Orange is the New Black Season 4 Review

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Season 4 of Orange is the New Black is the best of the series. It fights back against criticism of the third season (which I actually liked) with a darker tone, a weightier central arc, and a renewed focus on the series’ central characters. And yet, simply calling this year’s run of episodes the best of an already-great show still feels like damning it with faint praise. This season is the most socially relevant piece of television released this year, and probably the strongest overall as well.

Without going too far into specifics (although I will later in a spoiler-section), this season is far more concerned with race and power dynamics than previous seasons. The women’s prison setting of Orange is the New Black provides the perfect scenario to delve into such topics, which have been touched on in the past but never to the degree that they are here. The show’s complex characters and continued appeal to empathy help to reveal how complicated such matters often are. While a few characters are cast as outright villains, the ones who cause the most damage this year are ostensibly decent people, thrust into difficult positions that they are in no way ready for, or simply doing what they believe is right.

There’s also a heavy focus on the damage that large, profit-driven corporations can have when in charge of sensitive scenarios and environments. We follow Caputo as he literally hops into bed with the corporate infrastructure now in charge of Litchfield and sees just how out-of-touch these policy-makers can be. It can be hard to rationalize how one’s decisions affect actual people when you’re not right there with them, seeing their fallout firsthand. A visit to a prison industry convention is especially depressing (and likely fairly accurate), and seeing Caputo’s most honest efforts turn into an insidious attempt to obtain free labor is soul-crushing.

But the corporation’s decisions aren’t necessarily evil, just disinterested in human lives and driven to boost the bottom-line. If the season has one major message, it’s that most of the world’s injustices stem from neglectful policies and systemic failures rather than single human beings. We’re all capable of great and terrible things, as we see in the inmates, but the largest travesties are the result of entire communities that just don’t care.

That the show is able to balance such weighty ideas with its more light-hearted and comedic moments is a testament to how well-constructed the season is. The writers are excellent with tone, knowing when to keep the comedy and the drama separate, and when to undercut one with another. A lot of this year’s biggest moments are set up well in advance in the backgrounds of seemingly unrelated plotlines. When everything finally does explode, it feels like the culmination of everything that has come before despite being a relatively random event. It’s simply terrific writing.

I really shouldn’t talk much more about this season before delving into spoilers, but I should note that season 4 is still enjoyable for the same reasons previous years were. The actresses who make up the cast are still consistently excellent, the direction is solid (with guest director Matthew Weiner of Mad Men fame making a contribution), and its interest in the humanity of its characters is still priority #1. But season 4 jumps ahead of the pack by being the most powerful and socially relevant run of episodes yet, as well as the most perfectly crafted.

SPOILERS AHEAD

 

Killing off Poussey was a masterstroke on behalf of the writers because it hurts. Unlike many of the characters, who had some sort of involvement in the year’s racially-motivated gangs and clubs or were more directly harmed by the effects of the corporation’s new prison guards, she existed largely on the outskirts this year, falling in love, meeting her idol, and generally existing for herself.

In most shows, Poussey’s final scene with Judy King, when she’s promised a job, would have been a telltale sign that she was going to die. But this is another area in which Orange is the New Black’s more varied tone works in its favor; not every happy thing that happens to a character has to be a death sentence. That moment could have capped off a generally good year for the character.

So when we see Poussey, a character we really like with few reservations, get inadvertently crushed by Bayley, ANOTHER character who we’ve been conditioned to like, it’s difficult to process. It all happens so fast, and is such a freak accident, that it feels unfair. This wasn’t an intentional act of violence, or the result of a longtime feud. It’s completely inadvertent and surprising, just as this violence tends to be in real life.

Strangely enough, Orange is the New Black’s fairness and empathy for all of the characters involved is its most commendable and controversial trait this year. In a social climate which seems to be solely divided between hating and supporting the police force, the show presents a scenario in which both everybody and nobody is at fault. The viewers find themselves simultaneously sympathizing with Tastee, whose outrage at Caputo’s statement is completely justified, and with Caputo, who is just trying to protect a kid who fell into the wrong profession. The fact that it succeeds is damn near a miracle.

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