If I had to put a list together of my favorite Netflix Originals, Orange is the New Black would certainly make that list. Orange Is the New Black made its debut in 2013 and would run for seven seasons. In my humble opinion, this along with House of Cards are the first two big breakout hits when it comes to Netflix’s original programming.
How to Stream or Download Orange Is the New Black (TV series)
You can stream it or you can download the series from Netflix, iTunes, or Amazon Prime. Click on the Download button at the end of the review.
The Movie Review
Orange Is the New Black is based on the book of the same name written by Piper Kerman. It is about her experience as a prisoner after she was incarcerated for traveling with drug money. In the first season, we meet Piper Chapman (Tyler Schilling) who is a New Yorker who has her “perfect” life turned upside down when her past comes back to haunt her.
She lives with her husband Larry and she is basically carted off to a minimum-security prison. I do not want to go into spoilers of how her past exactly comes back to haunt her, but once she arrives in prison, she meets Alex (Laura Prepon). Piper and Alex were together before Piper met Larry and had her life changed.
She and Alex basically worked for a drug kingpin and eventually, this lifestyle got too much for Piper so she quit. Well, it well and truly came back to bite her in the butt and now this upper-class chick has to deal with life in prison. The prison setting of Lichfield Penitentiary is fantastic and seeing Piper adapt to living here is fantastic.
I would certainly say that in the first season of the show, we mainly are focused on Piper adjusting to prison life, along with her finding out why all of a sudden she was pulled back into this world. However, many side characters, many of whom would go on to be main characters are introduced in the first season.
Orange Is the New Black is one of those shows that just gets better and better as it goes along and different seasons will introduce a new “big bad” character or situation that most of the main storylines will focus on. My personal favorite was Vee (Lorraine Toussaint) who played a ruthless prison leader, willing to control people and do whatever she needed to do in order to survive.
While that was my favorite story arc, there were so many great moments during the show’s seven-season run. I could honestly be here all day telling you about the various story threads and interesting, kooky, disturbing, and tragic characters that Orange Is the New Black has.
As well as the prisoners, we also get some great development in terms of the actual prison and its staff. I loved the whole thing we had going on with the man in charge of day-to-day operations, Joe (Nick Sandow), and his boss, “Fig” (Alysia Reiner). The staff who worked at Lichfield were just as interesting as the prisoners.
I really cannot praise this show enough. I do not actually think there is a weak season in the whole show’s run! It was awesome watching this when it initially aired, but now, being able to binge-watch all seven seasons back to back makes it even more compelling viewing. I have watched this twice and I would not be against watching it for the third time!
