Television is dead, long live the internet

Netflix are branching out. No longer content with being the mother of all procrastination techniques (in the battle of lab report against the entire series of Gossip Girl, there can only be one winner) and bringing in the internet streaming revolution, the American website has started showing original content available exclusively on Netflix. The first test subject in this experiment was political drama House of Cards, which proved an uncontested success when it went on to be nominated for nine Emmys, including Outstanding Drama series. Following this, when the cult US comedy Arrested Development was cancelled by Fox, Netflix bought the rights and revived it for a fourth series, to the great delight of fans everywhere. No wonder, then, that Netflix saw fit to continue this winning streak by commissioning more original content to show. Orange is the New Black is the latest of these and is, so far, the most successful yet. This may come as surprising, as it’s the type of ‘risky’ show which is probably unlikely to be picked up by one of the major American networks, given that it’s an adult drama with an almost entirely female cast, set inside a women’s prison. The show follows the adventures of Piper Chapman, a white, well-educated, middle-class woman, as the newest inmate in a New York federal prison. During a couple of ‘experimental’ years after graduating from college, Chapman decides to travel Europe with her lesbian, drug-dealing lover, who asks her to smuggle $50,000 of drug money into Belgium. The consequences of the crime don’t catch up with her until ten years down the line, when Chapman, now settled down with an Adam-Sandler-lookalike fiancé and making artisanal bath products for a living, is sentenced to fifteen months in prison. Interestingly, the series is based off a true story: the source material for Orange is the New Black is a memoir written by author Piper Kerman, detailing her time in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering for her then-girlfriend. Although trying to see the silver lining in the jail sentence (“I’m going to get ripped,” she announces to her boyfriend before departing, “and read everything on my Amazon wishlist, and maybe even learn a craft, you know?”) Chapman is about as ill-prepared for prison as anyone is likely to be. From the strip search upon entry to the repulsively seedy male prison guards, this is a world completely unfamiliar to that which she has come from. The parallels between the two worlds are highlighted in flashbacks to Chapman’s pre-prison life; after accidentally insulting the inmate chef and consequently being starved out at every mealtime, she flashes back to the hunger she felt during a juice cleanse detox programme. And as if life in prison couldn’t be bad enough, Chapman’s misery is compounded when she discovers her ex-girlfriend, the source of all her troubles, is another new inmate. The supporting cast of characters are one of the best things about the show. Each episode shows the backstory of how a particular inmate came to be there, an invariably tragic story, whether it be aiding illegal immigration, or stealing money to pay for gender reassignment surgery. The show also doesn’t gloss over the brutalities of prison life, such as racism or sexual assault. There’s plenty of lighter moments, though - a leaving party for one of the soon-to-be-ex-prisoners, the hairdressing salon un by inmates and the friendship between a yoga instructor and a nun, to name a few. Orange is the New Black has one of the most diverse casts you’re likely to see on TV at the moment. The fact that the show’s female characters span a broad range of ethnicities, sexualities, and socio-economic classes shouldn’t be note-worthy, but, compared to similar shows out there with similar target audiences, it is. Each character is written with authenticity and respect, leading to some thought-provoking questions about the viewers own internal biases and preconceptions. Still wondering whether to give it a go? If you want to see one of the best representations of women currently on TV, this show is for you. If you want a sensitively-handled critique of America’s War on Drugs, it’s for you. Or, if you enjoyed Prison Break but felt like it could have done with more lesbians, then it’s definitely for you. Either way, Netflix has put all of the first series up at the same time, so you don’t even have to wait a week between episodes; a second series is already in the works as well. If Orange is the New Black is at all indicative of the quality of TV in the internet-streaming, post-television world, long live the revolution.