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Cojawfee
May 31, 2006
I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius
I finished the season.

Why did they make Piscatella into some cartoon villain? I always got the impression that even if he was an rear end in a top hat, he was a somewhat decent guard. Then this season it turns out he murdered some inmate for no reason and he's obsessed with torturing Red. I'm wondering if he pissed off the writers or something. He went from being in charge to that one guy clowning his name and then he goes full serial killer.

This season was interesting in a way that every episode became interesting enough at the end to create a cliffhanger that made me want to watch the next one. Though that's pretty lovely. If they have to make every episode be a cliffhanger to keep people interested maybe they should get better writing. At several points I wished the plot would just move along because I didn't care. I'll see what have planned out next season but this kind of went off the rails.

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swickles
Aug 21, 2006

I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just some QB that I used to know
I am only 4 episodes in, but a really talented writer could make the two meth heads into Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and it would be fantastic.

Panfilo
Aug 27, 2011

EXISTENCE IS PAIN😬
:stonk: Was that really Caputo's coke can? :barf:

Grem
Mar 29, 2004

It's how her species communicates

I'm on episode 7, can someone explain what the gently caress is going on with Gloria's family outside? Earlier she said someone was going to die? Now she's on the phone panicking to her son? I feel like I totally missed this plot point.

Power of Pecota
Aug 4, 2007

Goodness no, now that wouldn't do at all!

Steve2911 posted:

Nah Suzanne's great. She's a pretty drat spectacular portrayal of someone that's fallen through the cracks and been utterly, hopelessly let down by the system.

I don't really get the hate for Daya either but maybe that's just me.

Agreed on Suzanne (although this season wasn't great for her) but Daya's storyline was stale partway through season one and she's been passively sulking like 85% of the time she's been on screen since then. Thank god it looks like she's gone for good.

Grem posted:

I'm on episode 7, can someone explain what the gently caress is going on with Gloria's family outside? Earlier she said someone was going to die? Now she's on the phone panicking to her son? I feel like I totally missed this plot point.

It gets fleshed out pretty soon afterwards, I think in the next episode - her son was jumped while spending time with a bad crowd and has swelling in his brain that needs to be operated on

Kuiperdolin
Sep 5, 2011

to ride eternal, shiny and chrome

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2022

I don't get how anyone could have thought it was a good idea to let the Linda actress play a teenager. If anything she looks older in these scenes than in the main timeframe.

GobiasIndustries
Dec 14, 2007

Lipstick Apathy

Kuiperdolin posted:

I don't get how anyone could have thought it was a good idea to let the Linda actress play a teenager. If anything she looks older in these scenes than in the main timeframe.

I feel like that had to be intentional, I thought it was hilarious.

SamuraiFoochs
Jan 16, 2007




Grimey Drawer
I remember going out of last season wanting horrible things to happen to Piscatella. They REALLY didn't need to take it that much further than last season but boy did they ever. That flashback was genuinely chilling though.

I'm gonna be honest, I want to like this show more than I do. This season was a great idea marred by lovely execution because the show runners often write themselves into corners.

Also the Pennsatucky storyline this season was inexcusably poo poo. I'm convinced that Jenji Kohan is either incapable of or doesn't want to write healthy heterosexual relationships. I guess you could say Vinnie and Lorna, and admittedly it's tough to write a heterosexual relationship in a show focused on female prison inmates, but seriously.

stev
Jan 22, 2013

Please be excited.



SamuraiFoochs posted:

Also the Pennsatucky storyline this season was inexcusably poo poo. I'm convinced that Jenji Kohan is either incapable of or doesn't want to write healthy heterosexual relationships. I guess you could say Vinnie and Lorna, and admittedly it's tough to write a heterosexual relationship in a show focused on female prison inmates, but seriously.

That guard couple seem pretty happy.

Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~

SamuraiFoochs posted:

Also the Pennsatucky storyline this season was inexcusably poo poo. I'm convinced that Jenji Kohan is either incapable of or doesn't want to write healthy heterosexual relationships. I guess you could say Vinnie and Lorna, and admittedly it's tough to write a heterosexual relationship in a show focused on female prison inmates, but seriously.

