YMMV / Wentworth

• And You Thought It Would Fail: The show after killing off main character Bea. A lot of fans didn't believe it would recover yet it went on to have multiple seasons afterwards which were all rather well received.
• Ass Pull: To some, Franky suddenly being framed for murder and getting thrown back in prison in season 5 was more or less the writers scrambling to recover after killing off Bea and depending on her popularity to keep the plot afloat after the previous season's shocking finale. Whether or not it worked is up to the viewer's discretion.
  • Arguably, the reveal at the absolute end of season 7 that Joan Ferguson is, in fact, alive. The two-part 8th season did address it, but it was no less jarring at the time.
• Base-Breaking Character: Kaz Proctor split the fandom down the middle due to her treatment of Bea. She later became more liked after killing Sonia and becoming a better top dog.
• Broken Base: Bea's death in the season four finale. Bury Your Gays (in a way) or simply the end of her character arc? Is she really dead, or she pulling a Kit Harington and will secretly be returning in season five? This isn't helped by showrunners stating that they felt her arc had reached its natural conclusion, and that the show will focus on other characters in the future. Is there a show without her, or is it enough of a cast ensemble to move on naturally without her?
  • Is Bea and Allie's relationship in season four organic and a high point of the season, or is it too rushed and unconvincing that Bea decided Allie was her soulmate after knowing each other for a matter of weeks? Does it get an apt amount of screen time, or does it take away from other interesting plots? Does the obvious Romeo and Juliet nature of the relationship take away from the atmosphere of the show?
  • Season 5 returned with the confirmation that Bea was indeed dead and would not be coming back, leading to calls that the show simply doesn't work without her, while others argue that the other characters are strong enough to make the show work. Some felt that season five suffered from Seasonal Rot, with viewership numbers slipping after strong showings in earlier seasons and complaints about fan favorites such as Maxine being Put on a Bus, while others enjoyed the episodes and appreciated Franky being returned to focus, as well as development for Allie beyond being Bea's love interest. The finale was one of the season five aspects that avoided division and enjoyed high ratings, particularly because Ferguson may have finally gotten her comeuppance... Only for even that to be turned on its head when it's shown that she somehow survived anyway.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Did the crew expect Franky to be as popular as her Prisoner counterpart? You have to wonder.
  • Boomer is one of the most popular characters in general, as is Maxine.
  • Linda is a favorite among the prison guards due to her Deadpan Snarker and Only Sane Man tendencies, as is her frequent (albeit bribed) assistance with the prisoners' schemes.
• Fandom Rivalry: Crops up from time to time with Orange Is the New Black, another binge-worthy female-driven prison drama. Parallels are often draw between the two — a protagonist making most of prison life by trying to rise to the top, character-How We Got Here flashbacks, and a cast that include a transwoman, a pregnant woman of color, and a roguish tattooed sex symbol. The superior show is up to the viewer's discretion; Orange fans argue that its lean towards black comedy and bigger cast make for better viewing, while Wentworth fans argue that its more gritty and mature material is more enjoyable and makes the other show look like high school (to be fair Wentworth is set in a maximum-security prison, while Orange has minimum security).
• Fan-Preferred Couple: In canon, Vera is paired with Jake and Joan is paired with Jianna, but Vera/Joan is far more popular in the fandom due to the chemistry between their actresses and what many fans consider a far more compelling dynamic then their canon ones.
• Growing the Beard: It's generally accepted that the show only gets better as it goes on, with the third and fourth seasons garnering critical acclaim. Season one (while still earning an 8/10 average on IMDb) has the lowest-rated episodes, with the show hitting its stride in the second season as Bea begins her rise in Wentworth and only going up from there.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Fletch drunkenly forcing himself on Vera. It wasn't exactly easy to watch in the first place, but as the "Me Too" movement in later years brought greater scrutiny to this type of behaviour and the effects it has on women it's hard not to feel that Fletch got off easy. His only punishment seems to have been alienating Vera, who may likely have suffered more than she lets on.
• Ho Yay: A fair few!
  • Branky - Bea and Franky, as aforementioned.
  • Freaky Tits - Joan and Vera.
