Day 11. 112 pages, 50,767 words.

This is apparently a fairly regular thing now, when Mrs. Hatboy and the kids go away for their traditional wool-dyeing weekend. A new season of Orange Is The New Black hits Netflix and I watch it in a couple of marathon sittings.

Hey, at least this time I chowed down on sushi one night, and Nepalese curry the next. Bachelor life after 40 is classy.

Anyhoo, this year was no exception and I sat down to watch the sixth season. I came out of it wondering if it will be the last – as always with these shows, you always end up thinking they can’t possibly come out with another season after the finale – but apparently there will at least be a seventh season. So, Daughters of Handicrafts Dyeing Weekender 2019, bring it on!

This was a hard season to watch. Way less comedic than the early seasons – the action is taking place in maximum security now, not minimum – but still funny, in a really dark way. And man, that finale. Gut-wrenching. Utterly gut-wrenching.

Red, played by Kate Mulgrew, remains a highlight, as does Luschek, played by Matt “discount Chris Pratt” Peters. But every character is really well-settled and realised now, and the new maximum security characters, both inmates and staff, are just glorious. And the back-stories, told in flashback showing how each of the new characters would up where they are … absolutely fucking chilling.

The show taps beautifully into the current social and political climate in the US, and is amazingly written and superbly acted. I last talked about this back around season 3, but this show hasn’t lost its edge – if anything, it’s [insert cool shiv metaphor here]. It’s moved on from being a black comedy about the ludicrous inhumanity of the penal system, and become a simple question:

What is the difference between the animals in there, and the animals out here?

Do yourself a favour. Check this show out.