Orange is the new Black - Season 3 - Blu-ray

Content: Welcome back to Litchfield Women's Prison! Signs point to change as the prison is threatened with closure. Inmates and guards have just survived a bedbug infestation, and the prison is threatened with permanent closure. New investors bring last-minute salvation, but they also bring changes that aren't to everyone's liking. While the staff has to deal with drastic hour cuts and new, inexperienced colleagues, some of the inmates are assigned new jobs. For example, Piper (Taylor Schilling) and Alex (Laura Prepon), who has returned to Litchfield, must sew underwear. This gives Piper an idea for a lucrative line of business that could add a little variety to their prison life and some money to their tight coffers. Meanwhile, Crazy Eyes (Uzo Aduba) develops an unexpected talent for writing erotic literature and Red (Kate Mulgrew) does everything she can to get her job back in the kitchen. And then there's heavily pregnant Dayanara (Dascha Polanco) who, after a bitter disappointment, must make a tough decision for the good of her child.

These are some of the many storylines that also make the third season of NETFLIX's hit series Orange is the new Black top-notch TV entertainment. Based on the bestselling memoir Orange is the new Black -My Year in Women's Jail by Piper Kerman, the series launched in 2013 alongside House of Cards as one of the streaming provider's first in-house productions. The series, penned by Weeds creator Jenji Kohan, quickly established itself as an absolute critics' and audience favorite, which is why a second season was quickly a done deal. Here, the creators then managed to pull off a particularly clever trick: By taking the main character Piper a little out of the center of the stories and the focus was placed more on the overall ensemble, the series thereby got an additional charm. After all, some of the many different supporting characters are far more interesting than the former manager who is serving a 15-month prison sentence for something stupid she did ten years earlier.

Season 3 continues the concept and further strengthens the fine ensemble. Through flashbacks that offer glimpses into the inmates' previous lives before their incarceration, the characters are constantly given new facets. In addition, constantly changing circumstances - such as new arrivals or changes brought about by the new prison administration - keep the characters evolving. Piper is nowhere near who she was in season one. Dayanara has noticeably changed due to her pregnancy, and her relationship with her mother also goes through some twists and turns over the course of season three, and Crazy Eyes is able to completely turn her standing within the Litchfield community on its head with her erotic science fiction stories. In addition, the season once again shows what interesting characters Red - wonderfully played by Star Trek: Voyager captain Kate Mulgrew - or Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) are. It's the glimpse into Tiffany Pennsatucky Doggett's past that reveals another strength of the series.

Because the writers and directors always manage to find the perfect balance between drama and comedy. There are some delightfully whimsical or just plain funny scenes, while other moments are just heartfelt or extremely upsetting. Pennsatucky's past and the consequences it brings to her relationship with guard Charlie Donuts Coates really gets to you as a viewer. However, it never lays it on too thick or goes for the tearjerker with kitsch and pathos. So the characters and their fates, but also the series as a whole, seem extremely believable despite some slight exaggerations. And that makes it very easy for the viewer to emotionally connect with these characters, to laugh or cry with them.

Orange is the new Black is a great series with many strong female characters. That being said, the story doesn't just appeal to a female audience. Even as a man, you'll be thoroughly entertained by these ladies who easily put many a tough guy in his pocket. If you already liked the first two seasons, you will love these new episodes as well. And if you don't know the series yet and don't have NETFLIX, you should definitely get the first two boxes and then immediately grab this third season box set. Absolutely worth watching and addictive!!!

Picture + Sound: The audiovisual realization of the series is on a good to very good TV level. The picture is absolutely clean, the colors are mixed coherently and the image sharpness is especially in bright moments on a very high level. In darker moments, there are minimal quality losses in the detail representation, but overall an absolutely positive overall impression prevails. The sound is a rather unspectacular DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, which fulfills its tasks more than satisfactorily and in some moments the surround channels are used properly. Good.

Extras: In addition to two audio commentaries on episodes 10 and 13 that are well worth listening to, the box set also has a Q&A session with the cast (approx. 8:07 mins), a gag reel (approx. 3:47 mins), and featurettes on Sophie (approx. 9:58 mins) and on the actresses and their roles (approx. 13:21 mins). Trailers for seasons 1 through 3 round out the additional offerings.

Conclusion: Orange is the new Black manages to maintain the high level of the earlier episodes in its third season. The colorful variety of characters, which are increasingly better fleshed out, as well as the successful mix of comedy and very authentic-looking drama give the series its extremely high entertainment value and the even higher addiction factor. The third season presents itself in good picture and sound quality and the box also has a few nice extras to offer. If you don't have NETFLIX, you should definitely get this one. Absolutely recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp