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Wentworth Woke and Renewed for Another Season

Wentworth Woke and Renewed for Another Season

If you haven’t already started watching Wentworthyou’re seriously missing out. No, it’s not just Orange is the New Black with teal uniforms and Australian accents. It’s a lot more than that.

The show is actually based on an Australian prison drama/soap opera called Prisoner: Cell Block H that broke boundaries by being one of the first representations of queer women on TV while we were still watching re-runs of The Brady Bunch over here. The reboot has taken on all kinds of tough issues, from the treatment of women, indigenous people, and people of color to addiction, the prison system, and class prejudice.

They pull off a dramatic show with serious cultural themes so well that they were just renewed for another season. The show will now officially be on the air until 2021, and as long as Netflix doesn’t fail us and cancel their contract, we’ll be able to stream it from the comfort of our sofas and beds just a few months after it airs in Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that even though the show was already predicted to be renewed, fans launched a grassroots #SaveWentworth campaign on social media to show that there is still a lot of support for the series. This isn’t surprising, given how many social issues the show tackles.

No spoilers, but after all the twists and turns the show has already taken, fans were wondering what the series would do in season six. At this point in a show’s life, with a lot of main characters who started the series no longer with it, there is a definite tendency for storylines to lose momentum. Think The Office once the show lost Steve Carrell and had to rely on big celebrity names to keep it afloat.

Wentworth has completely managed to avoid the season six slump. In place of past badass female leads, we now have Ruby, one of the most intersectional characters the show has ever seen. She is an indigenous, queer, disabled, person of color. However, you won’t find any scenes that describe the character as such. Instead, this is all revealed through her character development. She also introduces the concept of #MeToo and surviving rape culture in typical dramatic, Wentworth fashion. And she talks long-time character Boomer through her issues, leading her to realize that she’s disabled as well, not just “stupid” as she fears.

Also in the most recent season, we get a wrap-up to famous lesbian Frankie’s story (again, no spoilers) and follow a bunch of other amazing, intertwined female stories. The stories and drama are as strong as ever, and the series continues to touch on important social issues with seemingly no effort. If this is any indication of how the show is going to continue, we can all look forward to a lot more awesome episodes in the near future.

Photos courtesy of Facebook

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