Netflix is set to debut yet another original series, this time based on a memoir by Piper Kerman called Orange is the New Black, about the author’s experience serving a 15-month sentence in a women’s prison. The results aren’t exactly HBO’s Oz, but rather a more comedic approach to the not-so-desireable journey of living behind bars. The show is put together by Weeds creator Jenji Kohan and features an solid cast, including Taylor Schilling (ARGO) in the lead role, with co-stars Jason Biggs, Laura Prepon, Kate Mulgrew, Natasha Lyonne, Pablo Schreiber, Michelle Hurst, Danielle Brooks, Uzo Aduba, Laverne Cox and Taryn Manning rounding out the supporting roles. Looks like a fun, refreshing series to me and definitely outside the norm of female-driven programming.
Get locked up:
Here’s the synopsis:
Created and executive produced by Jenji Kohan (“Weeds”) and based on the U.S. best-selling memoir of the same name by Piper Kerman, the comedic drama starring Taylor Schilling follows engaged-Brooklynite Piper Chapman (Schilling) whose decade-old relationship with drug-runner Alex (Laura Prepon) results in her arrest and year-long detention in a federal penitentiary. To pay her debt to society, Piper must trade her comfortable New York life with fiancé Larry (Jason Biggs) for an orange jumpsuit and a baffling prison culture where she is forced to question everything she believes and form unexpected new alliances with a group of eccentric and outspoken inmates.
The show will debut it’s first 13-episode season on July 11, 2013 exclusively on Netflix.