"Orange is the New Black" Season 5 Spoiler Review

 SPOILERS FOR SEASONS 1-5 AHEAD

The inmates of Litchfield are back! And after that huge cliffhanger with Dayanara (Dascha Polanco) with the gun at the end of season 4, I thought how could they continue the show after this? Now that all the episodes are on Netflix,  I'm happy at the way they chose to do this season. The whole season is pretty much captures 3 days of the Litchfield uprising. It is a new and experimental take that the show has never gone before. And since this time the inmates are in charge, we get to see how each character handles power in their own way. It creates a lot of opportunities for the show, some funny and and some dark.

The most interesting stuff to look forward to in every season is that each character has their own storyline for the particular season. And like all the seasons of "Orange is the new black", some are hit and miss. This is the only season where I thought to myself that the first half was better than it's last half. That's due to the fact that since the whole season is centered on the inmates rebelling and the rest of the media attention on the outside, there's a point where you just want all this to end. Which in part is because the show is a whopping hour long episodes. There are a lot of filler, but at least "Orange is the new black" filler is still better than most.

The whole uprising is such a joy to watch. It's chaotic, messy, and downright dirty fun that the show manages to pull off time and time again. The whole war between different ethnicity is taken to a whole new level since there is no rules this time. The real standout's of the show this season would be Taystee, Leanne and Angie, Gloria, and Frieda. Taystee has a great moment where she breaks down in front of the press, Leanne and Angie are great villains of the show while also playing comedic relief, Gloria's performance when she wants to see her child is moving and Frieda is just a cunning, bad ass old lady. 

I think the weakest parts are with Chapman and Vause. A lot of what they do in this show is summed up in three words: talk, complain and, flirt. It's amazing how Piper, who is the "main" character of the show is sort the worst character in this show now. Everything else is just so much more interesting that she easily gets overshadowed by a everyone else. They even gave her a sort of interesting plot when she helps Taystee and her gang out, but even that just pissed me off. Her character just rebels when they her to do something. Also, I know it's supposed to be a "tribute" to Poussey (Samira Wiley) but they took way too damn long on that. Yes, it's only been two days in the time of the show but damn, as an audience we've moved past all the Poussey mourning so when they spend a lot of time on giving her a tribute and Brook (Kimiko Glenn) sad through the entire season, it really makes me angry as viewer when there's a whole army about to break down the prison doors and all they talk about is "JUSTICE" for Poussey. It just makes Taystee into a self-centered character, which Black Cindy promptly addresses.

As a season though, it is a lot more focused than the others. It is still amazing how they manage to juggle so many characters in the time they have. This is a pretty solid season, only bogged down by the same problems as other seasons have. What's good is really good and what's bad is only bad because they go on a roll and they make a misstep. The next season looks pretty promising though with the inmates getting separated and all so thats something to look forward to.

Grade: B