I’m finished binge watching the new season and I’m kind of “meh.” I also found it boring and somewhat forced in many parts, the riot plot gets stretched out waaaay too far.
I can’t get the spoiler boxes to work, so I’ll space down a lot in case you need to skip:
-Ditto on Boo not fitting into Caputo’s suit. I spent altogether too much time being bothered by this as well as the CO uniforms fitting some of the women who were way too big to fit in those shirts.
-I found many of the flashbacks unnecessary and overlong. The one with the Af-Am girl visiting the rich white kids’ school was really preachy and contrived (I can’t remember the character’s name).
-Bad me, but I’m sick of the Poussey storyline (and who in Hell would name their kid this??) I’m also off the Piper and Alex characters, but I could watch Kate Mulgrew read the telephone book aloud for 13 hours and be delighted.
-How many bullets could that handgun possibly hold? I think there were more shots fired than one magazine could hold?
-MCC-run or not, I doubt SWAT wouldn’t storm the prison for three whole days. And I seriously doubt that the cops would let a crowd anywhere near the prison, let alone have civilians standing just outside the front door behind flimsy parade gates.
I’ve found that when I start noticing stupid little things in series it’s a sign that I’m losing interest. Last season was okay, I loved the series through season three. I tapered off “Weeds” at about the same point, when stuff got really weird and tangential.
I agree, this duo was fantastic and I ate up all of their scenes. Maritza is drop-dead GORGEOUS, I didn’t realize this when she was a more peripheral character.
I thought it was kind of amusing because I have actually seen an almost-all-white (Effie was black, but that’s it) high school production of “Dreamgirls” in real life. Watching a white teenage boy singing “Got me a Cadillac car” was pretty awkward.
Re-watching the season now, forgot to mention this the first time around… Ouija’s impressions in episode 7 were fantastic. Red was OK, but Lorna and Nicky were spot on. She nailed the voice, accents, and even facial expressions and physical mannerisms.
I think Flaca’s more attractive, but then, I like tall girls, and her makeup style.
Janae, and I liked her focus episode. She and Alison have been the saving grace of the black girl group for me so far this season. (Since Suzanne is peripheral.)
I’m past episode 7, at this point…enjoying it more than most of you. I can’t argue against any of the criticisms, but, hey. The utter ridiculous of the riot turning into basically an anime school festival pleases me in so many ways. (Especially Ouija’s impressions. Damn, the actress is good.) [Edit - he, I see I’ve been beaten to that comment.]
Could do with less Black Cindy and Taystee - though I think Taystee hit a turning point in this episode, so I may like her better going forward…Black Cindy is probably unsalvageable at this point, though.
Frieda’s just gone straight out Mary-Sue, ain’t she?
Now they have the storyline for next season: The Aftermath. Piper’s scheduled to be released soon, and they can’t prove who did what during this whole mess. Do they punish everyone? Will she be released? I’m not thrilled about this last season, but I’m curious how they will handle it all.
Just finished it last night. If there wasn’t already buzz about a 6th season I would swear this was the finale. There really isn’t a compelling cliffhanger and except for the fate of Red & Co. which feels less urgent and more " who will negotiate a contract to return if there is a next season?" . It feels like they pretty much wrapped everything up so fans will have some satisfaction in the case it doesn’t get renewed. (spoilered because it refers to the last scene)
I can’t decide if Uzo Adoba was compelling or hammy. A little of both, I think, but I blame that more on the writing. Nobody plays mentally ill better than she, but it got to be the same scene over and over.
I think I hated Piper’s character more than ever this time around. At first it seemed like she was going to remain on the periphery but by the end we still had to suffer her sanctimoniousness. Alex is 10 times the badass that she is and her playing protector was unbelievable and kind of obnoxious. I don’t give a damn about the fate of their relationship and the fact that they’re now engaged added to the feeling of a wrap up.
Was glad to see Blanca get her makeover. I had seen pictures of Laura Gomez out of character so I knew she is actually very pretty but it was nice she got to have some time looking (mostly) like her real self. And again, feels like the kind of thing that signals she (or the show) isn’t coming back.
