Orange Is the New Black Season One Review

Orange is the New Black is a new original series from Netflix; it was released a couple weeks back and I heard good things about it, but I ended up missing it. Now I kind of wish I saw earlier. OITNB is a comedic drama on the borderline of satire about a 30 something year old woman, named Piper, who is serving a 15 month sentence in a federal penitentiary for something that happened in her early twenties. A few years out of college in an "exploratory" stage, she starts to date another young woman named Alex. They go out for a while before Piper learns that Alex is actually at the center of a drug smuggling ring (Alex actually told her the first time they met but Piper thought she was joking). While worried at first she ultimately comes to accept it, after a while Alex even convinces her to help out. Piper ends up smuggling a suitcase filled with money through customs at an airport. Eventually Piper and Alex break up and they move on. Years later Piper has it all together: she gets engaged, she opens up a business with her best friend, everything she could want. But one day a the drug ring she smuggled for gets busted, and someone drops her named. Two years from the statute of limitations runs out, she gets convicted of criminal conspiracy. Piper lived a sheltered life; she doesn't seem to be cut out for prison. Obviously she doesn't have a choice in the situation so she tries to make do. When she gets in she doesn't really know how to cope, on top of that she doesn't have many friends and is about an inch away from a total mental breakdown. Slowly but surely she does start to manage, she learns the best thing to do is to try and keep her head down and not piss anyone off. Although she comes close to losing it once she finds out Alex is locked up in the same prison. 15 months from freedom, all she has to do is survive. When I first saw the trailer for the show I was unimpressed, it looked boring honestly. But I'll admit it, I was wrong; this is a really good show. Netflix has impressed me so far with their exclusives. While shows like Hemlock Grove might not be overly impressive, there are shows like Arrested Development that made a great comeback and House of Cards which I currently rank as the third best show of 2013. Now Orange is the New Black, Netflix is becoming a powerhouse in original programming. The show is original to say the least; we've seen prison shows before but never through the eyes of a woman. The writing in the show is great; it's a strange mix of comedic uplift and depressing reality. There's a wide array of characters in the show: long time inmates that run the show, meth head Jesus lovers, passive aggressive lesbians, and many more. This may have become my new favorite show; it's a very pleasant surprise with a lot of passion put into it. If you're considering watching it I should warn you it's not PG by any standards. There's a lot of swearing, sexual content, and nudity. If you can get past that, this is a fantastic show. It shows that Netflix is really putting stock into original programming. And it's already been confirmed, Orange is the New Black has been renewed for a second season. I have no doubt in my mind that this will become one of Netflix's most popular series and will be very successful.