'Orange Is the New Black' Has a New Prison: See the Photos

Red Bars

OITNB season six will feel like a new show after season five was not as well-received as past seasons. Co-producer Tara Hermann said the season's darker turn had to do with a bunch of new writers coming in.

"We had lost a bunch of the original writers," Herrmann told the New Yorker. "It wasn't anyone's fault. It was just a new dynamic — people were attached to the characters as viewers, not as creators."

Prison Cell Loot

Jenji Kohan, who developed OITNB for Netflix, told the New Yorker that some of the plots in season six felt like "fan fiction."

She also lamented the loss of original writers like Nick Jones and Sian Heder, who work on Netflix's GLOW now. Only two season five writers are coming back for season six.

The Hallway

Some of the new writers include a veteran of Fox's Bones, a playwright and sitcom veterans who could bring back some of the show's humor.

Novelist Merritt Tierce also joined. Tierce's debut novel Love Me Back (2014) earned several awards following its release. She has also written essays for Cosmopolitan, Marie-Claire, Oxford American, The New York Times and other publications.

The Bunks

Taryn Manning, who plays Doggett, admitted to Digital Spy that season five felt "disorganized," but she thought the audience reaction to the season was positive.

"I know working on that season was rough because it was supposed to take place in three days, and it felt unorganised, and the storyline felt a little disorganised," Manning said. "So it had that feeling of art imitating life."

The Phones

The new opening credit sequence was unveiled on June 13. It is updated with new shots of the maximum security prison where the season is set.

Audiences will get to look at the prison before the cast messes it up.

Cell Block B

While Kohan might have some reservations about the direction of OITNB's fifth season, she signed a new multi-year deal to develop more projects for Netflix last fall. She is also an executive producer on GLOW.

"Bold, outspoken and totally fearless, Jenji has constantly raised the bar for storytelling at Netflix," Cindy Holland, vice president of original content at Netflix, said in a statement to Variety.

"She possesses a rare and special talent to say what's unspoken, choose the unexpected over the safe and drive the cultural conversation – and audiences love her for it. She has been with us from the beginning and we could not be more thrilled to continue working together over the coming years."

Solitary Confinement

In a CNN interview about season five last year, Taylor Schilling said the team behind the show felt it was important to tackle real-world issues in the series.

"It's not always that your creative interests and your political interests and activism all kind of meld into one unified gig." Schilling told CNN in 2017. "I think we all kind of felt we have a responsibility right now, we've got to say our [piece]."

The Showers

Although the TV world is diversifying, Schilling told The Evening Standard in April she still feels we need more shows featuring women leads like OITNB.

"Representation is one of the ways we can start to change the culture. If we're not seeing everyone represented in our entertainment then there's a lot more space for separateness and isolated thinking," she told the Standard. "The fact alone that OITNB for five years has been representing in a way that's unique for television is wildly important."

Cuffs on the Wall

Production on the new season started in September. Laura Prepon shared a makeup-free photo from the set, just a month after she and Ben Foster welcomed their first child.

On June 3, Prepon said the couple married and thanked her fans for their support.

Toiletries

OITNB is not quite the awards magnet it once was. Although it has six Golden Globe nominations, the show has yet to win one. The series has not won an Emmy since Uzo Aduba won Outstanding Support Actress in a Drama for playing "Crazy Eyes." Aduba also won the award in 2014, the same year the show won Emmys for its casting and editing.

OITNB also won the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Aduba won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series at the SAG Awards in 2015 and 2016.