Orange is the New Black is based on the memoir written by Piper Kerman about her time in a minimum-security facility in upstate Connecticut. She was originally indicted on charges of felonious money-laundering activities and sentenced to 15 months in a federal prison.
In its first season, The Umbrella Academy broke all of Netflix’s records, with 45 million viewers in its first month. Season two of the show aired on Netflix on July 31, 2020, and in its first week, viewers watched 3+billion minutes of the show’s first two seasons according to Nielson ratings.
Black Mirror, released in 2011, is described as an anthology series that explores the high-tech multi-verse where humanity and humanity’s greatest inventions create havoc. The show highlights how technology could very well be man’s biggest downfall.
Just in case you weren’t already aware, the show is an adaptation of the 1959 book of the same title by Shirley Jackson. The Haunting of Hill House was actually 1960’s Finalist for Fiction in the National Book Awards. One review of the book says that it “might just be the best story written.”
Netflix’s Our Planet is an eight-episode documentary that focuses on what impact humans have on the globe, its eco-systems, and the other species living on it. The series took six full years to come to fruition, since the creators had decided to make a new global history show in 2013 and took the idea to Netflix in 2014. The show aired April 5, 2019 and became an instant online hit.
Although she only served 13 of her 15 months, it was all the inspiration Kerman needed to write her #1 New York Times Bestselling memoir in 2011. The show itself has gone on to earn critical acclaim and has won several awards and accolades in its seven seasons on Netflix, including, but not limited to, 16 Emmy Nominations and four wins.
According to Variety magazine, the show was not only Netflix’s top running show for the month of August 2020, but it also beat all other shows across all streaming services, including Hamilton on Disney+. Did you know that The Umbrella Academy was originally supposed to be a movie? It’s a good thing Netflix changed its mind!
The writer of the original comics is Gerard Way, originally of the band My Chemical Romance. He says of the characters, “there’s bits of some of the guys in some of those characters and the different roles that we would play in the band and how those roles would change sometimes.”
The richest part of the show were the characters. One of the breakout stars of OITNB was Kate Mulgrew, who played the redheaded, Russian mafia wife and one-time prison chef, Red Reznikov. You might better recognize her from Star Trek: Voyager where she played Captain Kathryn Janeway, the first woman to lead a Star Trek series.
The show Dead to Me follows single mom, Jen Harding, played by Christina Applegate who has just lost her husband and the father of her children in a tragic car accident. While facing the challenges of life after death, Harding attends a grief counseling group and strikes up a friendship with a Ms. Judy Hale, played by Linda Cardellini.
Were you aware that Ellen Page took violin lessons in order to play Vanya? She says she got lucky to have an instructor on set with a lot of patience. She can still only play some "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," but that’s okay! Her body double, prodigy Imogen Sloss, does a great job on the more complex violin scenes.
The show was one of 2018’s best reviewed, scoring a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 93% audience score based on 785 user ratings. Within a week of its release, it was the third most in-demand horror show among audiences and went up against heavy hitters such as The Walking Dead and American Horror Story.
One of the most high-profile actresses in OITNB was Laura Prepon, who played Piper’s troublesome on-and-off-again ex-girlfriend, Alex. We all know and love her as Donna Pinciotti from That ‘70s Show. Imagine how shocked we all were as fans when we saw that first scene!
Tom Hopper plays Number One, a.k.a. Luther, a.k.a Spaceboy, the lone Hargreeves kid who stayed behind at the academy while all the other siblings left to pursue other dreams. Hopper’s other work includes Game of Thrones, Black Sails, and Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty.
The character, Nicky Nichols, is another familiar face in a sea of relatively unknown actresses. Played by Natasha Lyonne, you might recognize her as Vicky’s feisty best-friend, Jessica, from the American Pie film series. Nicky became a fan favorite while we watched her battle her addiction and face her abandonment issues.
David Casteneda is Number Two, a.k.a. Diego, a.k.a The Kraken and his character’s power is being able to manipulate any weapon to achieve the greatest accuracy. This causes some trouble on the show since he likes to play at vigilante. We’ve seen Casteneda before, in projects such as Switched at Birth.
On May 31, 2019, the world was not ready for the truths about to be told in When They See Us, a limited series based on the true story of the Central Park Five. This group of five black teenagers was baselessly accused and imprisoned for the death of a jogger in Central Park back in 1989.
