JAILHOUSE ROCKED
An intense new season of Orange Is the New Black follows a prison riot over three chaotic and calamitous days
Season 5 of Orange Is the New Black is a real riot.
And not a “laugh riot,” even though we all know this show can be hilarious at times. It’s a literal riot. At a women’s penitentiary, no less.
As lead character and inmate Piper Chapman, played by Taylor Schilling, asks, “If this is a real riot, do you think this is a step forwards or backwards for equality?”
Good question. Lateral move, I guess.
The new season of OITNB, which debuts June 9 on Netflix, consists of 13 episodes, as has been the norm for this innovative series. But the season’s entire story covers only three days behind bars.
“We take air, and if we pressurize it, it causes explosions, right?” said Uzo Aduba, who plays Suzanne (Crazy Eyes) Warren.
“At the end of season 4, we saw things pressurized. And we pick up at that place.”
Life at Litchfield is about to speed up and slow down, simultaneously.
The speeding up comes from how quickly things can escalate in these situations.
Riots — be they in prisons or in public streets — often bring out the worst in human behaviour, both from the perpetrators and from those who are trying to suppress.
People act differently in groups than they do when they’re alone, especially if they’re angry or scared, or both.
The slowing down comes from the decision by OITNB creator Jenji Kohan to focus on such a short period of time for the entirety of season 5.
Now, a cynic might say that it’s a convenient way to drag things out a little bit, too.
The series — based on Piper Kerman’s 2010 memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison — already has been renewed through season 7. As season 5 begins, lead character Chapman supposedly has only three months remaining on her sentence. You can start doing the math on some of this stuff.
Then again, who knows what’s going to happen with the fictionalized version of Piper?
“She might get out of prison,” said Schilling, being purposely playful.
But those are considerations for down the line. Right now, we have a riot on our hands, people. Let’s stay alert.
With Netflix’s standard practice of releasing complete seasons of its original shows all at once, it has the psychological effect of making it seem as if there’s a lot more time between seasons than with oldstyle one-episode-per-week TV.
The point being, season 4 was released almost a full calendar year ago. In recent months, online hackers got hold of a good chunk of season 5 (reportedly 10 of the 13 episodes) and demanded ransom money.
When that money apparently wasn’t paid, the episodes were released on certain file-sharing sites in late April.
Many analysts have pointed out that there was little chance Netflix ever was going to pay up, and the hackers probably knew this.
So they likely obtained and released the episodes merely as a giant publicity stunt, to instil fear, which supposedly will encourage smaller companies to pay up in the future.
Hackers aside, if you haven’t watched OITNB since last spring, you may have forgotten exactly where things left off.
So I’ll issue a SPOILER ALERT here, in case you’re behind and haven’t yet watched all of season 4.
Tensions at Litchfield have been rising since the death of petite inmate Poussey Washington (Samira Wiley) when she was improperly restrained by an inexperienced guard.
While the authorities categorize it as a tragic accident, obviously Poussey’s friends see it very differently.
They think it was murder, and they want justice. Or if justice is unavailable, at least they want revenge.
You knew trouble was coming when a nervous and reactionary guard named Thomas (Humps) Humphrey (Michael Torpey) smuggled a gun into the facility and hid it in his sock. At the first sign of confrontation, he of course instinctively reached for the gun, but he fumbled it, and it wound up in the hands of inmate Dayanara (Daya) Diaz (Dascha Polanco).
With dozens of screaming inmates gathered around, season 4 ended with Humps on his knees, and Daya pointing the gun at him. That’s exactly where season 5 begins. There is no time leap. Humps is still on his knees, Daya is still pointing the gun.
At first, Piper and her literal partner in crime Alex (Laura Prepon) are trying to stay out of it. Best to hole up somewhere and wait for it all to be over. But while that might be an intelligent strategy on paper, it proves much harder to pull off in practice.
“Season 5 really opens it up, season 5 happens in real time, we’re experiencing a riot in the prison in real time,” Schilling said. “So there’s less room for character development.
“It’s more focusing on the political implications within the prison and outside of the prison of an inmate takeover.
“I’ve never done anything like it. It’s exciting. It’s totally new. It’s very engaging and kind of enlivening.
“At this point we’re all in service of the show. I think the show is much bigger than one person, if that makes sense.
“So I think it’s less about what’s going to happen to me and more about serving the show. The sum is greater than the parts at this point.”
Also on the periphery of the riot, at least initially, is longtime inmate Red, full name Galina Reznikov, played by Kate Mulgrew. Red’s first evaluation as things spin out of control is, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” But Red definitely is the kind of character who knows how to analyze situations and play them to her advantage.
“There’s an unquestionable sense of urgency imposed on this linear timeline of three days — by necessity, of course,” Mulgrew said. “When you endow an already very complicated situation with a linear timeline, you’re adding a dimension which is almost uncontrollable. There is no question that it’s a razor’s edge.
“And as you know, the roles have been reversed, we’ve flipped. The C.O.’s (corrections officers) are being held hostage. Although I will say this to you, and please do not have me fired (for giving away too much information), but not every C.O. is being held hostage, and apropos of Red’s situation, that’s an important thing to know.”
Overall, it’s three dangerous days in 13 intense episodes.
As Aduba summed up: “We are experiencing it all at once, right alongside these characters. We don’t get to move on.”
We are experiencing it all at once, right alongside these characters. We don’t get to move on.