“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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