  • Frerica - Franky and Erica.
  • Fridget - Franky and Bridget.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Though it's still spoilered out here, it was understandably a massive deal when Bea, the main character of the show was killed off at the end of season four. However, it's nearly impossible to discuss the fifth season without mentioning it, and even avoiding the topic would lead to a glaring omission, so it was fairly well known even by non-viewers by season five's premiere.
  • A more minor one is from season 2 - the revelation that Liz is a mother. So much of her characterization since has involved that fact, it's easy to forget that late in season 2 when she tried to encourage Doreen to do better for her child than she did with her own, that it was meant to be a major, shocking reveal.
• Like You Would Really Do It: A few viewers scoffed when Bea supposedly died, not really believing that a show would kill off the protagonist we've followed from the first episode after four seasons, believing that she was just hiding, a sentiment exacerbated by the news that there was an alternate ending where Bea survived. Averted in season 5, however, when it's revealed that Bea really was Killed Off for Real.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Multiple options for Jacs: she forces a loyal lackey to smuggle drugs into the prison through her daughter, orders Franky's gang-rape and orchestrated Debbie's death.
  • Joan killing Simmo, torturing / mutilating both Kelly and Jodie, running both Will and Fletcher off the road, she just keeps outdoing herself!
    • If that doesn't do it for you, Joan proposing to help Lucy rape Tasha certainly will.
  • Lucy sexually traumatizing Franky, injecting Vera with Hep-C blood, attempting to gang-rape the barely-legal Sophie and threatening the life of Doreen and her then-unborn child.
• Narm: After hearing about how seahorses link tails so they don't lose each other, a dying Bea in the season four finale sees clouds in the shape of seahorses move forward and join tails. It comes off as incredibly cheesy for such a serious, shocking scene.
  • Ferguson in season five is given some bizarre, over-the-top lines and actions.
• Replacement Scrappy: Some feel this applies to Bridget - like Erica, she's a non-straight authoritative figure whose story arc revolves around Franky.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: A common complaint in season four, even from some fans of the ship, is that Ballie takes up way more screen time compared to other romantic arcs on the show.
• The Scrappy: Kaz is far from a fan favorite, though some see her as more of a Love to Hate character. This is improved somewhat by her behavior softening in season five.
• Seasonal Rot: If the decision to kill off Bea (despite her enduring popularity as the lead protagonist) wasn't enough of a sore spot among fans, the fact that it occurred at what would end up being the halfway point of the show meant that those missing her presence still had four more seasons to contend with. Familiar characters were removed from the show, which led to criticism that the majority of the newer characters just weren't written well enough for the audience to care about them. Viewership gradually declined, and the final seasons had the lowest ratings in the show's history.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Season four saw some fans of Bea and Allie butting heads with those who preferred Bea with Will (or even Joan), or those holding out for her getting together with Franky.
• Tear Jerker : Debbie's death. Bea's breakdown and eventual suicide attempt is heartbreaking.
  • Franky's Shower of Angst in season three after sleeping with the repulsive Lucy for her own protection from Cindy Lou's gang. Made even worse when Bea sorts things out with Cindy Lou's gang a few minutes later, meaning she traumatized herself for nothing.
  • Ferguson's gang rape by Lucy and her gang. As awful as she is, no one deserves to be sodomized with a broom-handle. The horrified look on Bea's face deserves a mention as well.
  • Bea telling a dying Allie to find Debbie and wait for her so that they can be Together in Death, followed by her death that closes the season. And then Allie's resuscitated in The Stinger...
  • The prisoners grappling with Bea's death in the season five premiere and grieving. Even the viewer feels the pain when we see her funeral and memorial on the prison yard wall and realize that she really is dead and never coming back.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: By having Sophie be Put on a Bus after season 4, we're robbed of any further character development she could have had together with her mother Liz. Not to mention season 5 would have gone a whole lot differently for Liz had Sophie been there.
• The Woobie: As if Vera hadn't been dumped on enough during the series, season five sees her realizing she's been betrayed by the one man she has genuinely loved, with all of her intimacy with him thrown back in her face by Ferguson, who had Jake tell her everything.