‘Orange Is The New Black’: Taryn Manning Thinks Season 5 Was ‘Disorganized’

“Orange is the New Black” star Taryn Manning recently seconded creator Jenji Kohan’s statements regarding Season 5.

While speaking with Digital Spy, Manning acknowledged the fact that Season 5 felt “disorganized.” “I know working on that season was rough because it was supposed to take place in three days, and it felt unorganized, and the storyline felt a little disorganized. So it had that feeling of art imitating life,” she explained.

During her interview with The New Yorker earlier this week, Kohan said that Season 5 turned out to be “weak” because a bunch of the original writers left last season. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was just a new dynamic – people were attached to the characters as viewers, not as creators,” she said.

But even though Manning acknowledged that Season 5 was not as organized as the previous seasons, she didn’t support Kohan’s statement about the 13 episodes being “weak.” In fact, the actress, who plays the role of Doggett, thinks that fans enjoyed the storylines just as much as they loved those in Seasons 1 to 4.

“That wasn’t the way the public invested in it, they really enjoyed it. I actually think it was one of our strongest seasons. It’s interesting, I’m not a TV writer, but maybe from Jenji’s perspective there were parts she thought would fail because the writers got switched up. But I think it’s one of our best,” she said.

Meanwhile, Manning also talked about the fate of “Orange is the New Black” after Season 7 since Netflix has renewed it for two more seasons. The actress said that “OITNB” could go on longer if people continue to embrace it.

“It’s not the traditional roll out of a TV show – like ‘Stranger Things’ will end on Season 4 or 5 – but if people are still watching and they can see it going in a different direction, it could go on forever. There could be another jail facility, there could be a whole new world of prisoners… At some point I am going to bow out,” she said.

“Orange is the New Black” Season 6 will stream on Netflix in June 2018.