Summer is the season of blockbusters, beach reads and scripted reality shows. This year the sun shone bright, and sadly, many of the summer’s offerings gave off a harsh glare. But there were a few diamonds in the rough, some real gems that sparkled amongst the gaudy rocks. Unfortunately though, a lot of them lacked female gravitas. The list of good television shows, great movies and amazing reads were heavy on male protagonists, antagonists, and soul-searching sidekicks.
Yet tucked away, practically hidden on Netflix’s streaming service, was not only one of the summer’s best contributions, but perhaps one of the best shows of the year: Orange Is The New Black.
The title kind of sounds like a chick-lit novel from the 90s. In many ways the main character, Piper Chapman, is coming from the pages of such a novel. After years of floundering from one thing to the other, she’s finally got her man and is beginning a career she not only loves but excels at.
Only Piper’s been ripped from the picture-perfect ending of a hot pink covered novel and has been thrust into the khaki and grey world of women’s federal prison. Her fifteen month sentence is the result of her previously questionable life.
Orange Is The New Black walks the precarious line of comedic drama, never tipping fully onto one side or the other. Not only is it brutally honest in its depiction of life in prison, but it’s emotionally truthful about the vulnerability of these trapped women.
The honesty of the show is what is truly inspiring about this series. These women are not perfect, obviously, and it’s shown. But neither are they monsters. As one female corrections officer says to Piper: “The only difference between us is when I made bad decisions in life, I didn’t get caught. It could have been me here in khaki, easy.”
The show is so rich in complex, heroic, and tragic characters it’s almost gluttonous to watch. The viewer can find themselves hating and then rooting for a character within minutes of one flashback. These women sometimes feel more real than women you know in your own life, because they are stripped raw, every beautifully flawed facet held up to catch the light. Unlike most Hollywood depictions of women, these ladies run the spectrum of what it means to be female. They are smart, scared, vain, desperate, proud, hurt, selfish, foolish, impenetrable, sacrificing, and fearless. But primarily they are strong, pushing on each day to find a way to keep living, to make the most of their life despite their confinement. They are not only a tale of warning, but a tale of perseverance.
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