Netflix's Orange is the New Black Season Review 

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This is a spoiler-free review for all 13 episodes of Orange is the New Black: Season 4. For those who\'ve finished and want to read my spoiler-y thoughts on the end, along with some other story specific details, you can head over to the Orange is the New Black: Season 4 Spoiler Discussion page.

One year after it was ruled ineligible to compete as a comedy by the Emmys, Orange is the New Black returns to Netflix with its most effectively wrenching and dramatic season to date, laced with poignant social commentary that\'s deftly woven into the story. Naturally, there are still plenty of moments of levity, but you\'ll find the bottom quickly drops out in Season 4 more than ever before. Things that start as amusing tales quickly turn sour and sad and once again the series excels at utilizing its (ever-growing) ensemble of players.

Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) , no longer the central character (and it\'s been this way for a few years), kicks off the season with the weakest initial arc of the bunch. Played for light laughs, Chapman\'s attempt to appear intimidating in front of her fellow inmates, piggybacking off what she did to Stella in Season 3, scarily snowballs in unexpected ways. So what begins as a weak attempt at quirkiness balloons into something quite frightening. Because, like the series has gone to great lengths to show us, everyone inside Litchfield has a different story and other things going on. So Chapman\'s flippant appeal to become "gangsta" brushes up against some other characters who - finely put - have their own s*** going on. And it doesn\'t go well for anyone involved.

Racial tension and privatized prisons become a big issue this season as a hundred new inmates are shoved into the already crowded correctional facility, creating stress and stain among the prisoners and the guards. Yes, MCC - the company that now runs Litchfield - was a big story element in Season 3, but this year the ugliness really comes out. With an abject contempt for human life, the company manages to separate Joe Caputo (Nick Sandow) from the day-to-day work of looking after things on a ground level while also stroking his ego. And in the wake, there\'s tragedy. And pretty much everyone gets a spoonful or more.

Picking up right where things left off in Season 3, with the mass prisoner exodus/lake party, the events with Alex Vause in the shed majorly effect the season as a whole. And similarly to the way Chapman\'s Season 4 arc begins, the shed crisis, which I won\'t spoil here, also manages to inform the rest of the season from an opposite angle. Then, basically, two massively hurdling snowballs wind up colliding in an endgame that hits you like a punch to the stomach.

There are new faces this season, of course. Most notable though is Judy King (Fringe\'s Blair Brown), who is, ostensibly, a Martha Stewart-style surrogate. But because this is a great show, King winds up becoming so much more than than just a caricature or a stand-in. It\'s also from her that we get the most comedy this year, since everyone else basically round-robins with one another in a tragedy tournament. King also brings us one of the most fun pairings from the season - that of her and prison electric Luschek (Matt Peters).

And speaking of pairs - King and Yoga Jones (Constance Shulman) also make quite a duo. Along with the touching and unexpected bonding between Counselor Healy (Michael J. Harney) and Lori Petty\'s Lolly Whitehill. Because this show has a such a large group, not everyone gets their time in the sun in a given season. There are the top players, sure, but then everyone else sort of takes turns with big present day moments and flashbacks. But, rest assured, everyone gets

It might even take until the very end of the season, but everyone gets something that helps them stand out.

Yes, the show still does flashbacks really well. And what I like about them is that not only do they not solely focus on inmates, but the ones that

focus on inmates don\'t necessarily show you how that person wound up in prison. Not all of them are "Well, here\'s the crime that this person did." Some are just meaningful slice-of-life stories and that, in itself, works to give us better characters and show us that these women are more than just the gimmicky crimes they committed.

Despite the witticisms and banter, and occasional moments of slapstick, this is a sad show. And an especially crushing season. It\'s overflowing with heartache as it churns out expert tales focusing on love, death, mental illness, rape, cruelty, dehumanization, racism, hate, and greed. And only right at the very beginning of the season did things feel somewhat disposable. But, as mentioned, everything builds into something else because almost nothing in Litchfield can exist in a vacuum.

Orange is the New Black returned with a devastating new season about our damnable privatized prison system and the maddening myriad ways it can fail and still prevail. As usual, the superb ensemble is given hearty, heartbreaking stories to tell as this series ushers in its darkest season yet.

To delve into my thoughts on how the season ended and other specifics, check out the Orange is the New Black: Season 4 Spoiler Discussion page

Orange is the New Black returned to Netflix with its most dramatic and insightful season to date.

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