So you wanna be a boss. Netflix and chill will yourself to get off the couch already. How to Be a Boss (According to Your Favorite Shows) is your excuse to binge all the TV you want. It's career inspiration, right? As for me, chain-watching teen dramas now qualifies as research to bring you this informative series. We all win.
I've had day jobs that felt like prison sentences: cells (windowless cubicles), solitary confinement (no perks), wardens (terrible bosses). But I could rage-quit any time I pleased—the trundle bed in my parents' basement is still a step up from a prison bunk. There's no quitting in actual prison, though. That's the point.
It's no wonder the inmates of Litchfield Prison—the setting of Netflix's dramedy series, Orange Is the New Black—have to find creative means to get the things they want. The result: a pretty impressive bartering ecosystem. The underground network runs the gamut from contraband cell phones to skimming panties from a sewing production line. Inadvertently, the women are learning valuable leadership skills in spite of the abysmal education program.
What they experience though, as they vie for power and Flamin' Hot Cheetos, isn't all that unlike being your own boss on the outside. Resources are limited. Competition is fierce. And the power struggle is real. Here are 16 lessons about being a boss, according to the inmates—and staff—of Litchfield:
1. Find a trustworthy business partner, even if she's the one who got you into this mess in the first place.Read more
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Orange Is The New Black FAQ
Is Orange Is the New Black based on a true story?
Yes, the series adapts Piper Kerman's memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum security federal prison. The show reworks that real experience into a fictional setting and cast for a comedy-drama format, but the core premise — a decade-old offense catching up with someone who had moved past it — mirrors Kerman's own incarceration.
How many seasons of Orange Is the New Black are there?
The series ran for seven seasons on Netflix, premiering on Netflix on July 11, 2013, and ran for seven seasons until July 26, 2019. It became a flagship title for the platform early on, since as of 2016, Orange Is the New Black was Netflix's most-watched as well as its longest-running original series.
Who are the main characters in Orange Is the New Black?
The show centers on Piper Chapman, a 33-year-old woman living in New York City who is sentenced to 15 months in Litchfield Penitentiary, alongside her ex-girlfriend Alex Vause, an international drug smuggler. Other central figures who anchor the ensemble include Red, Taystee, and Nicky, whose individual storylines and flashbacks build out Litchfield's world across seasons.
What crime does Piper Chapman commit in Orange Is the New Black?
Chapman was convicted of transporting a suitcase full of drug money for her girlfriend Alex Vause, an international drug smuggler. The offense had occurred 10 years before the start of the series and in that time, Chapman had moved on to a quiet, law-abiding life among New York's upper middle class, making the sudden indictment upend her engagement and family life.
Where can you watch Orange Is the New Black?
Orange Is the New Black streams on Netflix, the platform that produced the series and released it as an original title starting in 2013. All seven seasons sit within Netflix's original programming library, so any active subscriber can watch the full run without a separate rental or purchase.
What awards has Orange Is the New Black won?
The series collected 16 Emmy Award nominations and four wins in comedy and drama (the first series to score nominations in both genre categories), six Writers Guild of America Award nominations, six Golden Globe Award nominations, a Producers Guild of America Award, an American Film Institute Award, and a Peabody Award. That mix of comedy and drama recognition set it apart from most prison dramas on television.
