The only seasons I like are the first two, especially the second one. In hindsight it should’ve stopped there. Even without a proper conclusion, Orange Is The New Black would’ve been a damn good show. Season 3 brought a sudden and significant drop in quality the series was never able to fully recover from.
my vote : Season 2
![video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 2 ]](https://marcellee.com/posts/51003.jpg "video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 2 ]")
![video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 7 ]](https://marcellee.com/posts/84037.jpg)
This is the final season of Orange Is The New Black, a Netflix series that started off good then lost its way. The first half of this season is a return to form; it’s the best, or at least the longest, consecutive episode run since Season 2; but before long, it too drops the soap.
That’s about the time Lolly; the show’s most annoying character after Suzanne, whom she takes care of chickens with here; shows her face and loose ends start to tie. Cue the reemergence of more faces you haven’t seen in a while, including dead ones in flashbacks.
The focus ultimately goes back to Piper, appropriately enough considering the series began from her perspective. It’s a shame her story, having to do with her adjustments to the free world and her romantic feelings for Alex, is among the most mundame.
my rating : 3 of 5
2019
![video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 6 ]](https://marcellee.com/posts/75360.jpg)
They say the worst part of serving a lengthy prison sentence is the beginning. The same goes for this sixth season of Orange Is The New Black. The first episode is bad, especially during an annoying hallucination bit that takes place within its first few minutes, but things get better from there. The series is treading toilet water, but it’s a soap opera that’s at least interesting enough to keep watching. If you can tolerate the two worst main characters, Suzanne and Piper still; Lolly is back too but just for cameos; it settles into a decent, albeit hit-and-miss, balance of comedy and drama.
Then there’s the end, which comes as a surprise. Not in the sense that anything particularly surprising happens in relation to the build-up but that it doesn’t. To be clear, this season ends the way the whole series should end. To continue the story further, considering the way it began from Piper’s perspective as a middle-class white woman trying to adjust to a new life in prison, turns it into some kind of extended epilogue, which throws the concept off balance. Forget trying to tie loose ends. The final words here are, “So what are you gonna do now?” The answer should be left to our imaginations.
my rating : 3 of 5
2018
![video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 5 ]](https://marcellee.com/posts/67722-1.jpg)
This fifth season of Orange Is The New Black starts promisingly enough. The first few episodes, which bring back the suspenseful zeal of the first two seasons; the story continues at the cliffhanger from the end of the previous one; are a pleasant surprise. But before long, the show loses its focus and slips back into the piss-bowl of mediocrity it’s been swimming in for a while. Part of the problem is that, in an attempt to stretch a few days of rioting into a whole season, the tension wears thin. By mid season, the soap opera has once again become mundane.
Lolly is gone and that’s a big relief, but it also means more screen time for, thus more annoyance from, Suzanne. At one point, she almost dies. I wish she would’ve. Cruel as that may be, it’s not as cruel as what some of the women (inmates) of Litchfield do to the guards they manage to capture. It’s humiliation and “torture”, but is it justified? Perhaps. This is a show that takes pleasure in breaking your moral compass. Is it entertaining? At least more than the overall plot arc, which focuses on Taystee’s strong-willed efforts to get justice for Poussey.
Remember, Poussey died. She was killed by a guard. This season is the immediate aftermath. It’s supposed to be anarchical drama. Again, the first few episodes get it right. The rest drag. The closest thing to an exception is the finale, in which men in riot gear finally bust in with smoke bombs, electrified shields and (peppered) bullets. Chaos ensues and the level of watchability rises, but loose ends are tied too conveniently. The ending suggests next season will be a lot different, which could be just what the show needs to get back on track.
my rating : 3 of 5
2017
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 6 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 7 ]
![video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 4 ]](https://marcellee.com/posts/58942.jpg)
The best part of this season has to do with Maritza’s backstory as a car thief. It’s a short bit that has little to do with the overall story arc, but it’s perhaps the only one that provides a sense of genuine suspense. Season 4, while better than 3, isn’t on par with 2 and 1. The series is merely coasting, barely interesting enough to keep watching.
The worst parts are the lame comedy attempts and any time Lolly talks. The psychotic Ellen-lookalike is now, hands down, the most annoying character. She’s even worse than Suzanne and Piper. The show would do better with less of them and more of sexy Latinas Maritza and Marisol. Where can I purchase a pair of their smudgy panties?
