‘Orange Is the New Black’ Is the Only Show That Can Make Every Character Relatable Without Sacrificing Villains

I call it the Glee phenomenon. There’s a character on your favorite show you know is the bad guy. Every choice they’ve made up to this point has either only benefited them or has actively made life worse for everyone else on the show. You’ve learned to hate them for all the drama they’ve caused, and they deserve it. But at the crux of your anger, the show throws you a curveball: This character isn’t evil. They’re just misunderstood, and now all the terrible things they’ve done are allowed to be quietly swept under the rug.

It’s a TV trend that infuriates me to no end. Characters aren’t allowed to be completely good or evil. Everyone is misunderstood, and if you don’t realize that yet, you just haven’t spent enough time with them. This trend has touched everything from Shondaland to This Is Us, watering down overly emotional protagonists and robbing us of great TV villains. However, there’s only one show that’s consistently been able to walk the lines of character likability while creating firm heroes and villains: Orange Is the New Black.

The act of creating relatable, morally complicated characters certainly isn’t a bad thing. But time after time, the quest for moral ambiguity has sacrificed plot and character consistency, unintentionally transforming these shows into heavy-handed parables at best or parodies of themselves at worst. For five seasons now, Orange Is the New Black has proven that shows can have both — characters to root for and against as well as moral complexity. A lot of this successful duality likely comes from the show’s high stakes premise. There are few environments that more clearly examine the divide between “good” and “evil” than a prison. From its first episode, Orange Is the New Black cemented itself as a show about anti-heroes, giving us Piper (Taylor Schilling), the blondest and worst person at a cocktail party who goes to prison for money laundering. Though Piper spends a lot of time arguing for herself, the show doesn’t mince what happened. Piper willingly and knowingly committed a crime, and now she must serve her time.

That’s how the series handles all of its inmates, by first acknowledging that they’re wrong before diving into their deeply human backstories. As a result, it rarely feels like viewers are being manipulated into feeling one way or another about a character. Instead, the show delivers people, people who were selfish and have made mistakes, and people who may or may not want to become better, but people who are unmistakably themselves. Laverne Cox’s Sophia Burset is one of the best examples of this. In Litchfield, Sophia is almost a neutral character, rarely scheming against others. However, with her backstory and quest to be accepted for who she is, it would be easy to transform her into a sugary hero who can do no wrong. Orange Is the New Black never takes that approach. Sofia’s identity as a trans woman is explored sympathetically, and the show doesn’t shy away from showing the ways she’s discriminated against, but it also takes time to focus on her crimes. Sofia committed credit card fraud and put her family in financial danger. She’s a good person who messed up, but her mistakes have consequences. As a result, she’s more relatable than if she were automatically forgiven for her missteps.

In the realm of Litchfield, few characters better demonstrate the transformation from villain to relatable hero better than Red (Kate Mulgrew) and Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning). Both started as rivals to Piper with shady histories. Red’s involved connections to the Russian mob, and Pennsatucky’s involved murdering a nurse at a Planned Parenthood. However, through their relationships with other characters, Orange Is the New Black has been able to expose the humanity of both of these characters all while never excusing their crimes. Red’s connection to organized crime has given many characters pause on more than one occasion, and Pennsatucky’s past and lack of education are a running joke for Boo (Lea DeLaria). In both instances, the show could fall into the trap of making an overly emotional plea for how relatable these characters are, but it doesn’t. Their charms and crimes play along beside each other, and as a result, both come across as far more relatable.

However, it’s Piscatella’s (Brad William Henke) arc in Season 5 that best shows how a character can be both relatable and a compelling villain (Spoilers ahead). Piscatella is almost ruthlessly cruel throughout Season 4, imposing strict punishments on inmates and openly insulting them. His cruelty comes to a head in Season 5 when he deliberately kidnaps Red and her girls and makes them watch as he tortures her. It’s a ruthless scene, and one that Piscatella can’t walk back from. Instead of diving into a heartfelt monologue about his inner humanity — something that other shows have reveled in — Orange Is the New Black shows us the lost love that broke him. Piscatella’s story is unmistakably tragic, but it never excuses the torture he inflicts on inmates. He’s a character who dies a monster, a monster you better understand, but still a monster.

There have been several mixed reviews about this current season of Orange Is the New Black. Some see it as a way to set the series back on track. Others have complained that it’s slow and messy. However, despite the plot critiques, there are few shows that understand their characters better than this Netflix dramedy gem. No matter what you think about the plot of this season, chances are you’ll keep watching. These characters are too deeply human to turn this show off.