Number one fan favorite, Poussey Washington, played by Samira Wiley, had perhaps the worst exit from the show of all seven seasons. Although Wiley was mostly unknown for her work before OITNB, she has since been nominated for an Emmy award for her work on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
Number Three, or otherwise known as Allison and/or The Rumor is played by Emmy Raver-Lampman who is relatively new to television. She is a veteran of Broadway, however, having had roles in shows such as Hamilton, A Night with Janis Joplin, Jekyll & Hyde, and Hair. Fans young and old love watching The Rumor get her way whenever she wants.
The show follows the young Crain family as they move into Hill House to renovate it and flip it in order to build their own dream home. The family begins to experience paranormal events that result in tragedy and the family fleeing the house. However, years later they all come back together again to battle their proverbial demons and that’s when the fun really starts.
The much anticipated third season of Stranger Things was released the weekend of July 4, 2019. During the four-day weekend, Nielsen ratings said that more than 26.4 million households tuned in and streamed on. However, Netflix revealed their own streaming data and stated that the number was more like 40.7 million, thank you very much. This is the shows third year to be claimed the favorite in Utah.
The name of the show, Black Mirror, refers to any blank video screen. Charlie Brooker, creator of Black Mirror is actually a comedian and satirist. But he told the Guardian in 2011, “Any TV, any LCD, any iPhone, any iPad—something like that—if you just stare at it, it looks like a ‘Black Mirror,’ and there’s something cold and horrifying about that…”
Fan favorite Klaus, otherwise known as Number Four or The Séance is played by Robert Sheehan better known for his previous role of Nathan Young in The Misfits. The screwup of the family, Klaus spends most of his time trying to find his next high, so he won’t have to deal with his ability—to speak to the dead.
The Boy is probably the most interesting character on The Umbrella Academy. When we meet Number Five, it’s after he’s been lost in a post-apocalyptic world for several decades, still trapped in the body of a 15-year-old. Aidan Gallagher, who plays The Boy, is a relatively unknown actor whose only other acting credit was a stint on the Nickelodeon show Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn which ended in 2018.
Suzanne ‘Crazy Eyes’ Warren, yet another fan favorite, was also played by a rather unknown actress by the name of Uzo Aduba. Since the first season in her breakout role as “Crazy Eyes,” she has earned two Emmy Awards for OITNB. Just imagine, Aduba was offered the role on the very day she had decided to quit acting!
The series follows the boys from before they were accused, through the trial process, and then follows each in their personal journeys through the prison system in New York. This is perhaps the hardest part of the series to watch because the showrunners held nothing back. What we are seeing are the raw, true memories of what those boys endured.
The eldest Crain child, Steven, has learned how to internalize his terror and has instead become a highly successful writer of horror fiction. However, his autobiographical novel which made him so successful has caused a rift between him and the rest of the Crain family, who would much rather forget what happened at Hill House.
The Horror, played by Justin H. Min, is probably the most curious character on the show as it is revealed that he’s actually dead, but we don’t know exactly how. His superpower, however, is releasing monsters from his body. This role is Min’s biggest to date, but he has appeared in shows like Faking It, CSI: Cyber, and Pure Genius.
The comedy series follows the unlikely friendship of Applegate and Cardellini through many ups and downs. In the show’s first month, it was streamed by more than 30 million households. Following up after the second season’s equally successful release, Netflix has renewed Dead to Me for a third season, although it is reported to be the last and final season.
As disturbing as it is to think, this show was actually based on a true story. Well, actually, it was based on a 2015 article published in a Pulitzer winning joint project. Both the show and the article depict many of the true-life events that took place with the main character, Marie.
Daya Diaz, probably our most interesting inmate on the show, has kind of a roller coaster of a time adjusting to life in prison. From somehow winding up pregnant while behind bars, to committing a crime on a guard, Daya just can’t seem to get right. But Dascha Polanco got the role, perfect!
In its second-quarter report, Netflix released their viewing statistics and the data showed that Our Planet was watched by more than 33 million households in its first month when they were only estimating 25 million. This makes the original docuseries Netflix’s most watched to date.
Probably the most recognizable actress on the show, Ellen Page, became a household name when she played Juno in the Oscar-winning film Juno in 2007. In the Umbrella Academy she plays Number Seven, otherwise known as Vanya or The White Violin. Vanya’s superpower is the strongest of all of her siblings but has been suppressed because it was thought they were too powerful for her to wield.
