When you’re making enough money to spend $6 billion on “content” in 2016 alone, you can take the kind of chances other networks and streaming services are afraid to. Netflix announced today that the Emmy-winning Orange Is the New Black has been renewed for not one, not two, but three more seasons, meaning the prison-comedy will be around until at least 2019. (The previously-announced season four is currently in production.)
In a press release, creator Jenji Kohan (who also signed on as showrunner for the entire run) said three more years is “plenty of time to do some interesting things. In some cultures, ‘May you lead an interesting life,’ is a curse, but I don’t live in those cultures… Three more years! Three more years!”
But is “three more years!” a good thing? Orange is still one of the best TV shows out there, but season three was a slight step down from seasons one and two, and Kohan’s other series, Weeds, ran out of steam long before its finale. Plus, Orange is working on a timeline: Piper has been in prison for nine months, with six months left until her release. One of two things can happen: Either the seasons slow down and stop covering three months at a time, or Piper will do something that adds extra time to her sentence.
Actually, there’s a third option: Orange should pull a Friday Night Lights.
For three, mostly murder-free seasons, FNL viewers cheered for the Dillon Panthers. Then, all of a sudden, Eric Taylor lost his job to that rat J.D. McCoy’s personal coach, and he wound up at East Dillon High, home of the Lions. It was a bold move for the show to take — the old, beloved cast graduated and gradually gave up screen time to newcomers like Michael B. Jordan’s Vince Howard — but it paid off wonderfully, and having the Panthers vs. Lions rivalry provided natural drama for the writers to work off of.
It’s a textbook example of seamlessly introducing new characters when it doesn’t make sense for the old ones to still be around. Orange should follow FNL‘s lead (minus the whole football angle, although that would work, too).
Actually, it may already have.
In the season-three finale, “Trust No Bitch,” busloads of unfamiliar inmates are brought to Litchfield. The next season is an opportunity to get to know these unknown prisoners, before the known ones, now spiritually cleansed after a day at the beach, leave. The massive ensemble cast allows for a logical exodus (especially if Piper and Alex, and their irritating drama, are included).
To paraphrase Nicky via Coach Taylor, clear eyes, new characters, can’t lose.