Wow factor
Why go to message boards to bash somebody? Samira worked hard studying acting at Julliard. She's a wonderful performer, and no doubt has many other characters to show us.
Samira stands out among a bunch of cartoon characters on OITHNB & attempts to bring depth to a character that doesn't have much to do. To start with, she has to deal with the lame, forced pun name of Poussey. How witty. My sides are aching. This isn't just third grade humor. It's third rate writing.
People who say that OITHNB has great writers must be teenagers because though the series started well, the plots rapidly deteriorated. Same thing happened to "Weeds". Shows started strong and rapidly descended into soap opera, soft core porn & outlandish cliffhangers. Granted, prison shows have limited cinematic geography so are tough to write.
The last enjoyable episode was "Pizza" when Samira/Poussey was in Germany. Of course included was a soft core buffet of multi-colored mammaries & delicate tarrying of genitalia.
Samira does a brilliant job with flimsy lines and weird situations where her character's actions are not quite fully explained. The backstory w/military father who moves the family from US to Germany causes her Army brat separation anxiety. Otherwise, we don't know why Washington does what she does. Samira is not given much to develop many of her scenes.
Samira is one of the actors on the program who has the charisma to successfully transition to the big screen as does Danielle Brooks [Tastee] who not surprisingly also trained at Julliard and is a friend of Samira's. Those two women have got the goods and the chops. Many of the other performers are very good, but don't have big screen wow factor. Samira's got it.