Netflix’s Best Drama of All Time Is a 7-Season Series You Can Binge Again and Again

When Netflix was first founded, it was a way to rent DVDs through the mail, before it transformed into a streaming service, which changed how audiences watched movies and TV shows. Now, all you needed was an internet connection and a Netflix account to see the best original content all in one place. Netflix has been the home of many great shows over the years. Stranger Things, The Crown, and Mindhunter are only a few of many that come to mind. One of the greatest of all is Orange Is the New Black. Created by Jenji Kohan and released in 2013, Orange Is the New Black could have been just another prison drama, this time with a nearly all-female cast to make it more provocative. Instead, its ever-changing cast of characters led to an impressive show that stayed compelling for seven seasons.

‘Orange Is the New Black’ Initially Focuses on Taylor Schilling’s Piper Chapman

Part of what keeps Orange Is the New Black so grounded is that it’s based in part on a true story, with inspiration coming from Piper Kerman‘s memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. In the series, the renamed Piper Chapman, played by Taylor Schilling, is the way in to this terrifying world. This shouldn’t be how Piper’s life ends up. She comes from money, has a fiancé named Larry (Jason Biggs), and the most hardcore thing about her life is owning a business where she makes bath soaps. However, Piper also has a past with an ex-girlfriend, Alex (Laura Prepon), who she once carried drug money for. Love and getting in over her head eventually come back to take her down, landing Piper in prison with a 15-month sentence for money laundering.

Orange Is the New Black puts terror around every corner. Piper is the scared blonde who prison will eat alive if she doesn’t adapt. It’s not found only in her fellow inmates, like the scary Russian boss Red (Kate Mulgrew) or the unstable Tiffany (Taryn Manning), but in the guards meant to protect as well. One guard, George (Pablo Schrieiber), is the most feared of all by women as a man who uses his power to terrorize the inmates who don’t really have a voice in their prison.

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Orange Is the New Black is dark at times, while also brimming with uncomfortable comedy, twists, and intrigue found not only by showing how Piper’s fiancée and other family are doing without her, but also through flashbacks that show how she landed herself in prison. Piper evolves in this new environment that forces her to learn how to hold her own. But Orange Is the New Black was never just meant to be about Piper Chapman. The series took things to the next level by taking the supporting characters and making them the heart of the series. If Piper was our way into the series, the rest of the cast is the reason to stick around.

A Well-Written Cast of Characters Kept ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Moving

What separates Orange Is the New Black from other shows is its ability to keep changing. This is a prison where inmates come and go. In that way, it’s similar to The Pitt, which stays fresh with its flexible casting decisions between seasons. Every new season of Orange Is the New Black truly does feel new for this reason. Every season acts like a soft reset, staying in a familiar setting, but offering new twists with characters who must change in their environment and not simply because a script demands it.

Orange Is the New Black was also praised at the time for having a spectacularly talented and diverse cast of women. They are heroes and villains, coming from all types of backgrounds, yet none of them fit easily into some stereotypical box. Even Tiffany, who goes by Pennsatuckey and comes across as the typical prison villain, can become someone audiences end up rooting for. Suzanne (Uzo Aduba) gets stuck with the nickname “Crazy Eyes,” but remains one of the most well-crafted and likable characters of them all, with Aduba’s performance resulting in two Emmys. Red is the aging boss among the inmates, losing her powerful hold on her fellow inmates. Nicky (Natasha Lyonne) is cool and cocky, and she seemingly has no worries, but dig a little deeper and there’s so much more to her than just her façade. Poussey (Samira Wiley), who begins as a comic relief character, has a story that ends in a heartbreaking tragedy. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this series. Forcing all of these different personalities together creates constant chaos in the series, which fuels the drama, especially as new people are brought in every season.

Orange Is the New Black is a brutal drama, a black comedy, and a series that shows compassion to its characters rather than turning them into predictable stereotypes. It also has a lot to say about the prison-industrial complex and how prisoners are treated. Some of the guards can break the archetype, like the kind John Bennett (Matt McGorry), while others are almost completely irredeemable. It doesn’t stay inside the walls either. Just like with Piper’s story, Orange Is the New Black explores how these women ended up in prison through flashbacks, which gives more insight into their true selves. This Netflix series is so much more than a gimmick or just Piper Chapman’s story. Orange Is the New Black will make you laugh and break your heart at the same time, all while being an exciting thrill ride to the very end.