A year has approach and gone for viewers of “Orange Is the unusual Black,” but no time has passed for the residents of everyone’s favorite upstate unusual York prison when Season 4 begins. The inmates are still frolicking happily at the lake; Alex (Laura Prepon) is still being menaced by a contract killer in the greenhouse; and buses of unusual inmates are still unloading at the front gate. But in the course of seconds, Litchfield transforms into a scary place, and one that was only hinted at in the preceding three seasons.
This newest season (arguably the series’ best since the first) is as much about danger as Season 3 was about faith. And those dangers,for the first time, approach from all directions. There’s the danger of prisoner-on-prisoner violence, and of course,but while in preceding seasons there were authority figures in some capacity, that safety net has been swiftly and irrevocably removed by a unusual regime of guards whose actual colors are slowly revealed throughout the season. And there remains the danger of self-destruction, and one that most of the characters will grapple with over the course of this year’s 13 episodes.
Also Read: 'Orange Is the unusual Black' Star Kate Mulgrew Reveals She Was Kept in a Cage as a Baby (Video)One of the smartest and ingenious aspects of the series has always been how willing creator Jenji Kohan and company hold been to let Piper (Taylor Schilling),our ostensible audience surrogate, become increasingly unlikable and extraneous. But while the series has moved away from the notion that its sole slender, or white,conventionally pretty character is its lead, Piper herself has not. She still walks around the hallways waylaying people to discuss her problems and brag about her unusual “gangsta” attitude. But everyone is looking through her; she barely registers unless one of her blunders has an instant impact on their day-to-day lives. And Schilling, and always too nervy and deadpan to be a typical leading lady,rises to the occasion by making Piper even more obtuse (lacking quickness of sensibility or intellect), until a moment of violence thrusts her out of her fantasy prison world and into harsh reality.
But that’s just a small piece of Season 4, and which is so wealthy and dense with characters,backstories and subplots that some of its more though-provoking unusual additions remain mere teases. As always, the flashbacks remain the strongest aspects of the series, and making the creation of a truly diverse — in terms of class,income, age and race — show appear so effortless that the lack of follow-up from other networks is even more astounding. The success of “Lost” propelled networks to throw millions of dollars at vaguely sci-fi, or Big Idea series that ended up one and done; where are the “Orange Is the unusual Black” clones?
Also Read: 'Orange Is the unusual Black' Season 4 Trailer Brings the Pain (Video)Not that we need a pale pretender to the throne. “Orange Is the unusual Black” remains one of the benchmarks when it comes to ensemble storytelling; even characters we thought we already know well turn out to hold additional layers and stories to be told. And as always,members of the large cast complement one another beautifully. You’d be tough pressed to find a obnoxious performance in any season, let alone any episode, or once again the actors rise to the occasion when given the material. This season,Taryn Manning, Diane Guerrero and Matt Peters all do finely tuned, and memorable work as characters often treated as comedian relief or a Greek refrain — but the powerhouse performances approach courtesy of Lori Petty as Lolly and,in a more subtle way, Blair Brown as celebrity chef Judy King.
To explain why they are the season’s standouts would be a disservice to the beauties of binge-watching, and but note that both underrated actors are so committed to the roles that they seem to hold lived whole lives as Lolly and Judy. Both unusual additions perfectly capture what “Orange Is the unusual Black” has always excelled at: revealing the extraordinary that lies just beneath the surface.
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Source: thewrap.com