The first trailer for Orange is the New Black season 7 prepares to say goodby to one of Netflix’s first and most award-winning original series. Along with House of Cards, the Emmy Award-winning series created by Jenji Kohan began Netflix’s push toward streaming (and general television) dominance offering up the sort of series that encouraged people to spend entire weekends binge-watching a single season. In the process, the series became one of the most talked about and longest running on the platform, and its opening credits song, ‘You’ve Got Time,’ by Regina Spektor, made the Skip Intro button something of a modern technological miracle.
Seven seasons is an incredibly long time for any series to run, and it’s even more impressive considering how short-lived many of Netflix’s current original programs run. Not counting the upcoming final season, Orange is the New Black’s run is already twice as long as recently canceled shows like Santa Clarita Diet, American Vandal, and all the of the Marvel Netflix’s series (not combined, but still). So, in that regard, the series finale is not just the end of Piper Chapman’s (Taylor Schilling) time in prison, or the last viewers will see of characters like Taste (Danielle Brooks), Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning), Dayanara (Dashca Polanco), Red (Kate Mulgrew), or the award-winning Suzanne (Uzo Aduba), it’s also the end of a particular era for Netflix.
The new trailer is well aware the significance of the series’ conclusion, as it touts Orange is the New Black as a kind of unifying experience for the audience. But it’s also intent on playing up (perhaps inadvertently) the magnitude of a series on Netflix getting to write its ending and go out on its own terms. Check out the trailer and poster for Orange is the New Black season 7 below:
One point of interest in the final trailer are the scenes showing Piper adjusting to life after prison. As she struggles to find her way in both her private and (meager) professional life, it appears as though the series will aim to juxtapose her transition to freedom (such as it is being on parole and a former convict) with the other characters carrying on with life on the inside. That dual narrative may present an interesting challenge and change of pace for the show, which has fiddled around with its usual narrative in seasons past, particularly its condensed depiction of Litchfield on lockdown following a full-fledged riot by the inmates.
If nothing else, the series looks as though it will go off on an emotional note. That will present challenges it its own right as endings continue to be difficult for shows to pull off and for fans to process. While Orange is the New Black won’t be scrutinized to the level of, say, Game of Thrones, it will have plenty of fans expecting the perfect ending.
Orange is the New Black season 7 premieres Friday, July 26 exclusively on Netflix.