Who would have guessed that one of Netflix's best original series would be a comedic drama about a women's prison? Based on the memoir by Piper Kerman about her experiences in a correctional facility, the critically acclaimed Orange Is the New Black is produced by Jenji Kohan (Weeds) and vividly chronicles life at Litchfield Penitentiary, where Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) is serving a 15-month sentence for smuggling a suitcase of drug money years earlier for her lover Alex Vause (Laura Prepon).
The show's protagonist is a bourgeois, white New Yorker, which—for the most part—is not representative of women in the criminal justice system. But that's just the setup. Over time, the dramedy slowly rebels against that conventional, fish-out-of-water narrative to depict the absurdity and horror of prison life. By showing Piper, whom Kohan once described as her "Trojan Horse" to get more diverse stories on TV, as a tone deaf character grossly unaware of her own privilege, OITNB makes her the window into the lives of much more fascinating women. And those women are a refreshingly subversive set that includes characters rarely seen on television: elderly women, people of color, the overweight, and notably, a black transgender woman played by the trailblazing actress Laverne Cox. (Sure, the mainstream media has declared that we're at a "transgender tipping point," but casting a trans actress to portray a trans character is a big deal and happens too rarely.)
In OITNB, it’s not just Piper’s life that was disrupted as a result of her arrest; her fiancé, Larry (Jason Biggs), and her friends and family must carry on with their lives as well. But while each character's flashback sequence is purposeful (this isn’t Lost), you’ll quickly find that what goes on inside the prison walls is way more interesting. In prison, several inmates have a job, even a sex life, both of which affords them some agency they may not have had at home. Each character chooses to cope with prison life differently, and their relationships with other inmates might have nothing to do with their lives as citizens. Oh, and everyone’s having sex in the chapel.
The third season premieres on June 12, and it’ll be released on Netflix all at once—just like the two before it. Here’s how to devour those first two seasons like, well, you just got out of prison.
Number of Seasons: 2 (24 episodes)
Time Requirements: Two weeks, or approximately 12 episodes a week.
Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix
Best Character to Follow:
It would be easy to say Piper, but she quickly turns out to be one of the least interesting characters at Litchfield. Instead, follow Suzanne. When we first meet Suzanne/Crazy Eyes (played with zeal by Uzo Aduba), she’s an unpredictable inmate who is infatuated with Piper, but as the show progresses, we see Suzanne as the loveable young girl who's been rejected by people like Piper her whole life. Season 2 also brings the villainous and manipulative Vee Parker (Lorraine Toussaint), who turns the prison dynamics upside down upon arrival.
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:
Because there are so many characters, there’s a lot to digest in each episode. That said, here’s one you could skip, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Season 1: Episode 5, "The Chickening" Much of this episode revolves around a chicken running loose on prison grounds: Is it real? Who will catch it? Who will cook it? Piper neglects to reach out to contacts for her soap company, the business that her pregnant best friend is trying to handle in her absence. It’s safe to say that plotlines directly related to Piper not that interesting, and those that focus on her family and friends even less so.
Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:
Season 1: Episode 1, "I Wasn't Ready" As far as pilots go, this one isn’t bad. Plus, you see Piper’s transformation from a yuppie Whole Foods customer to a prison inmate. She "studied" before coming to prison. Her counselor, Sam Healy, takes an interest in her immediately because she’s unlike the other inmates. And, this isn’t because he’s a nice guy.
Season 1: Episode 3, "Lesbian Request Denied" Crazy Eyes tries repeatedly to bunk with Piper, but Piper rejects all of her advances. In a series of flashbacks, we see how Sophia's (Cox) family—her wife and young son—tried to adjust to her gender transition. In fact, Sophia—a former firefighter—had committed credit card fraud in order to finance her gender reassignment surgery. And the money troubles aren't over: In response to budget cuts, the prison reduces the number of estrogen pills Sophia is given, and she risks her relationship with her wife by asking her to smuggle hormones in during visiting hours.
Season 2: Episode 4, "A Whole Other Hole" We’ll just say this: Everything you thought you knew about the friendly Italian Lorna Morello (Yael Stone) is wrong. This episode also features a sex-off between two characters, a contraband greenhouse, and a brief escape from prison.
Season 2, Episode 12, "We Have Manners. We’re Polite" All season long, Vee’s been using Suzanne’s fear of being an outcast as a way to manipulate her, and, at times, it got violent. Here, she tries the riskiest move so far, but with the inmates splitting along racial lines (white, black, and Latina), Vee starts to realize she does not have as much clout with these women as she used to.
Why You Should Binge:
You won't see another show like this on TV, at least not with this talented and diverse of a cast. In portraying the daily grind of those stuck in the criminal justice system—with its violence, sexual harassment, prejudice, and sheer inefficiency—OITNB treats each character with dignity. It challenges you to sympathize with characters other than its protagonist, and uses other characters to call Piper out on her privilege.
Best Scene—'White People Be Like':
Taystee (Danielle Brooks) and Samira Wiley's Poussey ("accent a droite, bitch!") riff on “white people politics” and it’s amazing.
The Takeaway:
Every sentence is a story.
If You Liked Orange Is the New Black You’ll Love:
The L Word has similar girl-on-girl sex scenes without the male-gaze we’ve grown so accustomed to on TV, but OITNB is closest to Weeds in tone, so check that one out too.
