TV #32 of 2019:
Orange Is the New Black, season 7
Netflix’s flagship dramedy has always had two distinct modes of storytelling, which sometimes complement each other but more often work at cross-purposes. In the first, the program aims to tell grounded, realistic stories, using its prison setting and signature flashback structure to shine a light on the sort of lives that are rarely depicted in popular media. In the second, it soars to dramatic heights of intricate plotting, which works as fiction but can feel too stylized to maintain that same impression of reality. There’s a tension between these impulses that is perhaps inherent to any fictionalized adaptation of a memoir like this, and which the writers have never wholly resolved.
Personally, I prefer the smaller-scale approach, so I’m overall pleased that it’s more dominant throughout this final season. The show’s critiques of the criminal justice system — which here expand to include I.C.E. as well — have been too trenchant for it to close its run with any sort of meaningful structural reform or widespread inmate release, but we are given ample space to say goodbye to these characters and at least imagine what might come next for them. It’s no spoiler to say that there aren’t many easy answers, or that there are both tears and unexpected grace notes aplenty.
Not everything about this last set of episodes succeeds as intended. Daya’s characterization hasn’t seemed particularly motivated for a few years now, so her ultimate heel turn into a gang boss gets nothing but a shrug from me. The narrative also continues to lean heavily on its original heroine, despite having really outgrown her as early as season one. And the series timeline is utterly incomprehensible, suggesting both that Piper has been in jail for only a year and a half and that the #MeToo movement and deportation escalations are in full swing outside.
Orange Is the New Black was revolutionary for its moment in the early days of streaming television, and although it doesn’t have quite the same cultural relevance in today’s more crowded landscape, it still has much to say about women’s choices within oppressive systems. I’m glad to have stuck with it through the end.
This season: ★★★★☆
Overall series: ★★★★☆
Season ranking: 4 > 1 > 7 > 5 > 2 > 3 > 6
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