Season Five Discussion

[tennisgurl]

So I finally got around finishing this season (I didn't watch for awhile because I was kind of boycotting Netflix, then I got busy with real life stuff), and, I consider it be basically a series of good scenes, patched together into a not very solid season. There were a lot of things I liked, and a lot of good character moments, but on the whole, it felt like we just spent a whole season spinning our wheels, watching a TON of padding in-between the actually interesting stuff. In my opinion, the season should have been split into two parts, with the first half being the riot, and the second half being its aftermath. It would have been a lot less of the boring hijinks of the meth heads and the Nazis and Ouija and her lackeys.

A big problem I had was I kept forgetting that, within the show, its only been a few days since Poussey was killed. It makes the actions of Taystee and her crew make more sense when you remember their friend just died, but, considering its been a whole year since last season, the audience has had time to mourn and move on, so it makes the whole thing less urgent to the audience. I had also forgotten how shitty the guards were, so it makes it harder to watch them being abused by the inmates. If your going to have the "good guys" abusing the "bad guys", you need to give your audience a really strong mental imagine to focus on to keep you sympathetic to the tormentors, and considering its been a year, there really wasn't much to hold on to.

Like I said, I liked a lot of individual scenes and storylines. I liked the unexpected character interactions, like Flaca and Maritza giving Alex and Nikki makeovers, Flores and Red teaming up, Luscheck awkwardly trying to comfort Gloria about her son, Piper and Taystee running riot stuff, Black Cindy's super enthusiastic Mavel Tov to Lorna when she heard she was pregnant, I really liked a lot of that. I also liked seeing the family's of the women in jail all reaction to the riot, and I actually wish we had seen more. I would have liked to see Reds husband and sons, Sophia's wife and son, or Brooks best friend reacting to the riot, or showing up and interacting with other people, like when Leanne's Amish mom had that awkward moment with Flores's boyfriend. I would have taken those scenes and gotten rid of the meth head hijinks any day of the week.

I'm glad I watched the season and I'm sure I will watch next season too, but I'm confused as to what next year will be like. Its not like things can be the same, with all the prisoners going off into new prisons, and I'm sure the guards and staff wont be coming back. I guess maybe they can do a time jump to the "new" Lictchfield, where its made nicer as basically a PR move, and they bring everyone back. Still, this might be a good chance to cull the cast to just the core cast, or add in some new people to get rid of the ones who've gotten stale (looking at you, meth heads). We have SO many characters now, it means its getting hard to give everyone story lines, and its hard to keep track of everyone.

[Hanahope]

As much as thought Taystee blew it by saying no to the deal for everything, but only an investigation of Bayley first, I'm pretty sure that everything would be taken back anyway, once it was out that Humps was dead.  there is the hope that at least some of Taystee's reseach on cost benefits would sink in permantently.

I did like the different plot line this season, showing 3 days of riot, how things were so chaotic initially, then settled into some semblance of order, then the falling apart as people went without sleep/food/medicine and had no real leadership.

Boy, how long will Linda have to suffer being a prisoner before she finally convinces someone to check her fingerprints to prove she's not a prisoner?  Will everyone get extra time, or will the prison conduct some sort of investigation to determine ringleaders and/or real bad acts by others?  

Poor Freida is going to lose her bunker for sure.  Even if the group goes back to Litchfield eventually, the pool will somehow get blocked off and become inaccessible.

I felt a bit sorry for Gloria that Maria took her plan (and then couldn't even capitalize on it because she had no idea who Gloria spoke with or what "the deal" was).

They really did leave the door open for lots of cast members to be gone  as regulars.

[Francois40]

Haven't watched the whole season, so I skipped most of the responses because I'm catching spoiler-y stuff, but MAN...what a letdown especially after S4 and the brilliant Poussey final episode! Not only is the riot boring, but so utterly unrealistic! Did the whole writing team get replaced with a bunch of interns? Take the imprisonment of guards in the bubble--we hear one mention of having to go to the bathroom, and then they're in there hours and hours and nobody else has to eat or pee? Worst of all was that absolutely ludicrous "Guard talent show"; they tried to make it funny, but it was just ridiculous. None of the guards would have gone along and acted like they were enjoying it, especially the stripper guy...plus the prisoners, having been humiliated so many times by the guards, would not have left them in their underwear; they'd have made all the men (at the very least) strip naked before locking them in the bubble to see what it was like. The way the meth heads "directed" the whole "show" was stupid and not in character for them, nor was the way anybody behaved.

 

I have problems with almost every episode so far, so I'm only about half way through, but if it doesn't get more interesting and at least a little bit realistic, I may not even be able to finish.

[Threnners]

I think my soul died while that white girl sang "And I am telling you."  Holy shit that was horrific.  

[jhlipton]

On 7/14/2017 at 9:51 AM, tennisgurl said:

We have SO many characters now, it means its getting hard to give everyone story lines, and its hard to keep track of everyone.

I quit on episode 4 or 5, because of this.

On 11/15/2017 at 11:56 AM, Francois40 said:

I have problems with almost every episode so far, so I'm only about half way through, but if it doesn't get more interesting and at least a little bit realistic, I may not even be able to finish.

I didn't finish, for those reasons.

Having a zillion inmates in a prison is more realistic than what they had at first (prisoners have zero rights, and are subject to outright slavery (from the 13th Amendment):

Quote

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

However, it made the narrative much more confusing.