Orange is the new black will tear you apart

I have just finished watching the 13 episodes of Orange is the new black, season 4. I begin with the main message: it is, by far, the best season of this show and, in my opinion, one of the best seasons on the technical point of view of any show.

There will be no spoiler until the picture. Then you can expect some minor spoiler.

This Netflix show was one of the most addicting since the very first episode, the structure itself is designed to this specific purpose. A blurry main plot, almost in the background of the inmates' lives, personal details unraveled flashback after flashback, painting for us the character chosen on that particular occasion to move the plot along. The result is almost always a perfect arc of tension, resolving itself into the next one. 

This aspect is somehow enhanced in this last season, where we can see a firm change of tone in the narration and in the themes faced by the show. Season 4 reaches new unexplored levels of darkness, finally fully addressing very important issues plaguing our society.

There is still comedy, a lot, stuffed inside casual dialogues, you barely see the punch line coming and therefore you really feel it. Occasionally you will find yourself in tears for the jokes, the references to common problems of our society, and, most of all, the great majority of the characters is built up to be hilarious.

However, OISTNB is also about the hundreds of tragedies that brought those characters to be in prison, to be who they are. The result is a perfectly grotesque representation of the human condition, being the inmates and the guards a reflection of our nature. The show makes us laugh about them, in order to take our own problems less seriously for a moment, the moment in which we can see the funny side of it.

It is only at that point that the show hits harder on the viewer. Right after making us appreciating how funny the deformations of the grotesque style can be, the show makes them disappear, leaving us naked in front of the tragedy that it is really telling us. This show is about broken people, what you don't expect is how broken you can be once that you realize it.

I will try to develop this concept in the spoiler section of this post, for the time being let's move on to the second innovation of this season.

Piper was initially introduced as the main character, but we soon realized that her life wasn't more important or relevant than the other dozens that are orbiting around her. This season finally takes the step further and reveals the true role of Piper. I see her as nothing but the narrator of a story where she as a minor role, exposing the tales of the true protagonist and simultaneously antagonist of the show: the prison. 

The prison is the reason why every little story matters to us and it is, as an institution, the evil character providing the real plot. OISTNB is about how devastating the prison is, expressing this concept in an innovative manner.

The innovation is not in showing how brutal can a specific prison be (like other prison shows do, for example Oz), but rather illustrate how emotionally and physically devastating is the prison as an institution. The characters' lives are, on this point of view, the background over which the viewers can appreciate this brutality, feeling it deep in their bones. 

While the true main character (i.e. the prison) moves its plot along by crushing everyone's life, the humans in the show are just powerless actors in a twisted game. They are there in order to make us identify ourselves with them, to make us feel the darkness of a society that needs prisons to feel safer. Everyone in the show is embodying a primordial aspect of human nature, it can be sexuality, it can be the fear and the consequent discrimination, they embody the prejudices we don't admit to have, the delusions we build all around us to look like decent people.

As anticipated, minor spoilers ahead (just revealing major themes, not events), but it is difficult to be more specific otherwise.

Once that you set up a season with a darker tone, you can dig deep in major themes that made Season 4 an absolute masterpiece. The first theme of the season is racial discrimination and segregation. If in the past 3 seasons it was on the background, one of the major problems of our society is finally elevated as the driving force to move the plot along. The stupidity of this plague is exposed episode after episode (here the grotesque style works perfectly), until the main character, the prison, starts revealing its intrinsically evil nature against everyone with no exception.

Moreover, the choice of having veterans as guards is enforcing a strong parallelism between prison and another great brutal equalizer such as war. 

It is true that in many parts of the world the process leading to prison is affected by different levels of racial discrimination, but the common feeling the society has towards the inmates is not about race and takes the voice of the captain of the guards

It seems that, somewhere along the way, everyone around here forgot the only thing that matters. You are criminals and you deserve nothing. And if I have to make an example of each and everyone of you to back this place back in order... well, that will be my pleasure.

A sentence that exposes the main theme: prison is not designed to rehabilitate or reeducate, it is designed to be a punishment. Once we admit that, the natural consequence is the destruction of the little bit of humanity left, leaving the viewer naked in front of how worthless and inhumane such a punishing system is. Those that survives to the prison are then abandoned in a world not ready to welcome them back, because unconsciously knows that rehabilitation was what was needed, but not what we (as society) provided.

To conclude, I felt physical pain in seeing how hard the show can throw this reality to my face. A reality wrapped into practical jokes, satirical references, the usual blue note of the flashbacks and a dark shadow all over the present. 

What did you feel instead? Am I just seeing what I want to see?