That side plot isn’t abandoned, thankfully. This fourth season of Orange is mostly a silly soap opera. Then something dramatic happens near the end. It’s a bad thing for the women of Litchfield but a good thing for viewers seeking drama and tension. The ending, reminiscent of Do The Right Thing, entertains. But it’s a case of too little too late.
my rating : 3 of 5
2016
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 5 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 6 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 7 ]
![video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 3 ]](https://marcellee.com/posts/51077-1.jpg)
Well, the first two seasons were good. This one represents a sudden and significant drop in quality. It’s the dialogue and storyline that can’t, for even one episode, rise above mediocrity. The comedy is mostly lame and the drama arcs are silly in comparison to the ruckus Vee, now dead, brought in Season 2.
Inmate Piper Chapman and her baggy eyes have become almost completely unlikeable. The fact that “transsexual” men are still men is (finally) addressed and the plot makes practical use of the women’s dirty panties, but there’s not much else to compliment about this disappointing season.
my rating : 3 of 5
2015
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 4 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 5 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 6 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 7 ]
The first episode is an odd departure. After it, the series goes back to normal or at least as normal as it gets at Litchfield. If there does exist a real-life prison with a cast of characters enveloped in a neverending drama storm this entertaining, their story isn’t shot and edited this brilliantly.
Forget Piper Chapman. Her mess of a love life is overshadowed by the other, more interesting people around her; the familiar ones from Season 1. The new inmates are more caricatural than realistic, but Vee at least provides the plot with a major source of conflict and Soso is cute to look at.
my rating : 4 of 5
2014
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 3 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 4 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 5 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 6 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 7 ]
![video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 1 ]](https://marcellee.com/posts/50932.jpg)
Piper Chapman is bisexual. I don’t think that word is ever said during the entire season, but that’s what she is. She’s not “straight” nor a “lesbian”. She’s into girls and guys, or at least one of each; her fiancé Larry and her girlfriend Alex. It’s an important distinction because the theme of Orange revolves around sex and romance. It’s a prison soap opera filled with constant drama. The analogy is high school because what’s petty in the real world is serious enough to fight or kill someone for in prison. There are also plenty of laughs. It’s the combination that entices as you find yourself coming back to follow not just the lives of Chapman and her two partners, but also her fellow inmates; one of which really is a fellow.
Why a man, albeit one who alters his body to be like a woman, is sent to a women’s prison is never addressed, though the scenes sometimes cut from current time to backstory. Each episode focuses on one or two characters, and that does wonders to humanize them, but it’s not consistent. Certain people are covered more than once while others are completely overlooked. Also, the initial idea to end each episode with a wild cliffhanger is abandoned after only three. Soon a show that started-off great has settled into an inferior comfort zone. The drama is sometimes over-the-top and the comedy occasionally misses the mark; the Michael Jackson bit comes to mind; but the show is both zany and endearing on the whole.
my rating : 4 of 5
2013
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 2 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 3 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 4 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 5 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 6 ]
video review : Orange Is The New Black [ Season 7 ]
Did the world need another slice of American Pie? The answer is, of course, no. And I’m referring to American Pie 2; the first in a set of unnecessary sequels, including four spin-offs. That the story continues to continue on, with an oddly-timed thirteen-year Reunion, thirteen years later, is a testament to the way the movie business works. It’s not really about art. It’s about money. So even moderately popular flicks spawn sequels almost automatically. That means this reunion just might be the first of more.
When we met Jim Levenstein, he and his three best friends were high school seniors with a pact to lose their virginity before graduation. Now he’s married with a kid, Kevin is married, Oz is a professional sportscaster and Finch… rides a motorcycle. But we shouldn’t know any of this. Their stories should’ve ended with their high school graduation. The rest should’ve been left to our imaginations. Instead we get what feels like an extended epilogue; one that’s long passed the length of the story itself.
It is nice to see everybody again, particularly Stifler. He’s not nearly as funny as he tries to be; the fake phone-call is the only thing he does that makes me laugh out loud; but his outrageousness makes him the funniest among these semi-funny characters. It’s just that the movie, as much as it tries with all its time-lapse jokes; Stifler pretends to read the Twilight series to connect with high school chicks and the Spice Girls Wannabe song now plays on the Classic Rock station; can only go so far on nostalgia alone.
my rating : 2 of 5
2012