Next week, Netflix will unveil their next original series, and if Orange is the New Black turns out to be half as good as its trailer, we may be in for another great Netflix binge. Whether or not that turns out to be the case remains to be seen. In the meantime, the above clip is brief, but gives us a peek at what Taylor Schilling's character Piper Chapman is going through as she attempts to adjust to prison life. Rule #1: Being perceived as weak is a bad thing on the inside. Let's hope for her sake that this isn't the case for Piper, who's new to prison and coming from a cushy Brooklyn life that may not have prepared her much for what she has to deal with in jail.
Then again, who knows? One of the lines that jumped out at me in the trailer for the series was, "I'm scared that I'm not myself in here. And I'm scared that I am." Sometimes, extreme circumstances force us to examine our true selves. Maybe prison will bring out things in Piper's character that she didn't even know was there, and that could be one of the things she has to deal with while she's imprisoned. Self-discovery was one of the running themes on Jenji Kohan's Weeds, as we watched Nancy Botwin shift from suburban housewife to an escalating position in the marijuana industry.
Orange is the New Black is Kohan's latest series, adapted from Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange is the new Black: My Year in a Women's Prison. The story follows Piper as she's incarcerated for her decade-old involvement with an international drug smuggler, played by Laura Prepon. To make matters a bit more complicated, Piper was also in a romantic relationship with this woman, the the series' present-day character is engaged to be married to Jason Biggs' Larry Bloom. One bad choice ten years ago sends Piper into the slammer, where she'll have to steel herself against whatever mistreatment she might be subjected to while she serves out her time. And as she learns in the clip below, appearing weak will be her undoing.
Netflix has shown support and optimism for the series, which debuts its full first season - all 13 episodes - on July 11, but has already been renewed for a second season.
