Orange Is the New Black

[Deleted]

So I'm guessing the Bennet actor was kinda busy with his other show? Because....what a weird change of character. I know that both him and Daya are idiots but deep down I'm kind of rooting for them, you know?

Other than that: loved the season, more actually than season 2 because that one got pulled down by the whole Vee story. The first episode with the Mother's Day made me tear up more than once and also set up nicely the overall mother theme for the season.

[FotoStoreSheila]

I thought Cindy rattling off plot points from Annie Hall and Yentl as though they were details from her own life, was going to be the funniest thing I'd see all season. But I must say, the scene where Red catches the crew eating the corn Cindy stole from the garden, topped it! Her initial tutoring session with Ginsburg also cracked my shit up! So glad Cindy got her full conversion, complete with lake Mikvah.

I enjoyed this season sooooo much more than season two.

[kostgard]

This season was definitely quieter than last season, but still enjoyable.

Piper continues to suck. And now that she has a bit of power, she's even worse (when she was tattooing herself, all, "Aw, yeah!" my eyes nearly rolled out of my head. I hope Red smacks her). I thought they would do more with Stella, but she was just someone for Piper to play with after Alex showed some vulnerability (so Piper got bored with her) and another way for her to use her new found power.

Outside of Piper, the themes this season seem to be motherhood, love (and how much we need it) and faith. I generally don't care about Daya and I think she's dumber than a box of rocks, so I don't really care about what happened to her with the baby and Bennett. Though I guess it is nice that she and her mother found some peace (though I think her mother is basically a garbage person). Leanne's Amish story was sad and it is sad to see how badly she needs to believe in something and belong, but she is also basically a garbage person (cutting Soso's hair while she slept?!).

Who knew that Boo and 'Tucky would be so compelling together? And Tucky's dead-eyed expression while the CO was taking advantage of her was heartbreaking and chilling. But she got out of the situation, though OF COURSE she gets replaced by the prettiest girl in the prison. I hope Boo can save her too.

Poor Nicki. I wonder if she'll be back. Ditto Sophia. I'm glad Red pulled the plug on any potential romance with Healey. She's way too much woman for him. And maybe her attentions were enough to make his wife actually pay attention to him (because Katya is another garbage person who would only want her husband after someone else expressed interest in him). Did not see Fig and Caputo coming and...gross.

Morello is crazy, but she just wants to be loved, so as long as that guy can go it she'll be happy. But he better invest in some security if he ever decides to leave her. Same thing with Suzanne - cute that she found a girl who likes her, but man - that is going to be a disaster if they ever break up.

I think my favorite bits were Taystee learning she is the new "mom" of her family and being the only person in that prison who is handling things rationally (she could have gone to war with Red over the corn, but she didn't. She was calm and cool with Soso in the library). I'm glad she accepted Soso into her family (and I wonder if something will blossom with Poussey - they've both been so desperately lonely). The other favorite was Black Cindy's conversion. Her pure joy at her Mikvah was a beautiful thing to see.

On the cliffhanger - I think somehow Lori Petty will save Alex. She was already on to toothpick and she thinks she and Alex are working together, so she may have seen him go into the greenhouse.

I really don't know how Litchfield stays open, though. All the events last year (nice Rosa cameo we got), and now all the guards walk out on the day they take down a huge chunk of the fence and all the inmates run out. Yet somehow they are open and about to double the population (I'm glad that they touched on how effed up the privatization of the prison system has been).

[Ginger]

I really hated the Ruby Rose character. She felt 100% like a plot device and not a character the show had an investment in. I didn't even know her name until the last episode. She also seemed like what she is in real life - a hipster MTV VJ - rather than someone who was actually in prison.

I loved the Doggett/Boo storyline. I'm not sure if the Doggett character development is all that consistent with seasons 1 & 2 though. And I really loved the last episode. It was kind of nice to have a mellow season that wasn't so much about danger and suspense.

[Deleted]

Agree with most of the assessment of season 3. I did think it was a little less cohesive than last season. But I can see why they would want to get away from having a big bad. Especially since they'd have a hard time topping Vee.

Favorite story lines: Pennsatucky and Boo. I'm glad they weren't able to go through with raping Donut no matter how much he deserved it. Although I do agree that Pennsatucky's turnaround from who she was in season 1 is not entirely believable.
Cindy's conversion to Judasim was great. I loved how it started as a joke and them became one of the most moving moments of the season.
Sophia's story was sad but I wished we had more of her. It seemed like the fallout was almost all about everybody else.
Suzanne becoming a popular sci-fi/erotica writer. And getting a girlfriend who may be as crazy as her.
I liked Leanne's backstory too even though she is still a terrible person.
I'm not sure how I felt about Chang's backstory. It was an interesting idea, her being able to get away with anything because people don't see her. But they didn't really do anything more with it.