Not sure how the storyline will progress. As one character said “there’s no way any of them will be allowed back at Litchfield” (if it’s even still operable). Do we think the format will now be small snippets of each of the characters’ new situation at different prisons? Once Piper is released, can we please be done with her? I don’t mind a few comedic moments with her but I really really don’t give a damn about her inner soul.
Finished the season last night and I remain mostly unimpressed. I didn’t feel like the end was much of a cliffhanger at all. Everyone in that pool is a pretty central character, so I don’t think they’re going to go in spraying bullets.
And I agree I’m done with Piper. I can never get over her wanting to be with Alex in the first place. Hello, she’s the reason you’re in jail!
Did not like Red’s Russian flashback. We already have Red’s backstory, and it fits with the character. Not saying this didn’t fit but the actress just…it seemed like a bunch of nothing. Nyet.
So, Piscatelli is going to torture Red, and…he does it by cutting off her hair. Now he’s a mean guy and he was mean enough, getting them all and dragging them in there “to watch.” But this was just kinda WTF.
In general, it seemed like a lot of padding in this episode. I think Flaca and Maritza are kind of cute in the way they just wanna be youtube makeup stars during the riot, but too much. Really got tired of the meth-heads, too.
Loved Boo rocking that suit, though. Loved the burning of the chips. Loved Taystee negotiating with Fig.
(I have got to find some real-life friends who can help me be strong and watch one episode a week to make this last the summer! Uh, season six. But really, discussing each episode as it happens? That was half the fun of things like Mad Men.)
As to who’s renewed, I think they’ve already got greenlit through a season 7, which is probably two seasons too many. But aside from Piper, who (sadly) probably has to be there, I’m guessing they are wide open as to what talent comes back. The storyline could go a lot of places from where it ended up.
In S4’s thread I bitched about Red’s (IMHO) over done accent. Since then I watched Shameless most recent season and noticed the actress that plays Mickey’s Russian wife had pretty much the same accent and I believe she is played by an actual Russian*. Then I rewatched The Sopranos for maybe the fifth or six time and noticed Tony’s Russian girlfriends sounded similar. Again, Ukrainian and Russian actresses.
So, apologies to Kate Mulgrew.
Nope, born in Long Beach, CA according to the internet.
This is a show I watch only because my wife likes it. The first season was meh, but every second of every minute of every hour of every single episode of every season from 2 on is absolutely excruciating. It is so unbelievable unrealistic and poorly acted it’s indescribably bad. When we sit down for the night and she says “can we watch an episode of Orange-n-Black?” (what she calls it) I just cringe.
They didn’t say anything about TV shows in the wedding vows!
LOL at the comments. I was a corrections officer for 6 years. I watched the first two seasons of Orange, the behavior exhibited by the offenders and staff was very similar to where I worked, except we housed male offenders.
One wonders how our society has created so many experts that know so much that isn’t so.
I always say the same when threads are started regarding police actions.
During my first career as a LEO I was a Deputy for a large metropolitan Sheriffs Office. Deps routinely got taken off the road (usually after pissing off the wrong brass :rolleyes:) and assigned to working in either the Jail or the House of Corrections with the lowly CO’s. About 2 of my 25 years were spent working in both. While neither a prison, the HOC was pretty similar to the facility shown on OITNB. There were no cells (except for the hole) just dorms.
I can attest that few of the hi-jinx shown on that show were happening at our institution. Activities and movements were very tightly controlled and recorded.
All Russian-American accents sound fake. I can’t explain it. But Red was one of my favorite characters.
So is there any compelling reason to watch this season? I really liked the first two (?), then got bored around about the time Piper got Alex sent back her way. I did love the bits about the admin changeover, but I’m weird like that. Also, I cancelled Netflix last month over frankly just watching everything on Amazon, so…I guess let me know if the series gets good again.
pkbites: Yowza! Well, my husband loves bad b-movie horror and Japanese monster movies (ugh) so I just read when he has an itch for those. I can always find something good to read.
But Red was one of my favorite characters.