I finally got through the last episode of Orange Is The New Black and I have to say it was such a well crafted show. Going in, I expected to hate the idea of looking at convicts as humans. My opinion was that you made a choice between good and bad and now you're an idiot who has to pay for your shenanigans. As I learned, there is so much going on right below the surface keeping everything moving along.
A lot of people end up committing crimes just to survive. They get in a hole where they have no skills, no real value to society, so selling drugs seem like a fast way out. Even when this works, like Aleida who had money hidden away, I think if things are working, why stop? Greed takes over and you can't stop, it's always "just a little more and then we can live on this forever. It was almost sad but in a sense perfect that her daughter Daya came in as an innocent caught up in the system and within a few years turned herself into a monster devoid of much humanity. It seemed almost poetic that mama handled her before (maybe) polluting the other kids. I also really liked the going back and back to people's histories, specifically with Aleida, you see her mom turning her into a prostitute to put food on the table, and that has to be a horrible way to grow up.
Nobody got a horrible deal as bad as Taystee getting accused of murder with the flimsiest of proof and the hiding of evidence. It would have been too easy to just look at the bullets in Piscatelly, which came from the rifles and not a handgun, but that was hidden right away for no good reason. She had every reason to give up and take the easy way out by killing herself, but in the end she found a reason to go on and keep fighting. I loved the ending they gave her, giving her a connection to her best friend and doing good for many.
Piper, privileged and white, was the worst of all the characters. She had no reason to act out, no reason to hang with an idiot like Vause, no reason to throw her life away. Even when given a chance and a job after doing her time, she didn't seem to learn that none of us is special. She was still demanding time off to go see her stupid GF/Wife who was going nowhere. The whole "snow day" episode and getting high made me want to kick her in the vag, fucking spoiled asshole. Life is sucking, toughen up. Getting high and looking for shortcuts is what got you in the situation in the first place. It was so satisfying when Larry, her husband from Season 1, got a chance to tell her what he thought of her. That she wanted to be special and by following Vause and becoming a criminal, she gets to be special all her life. This of course pisses off Piper, mostly because she is a contrarian and must walk around pissed off at everything, tries to spin it back but I agree with his synopsis.
There were just so many interesting characters, I want to see where they go. Flacca found herself growing up by helping the people in the deportation camps. Nikki pretty much grows up and replaces Red acting as "prison Mom" to all the junkies trying to get clean. Black Cindy seemed to be on the straight and narrow and even connecting with her daughter which seemed like it was going to be alright. Susan was the most impressive as she came in wild and out of control, another review equated her to coming in mentally as a child and progressing to a teenager with clarity, still capable of losing it, but also understanding that the world is not always fair, yet we continue and do the best we can. I just wish there was some justice for people like Linda Ferguson, from Polycon. She truly is a monster, hiding behind a desk yet finding ways to make life less human with everything she does. Her only interest is the bottom line and that barely qualifies her as human.
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