"Orange is the New Black" Netflix series...any fans

While I agree the 3rd season was the weakest, I'm certainly sticking around-and cannot wait-for the fourth season. This show really grew on me over time. At first, I didn't like it much at all but you learn to love all the characters in different ways and the things that are funny are *really* funny. Hopefully I'm not disappointed in the new season!

 

Watched the first season then lost interest.

 

The cracks really started to show with Season 3. Season 2 was so strong, it was virtually impossible to follow that up...so they didn't even seem to try with Season 3, IMO. Piper morphing into "Scarface" was similar to what Jenji Kohan tried to do with Mary Louise Parker's character in "Weeds."

"Weeds" went on about 4 seasons too long, and now it appears "Orange" might go the same way. I'll sample Season 4, but ready to pull the ripcord. BTW, my wife has ALREADY pulled the ripcord, about midway through S3.

 

I can barely muster the enthusiasm to watch the new season. It's gone on too long.

 

Season 4 is an improvement over season 3 (Just finished binge-watching). Brought in a lot of new characters that have helped revamp the show greatly.

 

Season one was very good. Season two was nearly as good. But I could barely get through season three. I think the shows needs Piper's story and (relative--very very relative) normalcy as a center for everything else to hold together. Sure, there were some interesting side tales. But it wasn't as coherent, and not even close to as engrossing. For me, anyway.

 

I've only watched the first episode of the new season, but I enjoyed it. I'm determined not to binge it out this time.

 

Two more eps to go in season 4 for me. Okay, so s4 is better than the dreadful season 3 - I guess that's faint praise. I thought it started off really well with the opening episode. However, thereafter it slacked off with many episodes that just felt like pointless filler. And they're still persisting with the stupid flashbacks which not only don't add anything to the prison narrative, but actively distract from it! I don't give a fig about these characters' contrived backstories especially now in the fourth season. Just make the prison story compelling and stick with it.

It's not until the last few eps of the season that momentum is regained, which means that the majority of the eps (in the middle) were just wasted filler. They should have made the season maybe 8 eps long.

 

Started off slow but my god what a last couple of episodes!

 

I finished the 4th Season tonight. I thought it was great, while I agree with most; I barely made it through the 3rd Season.

Yes, it limped a little in the middle, yet they kept it going pretty steady with the various struggles by the guards and inmates, alike. It felt more real, and the payoff at the end was great!

I imagine the 5th Season will be the last. Everything seems to be coming to a head for everybody. If they wrap up the current threads without adding anything new, that will be plenty.

 

The show has been renewed for three more seasons.

 

Wow! 7 Seasons! What more can they tell?

Maybe they'll take the show into the zombie apocalypse.

 

I'd guess they'll start cycling people in and out more often. Prison is a good TV environment, like a hospital or a police station... You can easily add or drop characters.

 

Don't agree the flashbacks are pointless or contrived. It gives you context for the characters and shows them in different lights in a way I don't think you would get from expository dialogue.

 

How long has Piper been in prison now? Wasn't her original sentence like 18 months? Are we to believe that all these seasons (plus the additional ones to come) are in this 18 month span?

 

There's too many people. Watching this show has become a chore... Going to try to stick it out to the end of this season. Three more seasons on top of this? Hard to imagine.

 

The episodes go literally day by day at times, and there's no time elapsing between the seasons, so I don't think it's that hard to believe it hasn't been 18 months yet. (And time probably passes very slowly in prison.) There were holidays in the first three seasons that marked where in the year it was. They might have to extend her sentence somehow though.

 

Somebody did this last year:

The Orange Is the New Black Timeline: When Are We? »

 

I'm guessing there will be more conflict arising from overcrowding and underfunding and probably there will be new troublemaker-type characters coming in, like Vee.

 

And that was the problem with Jenji Kohan's "Weeds"...it went on at least three, maybe four seasons too long.

 

I think "Weeds" should have ended after season 2. Too many radical changes on the show starting with season 3. Those last few seasons were pretty bad, joyless. I'm glad "Orange" improved thus season, gives me hope for the next 3 seasons to come.

 

Orange can't exactly pick up and move to California like Weeds did. The premise isn't very elastic, so it's harder to pull some shark jumping move like that.

 

I thought season 4 was much stronger than 3, which enjoyed. Look forward to season 5.

 

I'm three episodes into season 4 and I just don't care anymore. The "conflicts" aren't compelling to me in the least, and the energy from all the most interesting characters has been drained by trivial plots and subplots. I agree the flashbacks should go, but it's obvious there's nothing much to take their place. I'll be surprised if I finish this season.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty ambivalent about the show too, despite the slight uptick this season compared with the last. I'm looking forward to the return of BoJack Horseman.