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

Season 4 was amazing. Started slow and ended, well I didn't expect that ending. I always say that I don't know if I care to watch a new season but once I get through the first episode, I'm hooked.

 

I agree. First few episodes had me asking why I was still watching it but it was worth sticking it out.

 

Haven't there only been 3 Seasons?
I just watched all of Season 3 (which was just released on DVD); I assumed the 4th season was just about to start (in June)
Season 3 was the weakest overall but got much better around the halfway point (and the ending of that season was terrific!)

 

I'm with those who find the flashbacks annoying. It was OK for the first couple of seasons, but with the introduction of so many new characters, it strikes me as unnecessary. I was about ready to give up (seems we're hearing that phrase a lot in this thread!) when Lolly had her back story. I thought that was a pretty terrible episode and the previous two episodes weren't that great either. But the season seems to have gotten better from there; I still have four more episodes before finishing the season.

 

That's the way NETFLIX series are...the day they are released one is able to watch the entire season in one sitting. Not sure why anyone would watch/wait for DVDs.

 

I didn't know it was like that (I don't have Netflix nor do I want it. I'll wait for the DVD release and rent it and savour it over a week or so, one episode at a time)
I think there's something to be said for taking a bit of time while watching a season of a series you like.
It's the way I like to do it anyway.
I thought that Season 4 of this show would be shown traditionally (ie. over a 3 month spell, one episode per week)
The times they are a changin'...

 

I'm with you on the flashbacks starting to get on my nerves, but damn...the actress that played the younger Lolly sure had the voice and mannerisms down! I kept thinking it was Lori Petty in a wig and makeup.

I also really enjoyed the Miss Rosa flashbacks, but that was done when the concept hadn't been overdone.

 

The flashbacks in the season 4 finale were pretty poignant, IMO.

 

I have the first three seasons on BluRay. The picture and audio are much better than streaming. The commentary tracks aren't great (I think they're on the DVDs, too, aren't they?), but they're better than the ones on 'Weeds.'

I see the streaming option much like hearing a song I liked on the radio; it's nice that it's there for the moment, but I still want to own a copy myself.

 

Ok, but it streams in 4K. Not sure how much better it can get.

 

I really enjoyed the new season, but I'm tiring of Netflix's dumping the entire season to be binged. None of the plot lines were resolved and it's a long 51 weeks until we get new episodes.

 

What's the difference? You can choose to watch each episode at whatever interval you choose (like one per week).

I prefer the Netflix 'core-dump' model, especially for heavily serialized shows.

 

That seems impractical with a show like OitNB. It would be like reading a really good book and limiting yourself to one chapter each week even though you have the entire thing in your hand.

If it were a show I really didn't care about I could see myself slowing down and being satisfied with one show a week, but if that were the case I wouldn't be wasting my time watching it.

 

On that basis, I don't understand why you made this comment:

How can you be tiring of something which you actually prefer???

 

I don't like waiting 50 weeks to find out how the multiple threads left dangling at the end of this season resolve.

 

Well, I only watch one episode a night four days a week so I only have to wait 47 weeks for the next season.

I've never binge watched a TV show. I can't imagine watching 10 to 16 hours of TV one right after the other. Sitting in front of the TV for more than a couple hours, even for shows I like, makes my rear end hurt.

 

I found season 4 compelling drama, although the comic element that was at the core of the show when it started has almost completely disappeared.

So Piper got 15 months, right? Did I miss a part where her sentence was extended? If not, an awful lot has happened in less than 15 months! I was happy to see that one of the final episodes of season 4 finally addressed (but didn't answer) the nagging question of how murderers (sometimes of numerous people) wound up in a minimum security prison.

 

The other issue I have with the "full season dump" method is that spoilers abound online almost immediately. I already know what happens to which character in the second to last episode, thanks to her face being emblazoned on virtually every entertainment news top story the Monday after the season was released.

And I'm only on episode 4.

 

I asked this same question up in the thread somewhere though I thought she got 18 months. I was told the timeline worked but it clearly doesn't. Wasn't there a point where she was put into SHU and got more time on her sentence? For like taking a screwdriver or something?

Even so, after four seasons what's gone on seems way more than 15 to 18 months.

 

Yeah, that takes away from the social aspect of watching the show each week. I have to totally avoid any coverage of the show once it dumps to avoid spoilers.

 

Why does the timeline not work? The first three seasons went through fall, winter and spring, as that article I posted showed, and this season would have taken place over the summer. Usually when a new episode begins, whatever happened in the last episode was only the previous day or earlier in the week.

Think about Alex and the hit man,
or Pennsatucky and the guard. At the end of the season, those events from season 3 are still pretty fresh for them. Only a few weeks or a couple of months have passed.

Yeah more dramatic things happen in this prison in a few weeks than would happen in real life but that's TV.

 

Well, Daya arrived in prison, met her baby's father, had a romance with him, got impregnated by him, had a full pregnancy, had the baby, considered options for who would care for the baby, lost the baby to Federal authorities. That COULD all happen in a year but it seems like a really tight squeeze. And if Piper is a year or more into a 15 month sentence, shouldn't we get some plot focus on her attempts at parole, or her impending release?

Yes, I know it's just a TV show, before someone feels the need to remind me.

 

Well we know how long it takes for a baby to be born... She got pregnant partway through season 1 (after having sex with Bennett how many times ?) and had the baby toward the end of season 3. It's not like they did her whole pregnancy in one season. She was discussing giving the baby to Pornstache's mother before the baby was born, not after. They gave the kid to Aleida's boyfriend, but he got arrested right after that. Again, it's a lot of drama but it's not like months are going by between all these things happening.

Twin Peaks did 30 episodes full of crazy happenings, and the amount of time that passed in the show was 33 days! Everything that happened in six seasons of Breaking Bad was supposed to have taken place over two years. I don't think Orange is that much of a stretch.

 

You're right though, she could at this point be thinking or talking about getting out... She acts as if she's going to be in prison for years to come. But I think they probably want to keep the focus on what's happening in the present moment. And if she's three or four months from being released that would probably still seem like a long time in the future given how slowly time must pass in there. By the end of next season though, I think they'd have to address her release and extend her sentence if they want the show to go two years beyond that.

I think the thing that was a stretch was that she would do something as risky as the panty business when her sentence is so short. I actually thought that she'd get caught and that was how they were going to extend her sentence (and the show).

 

After watching four years of the show I finally started reading Piper Kerman's book... One thing that the TV show changes or avoids is that she saw a lot more people come and go, since it was a minimum security facility and people were serving short sentences. On the show most of the characters are somewhere in the middle of their time, but in real life she was often making friends with people and then they'd be gone after a couple of months. They've only done a couple of storylines on the series about people leaving (and how tough it can be for them).

They've also made a point of really cutting off TV Piper from the outside world... Real Piper always had friends and family coming to visit (plus she never split with her Larry). She had things pretty easy compared to her fictional counterpart, or so it seems in the first part of the book. (She also only served 13 months of her sentence.)