Another interesting character in OITNB is Gloria Mendoza, kind of a Puerto Rican Godmother to all the Latina inmates, if you will. From being a single mother attempting to raise two sons from the inside, to protecting her ‘girls’ on the inside, Gloria becomes one of the wisest women on the show. And we couldn’t imagine anyone but unknown actress, Selenis Leyva playing the role.
As adults, the Crain children are not only forced back together, but are also forced to reunite with their estranged father, to fight both the physical and metaphorical ghosts of their past. The mysteries surrounding yet another family tragedy eventually lead the family back to Hill House.
In it’s eight seasons, Black Mirror has only had a handful of the same actors appear on episodes more than once. Some of its more popular guest stars have been: John Hamm (of Mad Men fame), Bryce Dallas Howard (the Jurassic Park series), Jodie Whittaker (the latest Doctor Who), Topher Grace (of That ‘70s Show), and Miley Cyrus.
Possibly the coolest cat on the show goes to the talking chimpanzee, Pogo, who is played by Adam Godley. Pogo is not simply the family pet, though. He is a veritable treasure trove of the knowledge the Umbrella Academy kids are seeking, even if he does keep that knowledge to himself for Sir Hargreeves’ sake.
Unbelievable was released on September 13, 2019 and in its first 28 days was streamed by more than 32 million households. Despite its popularity, the network has decided not to follow up with a second season of the show since it was just a limited series based on a true story.
Despite running for five successful seasons, Black Mirror can only claim 22 episodes. The first two seasons aired in the UK before Netflix acquired it. The first season had three episodes, the second season had three episodes plus a Christmas special, the third and fourth seasons each aired six episodes, and season five aired just three episodes.
The episodes of Black Mirror deal with near-future, plausible technology that can seem like the best inventions ever but show how quickly such technology can go wrong. One of the best episodes is titled “The Entire History of You” in which the technology is the ability to record and replay whatever you see.
If there could be a main character on the show, it would be Piper Chapman, the character whom the central story (Kerman’s story) revolves around. While she’s not very well liked at first, she eventually learns how to navigate in the world of women’s corrections. Taylor Schilling, who plays Chapman, is also another unknown actress who was perfectly cast.
Possibly the most important character in the show is Sir Reginald Hargreeves, whose death finally reunites the siblings. He adopted them all, raised them and taught them how to battle powerful enemies with their powers as a team. Hargreeves is played by Colm Feore probably best known for his roles in Revolution, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Greta.
After the series was released, there was a public outcry to investigate the original prosecutors and the handling of this case. Elizabeth Lederer, the lead prosecutor in the case resigned from Columbia Law School as a part-time lecturer in light of the portrayal of her character in the show. Some students had organized protests against her returning until the allegations had been investigated.
Fans of The Haunting of Hill House everywhere were excited to learn that there would be a sequel to this highly successful show. The Haunting of Bly Manor is loosely based on the 1898 horror novella by Henry James called The Turn of the Screw and was released on October 9, 2020—just in time for Halloween!
Another fan-favorite episode is the only Christmas special the show has aired, and also the last episode that was aired on UK’s channel 4 before Netflix snapped it up. "White Christmas" is about two men living in a remote cabin who pass the time telling their life stories to each other. The scary technology in this episode looks and acts suspiciously like a Google Home or Alexa.
Although Orange is the New Black was Netflix’s first truly successful show, after seven seasons, the network decided to put it on the chopping block. But apparently it was a mutual decision because creator Jenji Kohan was ready to give the show it’s final farewell. She said of the show, “I will miss all the [strong] ladies of Litchfield… My heart is orange but fade to black.”
Probably the most popular episode is titled “Nosedive” and stars Bryce Dallas Howard. The episode takes us into the dangers of social media and how it can prospectively destroy our lives. It’s actually an attempt at comedy and is a spoof on social media and the effects it has on society.
Things just can’t seem to get right for this family of seven as they come together to try to—and ultimately fail—save the world. Could it be raising them together but only addressing them by numbers could have had something to do with the fact that they only work best on their own?
Although Netflix has yet to officially order the third season of The Umbrella Academy, we’re betting it’s just a matter of time. The data does not lie, and with such a successful first week of streaming for season two, we’re also willing to bet that we will see a season four and possibly even season five.
Although the series consistently remains in Netflix’s top 10 shows, the future of season six is unknown. The show has not been canceled, but as of July of 2020, the license for the show is in discussions since Charlie Brooker left the company that holds it. We do know that Netflix has a deal with Brooker to work on further projects; however, we do not know the fate of future Black Mirror episodes.