Story lines I was meh on:
Piper becoming a panty smuggler kingpin. I guess its interesting to seeing her becoming even more hardened but her love triangle between Alex and Stella was lukewarm. Ruby Rose is uber hot but they didn't really do anything with her character.
Norma becoming some sort of prophet to the other prisoners. It just seemed to sort of peter out at the end.

Story lines I really disliked:
Everything with Healy. I get it, he is a sad sack with a terrible wife and issues with women. It feels like every scene with Healy and his wife was exactly the same. And now he is in love with Red. Ugh.
Everything with Caputo. He is gross and I really did not to see him have sex not once but twice. The prison privatization part is important but I felt like he got way too much screen time. I did like some of the staff stuff but I just can't stand Caputo's face and voice.
Daya and Bennett's stupid baby. This story has always been a problem and it has just dragged on and on.

What I want to see in season 4: Brook, Poussey and Taystee. I think all three had some interesting things going on but it was all along the edges. I hope they get bigger stories in next season.

I agree the lighting or makeup seemed different this season. Everybody looked rough with the exception of Maritza and Brook.
.

[kostgard]

I kinda liked Chang's ability to go unnoticed even though it really didn't lead to anything. But while others smuggle stuff through tunnels,etc., she has someone dropping stuff off for her right at the fence. Everyone else has cheap little burner phones hidden around, she's got a late model smart phone and apparently has a data plan that allows her to stream movies. That's pretty impressive. I hope they just randomly reveal little bits of her personal empire here and there over future seasons.

[Deleted]

I'm not reading because I don't want to be spoilered but -- Mike Burbiglia! Cool!

[GirlyGhoul]

This season had a different feel to it than the previous ones- But overall I loved it. There's some loose ends that I am not ok with being left hanging on- but I'll fuss about that later. I wanted more back-stories of more characters and this season delivered on most of them. I liked how the first episode showed mini-flashbacks of people's dealings with their mothers while the last episode repeated the same pattern except with flashbacks dealing with faith/religion (or lack there of in the case of young Boo). But it was best when they took an episode to focus on just one character's back-story and tied it in to the current day.

What I loved the most: Boo taking Pennsatucky under her wing. I know some folks upthread said they weren't buying Pennsatucky's turnaround, but I think the show's actually done a pretty good job of showing how such a person could go from completely despicable to possibly redeemable to almost endearing. Given what we know of her background, she's dumb as a pile of clay- but also as malleable. So when she's under her dumbass mother's thumb she thinks she's meant for nothing more than to give her body up for money or Mountain Dew. Once the Holy Rolling Hate Mongers got ahold of her, she was all about literally wiping out the unrighteous. (Plus, she was on a power trip with the other Meth Heads tagging at her heels) When Healy made her his new pet, she was less violent, but still snitchy and buying into his warped sense of how the world worked. But once she buddied up with Boo, she finally had a mentor who was willing to look out for her rather than use her to promote their own agenda. Boo's not perfect, but she's at least gotten 'Tucky to finally take care of her oral hygiene and realize that her body isn't for being used. They still need to find a way to stop that rapist, but I'm glad that they realized that THEY weren't rapists and victimizing him wouldn't make them feel any better. I don't think Season One or Two Pennsatucky would have come to that conclusion, but given the talks she's been having with Boo, I can believe her progress to this point. Hers is really one of the most interesting character arcs. She's definitely NOT one of my favorite people on the show. But she's definitely at her best with Boo.

Best character arc of the season though has to go to Cindy! That was unexpected, but truly uplifting. I'm kinda sad that Cindy's 'Make the Buggies Back Off' song hasn't taken to the internets as big as Suzanne 'Swirl-Swirl' did, 'cause I watched that like 12 times- HA! But I loved her kosher-meal inspired conversion. I loved that she realized she needed SOMETHING in her life to believe in and that this might not wind up being it forever, but for now it was resonating in her. And she actually got her Mikvah! I loved how that worked out and how that was her main focus while everyone else just wanted to swim and get sand in their toes.

The Norma Cult was werid, and seemed like it would be Poussey's story for a while- but then became Leanne's. So I liked the switch off of Poussey seeming to search for some higher meaning changing to Cindy actually finding just that (for herself). Poussey just needed companionship, which maybe she found in Soso. Maybe. Just letting Soso into their clique seems to be a good start. And Taystee is the mom... awwwwww!!

