Reisz Davis July 26th, 2019 - 8:04 PM
Last night at midnight, Netflix dropped season 7 of their hit show Orange Is The New Black. The 13-episode-long season seven concludes the stories of the Litchfield Penitentiary. Orange Is The New Black premiered in July of 2013 starring Taylor Schilling as Piper Chapman, Kate Mulgrew as Galina “Red” Reznikov, Uzo Aduba as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren, Danielle Brooks as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson, Dascha Polanco as Dayanara Diaz, Selenis Lyva as Gloria Mendoza, Yael Stone as Lorna Morello, Natasha Lyonne as Nicky Nichols, and Laura Preopn as Alex Vause.
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Since its premiere, the series has gone on to have six Golden Globe nominations including Best Television Series for Comedy or Musical and won numerous Emmys including Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and nominations for Outstanding Drama Series.
The series was created by Jenji Kohan based on the real-life story of Piper Kerman. The show follows Piper Chapman as she was sent to Litchfield Penitentiary minimum security prison for a year and a half for drug trafficking ten years earlier. This show has created an enticing television landscape featuring a diverse cast that illustrates the reality of prison life. The show also discusses queer community and the stories of nuanced and powerful women behind bars. Recurring guest star of the show Laverne Cox stated, “I think [with our show] the conversation around diversity shifted and the representation of women, LGBTQ people, women of different ages, of different sizes shifted after our show. The conversation around people who are incarcerated shifted after our show.”
According to Variety, the cast and crew got together at Alice Tully Hall in New York City for the screening of the season’s premiere episode followed by an after party held at the Times Square Edition hotel.
Right before the screening, Netflix’s Content VP Cindy Holland announced that a total of 105 million viewers have at least watched one episode of the series. Then she invited Jenji Kohan and producer Tara Hermann to the stage. The two announced that the show sparked “The Poussey Washington Fund,” which is a crowdfunded mission named after the character Poussey Washington, played by Samira Wiley, who was tragically killed on the show in Season 4. This fund supports eight non-profit organizations that work to protect immigrants, criminal justice reform, and an end to mass incarceration and women in prison. With the announcement, the two women showed interviews from real life fans that described what the show meant to them as well as a video showing the cast members reactions to the interviews.
Laura Prepon stated, “Not the uniforms. I’m gonna miss the girls, I’m going to miss the women that I worked with every day, and the men. I’m just gonna miss the cast and the material that we got to act every week. And for me to direct was awesome.”
All episodes of Orange Is The New Black are on Netflix.
