In Part 4, we discuss the final season of OITNB, the best and worst moments, and how this show’s legacy will hold up over the next decade. My name is Kent, and I am the guy who came up with the questions. I also leave comments in bold every once in a while. I have 3 ladies here to help me out, start up a bit of a conversation. Please, leave a comment or like this or pass it along to someone you know who enjoys this show.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Bonus Deuce
1. Was this a good season for the show to end on? Was it an improvement over previous seasons that lost a lot of fans?
Cece: It was a good last season. I wish they kind of ended it more throughout the season instead of some unnecessary plotlines. (I agree that they could have maybe tried to give finality to some characters much earlier in the season, I know they did with Maritza and Badison, but they could have even done more than just them. Cindy and Lorna could have wrapped up sooner, for instance. I would have liked better send-offs than just one final burst of 10-15 minutes.)
Raylene: I think it was great season to end the series. (It was probably the best-case scenario given the hole that the show dug in seasons 4-6.)
Kent: This was a big-time improvement over season 4 and 6, and arguably over 5. I will say that I am in the minority, but I thought 5 was pretty damn funny and I miss the humor that this show had in its earlier seasons. This was a better final season than say…..wait for it…..yes, Game of Thrones because we have to insult that every opportunity that we get. I’m glad that it ended and I felt that Wentworth would do the same, but I’m happy it didn’t.
2. Tell me your favorite moment(s) from the season. What was your least favorite or saddest?
Kent: Sooooo, I kinda forgot to add the names to this question, therefore none of the ladies answered this question. That, or they just hated this question. I think Karla, Red, Nikki, Penn, Suzanne, Tamika, and Gloria all had a relatively strong season, along with Caputo and Fig. Karla, Red, and Penn, in particular, truly stood out to me for their performances. There were some weak seasons as well from half the original crew that got like 10 seconds each at the end of the finale. For the characters that had time, as the theme song says, I felt that Daya, Aleida, Maria, Cindy, Alex, McCullough, and Maritza had down seasons. Penn’s death was the biggest moment and takeaway for me. The Mountain Dew song, the Colt 45 girl, Aleida losing her shit, Piper eating the cookie, and Blanca finally reuniting with Diablo were all quite memorable. I will choose to remember this season more positively than negatively.
Final Thoughts – Ten years from now, will this show be remembered fondly by the general public? If you have any final thoughts, now’s your chance!
Cece: I really enjoyed the bittersweetness of Taystee’s journey & Pennsatucky’s. I also love how they showed the other prison ladies in the end that we’d been missing. This season was decent for an ending. I think it’ll definitely be a show that goes down in history. Although everyone is claiming Wentworth is much better. I’m only on season 1! (Wentworth is the better drama but Orange added comedy, and that counts for me. Both shows serve a purpose in my life. I do think that both shows followed a similar curve. The first 3 seasons were arguably both show’s best seasons. I’d be hardpressed to say one was better than the other for those 3 seasons. I prefer Wentworth, but it’s pretty close. You’ll be surprised to know that, for once, I am just happy residing in the middle.)
Raylene: Red, Lorna, and Penn storylines were all sad moments. No, I don’t think 10 years it will be not like SOA or Breaking Bad. (10 years from now, it will really only be compared to Wentworth, I’d think. It was one of the biggest successes for NetFlix, and that is important, from a historical perspective. But no, they can’t hold up to Sons or Breaking Bad. It may get some comparison to TWD in that it had a strong start and then got in its own way. TWD can still correct itself, but it’s a similar path, just with more seasons.)
Kent: In 10 years, it’s tough to guess this. 10 years ago, people weren’t as divisive as they are today. We weren’t at this toxic culture point. We weren’t mired in the hatred and self-absorption of social media as badly as we are today. We didn’t really live in a time when people made you feel like you had to feel one way or the other. In 10 years, hopefully, this all changes but if it doesn’t, this will be remembered as a love it or hate it and no middle ground. When the show lost viewers in droves starting with season 4, those people are probably not going to remember it fondly.
It will show up on some people’s top ten show lists for the decade, but we are living in, arguably, the greatest TV series era. There are so many options that are good to great. I feel that this show may get lost in the shuffle unless a few of the talents make a bigger name for themselves. That would help. This show did bring up important issues and chose a side and handled it in one way. Even if you don’t agree with how they handled it, myself included, it is good to have these talking points. Not many shows have the gumption to tackle some of these things, for better or worse. I’m not sure if I will someday get bored enough to fire this up and binge-watch it, but I’d say that there is a 35% chance of it.
Finally, I want to thank Kristi, Cece, and Raylene for helping me out with this season. I also want to thank Jamie, Melanie, and Kelly for helping out in the earlier seasons. I appreciate it. I hope that we find some other shows that we can possibly chat about in the near future. Thank you to the readers who take the time to check this out. If anybody has a suggestion for another series, let me know. I’ve got tiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmme.