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[Lights and Waves]

Five episodes in.

I am so goddamn tired of Piper and Alex, I swear to god. I don't find them cute, I don't find them charming...the writers either need to start giving them something more interesting to do than nothing at all or write them off the show entirely.

I get that this is the cool opinion to have, but Piper and Alex are the only characters on this show that aren't totally charicatures. They're the only realistic people left. I'd rather it wrap up their stories and then end entirely.

 

[jrush64]

I still like Piper and Alex, nothing wrong with them. I'm a little bit tired of some of the other characters though like the meth heads and their bs.

 

[ScribbleD]

I get that this is the cool opinion to have, but Piper and Alex are the only characters on this show that aren't totally charicatures. They're the only realistic people left. I'd rather it wrap up their stories and then end entirely.

Piper isn't a caricature? lol

 

[cloudburst]

Ep4 :

Spoiler

that strip scene made me cringe.

Great season, though. I'm really enjoying it. Alison's story is very interesting (the Muslim chick).

 

[MC Safety]

Red acting so crazy is really not working for me.

Red was the one who tried to get the other woman off drugs. And then she became Jesse from Saved By The Bell. (It's amusing because the inmates reference Jesse and that particular storyline in one of the later episodes.)

I shotgunned through the season. It was amusing enough, but they really stretched things out and then raced to a cliffhanger. I guess there's going to be another season because the only thing you can take away from this one is it's all setup and no payoff.

 

[LotusHD]

I get that this is the cool opinion to have, but Piper and Alex are the only characters on this show that aren't totally charicatures. They're the only realistic people left. I'd rather it wrap up their stories and then end entirely.

So we gonna just ignore characters like Taystee (especially this season), Gloria, Pennsatucky, Big Boo, Suzanne, Maria, Red, etc.?

 

[Zaverious]

Red was the one who tried to get the other woman off drugs. And then she became Jesse from Saved By The Bell. (It's amusing because the inmates reference Jesse and that particular storyline in one of the later episodes.)

I shotgunned through the season. It was amusing enough, but they really stretched things out and then raced to a cliffhanger. I guess there's going to be another season because the only thing you can take away from this one is it's all setup and no payoff.

Shows been renewed up to season 7. It's going to be around for a while.

 

[Linkura]

Ep4 :

Spoiler

that strip scene made me cringe.

Great season, though. I'm really enjoying it. Alison's story is very interesting (the Muslim chick).

I dunno, I enjoyed it.

Edit: Ugh Ep 9 is also shitty. Come on. I guess I'll finish out the season by having it on while doing other shit. But I think I'm done with the series unless Season 6 is a huge improvement. What a waste. Seasons 1-4 were all good.

 

[KarmaCow]

The actual plot is a mess but I'm enjoying bits isolation for the most part. The tenuous relationship between the nazis plus the white nationalist and the latina crew or

Spoiler

Linda using her sociopathic tendencies to blend in

worked for me. The lighthearted moments aren't as airy as what they did in season 3 despite being very dumb, which seems to be enough. The thrust of the season is getting really annoying as it goes on though. In general I'm growing less and less interested in the more serious moments since the swings are too wide and they've shown that they're not really capable or willing to following through with it. The end of the season felt particularly cheap.

 

[Linkura]

On ep 10 now, just keeps getting worse and worse. Fuck.

 

[clearestblue]

On ep 10 now, just keeps getting worse and worse. Fuck.

I'm on 12 and... yep.

 

[Linkura]

Started 11 and you know what, I think I'm fucking done. What a damn shame after 4 quality seasons. I'm out unless 6 is markedly better, and if it is, I won't go back to watch the remaining 3 episodes of 5.

 

[Terareflection]

Whelp. You guys talked me out of watching this. Thanks a lot.

No really. I probably saved a lot of time. Gonna finally watch Game of Thrones instead.

 

[Linkura]

Whelp. You guys talked me out of watching this. Thanks a lot.

No really. I probably saved a lot of time. Gonna finally watch Game of Thrones instead.

You have chosen wisely.

 

[Hazmat]

Man Ep 3

Spoiler

trying to make the corporate lady look like a young college student...
what a shitty job they did. Plus giving her a backstory in the first place was just dumb.

Spoiler

One of the worst attempts at a performer playing themselves in a flashback that I've ever seen. She's a great-looking woman. She doesn't look 18-19. It was kind of embarrassingly bad.

I'm in the middle of episode 6 and shit needs to pick up quick.

 

[SpaceWolf]

I get that this is the cool opinion to have

Please don't do this. It comes across as unnecessarily condescending, hopefully in a way you didn't intend. Thanks!

but Piper and Alex are the only characters on this show that aren't totally charicatures. They're the only realistic people left. I'd rather it wrap up their stories and then end entirely.

Uh....

Piper isn't a caricature? lol

So we gonna just ignore characters like Taystee (especially this season), Gloria, Pennsatucky, Big Boo, Suzanne, Maria, Red, etc.?

Yep.

(Red has been acting like a total caricature, though. Don't know what's happened to her so far this season)

 

[clearestblue]

Alright, I just finished the season

Spoiler

I got a little emotional at the end NGL when Maritza and Flaca were separated. They were the highlight of the season (series) so I still liked them as characters and felt invested in their friendship. So that bummed me out.

Everything else, though. The writing was godawful and all over the place. They learned NOTHING about the criticism they received after last season. Lorna being pregnant? Why? Piscatella being gay and murdering an inmate who beat his boyfriend, as if that explains why he's a fucking psychopath? What the fuck. Also they could have cut Bayley out entirely and it would have made no difference.

I hate how they end on cliffhangers because now I want to know what they're going to do to everyone in the basement.

 

[Zero315]

Just finished it, it meanders a bit but it was still better than season 3 and the entirety of the Daya/legless guard/pornstache storyline that went on far too long.

Piper wasn't actually insufferable this season.

The meth twins have worn out their welcome though.

Lorna... I don't even know where they go with her character from here.

Spoiler

They started her down the road to an epiphany with her taking the pregnancy test, then completely stomped on the character progress by making her actually be pregnant which in her mind just confirms her delusions.

Basically, I think the riot

Spoiler

should've been contained to half the season, or at most 3/4 of it. The storming of the pool was a pretty contrived cliffhanger.

 

[chicken_pasta]

Man I missed this show. I'm already 4 episodes in. Pretty good so far.

 

[SeriuzBiznus]

Agree with a lot of the comments here. That was a rough ride and I honestly don't know if I'll bother watching the next.

There were some great performances (Uzo Aduba and Selenis Leyva killed it) but overall, it was a very boring season.

 

[Linkura]

Agree with a lot of the comments here. That was a rough ride and I honestly don't know if I'll bother watching the next.

There were some great performances (Uzo Aduba and Selenis Leyva killed it) but overall, it was a very boring season.

Yes, there were some great performances, which makes it even worse than the writing and pacing were so terrible for the most part.

 

[poppabk]

Only watched the first episode so far, but this seems to swing from drama to slapstick comedy a little too jarringly. Previous seasons managed to meld the two more seamlessly.

 

[SpaceWolf]

Seven episodes in.

What the hell happened to this show? Tonally it feels like it's completely transformed into a children's television program.

Also....

-What the heck is going on with the male nurse in this season? He just seems to be serenely going about his job, utterly unphased about the riot that's been going on. What's he been eating? Is he not concerned?
-Why have we heard nothing about the psychiatric wing and the prisoners there? You would have thought Alex would be using this time to go and find Lolly. Is Lolly even in the prison anymore?
-Am I supposed to be finding the casual sexual assault and ritualistic humiliation of the guards funny? Because the show appears to think I should be finding this funny.

 

[RedHill]

-Am I supposed to be finding the casual sexual assault and ritualistic humiliation of the guards funny? Because the show appears to think I should be finding this funny.

I don't see where you're getting that from.

Spoiler

The shots of Brook looking uncomfortable along with Alex speaking up and then indirectly starting an anti riot movement shows the humanity of viewing what they did to the guards as wrong. You weren't supposed to find humor in what they did for them.

 

[SpaceWolf]

I don't see where you're getting that from.

Spoiler

The shots of Brook looking uncomfortable along with Alex speaking up and then indirectly starting an anti riot movement shows the humanity of viewing what they did to the guards as wrong. You weren't supposed to find humor in what they did for them.

If you're referencing the specific incident

Spoiler

with the guards in the auditorium, the scene seemed tonally up in the air at points where they depicted the sexual assault of the over-weight guard in a off-handed that was supposed to be humorous, preceded by cheerful jokes about his "smurf dick" ("It's small with a droopy hat!"), followed by the guard protesting the prisoner's attempt to go to "fifth base" with "There's nothing in there!". There was just a tonal casualness surrounding much of the scene that sat with me uncomfortably, even if Alex protested it later.

Spoiler

I might just have misread what the writers had hoped to achieve with that particular moment before Alex's protests...but that still certainly doesn't change the fact the humiliation and degradation of the guards has still been treated in an overtly comedic manner for much of the season so far, which I'm really not enjoying.

 

[exmachina64]

I didn't enjoy the new season, I don't think I'll watch the next. Too decompressed, too over-the-top, too many cliffhangers.

 

[RedHill]

If you're referencing the specific incident

Spoiler

with the guards in the auditorium, the scene seemed tonally up in the air at points where they depicted the sexual assault of the over-weight guard in a off-handed that was supposed to be humorous, preceded by cheerful jokes about his "smurf dick" ("It's small with a droopy hat!"), followed by the guard protesting the prisoner's attempt to go to "fifth base" with "There's nothing in there!". There was just a tonal casualness surrounding much of the scene that sat with me uncomfortably, even if Alex protested it later.

Spoiler

I might just have misread what the writers had hoped to achieve with that particular moment before Alex's protests...but that still certainly doesn't change the fact the humiliation and degradation of the guards has still been treated in an overtly comedic manner for much of the season so far, which I'm really not enjoying.

I don't think

Spoiler

making jokes means you're supposed to take humor from it. They're making jokes because they're humiliating him. That's just realism if they were to actually do public shaming like that.

 

[Pixeluh]

Probably the worst season yet for me. I don't know if I'll continue watching this series.

 

[Breads]

Seven episodes in.

What the hell happened to this show? Tonally it feels like it's completely transformed into a children's television program.

Also....

-What the heck is going on with the male nurse in this season? He just seems to be serenely going about his job, utterly unphased about the riot that's been going on. What's he been eating? Is he not concerned?
-Why have we heard nothing about the psychiatric wing and the prisoners there? You would have thought Alex would be using this time to go and find Lolly. Is Lolly even in the prison anymore?
-Am I supposed to be finding the casual sexual assault and ritualistic humiliation of the guards funny? Because the show appears to think I should be finding this funny.

As far as I know their minimum security camp, max/shu, and psych are all different compounds of the same facility.

 

[LordRaptor]

The dehumanisation and abuse of the guards as soon as they became prisoners is a pretty obvious call out to the Stanford Prison Experiment.

 

[aBarreras]

i hope taystee dies

 

[Sunster]

As far as I know their minimum security camp, max/shu, and psych are all different compounds of the same facility.

yea it's a very large campus. large enough that prisoners going from one facility to another are transported by van or bus.

i hope taystee dies

I'm calling the police.

 

[SpaceWolf]

I don't think

Spoiler

making jokes means you're supposed to take humor from it. They're making jokes because they're humiliating him. That's just realism if they were to actually do public shaming like that.

This is certainly true, yet for me, the scene just didn't feel inherently dramatic or tense in terms of the atmosphere that surrounded it....it was only in terms of a handful of characters reactions as spectators that any kind of awareness for the gravity of the situation seems to be communicated. There's a tonal mismatch that I'm constantly struggling with this season. This whole season so far has predominantly featured the guards constantly being humiliated, degraded and objectified in ways that make me feel like I'm supposed to be finding it empowering for the prisoners? There's a casual cruelty to the last few episodes which I'm finding really unsettling, but which the show just seems to want to treat as a punchline.

It can sometimes be difficult to parse when we're supposed to be laughing with the characters or not laughing at all with this show. For instance, I just finished watching Episode 8 and there's a scene where some of the prisoners fantasise about the best way they'd rape the guards (with the guards listening in) and again, it's treated in an overtly comedic way. I get that the line can blur sometimes for a dramatic comedy like this that often chooses to explore challenging subjects, but in terms of overall tone, a lot of the time this show has me questioning its priorities in a way I haven't done before in terms of the execution of said moments.

As far as I know their minimum security camp, max/shu, and psych are all different compounds of the same facility.

yea it's a very large campus. large enough that prisoners going from one facility to another are transported by van or bus.

Ah, makes sense. Thanks, guys!

 

[Zomba13]

I feel like I'm the only one that liked this season? There were some stupid bits and directions they went with certain plots that I disagree with but on the whole I enjoyed what I watched. I am a bit disappointed that a whole season was spent on the riot and we won't see the aftermath until next season (if there is one) but I still found it mostly enjoyable.

 

[SpaceWolf]

I am a bit disappointed that a whole season was spent on the riot and we won't see the aftermath until next season (if there is one)

The show has been renewed up to Season 7.

 

[Sora the Cat]

Wow, neogaf is the only place where I see bad comments about this season. I thought pretty much everyone was loving it.

 

[old manatee]

Wow, neogaf is the only place where I see bad comments about this season. I thought pretty much everyone was loving it.

I thought it was great.

 

[SpaceWolf]

Wow, neogaf is the only place where I see bad comments about this season. I thought pretty much everyone was loving it.

The AV CLUB has been pretty down on it too, both in their general season review and episodic reviews.

 

[exmachina64]

The show has been renewed up to Season 7.

Kill. Me. Now.

Wow, neogaf is the only place where I see bad comments about this season. I thought pretty much everyone was loving it.

The entire season takes place over three days. If upcoming seasons adhere to the same decompression, how many years behind will it be?

 

[Arkeband]

I kind of enjoyed it, although it was stretched out for eons and some of the flashbacks really didn't pan out into anything noteworthy. Like, whoa, the Muslim chick is part of a polygamist marriage, this changes everything!!!

At this point I just feel bad for Pornstache, they've mentally broken him and now it's just a running joke to torment him.

 

[Sunster]

Kill. Me. Now.



The entire season takes place over three days. If upcoming seasons adhere to the same decompression, how many years behind will it be?

If they do this next season it will make the amount of drama taking place cartoon tier. this season they at least had the riot to explain why so much crazy stuff happened in 3 days.

 

[exmachina64]

If they do this next season it will make the amount of drama taking place cartoon tier. this season they at least had the riot to explain why so much crazy stuff happened in 3 days.

I'll keep my expectations low.

 

[Orniletter]

Man Ep 3

Spoiler

trying to make the corporate lady look like a young college student...
what a shitty job they did. Plus giving her a backstory in the first place was just dumb.

It was Dexter season 1 (2 ?) levels of bad, agreed. Terrible


Really not feeling this season all that much tbh. The other seasons had cooler gimmicks.

 

[Breads]

Kill. Me. Now.



The entire season takes place over three days. If upcoming seasons adhere to the same decompression, how many years behind will it be?

Piper still has 6 months left. Gotta stretch it out somehow.

I feel like I'm the only one that liked this season? There were some stupid bits and directions they went with certain plots that I disagree with but on the whole I enjoyed what I watched. I am a bit disappointed that a whole season was spent on the riot and we won't see the aftermath until next season (if there is one) but I still found it mostly enjoyable.

It could have been a fun side story if they trimmed a lot of the fat but as it stands, as the new season of a serialized story, it feels like a wasted year. I would wager that even people who watched it would soon forget the finer points.

 

[timshundo]

Just finished, having trouble thinking of things I didn't like. I don't remember what this show used to be but I'm happy to let it evolve into whatever it wants.

Just bring back Laverne Cox.

 

[Linkura]

Piper still has 6 months left. Gotta stretch it out somehow.

Unless she gets an extension..... Wouldn't put it past them.

 

[exmachina64]

Piper still has 6 months left. Gotta stretch it out somehow.

IIRC, the amount of time remaining that was stated in this season was three months.

 

[Zomba13]

The show has been renewed up to Season 7.

Ah cool. I didn't know and seeing the trend of Netflix Originals being cancelled I wasn't sure.

 

[SpaceWolf]

Piper still has 6 months left. Gotta stretch it out somehow.

Unless Piper somehow gets an extension I don't know about at the end of this season (I'm only halfway through), Piper only has 3 months left. Alex and Piper were actively discussing this fact earlier on in the season during the first day of the riot.

 

[SpaceWolf]

10 episodes in. Show is getting much better.

Tastee has basically taken the mantle of the show's main character from Piper, and I approve whole-heartedly.