Orange is the New Black: Season 1

The joy and drawback of Netflix is that it lets you watch entire seasons in one sitting. This means that people across the world are losing whole days to shows like this. Orange is the New Black must have looked like a gamble on paper. It has a predominantly female cast and is set almost entirely inside a women's prison. Unlike House of Cards, this cast is composed of largely unfamiliar faces, and the characters they play are far from conventional. But the results are explosive, heart-rending and, frequently, hilarious.

Our unfortunate convict is Piper Chapman, played to perfection by Taylor Schilling. Chapman is based on the real-life former inmate Piper Kerman, whose memoir inspired and shaped the script. In her early twenties, she had an intensely complex relationship with a drug-dealer and on one occasion, acted as her mule to carry narcotics across international borders. Having totally redefined herself over the following decade - read, become engaged to sweetly dull Larry (Jason Biggs) and started a soap business - she is called to account by the law and forced to serve a late prison sentence.

Piper's first few days inside are comic gold. One of the strongest aspects of this show is its wonderful ensemble cast and as the diverse lineup of characters is introduced, the whole atmosphere behind to hiss with pent-up rage, suspicion and passion. Kate Mulgrew is unstoppable as Red, the Russian cook who rules her kitchen with an iron-fist, tempered with surprising shows of compassion, and Taryn Manning's violently Evangelical 'Pennsatucky' provides a searing point of conflict within the rest of the cohort. Creator Jenji Kohan gives ample time to all of their backstories, allowing a rich and fully realised portrait of prison life to emerge.

Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse for Piper when she is reunited inside with her former lover Alex Vause, played with indecent smoulder by Laura Prepon. A fun drinking game might be to do a shot whenever Vause suggestively removes her glasses. Their relationship forms the core of the first season and it is through this reconnection that Piper's mask of suburban contentment begins to crumble. Her slow transformation is great to watch: often very funny but, at times, vaguely terrifying. The final episode, rather than restoring equilibrium, radically upsets the balance of things within the walls of Litchfield. Season 2 starts on 6th June. I better stock up on snacks.

If there were laws against eyebrows...