What have you been watching over summer?

Based on American author Piper Kerman’s memoir ‘Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison’, Netflix comedy-drama series Orange is The New Black is known for its’ authentic portrayal of life in US women’s prisons.

Protagonist Piper Chapman, played by Taylor Schilling, is a privileged New Yorker whose past history with drug dealer Alex Vause causes her to receive a 15-month sentence for criminal conspiracy and money laundering. Chapman becomes a character you love to hate, which is part of what makes this series so fascinating to watch. She transforms from a seemingly innocent individual to a selfish, manipulative prisoner as her true personality is peeled back throughout the series as a result of her prison experiences.

The series has been praised for its LGBT representation, as there are many queer characters in the show who experience genuine romantic storylines, such as Chapman and Vause. Laverne Cox also brings the character Sophia Burset to life, giving an outstandingly raw portrayal of the experiences trans women go through in prison.

It highlights the joy and friendships formed between characters, as well as emphasising political issues that are still relevant today. The Black Lives Matter movement is prominent in the series, after the murder of one of the main characters by a white police officer sparks a riot surrounding the racism of the US criminal justice system. It’s a series I always end up returning to and this past summer was no exception!

Rosie Brennan

Over the summer, I decided to rewatch the critically acclaimed ‘Haunting of Hill House’ directed by Mike Flanagan. Despite being described as an "American supernatural horror drama series", I decided to re-watch it because I found it to be a comfort show that perfectly contrasted the innocence of children with the horrors of the supernatural, whilst also exploring the importance of family bonds and the power of mental illness and addiction.

In summary, the plot of the show focuses on five siblings and their varied childhood experiences in a haunted house, and how these experiences shaped their adulthoods and personalities. The show constantly switches from showing the gradually escalating supernatural occurrences harassing the family of seven, to the older versions of the siblings, with each episode focusing on a particular character or event in the house. This, combined with the eerie music and hidden figures placed in corners of rooms, behind doors and peering through windows, made it feel as though I was watching it again for the first time.

What I enjoyed the most about the show was its focus on the family dynamics between the siblings and their parents when they were kids. This, in my opinion, created an atmosphere of safety that, when interrupted by the subtle but equally terrifying supernatural events, made it feel as though you too were having a first-hand experience of the haunting events.

Emma Benton