Orange Is The New Black By John Jurgensen Analysis

Television recreates an illusional world can coincides with Bradbury’s story. Instead of accepting our real identities, we rather see dreams and desires that

But most viewers are interested in excitement in their entertainment, which translates into the format and content of the “news” as well as direct entertainment. It is difficult to imagine that television viewers would have watched Truman grow up over almost three decades when even the most engrossing “soap” can not sustain a third of that time period.

Orange is the New Black, a show airing Netflix, screens five seasons of what occurs within the Litchfield prison system, an all-female prison, surrounding the character Piper Chapman and the injustices of the criminal justice system. Throughout the five seasons of Orange is the New Black, the show presents many recurring viewpoints on various social commentaries including, but not limited to racial, criminal justice system, and Lesbian Gay Bi Transsexual Queer Two Spirited Intersex Asexual plus (LGBTQ2SIA+) rights. To understand the show’s stances on these issues one must first understand the issues Orange is the New Black commentates on.

Media educator and researcher George Gerbner, shares his view on the relation television has with story telling. He begins with stating, “Those who tell the stories hold the power in society”. Gerbner believes that the voices of those who spread stories, have the greatest influence in society. Following this, he says, “Today television tells most of the stories to most of the people, most of the time”. Gerbner explains that due to the mass audience television reaches, now they are the voice that spreads stories. Gerbner’s statement conveys that ideas, messages, and stories are no longer being communicated by people of communities but by television.

Over time, plot lines began to become increasing crisscrossed and jagged. When talking of seventies television, he stated that, “The modern viewer who watches a show like Dallas today will be bored by the content - not just because the show is less salacious than today’s soap operas but also because the show contains far less info in each scene” (Johnson 292). To summarize, television from decades past contains less information in each episode, it is also less entertaining to the modern viewer for that reason. Yet, Johnson’s argument is incomplete without actual studies aside from logical observations alone, and that is how Bissell influences Johnson once

It is a mistake to start watching a drama series, and stop watching it after some time, but it is a sin to watch the whole drama series, and still not understand it. Many people make such mistakes. One of the reasons can be the number of characters. It is necessary for a show to have enough actors so as to not create a plot ‘hole’. The same can be said about the popular high school show ‘Glee’. It has more than ten actors, and all can be classified by their impact on the singing club ‘Glee’ such as characters who had a direct impact, indirect impact, and no impact.

Orange is The New Black provides insight as to how a prison sentence can affect the relationships had before entering the prison culture as well as the effect that can be had on your significant others. The following essay will discuss the process that women may experience when entering and adjusting to the prison life,

“Orange is the New Black” is Netflix’s hit new original series. Currently in its second season, OINTB has received critical acclaim (Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes) for its unusual subject matter as well as its varied and multi-dimensional portrayal of race, gender, class, queer and trans issues. However, while it excels specifically with issues of gender and sexuality, the show falters a bit more on issues of race and class.

Interaction is an important application between an audience and an artistic medium. According to Koster, “every medium is interactive” (pg. 149). Audiences choose different ways to interact with their medium depending on what they want out of the art. In this instance, despite the lack of “action” in the long productions, people still are fascinated. Hellum discusses how in the slow television, people start to create their own stories and drama when there isn’t any. The audience is interacting with the program in their own way.

Immersing yourself in a fictional world, in which your fantasies and imagination runs rampant; leaving behind a monotonous and redundant life to become a part of a new enchanted, lively world of excitement and intrigue. The present digital era, a technological advance generation which grants endless possibilities, with access to a plethora of television shows. We become engrossed in our fictional shows due to the different array of characters; awe inspiring settings; and themes, that compelled people to binge watch. “Just one more episode” are the inner thoughts of most when doing a marathon through their favorite television programs, doing this enthralls the populous to escape reality and venture into any new realms. And when visual stimulus

A narratively complex show thus rejects the episodic convention of a return to the original status quo at the end of each episode, as one might see in an episode of Friends. Problems are often left unresolved to be expanded upon in future episodes. Narrative complexity is thus cumulative and unconventional: it is a combination of episodic closure and serial accumulation, and employs new and engaging narratives and forms of storytelling (Jackson). Of the many ways to achieve narrative complexity, Mittell discusses “operational aesthetic,” which can best be described as something similar to special effects. Operational aesthetic is augmented in certain moments within a narratively complex program. That being said, complex television employs something called the narrative special effect, which is when a program makes use of certain storytelling tools, to engage the viewer (Mittell 43). It is by way of the narrative special effect that the media makers attempt to foster engagement in audiences by planting clues, and this can be achieved through, for example, shifts in perspective or time, dreams or fantasy sequences, and the absence of clear storytelling cues. The result is that audiences focus and speculate on form and structure in addition to content (Jackson).

Narrative Complexity is an increasing epidemic in contemporary television. Television programs such as Twin Peaks celebrate narrative complexity, offering audiences intense character development and plot progression in an episodic form. Narratively complex programs are able to explore a multitude of events over an expansive time period, often developing a rich and complex narrative progression over an entire season, or even an entire series. Television audiences are often receptive of this, delighting in the suspenseful and drawn out nature of television. Cultural shifts and technological innovation have aided this progression, with online audience participation now becoming the norm as the emergence of blogs, online forums and fan fiction

Orange is the New Black by Jenji Kohan has been streaming on Netflix since July 2013 by the production company Lionsgate Television. The television show is about the main character Piper Chapman who just got in jail. She is serving time at Litchfield Penitentiary, a federal prison for women in upstate New York, for drug smuggling with her ex-girlfriend (Alex) a couple of years ago. When Chapman goes to prison she is reunited with Alex, even though their relationship goes through ups and downs as the time goes by. The main focus of the television show is to present a public discourse about the criminal justice system, particularly incarceration in the United States. Through the social cognitive theory and the agenda setting theory one is able to see how Orange is the New Black draws attention to different issues within our incarceration system, specially imprisonment of women. From the social cognitive theory aspect,the filmmaker has communicated an acceptance towards distinctive identities by having a variety of characters in the show. Apart from this, agenda setting theory comes into play when particular issues within imprisonment are presented, like solitary confinement was throughout many episodes. These can be further examined and analyzed looking at all the elements Jenji Kohan implements in her scripts to open up a public discussions about social issues.

The answer is obvious. If a television show showed people watching television, those people’s lives would be so boring we wouldn’t be able to stand watching them. So what does that tell us about ourselves when we’re watching television?"

In Steven Johnson’s “Watching TV Makes You Smarter”, he argues that television shows have grown progressively more complex throughout time. Johnson explains that because of the developing intricacy of t.v. plot lines, people are having to spend an increased amount of time paying attention to t.v. episodes. Johnson writes about 24, Murphy Brown, Frasier, and The Soprano, and how they make people smarter. By watching these shows people follow different plots and learn to keep up with all of them. Johnson claims “you have to pay attention, make inferences, track shifting social relationships”, viewers should do this to figure out what is happening in a show. Johnson calls this the Sleepers Curve. It shows that people are learning through complex storylines or situations without realizing it.