Orange is the New Black

It’s the show’s best season, and, along with season 4 of The Americans, one of the best seasons of an ongoing drama of the past year.

Once the show establishes its new rhythm, one in which it’s impossible to guess who or what the next scene will consist of, Orange is thrillingly off-kilter.

Based on the first six episodes of the 4th season, OITNB remains fresh, funny/sad, smart, inventive, well-written, and particularly well-acted.

The new status quo and even more skewed power balances within the prison doesn’t just test every single character. It pushes all of them to their limits, and eventually throws them right the hell off the cliff they’ve been teetering on the edge of.

This fourth season is not pretending that things are funnier or more upbeat than they really are. Either by accident or design, Kohan and her team have found a way to pull the rug out from under its audience, with a sudden reminder of the horrors of mass incarceration.

[Orange is the New Black] still manages to feel resonant and important three years in.

Season 4 is so rich and dense with characters, backstories and subplots that some of its more interesting new additions remain mere teases. As always, the flashbacks remain the strongest aspects of the series.

The series’ scope has never been broader, nor its ambition more apparent.

The remarkable thing is that, even with a bigger cast, Kohan never sacrifices a whit of clarity or energy. Orange Is the New Black is as fresh and as vital as ever, and you don't always see that in a fourth season.

Early episodes of season four are as compelling and entertaining and as well-written and acted as they have been for the past three, which is a tremendous achievement (particularly if it holds--which is likely, but not guaranteed).

Orange Is the New Black itself, which has grown richer, more surprising, and ambitious in its fourth season. That doesn’t always mean it’s better than ever--often it isn’t--but is just as admirable as ever.

While this fourth chapter in the saga of Litchfield Penitentiary gets off to a bumpier start than usual, it ends on such powerful notes that if you’ve ever been a fan, you simply have to view all 13 episodes.

Season 4 feels more like a drama than ever, and that’s not a bad thing. “Orange Is the New Black” has introduced a multitude of characters we don’t usually see on television and given them complicated and intimate relationships that speak volumes about issues not contained to prison’s impenetrable walls.

Time management has never been the show’s strength, and the flashbacks can really put a spotlight on those woes. And yet, spending any small amount of time again with Taystee (Danielle Brooks) who has a new office job with Caputo, or Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba) as she wades through the waters of a doomed romance, or Lorna (Yael Stone) engaging her imaginary life with a real-live husband, feels like seeing old friends.

For all its faults, from some off-kilter performances and sometimes clumsy articulations of overarching themes, Orange Is the New Black feels as sublime as ever for so intuitively recognizing that even the little joys that prison life can bring to an inmate are deceptive, as they too hinge on a relinquishing of power.

It’s a grim season, but there are still enough great one-liners to remind you why Orange has earned a best-comedy nod from the Emmys.

In many ways, the new season of Jenji Kohan’s Emmy-nominated drama is as impressive as ever, but you may need a scorecard to sort out all the players. Most of the stories are engaging; others seem like simple diversions.