![]() Inequality, racism and poverty = crime, counters OITNB, and that’s only the half of it. ![]() This is a show that takes everything many of us have been taught about the system of crime and punishment in America, and has dared to suggest that it’s far more complicated than crime = punishment. People who deserve comeuppance don’t always get it, and bad things happen to good people all of the time. One reason so many of us have been drawn to the series is because, for the most part, OITNB does not insist on a happy ending, on a narrative where we learn that we’re all human and ultimately, mostly good at the end of the day. But Orange is the New Black is not like those other shows, and has no excuse for the cowardice exhibited in the final two episodes of the fourth season. I have seen some shows, like Scandal and The Good Wife, have great seasons and then fail to deliver on this front. Given its topics and characters, however, it did need to be a show capable of delivering a bold and honest narrative about race and the Black Lives Matter movement in America. No, this is not the OITNB of old, but it didn’t need to be, nor should we have expected it to be. That tragicomic blend that once made it difficult to properly categorize the show started to wane, somewhere around the episode where we watched one of the most innocent inmates make a horrifying decision: baby mouse or ten dead flies. In some ways, the same can be said for Season Four. Season Three offered a different tone from what we’d seen before, but the storytelling didn’t necessarily suffer. Last year, there were complaints that OITNB was falling off-too concerned with Mommy issues and other seemingly smaller narratives to be as interesting as, say, the memorable season before, which gave us the great Vee Parker (Lorraine Toussaint in an incredible turn as the Litchfield villain, or el jefe). But OITNB has always surprised us with its turns in subject and scope. This was another strong season of a typically great show, although it was a very different season from what we’ve grown used to. Well, to be fair, it didn’t all go wrong. Moore) had a meaningful conversion to another religion, that resulted in some of the most powerful scenes about faith on TV. This is the show where a black woman (my personal favorite character, Black Cindy Tova, portrayed by the great Adrienne C. ![]() This is the show that has given us Laverne Cox/Sophia Burset. So when I started seeing headlines declaring that the show had made some questionable decisions, that it had failed its black audience in some way, I admit to being a bit incredulous. Critic Matt Brennan, who covers the show with episodic reviews at Paste, recently pulled on Albert Camus to delve into the complexities of the series, and I have written about the unique brand of diversity the show supports and the overall importance of seeing these phenomenal women (the actors, and the characters they play) on TV. ![]() This article contains spoilers from Orange is the New Black Season Four.įour seasons in, and Orange Is The New Black continues to be an exciting and powerful series that does what few shows can, finding that difficult balance between humor and drama. ![]()
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