Orange Is the New Black (2013)

Wow! This must be my favourite ever TV show. It has totally blown me away. I’m very reserved about giving ratings with my average being 65% but this was 100%. Loved and lived every moment and felt every emotion there is. The basic premise is simple. Middle-class white, Piper Chapman gets put in jail and a very different environment than she’s used to and with very different people. That’s it really. Sounds simple and depressing. But as we learn more about the people in her new social circle we learn that they each have their own, often tragic, story and explanation of how they got there and how they became the person they now are. Based on the real-life experience of Piper Kerman, it raises questions of corporate for-profit prisons, race, inequality and many social issues. Although a depressing situation and premise, the perfectly scripted, cast and acted intertwined stories throw often hilarious moments into the story. I’ve spent many moments laughing at the same time as crying through these series. This is an experience beyond TV.