‘OITNB’ is back, but its messages are mixed
Season 5 focuses on spectacle over substance
Orange Is the New Black’s fifth season (streaming Friday on Netflix, out of four) was supposed to fine-tune the show’s focus: It takes place over just a few days during a riot at Litchfield Prison. But the condensed timeline has made the sprawling series more confusing than ever.
Part of the problem with Season 5, at least in the first six episodes made available for review, is that the show wrote itself into a corner in Season 4.
In a clumsy attempt to incorporate the Black Lives Matter movement, Orange killed off its most sympathetic character, Poussey (Samira Wiley) when a prison guard accidentally suffocated her in a moment that evoked the death of Eric Garner and other black people killed by police. The shocking death was criticized for exploiting the movement last summer. But if fans hoped the show would reckon with what it had done, they will be sorely disappointed.
As usual, Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger. After a press conference addressing Poussey’s death failed to even mention her name, a riot broke out, and inmate Daya (Dascha Polanco) pointed a gun at one of the most abusive guards (Michael Torpey). In the new episodes, the resolution comes swiftly, but the damage to the show has already been done.
Orange spent most of its run humanizing the inmates — flashbacks often refuse to identify the crime that sent the inmates to Litchfield, as they are much more than that — and yet the fifth season starts off portraying them as violent, vengeful and mob-like. Even after the first outburst is settled, the series would rather revel in the spectacle caused by the inmates taking control of the prison than ask bigger questions about what that sliver of power means for them.
Although the show is still watchable, some episodes are too dark. The women reciprocate the abuse they’ve been subjected to by the guards, and in one scene, this retribution rises to the level of sexual assault. What is the show saying when, in a room full of diverse faces that it worked so hard to give voice to, a group of Latina women perpetuates the violence and a white woman is the only one to stand up and say no? Similarly, a subplot that involves the media mistaking two neo-Nazis for Muslim terrorists feels forced and has broader implications than the show examines.
Taystee (Danielle Brooks) is one of the few characters who takes the riot, the protest for inmates’ rights and her friend’s death seriously. And Brooks, who turns in great work, at times seems to be acting in a totally different show, expressing outrage and confusion at the more ridiculous aspects of the riot. Her story reflects the season’s tonal whiplash: She makes a powerful speech honoring Poussey in one episode and then, soon after, seizes junk food from her fellow inmates in a scene that’s played for laughs.
Some moments shine through, especially an episode that gives Janae (Vicky Jeudy) a distinctive voice. Janae appeared in the series premiere but has never really had her own story, apart from a flashback that showed her rise and fall as a student athlete. A new, more powerful flashback gives her character more dimension and explains her devotion to the protest. She argues that the inmates, especially women of color, have to tell their own stories of abuse and oppression and have to use the riot to make a larger point about injustice.
If only the show listened to her.