Disc Reviews

Orange Is The New Black Series One Review

6th May 2014

First released on Netflix, the series is based on Piper Kerman’s memoir Orange Is The New Black: My Year In A Women’s Prison, the series revolves around Piper Chapman(Taylor Schilling) a bisexual women sentenced to 15 months in prison for for transporting a suitcase full of money for then girlfriend Alex Vause (Laura Prepon), an international drug smuggler. The series starts then years after the smuggling event and by now Piper has moved on to a quiet life in New York City with her fiance Larry (Jason Biggs). In prison she is reunited with Alex and has to learn to deal with her new life and the inmates around her.

Over the series we follow Piper’s journey from scared newbie to a surviving inmate, having to balance her life on the inside and and the now strained relations on the outside.

Piper Kerman’s experience has been translated for the screen beautifully, we see the struggles she went through, but in the ‘fictional’ Piper Chapman, we learn how the women bond together to create a family and what they go through every day. We see the heartbreaking moment when a pregnant inmate goes into labor and her baby is taken away the same day, yes they may be in prison, but they are still human. You will go on a road trip of emotion with these characters.

The show has a great ensemble cast including, Kate Mulgrew as Red, the head chef who runs a smuggling business through the kitchen tries to get fellow inmates off drugs they have become addicted to and seen as the mother figure to all the girls. A back on form Natasha Lyonne as Nicky, the loud mouth former addict who looks to Red as her mother and falls for her fellow inmates but doesn’t take rejection well. Sophia Burset played by Laverne Cox, a transgender women who went to prison for credit card fraud, she is now the prison hairdresser railing against having her hormones dosage reduced. Daya played by Dascha Polanco, who is serving time alongside her mother, starts to develop a relationship with a prison guard. Taryn Manning as Pennsatucky a drug addicted preacher whose religious rants are often full of racism and hostility. Uzo Aduba is Crazy Eyes, obsessed with Piper, hurt by the rejection and nicknames given to her by her fellow inmates she writes poetry. Slightly psychopathic prison guard Mendez, nicknamed Pornstache, he abuses his authority and the girls serving time. The list of the cast is huge, everyone brings a different flavor to every scene and the chemistry between the cast is gold dust – everyone works so well and lights up the screen.

The boxset also contain behind the scenes features which have interviews with all involved in bringing the show to life, and commentary on selected episodes. You can get through the boxset in a weekend pretty easy – certain characters you fall in love with and want to follow their story, find out what happens without a break. When the series comes to an end you’ll be desperate to find out what will happen next, luckily for us there is a new series on its way!