Tuesday, June 13, 2017

“Riots and Bad Voiceovers: The New Season You’re Missing on NETFLIX”



“Riots and Bad Voiceovers: The New Season You’re Missing on NETFLIX”

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
(2013--, NR—definitely for MATURE audiences, 13 episodes, NETFLIX)


Well, kids, it’s that time of year again—time to binge another show.

I know, I know; it’s summer, time to go outside and enjoy the fresh air, get a tan, frolic in the fields and roll down hills and other outdoorsy crap.  But the girls of Litchfield Penitentiary are back, and goodness, do they need your attention.


Season five picks up exactly where the last one left off—which makes sense for the series, as the fourth picked up right where the third ended.  Only this time, it’s at the very start of a prison riot.  Following last season’s shocking death, the women-only prison is in an uproar, and the girls are taking hostages.  I normally do not do spoilers, and you won’t find any in this review.  Just know that the season takes place over the course of three days, so it is faster paced than normal.

Also, there are more technical issues that I found kind of distracting.  I’ll try to be brief…

1)      Continuity: you ever watch a movie where a glass of water someone is holding is half empty in one shot, full in the next, and then down to a third?  That’s continuity.  All I’ll say is watch Red’s sleeve.  Or rather, what she has up her sleeve.  There are other examples this season, but that drove me freaking nuts.
2)      Voice overs: in the first two episodes alone, the re-recordings are horrible.  Audibly, it sounds as if the actors are talking through a paper-towel tube, or a really old cell phone.
3)      Editing: also in the first two episodes are three or four extra seconds to scenes that have no reason being there.  Honestly; television isn’t known for extra-long scenes.  It was like someone forgot to yell “cut!”, and everyone just kept staring at each other a while longer.
4)      Writing: yes, television (even in this new age of streaming television) is a way to escape the ordinary.  But that doesn’t mean you expect abject whimsy in a show about a woman’s prison.  While TV is a break from reality, you typically want something that adheres to some semblance of normal physics and laws.  And this season breaks a couple of those laws.
5)      Time: we are well past the point of the stars being able to pull off the “ten years ago” look needed for the flashbacks.  There are several instances where this looks and feels horrible.  Putting a wig on Danielle Brooks (“Taystee”) and pretending she is eighteen years old no longer works—nothing against Ms. Brooks, but the actress is almost ten years older than that.  I’m not making a comment about her age or her looks (she’s really pretty hot); what I’m saying is that I would have a hard time pulling off forty at this point, and there could have been more of an effort to try and make her look longer than throwing long hair on her head.


Now, the positives in this season are many.  The aforementioned Danielle Brooks does a wonderful job as Taystee comes into her own, finding a voice for the character that we have only seen hints of previously.

But my favorite, once again, is two-time Golden Globe winner Uzo Aduba as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren.  Having already won two Primetime Emmy’s for her portrayal of a woman suffering from mental disorder(s), her Suzanne is a constant and needed shift in tempo and heart.  She perfectly captures the hardships and heartbreaks of Suzanne’s struggles, pulling you into her trips with a gentle hand, showing you how her world really is, then roughly shoving you away to bear witness to her insanity.  I would expect a third win for the job she does this season.


Everyone else in the cast is great, but Ms. Aduba and Ms. Brooks get the most screen time, and this season is the better for it.  As disjointed and lackadaisical as the first episode seems (honestly, for a show in its fifth season, you would think the people behind the scenes would know how to carry momentum from one season to the next), give it a few episodes to get used to the many, many different plots to catch up with the rest of the season.  Not the worst season, and not the best; but if you watch this for any reason at all, do it for Taystee and Crazy Eyes.  Artists, I tell ya.

Season Four Grade: B
Series Grade: B


-- T.S. Kummelman

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