Orange Is the New Black (sometimes abbreviated to OITNB) is an American comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. It is based on Piper Kerman's memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum security federal prison. Produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television, the series premiered on Netflix on July 11, 2013, and ran for seven seasons until July 26, 2019.
Orange Is the New Black received critical acclaim throughout its run and many accolades. Among other awards, it garnered 16 Emmy Award nominations and four wins in comedy and drama (the first series to score nominations in both genre categories), six Writers Guild of America Award nominations, six Golden Globe Award nominations, a Producers Guild of America Award, an American Film Institute Award, and a Peabody Award. As of 2016, Orange Is the New Black was Netflix's most-watched as well as its longest-running original series.
Plot
The series begins revolving around Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), a 33-year-old woman living in New York City who is sentenced to 15 months in Litchfield Penitentiary, a minimum-security women's federal prison in Upstate New York. Chapman was convicted of transporting a suitcase full of drug money for her girlfriend Alex Vause (Laura Prepon), an international drug smuggler. The offense had occurred 10 years before the start of the series and in that time, Chapman had moved on to a quiet, law-abiding life among New York's upper middle class. Her sudden and unexpected indictment disrupts her relationships with her fiancé, family, and friends. In prison, Chapman is reunited with Vause (who named Chapman in her trial, resulting in Chapman's arrest), and they re-examine their relationship. Simultaneously, Chapman, along with the other inmates, attempts to grapple with prison's numerous, inherent struggles. Episodes often feature flashbacks of significant events from various inmates' and prison guards' pasts. These flashbacks typically depict how an inmate came to be in prison or develop a character's backstory. The prison is initially operated by the "Federal Department of Corrections" (a fictional version of the Federal Bureau of Prisons) and was in a later season acquired by the Management & Correction Corporation (MCC), a private prison company.
The fifth season shows the prisoners revolting against the guards, wardens, and the system after MCC's failed handling of an inmate's death at the hands of a guard in the fourth season. The inmate death had followed a peaceful protest and subsequent instigation of an inmate fight by another guard. Fueled by the conditions the inmates are forced to tolerate, as well as grudges against the prison guards, a three-day riot ensues. During the riot, some inmates attempt to negotiate better living conditions and seek justice for the death of the inmate, while others pursue their own interests and entertainment, and a few seek no involvement. At the emergence of the riot, the guard who incited the fight in the prior season is critically wounded by an inmate who took the gun the guard illegally brought into the prison. At the end of the season, the SERT team raids the prison to end the riot and remove all inmates from the facility. During this raid, a correctional officer is fatally wounded by a corrupt "strike team", which then conspires to blame the guard's death on a number of inmates who hid in an underground bunker, found by one inmate, and had taken the guard hostage. All inmates are transported to other prisons.
The consequences of the riot are shown in the sixth season. A number of the inmates, including Chapman and Vause, are transported to Litchfield Maximum Security. Most of these inmates are interrogated, and several of them are charged and sentenced for their involvement in the riot. In max, new inmates are introduced, alliances are made, and a gang-like war emerges between two prison blocks, spearheaded by a longstanding feud between two sisters and a grudge harbored by them toward a former maximum-security inmate who returned as a consequence of the riot (she had been moved to the minimum-security prison). Inmates who arrived from the minimum-security prison are either caught up or willingly participate in the war between prison blocks. The season portrays further corruption and guard brutality.
The seventh season provides an ending to various inmates' stories. Chapman and Vause continue their on/off again relationship. The season shows how some prisoners are able to move beyond their time in prison while others are captured by the system and through their own flaws and/or systemic problems in the structure of US society and its justice system are unable to progress. In addition to the established setting of Litchfield Max, a significant portion of the season takes place in a newly created ICE detention center for detained presumed undocumented immigrants, showing their struggles and lack of access to outside help in large part because of complete or extreme disregard of the law.
In each season, the series shows how various forms of corruption, funding cuts by the corporate owner to increase profits by millions, privatization of prison, overcrowding, guard brutality, and racial discrimination (among other issues) affect the prisoners' safety, health, and well-being. One of the show's key conflicts involves the minimum-security prison's Director of Human Activities ( the warden, under privatization nomenclature), Joe Caputo, whose efforts and aims as a warden constantly conflict with the corporate interests of MCC, which acquires Litchfield Penitentiary as it risks closure. This theme is continued when a new forward-thinking and caring warden is hired at Litchfield Maximum Security and unlike Caputo, actually institutes educational programs and positive changes. She is fired for these actions and her attitude toward the corporate corruption, although her short-lived changes have profound results.
