Rank: 3/5

The popular Netflix original comedy-drama “Orange is the New Black” debuted its fifth season June 9 with an honestly lackluster string of episodes. I’ve been a fan of the show for a few years now, and this is the most disappointing season yet for me. When a new season is released each summer, I usually watch all 13 episodes in under two days. However, I found that this season seemed to drag on and was uncharacteristically boring at times.

The latest season begins right where last season’s cliffhanger left off, with Hispanic inmate Dayanara Diaz pointing a gun at a prison guard surrounded by dozens of other inmates egging her on. The women have had enough of Litchfield Penitentiary’s deplorable conditions, and are pushed to their breaking point when inmate Poussey Washington is accidentally killed by an officer at the end of last season.

Washington’s death along with Diaz’s actions in the opening episode spark an unruly prison riot lasting about four days, which is spread out over the duration of the season.

The inmates come to hold nearly all of Litchfield’s corrections officers hostage, including prison warden Joe Caputo. The women take advantageof their few days of “freedom” from their lengthy sentences.

While the plot is slow-moving, the character development partly makes up for it. Times of peril and chaos often show one’s true colors, and viewers come to better understand the characters during the riot. The flashbacks throughout the show, which reveal each inmate’s past and what her life was like before entering prison, were especially intriguing this season. My personal favorite was seeing the life of Galina Reznikov, better known on the show as Red, in Russia during the Cold War in the 1970’s.

Another issue I had with this season was simply how unrealistic it was portrayed. I take plenty of fantasy elements in the show into account while watching, but I found the plotline of several inmates running the prison and keeping 10 guards hostage to be too unbelievable at points.  

However, this season was important for shining a light on the unfair and inhumane conditions inmates often endure in the U.S. prison system. While the riot was initially incited due to the death of Washington, it soon became about improving prison conditions and seeing basic necessities return to Litchfield, like the GED program and tampons.

An interesting twist of the season was when one of the higher-ups in the prison’s corporate ownership firm, Linda Ferguson, was forced to pretend to be an inmate during the riot when she finds herself trapped in the prison.  After a few days of life as an inmate, she realizes what unfair and greedy corporate practices in the private prison industry look like in real life.

It can be easy to lump a group of inmates together and brand them as criminals, but Orange is the New Black makes viewers realize these women are first and foremost people, regardless of crimes committed.

The lackluster episodes were slightly saved by the emotional season finale, where armed forces break into the prison to end the riot.Their futures remain uncertain as they wait to be transported to unknown locations, having received none of their riot demands. Staying true to character, the fifth season ended on yet another huge cliffhanger. Despite my mild disappointment, I will be waiting eagerly for the sixth season to premiere next summer.