The Vinnie and Laura relationship is anything but healthy

appleskates
Feb 21, 2008

Find your freedom in the music.
Find your Jesus, find your Kubrick.

GobiasIndustries posted:

I feel like that had to be intentional, I thought it was hilarious.

She's also in the Netflix Wet Hot American Summer prequel, First Day of Camp (as a teenager.) A big part of the joke of that show is that the movie was made many years ago and so in the prequel, all of the camp counselors are in their 40s. It especially works for Michael Showalter.

Ghost Captain
Apr 22, 2008

I did it wit my lil hatchet
This show has the same obsession that The Sopranos and Mad Men had with people being mostly incapable of change, but doesn't have the writing talent to make it fun to watch characters relapse. Instead, it just feels like the show itself relapsing. I still enjoyed the season, though.

stev
Jan 22, 2013

Please be excited.



Ghost Captain posted:

This show has the same obsession that The Sopranos and Mad Men had with people being mostly incapable of change, but doesn't have the writing talent to make it fun to watch characters relapse. Instead, it just feels like the show itself relapsing. I still enjoyed the season, though.

I can't really agree with that. Even if characters don't become perfect people overnight they've mostly had pretty significant development and changed some lovely behaviours for the better. Or at least started on the road to doing so.

Piper, Healy, Caputo, Doggett and Nichols being the biggest examples that come to mind.

stev fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Jun 12, 2017

Ghost Captain
Apr 22, 2008

I did it wit my lil hatchet

Steve2911 posted:

I can't really agree with that. Even if characters don't become perfect people overnight they've mostly had pretty significant development and changed some lovely behaviours for the better. Or at least started on the road to doing so.

Piper, Healy, Caputo, Doggett and Nichols being the biggest examples that come to mind.

Fair enough. I definitely got the show's message wrong -- It's actually pretty optimistic and believes in our ability to change. It's still tiresome as poo poo to watch people's failures to change in this show, though. And while it's realistic that Suzanne and Lorna can't escape mental illness, I'm pretty sick of them, too. The fact that they "don't become perfect people overnight" is kind of the focus here, because while I understand that it would be bad writing and I would complain more about that happening, there's something off about how it currently works. It makes me wonder if I'm annoyed with the show for being written poorly, or with humans for acting the way the show accurately portrays them. The latter fits pretty well with my perception of the things I find fascinating about the show.

GobiasIndustries
Dec 14, 2007

Lipstick Apathy

appleskates posted:

She's also in the Netflix Wet Hot American Summer prequel, First Day of Camp (as a teenager.) A big part of the joke of that show is that the movie was made many years ago and so in the prequel, all of the camp counselors are in their 40s. It especially works for Michael Showalter.

Yeah Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (and regular WHAS) are fantastic :)

SamuraiFoochs
Jan 16, 2007




Grimey Drawer

Rarity posted:

The Vinnie and Laura relationship is anything but healthy

I have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to this show but now that I made a conscious effort to remember some of the particulars, yeah, you're right. To be fair pretty much every relationship on the show is hosed up now that I honestly think about it. The Pennsatucky thing just REALLY bothered me.

swickles
Aug 21, 2006

I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just some QB that I used to know

appleskates posted:

She's also in the Netflix Wet Hot American Summer prequel, First Day of Camp (as a teenager.) A big part of the joke of that show is that the movie was made many years ago and so in the prequel, all of the camp counselors are in their 40s. It especially works for Michael Showalter.

Except somehow Paul Rudd looks younger.

Lycus
Aug 5, 2008

Half the posters in this forum have been made up. This website is a goddamn ghost town.

Gyro Zeppeli posted:

For loving real. 5x10-13 Like...what was his motivation for torturing them, and Red in particular? Because she tried to humiliate him, which, at the time, he laughed off? And his flashback only really establishes "Okay, he's a sociopath who doesn't like criminals, because...other criminals attacked and raped his criminal boyfriend?"