Cast and characters
Main cast
Recurring cast Inmates
Staff
Others
Episodes
Production
Show creator Jenji Kohan read Piper Kerman's memoir after a friend sent it to her. She then set up a meeting with Kerman to pitch her on a TV adaptation, which she admits she "screwed up", as she spent most of the time asking Kerman about her experiences rather than selling her on the show. This appealed to Kerman as it let her know that she was a fan and she signed off on the adaptation. Kohan would later go on to describe the main character, Piper Chapman, as a "trojan horse" for the series, allowing it to focus on characters whose demographics would not normally be represented on TV. Its budget was estimated to be $4 million per episode.
In July 2011, it was revealed that Netflix was in negotiations with Lionsgate for a 13-episode TV adaptation of Kerman's memoirs with Kohan as creator. In November 2011, negotiations were finalized and the series had been greenlit. Kohan had initially wanted to cast Katie Holmes in the role of Piper Chapman, and met with the actress to discuss it, but Holmes had other commitments. Casting announcements began in August 2012 with Taylor Schilling, the first to be cast, as Piper Chapman, followed by Jason Biggs as Piper's fiancé Larry Bloom.
Laura Prepon and Yael Stone were next to join the series, as Alex Vause and Lorna Morello, respectively. Abigail Savage, who plays Gina, and Alysia Reiner, who plays Fig, had auditioned for role of Alex Vause. Prepon initially auditioned for Piper Chapman; however, Kohan felt she would not worry about her [in prison], noting a "toughness and a presence to her that wasn't right for the character." Kohan instead gave her the role of Alex. Stone had originally auditioned for the role of Nicky Nichols, but she was not considered "tough enough" for the character; she was asked to audition for Lorna Morello instead. Likability was important for Morello, whom casting director Jen Euston deemed "a very helpful, nice, sweet Italian girl." Natasha Lyonne was to audition for Alex, but was asked to read for the character Nicky Nichols; "[Kohan knew] she could do Nicky with her eyes closed. She was perfect," said Euston. Laverne Cox, a black transgender woman, was cast as Sophia Burset, a transgender character. The Advocate touted Orange Is the New Black as possibly the first women-in-prison narrative to cast a transgender woman for this type of role. Uzo Aduba read for the part of Janae Watson but was offered the character Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren. Taryn Manning was offered the role of Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett. This American Life host Ira Glass was offered a role as a public radio host, but he declined. The role instead went to Robert Stanton, who plays the fictional host Maury Kind.
Orange is the New Black is set in a fictional minimum-security prison in Litchfield, New York, which is a real town in the southern tier of New York, but it does not have a federal penitentiary. The series began filming in the former Rockland Children's Psychiatric Center in Rockland County, New York, on March 7, 2013. The building, part of the what was then the Rockland State Hospital campus, was completed in 1970 and closed by 2010. The title sequence features close-up shots of female non-actors who were formerly prisoners, including Kerman herself; she is the one who blinks.
On June 27, 2013, prior to the series' premiere, Netflix renewed the show for a second season consisting of 13 episodes. For the second season, Uzo Aduba, Taryn Manning, Danielle Brooks, and Natasha Lyonne were promoted to series regulars. Laura Prepon did not return as a series regular for a second season because of scheduling conflicts, but returned for season 3 as a regular. On May 5, 2014, the series was renewed for a third season, as revealed by actress Laura Prepon. For the third season, several actors were promoted to series regulars, including Selenis Leyva, Adrienne C. Moore, Dascha Polanco, Nick Sandow, Yael Stone, and Samira Wiley. Both Jason Biggs and Pablo Schreiber were confirmed as not returning for the third season, but Schreiber appeared in the 10th episode of the third season. The series was renewed for a fourth season on April 15, 2015, prior to its third-season release. For the fourth season, Jackie Cruz and Lea DeLaria were promoted to series regulars; with Elizabeth Rodriguez also being promoted by the season's sixth episode. On February 5, 2016, the series was renewed for a fifth, sixth and seventh season. In season six, Dale Soules, Laura Gómez, and Matt Peters were promoted to series regulars. On October 17, 2018, Netflix announced that the seventh season would be the series' last and would be released on July 26, 2019.
In 2018, Lionsgate Television were discussing "a potential sequel" to the series.
Reception Critical response
Orange Is the New Black received critical acclaim throughout its run. It has been particularly praised for humanizing prisoners and for its depiction of race, sexuality, gender and body types.
The first season received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 79/100 based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating favorable reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, season one has a 95% approval rating based on 58 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The site's critical consensus is "Orange Is the New Black is a sharp mix of black humor and dramatic heft, with interesting characters and an intriguing flashback structure."