orange is the new black season 1 episode 3

Though critics and fans of season two alike should find season three a welcome return to basics. I found it a little wanting, especially with the tacked on “season long big bad” component. Still, the general tone in season three (based on the six episodes Netflix made available) feels reboot-y or at the very least a return to season one’s unexpected brilliance and graceĭue to the Netflixian all-at-once release strategy, it’s a little harder to get a true sense of each other’s cultural and critical consensus, though most seem to view season two to be a fine addition and complement to season one. There wasn’t anything in the basic formula in the show that required changing, save for an unfortunate slapstick-y turn in season two’s ending. My Chemical Romance and Tim Tebow’s playoff run). Only a few months separate season one and season three, as evidenced by Daya’s still pregnant status and some charmingly dated cultural references ( R.I.P. Not even that much time has passed from season to season. All the same characters (the ones still alive, at least) are still there and chilling in the same Litchfield penitentiary environment. It would be disingenuous to call season three a reboot. These people should be avoided and all their dumb political Facebook memes seized.

*And some purists would argue it’s not even on television. Though, I must admit I’m taken aback with just how fresh season three of Orange is the New Black feels. Seeing stories that feel familiar but with a level of diversity we rarely get to see feels fresh. It’s just a sound artistic (and not to mention financial) decision.

Complain about a massive liberal conspiracy all you want, racist-uncle-that-everyone-has, but highlighting faces we rarely see in mass entertainment is in no way pandering or charity. The aforementioned diverse and almost exclusively female cast has a lot to do with this. Orange is like nothing else on television*. There is yet another factor to consider, however: season three of Orange is the New Black is just very, very good. The other is the show’s impressive, relatively enormous, and pleasantly diverse cast. This largely robs the show of week-to-week discussion on the internet but helpfully forces audiences to discuss and consider the entire season as its own entity. One is the still relatively unusual formatting decision of Netflix to release every episode at once.

So it remains to be seen what cultural cache the show maintains in its third season, two seasons removed from being television’s “next big thing.” It’s got a couple of things going in its favor.

Orange is the new black season 1 episode 3