RiP OITNB: Orange is the New Black [SPOILERS!]

[PetyrPunkinhead]

Now that Orange Is The New Black is no more, I had some thoughts. I was surprised there was no previous thread for it here, so why not make a SPOILER thread for all of us that sat through the seven seasons with these characters.

Here are some SPOILER comments on the good/great things I liked about S7 broken down by characters.
•Taystee
She had maybe the best written arc of the season. How she turned tragedy and despair into hope with the micro loans program came about in a believable way. I’m glad that Poussey came back for one last scene in a flashback, too. I dug that character and it was actually a well written and performed scene. 
•Piper
Her struggle adjusting to life on parole was engaging, informative, and heartfelt. That last scene with Larry seemed forced though. TV show Piper & her time behind bars is vastly different than the real woman who inspired the series, so I don’t mind at all her not writing the memoir at the end like a modern day Ponyboy in Outsiders. I like how the last scene of the series was with her and Alex. However, they took that relationship on so many twists this season that I was kinda rooting for her to go with Zelda rather than Alex at the end there.
•Nicky
She had one of the best character arcs overall, not just for the season but for the series in general. The actress who plays her is phenomenal, and if you haven’t seen her in the show Russian Dolls then I highly suggest it. 
•Blanca
I feel like this was one of the breakout characters for me in the series. And she got a hefty amount of screen time in the final season—except for the final episode, but I’ll stay positive here. Even though her journey through the legal system was rushed in the final episode, I love how she ended back with Diablo. That last scene with the two of them was OITNB at its best—humorous and heartbreaking all at the same time.
•Flaca
She went from being someone totally shallow and self-absorbed to being an actual human being with compassion and empathy. She was well handled for a minor character.
•Florida Women (Except Doggett)
Red, Frieda, Morello, Lolly (Lori Petty’s character), & Suzanne all had a good season. They all experienced tragedy and humor true to their characters. Tiffany Doggett was on track for maybe the best arc of the season until the last two episodes. Utter. Fucking. Bullshit. (Sorry not sorry about going negative on that one!)
•Mendoza & Ruiz
Episodes on both of their back stories were fantastic. I feel like Mendoza had the most winding road for a character emotionally. Both are complicated women and I think the endings they got served their characters well.

Here is my take on OITNB S7 as a whole. 

Overall S7 veered way too much towards issues rather than characters, which is nothing new for the show—looking at you S5. This final season had some really, really great character moments and character development, but then it just kinda shat all over them in the last two episodes—even the new ICE characters. If you take someone on a journey with characters through seven years, you owe ALL of those characters a fair ending. S7 focused on ICE so much that the writers had to rush in the final two episodes to try and give the series regular cast an attempt at endings. And a surprising number of characters were either ignored or given very vague final scenes. Oh, and what about all the characters that were jettisoned from the show back in S4 after the riot? Well, they get basically cameos in the series finale. A few even get lines of dialogue. But honestly, not one character gets even remotely close to the great finale Poussey Washington got back in S5. And that’s disappointing—knowing a show is capable of melding emotion and social commentary so brilliantly in a single character yet failing to do that again after 26 more tries over two seasons.

One of the things that impressed me about the show early on is how the guards and prison admins were also main characters that were real people and not just caricatures. We don’t get that so much in S7. Fig & Caputo get a great deal of screen time and have pretty good seasons until the last few episodes. Also the new Warden Ward gets a good number of scenes, but she is unevenly used mainly to show how the prison system eats up and disposes any “good” people. The remainder of the guards and Polycon reps remain one dimensional, self-serving characters.

If you look at OITNB S7, and the entire show itself, its sum total is greater than the parts that make it up. The show had more potential than it ever truly achieved in the end. Instead of continually reaching across lines to bring new understanding to social issues through characters and their lives, it unwaveringly always leaned to the far left and pandered to the base. But it did try. And it was funny. And there were characters I cared about. So good on ya, OITNB.
OITNB S7 Grade = B
OITNB Series Grade = A-