Calling all Orange is the New Black fans: as of now, the seventh and final ever season of the TV show is available to watch on Netflix.
After six years on our television screens, the final series is expected to follow the ladies of Litchfield as they come to terms with the fact that prison has changed them forever.
It was confirmed the seventh season would be the show’s last towards the end of last year, and all I can say is I hope you’re prepared to bid the gang an emotional farewell.
You can check out the trailer for season seven here:
After some of OITNB‘s stars, such as Taylor Schilling (Piper Chapman), were rumoured to be getting ready to say goodbye to their characters for good, the crew confirmed the news in October that season seven would be the last.
At the time, showrunner Jenji Kohan confirmed in a statement via Thrillist:
After seven seasons, it’s time to be released from prison. I will miss all the badass ladies of Litchfield and the incredible crew we’ve worked with. My heart is orange but fade to black.
The official Twitter account for the prison-based, female-filled comedy drama then broke the news to the show’s dedicated fan base – alongside a warning which read: ‘This may make you cry’. And they were right, it did.
The seventh season will pick up where the sixth left off, after Piper was finally granted an early release from Litchfield prison in the season finale.
Viewers can expect to see her adjusting – or struggling to adjust – to life on the outside in the upcoming episodes.
Speaking about Piper’s storyline, writer Brian Chamberlayne told The Hollywood Reporter:
[Jenji] wanted to be able to tell stories about post-prison. It wasn’t just a season-six end, it was partially about getting into the arc of where Piper goes.
It’s about what is significant about the criminal justice system and what is significant about Piper’s story and journey, so there’s plenty to be told.
The larger story of the season though, as per Vulture, reportedly focuses on the world of immigration, deportation proceedings, and ICE detention centres, which manages to perfectly capture ‘the desperate crisis happening in the real world’.
The seventh and final season of Orange is the New Black is available to stream now.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.