“Felonies and Abject Incarcerations: The New Season You’re Missing on NETFLIX ” - ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

“Felonies and Abject Incarcerations: The New Season You’re Missing on NETFLIX ”

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

I had issues with Season Three, because, well, Piper was becoming a dick.

No easy way to say it, really. I was growing tired of her, despite the fact that the show was giving us plenty of Piper Interludes with separate plotlines concerning the other female prisoners of Litchfield. But by the end, I was ready to write off the show just based on the way her character had progressed to the Dark Side. She wasn’t even pulling a full-on Vader—she was more like an evil Ewok.

Season Four picks up right where the last left off—with the prisoners frolicking in a lake they gain access to via a whole in the fence. And, with Piper still being a jerk. Yet this season is smarter than the last, and thus more rewarding. Piper gets a taste of her own medicine, and we get the old Piper back: an insecure mess, just the way we liked her in the first two seasons.

Besides the usual Piper storylines (which, as usual, can go from relatable to what-the-monkey-testicle-just-happened in the blink of an eye), the major plots involve new prison inmate and television celebrity Judy King (played with a heavy dose of frivolity by Blair Brown), the budding romance between Poussey and Soso, a new job for Tasty, and the struggle of a warden in way over his head.

This season is also the most powerful. There is a major character death, which I won’t reveal here. It has already been spread all over the Internet, and I think it is a shame that spoilers for a show that is released with every episode available are so joyfully revealed. In this regard, social media can really suck swordfish nipples. Yet the death is meaningful, and the writing this year is sharp enough and smart enough to know how to handle the impact it has on the prison. It is also the funniest season yet; where the first was all about establishing characters, families, and back stories, this continues in that vein—but also gives us a peek into the past lives of the guards themselves, offering up the question as to whether they, too, are prisoners.

Whereas last season ended on a high note, this one ends with a definite cliffhanger. Netflix has already announced the release date of the fifth season, which this time around, I am actually looking forward to. It took me a few episodes this time around to stop asking myself “why is Piper even still in the prison, and WHO FREAKING CARES?!?”, yet get there I did. This surpasses the priors because the stories are better, the performances are stronger now more than ever before, and, even when the tides turn concerning the dominant “families” within the prison, it is done in a (mostly) believable way. Thank you for this one, Netflix.

Season Four Standouts: Lolly (the amazing Lori Petty), Poussey (Samira Wiley), Doggett (Taryn Manning), and, of course, Crazy Eyes (two-time Golden Globe winner Uzo Aduba)

Season Four Grade: A-

Series Grade: B

-- T.S. Kummelman