I didn't like Suzanne taking a backseat to being mainly comic relief this go 'round. She's hilarious, but I don't think they did a good enough job of healing the emotional damage that Vee caused. I think they needed another or a more fleshed out 'Taystee and Suzanne deal with the Vee aftermath' scene... and a better apology to Poussey for that mess. But at the same time, I'm glad they gave Suzanne an outlet for her creative energies- I just didn't like how it all became more about her crazy story and less about HER as a person. 'Cause she is one of my favorite people on the show and I think there's even more depth to her that they've barely scratched the surface of. Still, if they ever decide to have an OitNB spin off, why not "The Adventures of Admiral Rodcocker" (I'd... probably watch...)

I hated that there was almost no Sophia until the second half and hated what happened to her. Laverne Cox filmed a pilot and so may be off on her own show, but if that is the case please please PLEASE don't leave Sophia in the SHU! I think that whole thing was handled all wrong. Not that I couldn't see it happening. But once they made 'Get Sohpia out of SHU' the rallying cry for Caputo and dumb Danny- they never showed her again and friggin' LEFT HER IN THE SHU! They had a chance to delve deeper into how prisons handle (or mishandle) transpeople and really blew it. This should have been one of the main story-lines, not something rushed into the last couple episodes and then dropped! Yikes!

Also, I can't believe they didn't follow up on Lorna having Christopher assaulted. This poor guy. He had coffee with this psycho once and his whole life has been in turmoil ever since. When she was marrying the thug guy and everyone was crying and acting happy all I could think was: Hello? Christopher? Is he alive? Is he ok? Isn't pressing charges? Holy crap! So I'm bugged by Sophia still being in the SHU and for no one busting up Lorna's wedding to arrest her hubs for assault... which she requested. That and Luschek, Luschek needs to be punished for letting Nicky take all the blame for the heroin (while he got all the money)

But the worst person of all- Piper. Totally the WORST! I'm actually stunned Piper Kerman signs off on her namesake being so horrible. My favorite parts of the whole show are when other people call Piper out on her shit. And it happens enough to make me happy- but she never learns from it. I really thought she'd finally gotten a hint this time when Red called her out. But nope! How bad has she gotten when I find Pennsatucky to be the most improved character. *shudder*. But good googles! Are we actually supposed to LIKE Piper? Getting Alex tossed back in prison so she won't be lonely and then getting bored with her once she finds Alex too depressed about being back in prison and (rightfully) paranoid about now being exactly where the drug king pin can find her. Good gravy- that's bad enough. But then she starts exploiting the other prisoners as PANTY-GIRLS... and then WHINING when her 'employees' suddenly object to being exploited. She claims she's doing it because when she gets out she'll have no home and no money. But that's not completely true. Would her rich parents REALLY not look out for her? Or at least her brother and his welder wife? She already had more going on for her than anyone else in that prison- and she still chose to exploit them AND hoard all the Ramen noodles (what about the Non-Panty Girls who might want to get their Flavor Packet on?) And she tells everyone who will listen that she's just trying to live the American Dream. Like she wasn't already living the American Dream but tossed that away to go see the world on a drug cartel's dime. UGH! I can't! I just can't with Piper- she's the be all end all WORST! She's the new Vee but with zero self-awareness. I need to see her fall hard next Season.

Other than Piper filling me with rage and the Sophia and Lorna/Christopher storylines not being handled right, I pretty much loved everything else.

And we got cameos from Pre-Sophia Marcus (played by Laverne Cox's twin brother), Pre-Cancer Rosa! YAY ROSA!!!, the Screwdriver (though I think I could have done without seeing that thing pop up again) and the CHICKEN!! YAY CHICKEN!!!

Oh P.S. I wonder what will happen with the Martha Stewart/ Paula Deen type woman. From the way they had her self-surrender right at the end, it seems she might be the New Piper while Piper is busy being the New Vee. I think I'll plan to ignore them both and hope for more better Suzanne and her new Dandelion, Poussey and Soso, Rabbi in training Cindy, SHU Free Sophia and Boo and 'Tucky saving the world from Donuts.

[Ginger]

Oh yes, poor Christopher! I guess nobody is ever going to tell Lorna's new husband what she is in prison for?

I assumed that Christopher got the crap beaten out of him, knew Lorna was somehow responsible for it, knew he couldn't prove that, and then continued on with his life.

[Deleted]

Jun 15, 2015 19:32:41 GMT -4 kostgard said:

On the cliffhanger - I think somehow Lori Petty will save Alex. She was already on to toothpick and she thinks she and Alex are working together, so she may have seen him go into the greenhouse.

Forgot to say this is a good call. When I was watching this I actually wondered if they were going to kill Alex off after the big deal of getting Laura Prepon back as a regular after season 2. But Lolly rescuing Alex makes sense. Especially if she still has that big piece of glass. Incidentally, I really did not like the character of Alex in the first couple of seasons but separated from Piper she is more interesting. I hope Nicky comes back too. She and Alex had good chemistry.