Prepare for another lost weekend of binge-viewing: Netflix Originals has a new show set to drop on the streaming service July 11. Now, there is a new trailer to prove it.
Show Title: Orange is the New Black
What’s It About?: A successful, happily engaged Brooklynite is convicted and sent to a women’s correctional facility to serve out a year-long sentence for a drug smuggling and money laundering scheme she was involved with years prior. Her co-conspirator at that time was also her lesbian lover, a side of herself her male fiance and family did not know about. Once in prison, she does the Caged Heat thing just, you know, with nuanced emotions and humor and far less campier with probably nowhere near as much gratuitous female nudity. Hilarity ensues.
Who’s In It?: Taylor Schilling, most known as the female lead in the Nicholas Sparks film The Lucky One, will play the lead here. Jason Biggs (American Pie) is her fiance who is stunned by the turnaround in her life, and Laura Prepon (That 70′s Show) is her former lesbian lover. Kate freakin’ Mulgrew, of all people, Captain Janeway herself (my beloved Star Trek: Voyager), appears as an inmate who runs the kitchen and serves as a bit of a den mother. Nathasha Lyonne (American Pie) appears to be a welcoming presence in the same facility. The cast is filled out with the likes of people I’ve honestly never heard of but are probably perfectly nice people and great actors (Danielle Brooks, Michael Harney, Michelle Hurts, Maria Dizzia, and Pablo Schreiber).
Who’s Making It?: Weeds creator Jenji Kohan has co-created the show along with Liz Friedman, who is most known for writing several episodes of House. Both women will also serve as Executive Producers (what does that mean? Check out our article about that).
Check out the Trailer:
As you can tell, this is meant to be a dramedy, and maybe it’s because it’s from the woman who created Weeds but this looks to me like something which would fit right at home on Showtime. All 13 hour-long episodes (although they will probably actually vary in length, ala House of Cards) will debut on Netflix at 12:01 AM on July 11th. This seems a slightly odd choice as that is actually a Thursday, and since Netflix’s entire model with their original content is predicated upon the notion that we’ll all simply stream every single episode over a weekend why not premiere the show on a Friday. Eh, this gives us an extra day.
Overall, this kind of looks like a pretty great television show, like something which Showtime could have easily paired with Nurse Jackie for several seasons. I am looking forward to it, or at least to giving its first episode a shot.
Orange is the New Black joins Lilyhammer, House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and Arrested Development as members of the growing Netflix Originals family. However, with Netflix shifting their focus to their new original programming they’ve also been losing a fair amount of their licensed material as of late. First, there was the much-discussed “Streamageddon” on May 1st when some 800 titles were dropped from the serivce. Now, they let a deal with Viacom expire, and Amazon swooped right in and is now touting how some of the Viacom-owned Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon shows like Ugly Americans, Awkward, and Spongebob Squarepants are now on Amazon Prime and NOT on Netflix. Plus, considering Netflix’s free one-month trial offer it’s not clear why people who want to see the new Netflix Originals couldn’t just sign up for one free month and then cancel once they’ve finished streaming the new episodes, never having paid a dime.
There’s a lot of head-scratching about Netflix’s current business model, but until the day comes where the you know what hits the digital fan let’s rejoice in their original programming, at least when it looks as promising as Orange is the New Black.
I now hold the microphone in my hand out in front of me and simply let it drop the ground as I leave the stage, in the ultimate “I am finished, y’all, follow that up if you can” move. Well, pick that microphone back up and use it in the comments….ah, this analogy isn’t quite working, huh? The gist is this – article over, there is a comments section. You know the drill.
