The sixth season of the American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

television series ''

Orange Is the New Black ''Orange Is the New Black'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''OITNB'') is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir '' Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Wo ...

'' premiered on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

on July 27, 2018, at 12:00 am PDT in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 50 and 84 minutes. The series is based on

Piper Kerman Piper Eressea Kerman (born September 28, 1969) is an American author. She was indicted in 1998 on charges of felony, felonious money-laundering activities, and sentenced to 15 months' detention in a federal correctional facility, of which she eve ...

's memoir, '' Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison'' (2010), about her experiences at

FCI Danbury The Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury (FCI Danbury) is a low-security United States federal prison for male and female inmates in Danbury, Connecticut. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Depar ...

, a minimum-security

federal prison A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for convicts who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), inmates considered dangerous (Brazil), or those s ...

. The series is created and adapted for television by

Jenji Kohan Jenji Leslie Kohan (born July 5, 1969) is an American television writer and producer. She is best known as the creator and showrunner of the Showtime comedy-drama series '' Weeds'' and the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black''. S ...

. This season takes place in a

maximum security prison Maximum security prisons and supermax prisons are grades of high security level used by prison systems in various countries, which pose a higher level of security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is ...

, after the inmates incite a riot at Litchfield Penitentiary during the previous season, and the season deals with the fallout from the riot. The main story arc of the season involves a gang-like war between two cell blocks which is sparked by the feud between two sisters. Meanwhile, the guards play a

fantasy sport A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete bas ...

game called "fantasy inmate". Several supporting characters who appeared throughout the first five seasons are absent in this season due to change in setting, but this season introduces several new characters featured in maximum security.

Episodes

Cast and characters

Main cast

Guest stars

* Michael J. Harney as Sam Healy *

Lea DeLaria Lea DeLaria (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actress, and jazz singer. DeLaria is credited with being the first openly gay comic to appear on American television with her 1993 appearance on ''The Arsenio Hall Show''. She is best kno ...

as Carrie "Big Boo" Black *

Alex Trebek George Alexander Trebek (; July 22, 1940 – November 8, 2020) was a Canadian-American game show host and television personality. He is best known for hosting the syndicated general knowledge quiz game show ''Jeopardy!'' for 37 season ...

as himself * Rosal Colon as Carmen "Ouija" Aziza * Francesca Curran as Helen "Skinhead Helen" Van Maele * Willie Casper Perry as Slide Orderly

Recurring cast

Inmates

Production

In February 2016, Netflix gave the series a three-season renewal, which included its sixth season. For the sixth season, Laura Gómez, Matt Peters and Dale Soules were promoted to series regulars.

Reception

Critical response

The sixth season received positive reviews from critics, with most critics noting its improvement over the previous season. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, it has a score of 69 out of 100 based on 14 reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has an 83% rating with an average score of 7.3 out of 10 based on 35 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Brutality and humor continue to mesh effectively in a season of ''Orange Is the New Black'' that stands as a marked improvement from its predecessor, even if some arcs are more inspired than others."

Accolades

For the

71st Primetime Emmy Awards The 71st Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2018, until May 31, 2019, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was held on September 22, 2019, at the Mi ...

Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBT advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Pri ...

received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

References

External links

* * {{Orange Is the New Black Orange Is the New Black 2018 American television seasons