20 Best TV Episodes Of 2016
11. The Animals - Orange Is The New Black
Orange Is The New Black made a major return to form in Season 4, delivering a season that was its darkest and most tragic yet, while also producing a commentary on real life, such as the Black Lives Matter movement (which was addressed here) and the issues facing the prison system in America.
The Animals encapsulated all of this, as the season's penultimate episode brought all of the conflict between the inmates and guards to a head.
The series gives an unflinching look at the way incarceration can dehumanise people, and this episode in particular jumps between the line of human and animal. The guards see them as animals, and that's why the peaceful protest they stage descends into chaos.
It shows how vulnerable these women are, how brutal the system can be, and builds to the climactic death that serves as one of the most heartbreaking TV losses of 2016.