Page 3

3. Orange is the New Black

OITNB is a Netflix Original Series created by Jenji Kohan, who also created the show Weeds (yay strong female leads). This show has a ton of strong and fleshed out female characters, strong female friendships, and even some lesbian romances (yay queer visibility). This show is praised for its portrayal of bodies, sexuality, gender, and race. I personally harbor a heavy dislike towards the very self-absorbed and very entitled main character, Piper, and her storyline, but the rest of the women at Litchfield and their stories are all pretty great, so great they make binging this show worth it. I also like this show for its social critiques and conscience—and if you finished season 4, most notably, * SPOILER ALERT * the death of Poussey Washington, which was supposed to resemble the real life death of Eric Garner and echo the Black Lives Matter movement (not saying they were super successful with this though, as a Blue Lives Matter theme did seem to run parallel with it . . . and Season 5 is honestly a letdown with the opportunity they had for social matters . . .). There are even real life murals of Poussey in big cities in the US, Canada, and Australia right now—commissioned by Netflix, how cool is that! The fifth season is now officially out since June 9th, with 13 episodes that take place in the span of just 3 days.