We all have watched Jenji Kohan's TV shows... or at least heard about them, if we aren't living under a rock.
You know, like this show:
Photo source: unfamiliarterahtory.wordpress.com
And most recently, this one:
Photo source: www.afterellen.com
So here is the issue:
Jenji Kohan picks great plots for TV shows. It's just what she does with the plot that's annoying as hell.
I thought the concept of Weeds was great. Single mom, no job; no money, selling pot for a living. That's freakin' cool! However, after 3 seasons of the show, it just got to be way too much. The Mexican Mafia got involved and blah, blah, blah. Kohan took it way too far to the point of the show not being entertaining anymore because the plot was just being strung along; never, ever ending when it needed to end.
Does this make sense? A perfect example of this would be Pretty Little Liars. It started out as a super intriguing show. I mean, bitchy best friend goes missing. That's a great plot. But they just keep signing on for more and more seasons when they should just stop. It's annoying now.
And you may be asking yourself this question: If everyone is talking (or was once talking) about this show, then why must the creator, Jenji Kohan, stop doing what she's doing?
Ah, my sweet, sweet friend. Chances are, if you're asking yourself this question, then you probably gave up and didn't stick with the series. But if you're just a die-hard Kohan-ian, then you don't know good TV. And I'm not even going to apologize for that.
The only thing that these people want to do is just keep writing when they need to have a tasteful ending. It's ok to end TV shows! For instance, Breaking Bad had its run, then after five seasons, the writers stopped writing. The Breaking Bad crew left us with closure and a great ending. These show creators need to learn from that!
So. The third season of "Orange Is The New Black" premiered and ended last summer. And season four is set to premier in the upcoming month (Friday, June 17th).
So in honor of the fourth season coming out so soon, let's review the last season.
The first season was really good. The second season was good as well, and left us with an enormous cliffhanger. (I'm not going into detail. If you want to know and don't watch this show, just Google it, girlfriend {or boyfriend?}.)
The third season. The freaking third season.
I thought this season was going to be good, but instead, I was left disappointed and frazzled.
Let's backtrack. Ok, so the finale's second season left us questioning the whole "Vee situation." Was she really dead? What happened after she was hit?
The crew of OITNB didn't even acknowledge that. At all. Instead, we have Crazy Eyes over here freaking out saying, "Vee isn't dead!" And everyone else was all, "Yes, she is!"
You would think that since this conversation kept popping up throughout the third season that it would have been touched on. But no. I seriously thought that they were going to go somewhere with the "Vee thing." But no. They didn't. Whatever.
I will say, though, that they brought in Ruby Rose. And. Let me just say this and this only:
Photo source: www.uc.edu
But just because Miss Rose was on the show, does not make up for the bullshit that was given to us this season.
Like, why was Piper such a bitch this season? This is the story of Piper Kerman. I seriously doubt the real Piper got a tattoo that says, Trust No Bitch. Just no.
I liked this show because it followed the semi-true story of Piper's year spent in a woman's correctional facility. Now, it's just bullshit in terms of sadly attempting to make Piper a tough bitch as well as a prison whore.
This season ended with all the prison ladies playing in a lake. And then more women came into the prison. Want to talk about bad season finales? This was one of them.
And I read somewhere that said, "If you didn't like the OITNB season 3 finale, then you didn't understand it." Girl, sit down. I understood what Kohan gave me. Which was crap. So, there's that.
Yes, I know OITNB was a good show. It had the serious potential to go somewhere else and be a fantastic show. But of course, Kohan goes in the direction of making the protagonist some version of a hardass/badass. She did that with Weeds and now she's doing it here with OITNB. It's horrible. Is she trying to make some feminist statement? Just stop, babe. You need to take what you're doing and not go to the places you want to go, which tends to be making a mess out of your shows.
