Orange Is The New Black is a Netflix original series based on a memoir of the same name. It depicts life at a women's prison and focuses on the diverse group of inmates. The show explores themes of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity through the interactions and backgrounds of the characters. It has received critical acclaim for its casting and portrayal of issues faced by women in the prison system.

1. Case Study: Orange Is The
New Black

2. Main Information
• ‘Orange Is The New Black’ is a Netflix original crime-based
drama/black comedy set in a women’s low security prison,
and is based on a 2010 book released by Piper Kerman based
on her experiences in prison in 2004. The show focuses on a
multitude of characters, mainly Piper Chapman (Taylor
Schilling), who is roughly based upon Piper Kerman, who was
sentenced to 15 months in prison for money laundering for a
drug cartel. It revolves around her increasingly rocky
relationship with her fiancé, and also her increasing closeness
with her ex-girlfriend, who named her in the drug-ring.
• The show has ran for 2 seasons, or 26 episodes, exclusively
airing on Netflix, with a season 3 currently in production.
Season 1 first streamed on July 11 2013, and Season 2
streamed on June 6th 2014.

3. Main Information
(cont.)
• The estimated budget of each episode is reported at around $4
million per episode.
• It has a huge, diverse casting to depict a diverse prison scenario. A
lot of the episodes revolve around different characters in different
scenarios, giving some backstory to their life before prison. This
gives the viewer a connection with each main character, as they get
to know them as they progress through prison.
• It received almost universal critical acclaim, and was nominated for
8 Primetime Emmys, including ‘Outstanding Comedy Series’, and
‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series’. Taylor Schilling was
also nominated for a Golden Globe for ‘Best Actress in a Television
Series – Drama’.
• FUN FACT – Laverne Cox who plays Sophia Burset was the first
openly transgender women to be nominated for an Emmy.

4. Main Cast

5. ‘Zeitgeist’
There are many references to the zeitgeist in the show,
as it tries to depict itself as being in the modern era.
The main character at the start discusses to her fiancé
how, by the time she is out of prison, there will be “6
new generations of iPhone”. This is used to keep up to
date with the time period, but also to emphasise how
privileged the main character is compared to others.
There is also a reference to the Afghanistan war, as
one of the guards talks about how he served time
there. This shows that the programme is set in
modern times.

6. Convergent Nature of Modern Media
With the increasingly less viewers watching high-budget exclusive
television shows on high profile television networks, Orange Is The
New Black is exclusive on Netflix, an on-demand streaming service.
Streaming is an entertainment outlet which is becoming increasingly
popular, as people can watch their programmes whenever they like,
and with a service like Netflix, the programmes are on the database
constantly, whenever you want to watch it. I think the creators of
OITNB chose to put it on Netflix as it has an estimated total of 30
million subscribers. As it is a Netflix original, it would have been
constantly featured on the front page. This means that a huge amount
of people would see the show, and they wouldn’t need to advertise on
television for people to see it, which means that they would reach a
huge amount of viewers. It also means that they don’t have to worry
about viewing figures, and more attention can be drawn to trying to
achieve critical acclaim, as people are subscribed to Netflix not just for
their show, but for other things. This means that the station doesn’t
have to worry about viewership.

7. Gender, sexuality, ethnicity
• Gender – The show is mainly focused on gender, with
the prison being full of women, with different people
women controlling the prison. For example, a woman
named ‘Red’ controls the kitchen, and starves the main
character after she criticises Red’s cooking. She also
manages to sneak contraband, such as make-up, into the
prison. The men are also seen as higher power, as they
are the guards at the prison, so they can control the
women. Some of them even go as far as exchanging
sexual favours for material possessions. This depicts
men as higher power than women. The person in the
highest power, however, is a women who is assistant to
the warden, and who controls al of the guards.

8. Gender, sexuality, ethnicity
• Sexuality – One of the main subjects of the
television show is sexuality, with lesbian sex scenes
featuring in most episodes. This is used to highlight
the lesbian influence in prison, and highlight how
lonely the women in prison get. Some of the women
have actual relationships with women, but most of
the women tend to just be involved in a solely sexual
relationship. Many of the women are depicted as
emotionless, sex-hungry lesbians, but others are
depicted as people with feelings and emotions. They
is a big mixture. The main character is bisexual and
has a fiancé, but she cheats on him with her ex-girlfriend
in the show.

9. Gender, sexuality, ethnicity
Ethnicity – There is a light-hearted racism to OITNB, with racist
remarks and utterances being used by different ethnic groups
regarding the other. For example, a Hispanic woman refers to
another Hispanic woman who can’t speak Spanish as a
“coconut”. This is a phrase meaning that she might look
Hispanic, but is white on the inside. Phrases like this are
common in the TV show, but isn’t really hard-core racism as it is
used for comedic effect. The groups also sit in their ethnic
groups, with the white people sitting with fellow white people,
and black people sitting with black people. They have done this
to depict real prison life. This is generally the code of conduct in
prison, or mainly max-security prisons, with a huge amount of
racism being used in prison, where people will be beaten by
their own ethnic group for socialising with another ethnic
group.