People just do Stuff in this season. There's no motivation beyond "Gotta move the plot forward somehow".


I started wondering if I forgot about something Red did to him last season.

I thought his flashbacks were going to end with his boyfriend betraying him somehow.

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013

Lycus posted:

I started wondering if I forgot about something Red did to him last season.

Red refused to break over the issue with the dead "guard", even though he was certain she was guilty. That she wasn't ended up being a huge embarrassment for him, and his behaviour directly led to him being shamed and fired. I think that's their big issue, but it could have been a lot of little things.

(He also loving hates his mother, and women in general, so anyone who takes on the mantle of den mother was always going to attract his ire.)

quote:

I thought his flashbacks were going to end with his boyfriend betraying him somehow.

You're definitely encouraged to think that, and I think the scenes are played ambiguously enough to think the prisoner was playing him for benefits. You get the sense that there was more story to tell there.

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer
Only on episode 4, but I'm sick of Suzanne and have been for a few seasons now.

Gyro Zeppeli
Jul 19, 2012

sure hope no-one throws me off a bridge

PostNouveau posted:

Only on episode 4, but I'm sick of Suzanne and have been for a few seasons now.

Same. I know she's a fan favourite, plus obviously she's the focal point for the commentary on the treatment of mental health, but it feels like they keep going back to the well of "Suzanne goes off the rails again, her friends need to cover for her".

5x13 I'm glad the ending suggests the cast being cut down, though. This season felt, a lot of the time, like they were struggling to spin the plates of every plot being wrapped up.

Lycus
Aug 5, 2008

Half the posters in this forum have been made up. This website is a goddamn ghost town.
Is the rest of the show gonna take place in max? I halfway expected the main characters to all escape and the next season be the "on the lam" season like S2 of Prison Break.

Open Source Idiom posted:


You get the sense that there was more story to tell there.

Probably not, though. Considering what happened.

Lycus fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jun 13, 2017

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer
Also annoying me for several seasons: All the characters have the same voice.

They did a great job casting a wide range of actors, but I feel like, for example, the redneck girls are more likely to talk about "Serial" than say country music or something those characters would actually give a poo poo about. The show does bring up topics and causes that these characters would probably care about, but the dialogue all sounds like it was written by a white liberal and the only thing that really gets changed maybe it gets said in Spanish or with an accent.

esperterra
Mar 24, 2010

SHINee's back




Welcome to Jenji Kohan.

I'm digging this season so far. Last year surprised me, too, after losing a lot of enthusiasm for this show.

I kind of wish G.L.O.W. had dropped on the 9th instead, though. Wouldn't have mindes waiting til the end of the month for this.

SamuraiFoochs
Jan 16, 2007




Grimey Drawer

PostNouveau posted:

Also annoying me for several seasons: All the characters have the same voice.

They did a great job casting a wide range of actors, but I feel like, for example, the redneck girls are more likely to talk about "Serial" than say country music or something those characters would actually give a poo poo about. The show does bring up topics and causes that these characters would probably care about, but the dialogue all sounds like it was written by a white liberal and the only thing that really gets changed maybe it gets said in Spanish or with an accent.

This is really true. Also apropos of nothing I hope Maritza and Flaca aren't going anywhere. They really grew on me this season. :3:

Davros1
Jul 19, 2007

You've got to admit, you are kind of implausible



Gotta love the fact that Chang ended up in the "poo-poo". Knowing her, it was intentional

Panfilo
Aug 27, 2011

EXISTENCE IS PAIN😬
So nobody knew Litchfield had a swimming pool? There would've been a large building visible from the outside. Given that the inmates were tasked with maintenance, I'm surprised only one knew it existed. I mean even Vee hoarded cigarettes for decades; you'd think she'd use a space like that for her legion of doom type plotting.

Davros1
Jul 19, 2007

You've got to admit, you are kind of implausible



Panfilo posted:

So nobody knew Litchfield had a swimming pool? There would've been a large building visible from the outside. Given that the inmates were tasked with maintenance, I'm surprised only one knew it existed. I mean even Vee hoarded cigarettes for decades; you'd think she'd use a space like that for her legion of doom type plotting.

