2036 - Orange is the New Black: season two

Now that’s how you progress a story!  This season took what the first season began and beautifully brought it to the next level, furthering to nuance the characters - not forcing us to love or like them all, and even show sides of them that change how we see and feel about them otherwise.  It’s bold and beautiful storytelling and I loved it.  Even bringing in a “big bad” so to speak didn’t feel too formulaic, which it ran the risk of doing.  I don’t want to get into any specific details because it’s such a beauty to discover yourself, but I will say that this show doesn’t disappoint and it leaves us in a beautiful spot for where we come back in season three.  That said, we can move on from Jason Biggs storyline now, thanks.  Nothing against Biggs, I just don’t see how that story helps us moving forward.

1877 - Orange is the New Black: season one

Right from the trailer I was super excited about this.  I enjoyed Jenji Kohan's Weeds enough, so wanted to see what she was up to next.  It was fun to see some of the actors that appeared in the last seasons of that series show up here - and now it explains why Natasha Lyonne was in the Weeds finale!
The best television series give us a window into a world we don't know, and present us with some form of unique family unit - this does both in spades.  They could have gone really cliched with the fish-out-of-water stuff - but Piper, as she states, learns about becoming herself in prison - and that's part of the point of the show, I think.  The tone here works quite well, it's light in moments, but it's always grounded in a little bit of a harsh reality.  The more the series goes along the more layers of relationships we get and it's really really worth investing the time in.
I'm a fan of the way that Netflix releases their series.  There's some beauty in waiting for another episode, but it's nice to also go through a story at your own pace.
So if you've got Netflix and you haven't started on this series then you've got absolutely no excuse.  It could very well be my favorite of their originals so far.  Do yourself a favor and check it out ASAP.