Orange is the New Black : Season 5
- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Jul 11, 2013
Orange is the New Black
Your Score
0
out of 10
User Score
Generally favorable reviews- based on 26 Ratings
- Summary: The prison dramedy returns for its fifth season.
- Genre(s): Comedy, Drama
- Season 5 premiere date: Jun 9, 2017
- Episode Length: 60
- More Details and Credits »
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 18
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Mixed: 8 out of 18
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Negative: 0 out of 18
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Nothing ever feels forced or repetitive about the show and its confined setting. In fact, it feels like the restriction has spurred even more creativity from the writers this year. There’s a fear and a scrappy anger to the dialogue and interactions happening around the prison, even more so than before.
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Wwhether they say so or not, everyone seems aware that prison sieges don’t end well. That knowledge invests the season with purpose. More than ever, Orange is like a speeding vehicle with a wheel missing: It doesn’t always steer steadily, you can feel the chassis shimmying and straining, but the velocity is urgent.
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The fifth season of the series continues in the pitched, passionate style that's Orange at its juiciest.
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Though the compressed timeline may have seemed like a way to narrow the show’s focus, it ironically causes plotlines to feel more vague and messy. The result is a season that, remarkably, sees the series biting off more than it can chew for the first time in its run.
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The fallout, partly because of the size of the sprawling cast, partly because of the tonal shifts, sometimes within the same scene, can be jarring. Orange nails the dramatic moments. It’s the comedy that ranges from banter to slapstick and back that feels out of place, especially as the rioting wears on.
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A few of the strands are engaging, particularly those involving the inmates led by Taystee (Danielle Brooks) who seek justice for Poussey, even if overacting is afoot in some of those scenes. But most of the strands are either dull because of the slightness of their plots or merely irritating.
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In addition to being OITNB’s riskiest season yet, this is also its messiest. The lows are pretty low. ... But the highs are the show at its best: profound and funny, and simultaneously spotlighting and elucidating the ways in which women and minorities are oppressed, villainized, and ignored, often all at once. Still, that surfaces the show’s most fatal and longest-running flaw. There are so many characters—too many, in fact.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 0 out of 2
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Mixed: 0 out of 2
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Negative: 2 out of 2
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Jun 9, 2017
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Jun 9, 2017
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Trailers
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