To the max
After a sometimes absurd set of storylines last season, Orange is the New Black is returning for its sixth run with renewed fervour and an even grimmer new location, writes REBECCA BALLOCH
Season five of addictive prison dramedy Orange is the New Black ended with the unknown, as Litchfield inmates were herded into buses off to an undisclosed destination.
Meanwhile, 10 others, including Alex (Laura Prepon), Piper (Taylor Schilling), Red (Kate Mulgrew) and Nicky (Natasha Lyonne) were hiding in Frieda’s (Dale Soules) surprisingly spacious and decked-out bunker. As the final, frantic scenes rolled, their secret was about to be busted as an emergency response team broke into the hidden space.
Now, with season six about to kick off on Netflix, the award-winning show is about to push a reset button, of sorts.
With new faces set to tackle new storylines, and some of the old favourite characters taking up less screen time, things won’t be like before. But series creator Jenji Kohan ( Weeds) promises it’s still an ensemble show.
“It’s gluttony – I like a little piece of this, a little piece of that,” she said in a recent interview.
But as characters such as Red, Piper and Taystee (Danielle Brooks) adjust to a new environment in Litchfield’s dreaded maximum-security prison, a fresh, brutal and confronting new reality dawns.
Brooks, who was scintillating as a woman hellbent on affecting change to the deeply corrupt prison system last season, has perhaps been more revealing about the aftermath of last season’s riot and deaths, describing this new batch of episodes as “different”.
“There’s no up from there. There’s nowhere you can go that’s a positive,” she said.
“So you’re definitely going to see all of the girls trying to figure out how to get out of this rabbit hole they’ve created.
“Who is loyal to whom? Who is standing alone? Who is motivated by their own personal will to get out of prison? Who lies and who tells the truth? All of that stuff will come out this season,” Brooks revealed.
After the scattergun approach of season five, which took place over an intense three-day time frame as Litchfield disintegrated into chaos (and death), creator Kohan admitted that some of the plots weren’t that successful, calling them “fan fiction.”
Kohan’s co-producer Tara Herrmann was more forgiving.
“It wasn’t anyone’s fault,” she said. “It was just a new dynamic – people were attached to the characters as viewers, not as creators.”
This time around, only two of the “new” writers from last season remain. Mean- while, some fresh characters enter the fold – women who have a firm grip on the shiny, isolating environment in maximum-security.
Henny Russell and Mackenzie Phillips play archenemy sisters Carol and Barbara, two ringleaders whom the newcomers will have to deal with. Other than that, there are no big spoilers here to tickle the imagination.
When Netflix released the series for preview viewing, it came with a long list of plotlines and developments not to mention. In any case, the season has a lot more impact when you delve into it blind.
Powerful, thought-provoking and spiked with its usual dose of very dark humour, tune in for a moving experience as loyalties and beliefs are tested. With the show green-lighted until season seven, pundits believe this will probably be the build-up to the OITNB’s final hurrah. Orange is the New Black Streaming now on Netflix