‘Orange is the New Black’ season 4: How things get personal — and also relevant

With the fourth season of “Orange is the New Black” premiering on Netflix this coming Friday, it’s understandable that now would be the time when some questions would start to surface regarding what the upcoming stories would be about. Obviously, we know that there will be some strong character stuff for Piper (looks like the ladies of Litchfield will be turning against her), but what about thematically? Is there something that creator Jenji Kohan is clearly going for with this batch of episodes? It certainly seems that way, based on some of the news that we’re getting right now.

Specifically, Selenis Leyva (who plays Gloria Mendoza) had the following to pass along on this subject to The Hollywood Reporter, making it clear that there are some events that will be played into this year to show the further horrors of prison, especially when it comes to racial dynamics and the sort of threats that can be there:

“Danger is the underlying theme: racial tension and danger … This season is definitely going to start up conversations that we’re dealing with now. That’s the beauty of what Jenji does, with the writers. They really take things that are happening, that are current events, and deal with topics that people are afraid to really dive into. And we’re going to go there this season, especially with the prison system.”

What is a little more remarkable in terms of creating these sort of relevant conversation pieces is that Kohan has to operate with a little bit of foresight. These installments are filmed long before they end up airing, and there is always a risk that by the time they come out, the subject matter somehow becomes old news. Ultimately, we are rather lucky this has not occurred just yet, and the show remains as topical and powerful as ever.