I’m not much of a television watcher but when I do get into a show I get obsessed. My current obsession is not new to the screen nor is it an exception to that rule, but I needed to give it some blog love anyways.

One of my favorite shows on “television” is Orange is the New Black.  This is a popular opinion – once the show debuted on Netflix last summer, I caught wind of it from a few friends who had binge watched it, and I was intrigued.

The show itself is a pretty solid mix of comedy, drama, and a lot of personal humor.  To premise surrounds a woman named Piper who is an upper-middle class recently married young professional who finds herself having earned a prison sentence for some circumstantial shady stuff she did in her past.

I love the show becuase, even though it is set in a women’s prison, it’s not a show about prison, per se.  OITNB does a beautiful job of showcasing most of its characters as true, individual people.  Through my goal of meeting one new person everyday, I’m lucky to get to learn about the intricate and unique stories of many humans, but I can confidently say I have never encountered a television show that does this so beautifully on the small screen.

Overall, I wouldn’t expect much less of the show.  It is based on a real-life book called Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman and was created by a woman named Jenji Kohan, who also created another one of my favorite T.V. shows ever: Weeds.

In my mind, OITNB is a particularly noteworthy show in the way that, yes, it’s pretty raunchy – and it is totally allowed to be, since it’s not on cable television (it streams solely on the web service Netflix).  But once you get past or can tolerate the occasional nudity and somewhat excessive profanity, you can really discover these characters for who they are – and I feel pretty attached to them after only having watched for a short while!

Most importantly, as I alluded to earlier, many episodes revolve around the back story about certain characters that explains how they ended up in prison in the first place.  It just goes to show that we are all humans, no matter if we are felons or criminals or humanitarians are philanthropists.  This is my favorite central theme throughout the show – and it makes you become connected to the characters themselves in a way that I haven’t experienced with many non-reality situations.

As I finished season 2 earlier this summer, I realized I had only spent about 7 days of my life watching the entire series so far.  Season 3 is shooting now and hopefully will be on Netflix next June.  Until then…

♫ ♫ the animals, the animals, trapped trapped trapped ’till the cage is full ♫ ♫ 

Oh, and a quick little humble brag…the show’s official Twitter account retweeted me! AH!

 

Finally, check out this video from Funny or Die…it’s great.