Orange is the New Black: Season 1
13 episodes 13 hours 1 week
3.5 stars out of 5
200 Tweets @daretostream
Summary
Orange is the New Black is the story of Piper Chapman, a WASPy bisexual, who goes to prison in her early 30s to serve a sentence for her part in a heroin ring. Once entering prison, Piper quickly realizes that she is nothing like anyone else there, except her ex-girlfriend and fellow heroin smuggler, Alex. Piper's fiance, Larry, waits patiently for her on the outside while trying to capitalize on her situation by writing about their relationship.
In prison, things have a pecking order. There are case workers, administrators, and other office personnel, guards who abuse their power, guards who don't, and the prisoners themselves. Even among the prisoners there are certain women who rank higher than the others because of time served, perceived crime, or personality.
We get some back story on several of the characters, which helps us understand why and how they got to where they are. However, we are also treated to many vapid scenes detailing Piper's yuppie lifestyle before incarceration. This only highlights how alienated Piper is from the other inmates who, by most accounts, have gone through real struggles-drug addiction, homelessness, child slavery, prostitution- which pale in comparison to Piper's white girl problems. Even fellow drug smuggler, Alex is given a back story with some meat, describing being raised by a single mother and teased by other children for being poor and unfashionable.
As the show progresses, we watch Piper become more like the inmates around her and less like her yuppie fiance, Larry, or her pregnant bestie, Polly. The last few episodes of Season 1 start to show the seedy underbelly of the penitentiary system which greatly contrasts the booty-shaking-lesbian-day-camp portrayal of the first ten. The season ends on a dark note with a once "good guy" turning bad and Piper facing a kill-or-be-killed encounter with a backwoods Swamp Person.
Why You Should Watch It
If you aren't familiar with the prison system or have had the good fortune to grow up with privilege, then this show is a chance to glimpse into another world. Though the plot and setting may be sugar-coated, the characters are real and unusual for TV. Each sexual preference is represented as well as most races. You just don't see this type of representation on TV very often, but you probably don't notice it. After you watch this series, you will start noticing how whitewashed most TV shows are.
Final Thoughts
This show was quite good. It was very easy to binge-watch because each episode ended in a cliffhanger which compelled you to watch the next episode.