For the second year in a row, Orange is the New Black will compete as a Drama at the Emmys. The category shift from Comedy was contentious when it was announced last year, and became all the more so when the show's third season emerged as its most comedic, focusing more on slice-of-life character storytelling than dramatic arcs.

As ridiculous as the ongoing debate around awards categories often seems, that Drama label is pretty inarguable this year. In its first half, season four contains some of the show's darkest to date – so much so that a roomful of inmates chanting "White lives matter!" just barely makes the top five. Much of the season four premiere feels like a deliberate bid to undermine what season three left behind: that uncharacteristically happy ending, which saw the inmates making a brief mass escape to an idyllic sunlit lake, gets subverted almost immediately as everybody drops back down to earth, and realises that the lake water is actually pretty gross.

Netflix

And that feeling of rude awakening runs throughout season four, which is noticeably more bleak despite being as packed with sharp banter and blackly hilarious twists as ever. Having evolved Piper into a ruthless panty kingpin at the end of last season, the show is now actively making fun of her attempts to Heisenberg up – "I'm gangsta, like with an A at the end," she announces at one point, with 0% irony. But while Piper keeps insisting that she's a force to be reckoned with, it's her on-off lover Alex who goes through the real moral transformation, pushed to brutal extremes by the hitman sent to kill her.

Orange is written with such heart and humanity that it's easy to forget how many of these characters are hemmed into self-destructive cycles from which they may realistically never break free. Episode six has a heavy focus on Sophia and Nicky, both beloved characters sent to solitary confinement last season, and the way in which their storylines collide is a gut punch.

Netflix

The ability to humanise even the most monstrous, seemingly cartoonish characters has always been Orange's great strength. It would have been pretty unthinkable in the first season to describe Pennsatucky and Healy as two of the show's most sympathetic, nuanced characters, and yet they are – the aftermath of Pennsatucky's rape from last season is still powerfully in play, while Healy's tragic backstory is fleshed out for the first time in episode four.

But despite the season's bleakness, one beam of light is the burgeoning relationship between Soso and Poussey, which emerged in the season three finale and remains central throughout this season. It's more or less a masterclass in how to write a love story with believable, smart conflict, developing both characters and creating a romance that it's impossible not to root for. Four seasons in, Orange is the New Black has never been more skilled at maximising its diverse ensemble.

Orange is the New Black Season 4 launches on Netflix from June 17.

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