Orange Is The New Black is considered to be a drama/comedy but it is more of comedy in my eyes. Sometimes a drama scene will be thrown into the show but it is always backed by lots of comical scenes. This television series is based on a book written by Piper Kerman. Convicted of drug smuggling along with her partner in crime, Alex Vause (Laura Prepon), was sentenced to fifteen months in a federal prison. Even though the plot is situated in a low risk, medium security prison located in Litchfield, New York, we know by reading the book that the true prison was located in Danbury, Connecticut and is known by current and former prisoners as “Club Fed.” 

Piper did not have much difficulty adjusting to life behind bars according to the show and became fast friends with a few of the inmates. She was shocked to see that Alex was also locked up in the same prison even though she had moved past her lesbian relationship with Alex, she still had some deep unresolved feelings for her. She tried to maintain her committed relationship with her fiancé, Larry Bloom (Jason Biggs) but was having difficulty doing so. In the series it shows Piper freely walking throughout the prison at all hours of the day except at roll call times.

I did a little research on Danbury and found that many former inmates had the same experience as Piper except for the many hours that they spent on their work details.

Piper admits to Larry that Alex is locked up in the same prison as herself and over time he begins to have some feelings of jealousy until the point where he confesses to Piper that Alex is the one that ratted on her about her involvement in the crime. Then Piper and Alex’s relationship becomes strained and remains that way until Alex is given an early release because she confessed to working with the main drug boss, but before her confession she warned Piper to deny the allegations, which she did. So, Piper remained behind bars and Alex was free to go.

All the characters are clearly defined in their own way and a version of their personal, family, criminal history is shown for everyone to see.

If you can get past the freedom that the female inmates have in an American federal prison you will thoroughly enjoy this series.