It looked to be underground?

Victorkm
Nov 25, 2001

Davros1 posted:

Gotta love the fact that Chang ended up in the "poo-poo". Knowing her, it was intentional

I think she just happened to be in the shitter at that time.

radical meme
Apr 17, 2009

by Fluffdaddy
Well that was an unfulfilling season for me. I feel like I don't really understand any of the characters better now than I did when the season started; it seemed to be more of the same for all of the prisoners. Plus, I hate it when shows just seem to be slogging along in order to set up subsequent seasons. Maybe Nicky's character became more complex but she's always been one of my favorites in the show. I enjoyed Boo's storyline also.

Noctone
Oct 25, 2005

XO til we overdose..
Danielle Brooks acted the gently caress out of this season, but other than that everything else was moderately entertaining at best. The entire Piscatella plotline was just cartoonish absurdity. I thought they were trying to humanize him with his backstory (I was expecting his prisoner boyfriend to be the one that was scalded to death, by the other inmates working the kitchen, and then idk like Piscatella would leave that prison due to grief and it would also explain his utter hatred of inmates), but uhh that sure did take a left turn.

e: Also just about everything to do with Bayley was dogshit as well, aside from Poussey's dad finally being the first person to keep it real.

Noctone fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Jun 13, 2017

eating only apples
Dec 12, 2009

Shall we dance?

Victorkm posted:

I think she just happened to be in the shitter at that time.

She was in there earlier when Linda came looking for Caputo, but she definitely was in there by choice.

Senor Tron
May 26, 2006


I 100% expected Piper to die, or the for the last episode to flash forward to her release. Would not be at all surprised if a big surprise of next season is that she isn't in it.

underage at the vape shop
May 11, 2011

by Cyrano4747
all the """gangster""" talk in this show is really obviously written by someone whos never ever been around poor kids ever. I really wish the show would tone down the tweeness a tonne too because it's impossible to take things seriously when light happy fairy music is backing up a serious scene. It's almost like a kids show sometimes.

Hometown Slime Queen
Oct 26, 2004

the GOAT
I fast forwarded every time the meth heads were on screen and everything was greatly improved

Noctone
Oct 25, 2005

XO til we overdose..

like a cigarette should posted:

I fast forwarded every time the meth heads were on screen and everything was greatly improved

It continually baffles me why they keep getting so goddamn much screen time.

GobiasIndustries
Dec 14, 2007

Lipstick Apathy
Yeah the meth heads have kinda gotten stale.
Maritza and Flaca, however, had their best season yet :swoon: Letting those two wander around giving prison beauty tips on youtube during a riot was absolutely hilarious.

Cough Drop The Beat
Jan 22, 2012

by Lowtax
Yeah, I just finished the season. and I really wish the meth heads were cut from the main cast. We have Pennsatucky and the whole Neo-Nazi/white nationalist crew to show us the white redneck's perspective in prison... and then we have the tedious as hell pointless meth heads running around pantsing everyone, kidnapping the nurse, and other very unfunny "comic" relief bits that most other characters are actually effective at. What was the point? If they're supposed to illustrate how sad and lovely meth heads are in prison, then beat that point into the ground like 2 seasons ago.

Great season though, even if the some of the subplots feel extraneous and meandering. The main plot was very well done for the most part though. Danielle Brooks and Lea DaLaria are incredible actresses, as always, but man, Brooks killed it this season. That cliffhanger was even more evil than last season's because the aftermath could go anywhere!

Cough Drop The Beat fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Jun 14, 2017

underage at the vape shop
May 11, 2011

by Cyrano4747

Noctone posted:

It continually baffles me why they keep getting so goddamn much screen time.

because they are cute and wacky!!

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Noctone
Oct 25, 2005

XO til we overdose..

underage at the vape shop posted:

because they are cute and wacky!!

surely you australians have higher standards than that for cute

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