanco) getting control of one of the guard’s guns and threatening to shoot him as surrounding inmates urge her on.
That sounds very heavy. So, what happens this season?
If you think that’s heavy, you should check out what’s happening in the real world! The new season takes place just over three days and picks up right where the last one left off, with the inmates taking control of the prison and creating a provisional society for themselves while keeping the outer world at bay. With the guards held hostage, the inmates work to negotiate better conditions for themselves.
Hmmm, let’s get into the details. What’s the best part about this season?
That would be, without a doubt, Danielle Brooks, who plays “Taystee,” Poussey’s grieving best friend. She grounds the season with a triumphant performance, reminding us why the riot started and what the inmates are fighting for. Although the 2018 Emmy’s aren’t for quite a while, her work in the episode “Sing It, White Effie” is something they should remember. And after a frustratingly meandering first half, the show finally comes into sharper focus, ramping up the frenzy in a way that affirms we’re headed somewhere, even if we’re not sure about the ride. The show also does an interesting job of showing us how chaos affects some of the inmates, most notably Suzanne, who yearns for the routine and order of her old prison life.
What doesn’t work about the season?
Now more than ever, it’s time for the show to decide whether it’s a comedy or drama, especially if it’s going to continue to explore the murkiest parts of the human condition. The oscillating between broad humor and intense drama has worked well in the past, but a “Bridesmaids”-like diarrhea scene bumped up against a Black Lives Matter speech doesn’t gel tonally. We also need to lose the flashbacks, a device that once deepened our understanding of what drives a character now feels like an obligatory distraction that gets in the way of an episode’s pacing. Let’s save them for new characters and only when they offer a meaningful glimpse into their motivation as it relates to the narrative. Piscatella’s flashbacks provided an intriguing look into a man haunted and changed by his past, but they come too late and don’t justify his violent and sadistic nature at Litchfield.
So is this the worst season of “Orange Is the New Black”?
That’s a tough call to make, but it’s certainly the least cohesive. I would argue that season 3 of the series felt equally as disjointed (remember that used panties business storyline? Yeesh.), but after such a powerful fourth season, this one disappoints more than it satisfies.
Let’s cut to the chase: should I watch this?
It’s hard to imagine that ardent fans who have been with the show from the beginning would duck out on this season, and they shouldn’t. But new viewers hoping to start with the current season (or even got hooked with the last one) without catching up on the series in total may find it difficult to get through. However, there’s nothing else like it on TV, and even when it drops in quality or goes off the rails, it’s impossible to imagine abandoning this completely original series. As messy as the fifth season is, it still achieves moments of greatness that remind you what the show could do when it’s at its best. It’s a beautiful disaster that you can’t turn away from and one that you want to follow to see where it goes next, even if the future looks bleak. [B]
“Orange Is The New Black” season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.
