History Series / OrangeIsTheNewBlack

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Piper cheats on Larry with Alex. Alex pokes fun at this trope when she asks "Are you cheating on me and Larry with Crazy Eyes? Because there is not room for the four of us."
** Morello, who cheats on her fiancé Christopher with Nicky while in prison until her conscience burdens her. [[spoiler:Made even worse when it’s discovered she wasn’t actually in a relationship with him, she’s in prison for stalking him and attempting to murder his real fiancée; in her mind, she probably assumed this amount of dedication was reciprocal, and she ''still'' cheated on him!]]
** [[spoiler:Polly cheats on her husband with Larry.]]
** Alex originally cheated on her previous girlfriend with Piper before breaking up properly to be with Piper.
** Daya cheats on John with Pornstache, admittedly to get caught and explain why she's pregnant.
** [[spoiler:Figueroa finds out that her husband is cheating on her with a dude.]]

* ArtisticLicenseMusic: It is illegal to stage an all-white production of Theatre/Dreamgirls, the rights holders who license the show forbid it. In reality, the prep school Janae tours while in middle school would not have been allowed to perform the show with white students in the lead roles.

* ArtisticLicenseMusic: It is illegal to stage an all-white production of ''Theatre/Dreamgirls'', the rights holders who license the show forbid it. In reality, the prep school Janae tours while in middle school would not have been allowed to perform the show with white students in the lead roles.

* BiTheWay: Piper, though she's mostly called either [[NoBisexuals a lesbian or straight even so]]. Soso also mentions she's "attracted to people, not genders", when getting into a relationship with Poussey. Earlier she'd also had sex with Nicky, and says she's "only done this once before". On the show's wiki, she's described as pansexual. Some of the other prisoners may be too, or they might just be [[SituationalSexuality settling for what's available in the all-female setting of a women's prison]].

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: In his first appearances, Healy seems like a nice man whose revulsion about lesbians is PlayedForLaughs, considering [[BiTheWay with whom]] he's talking about it. Then comes Fucksgiving [[spoiler:where he has no qualms about throwing Chapman into the SHU after watching her dance in a suggestive way with Vause, commenting it "looks like attempted rape to [him]", for which even Pornstache calls him out.]] Taken to the maximum in the season 1 finale, [[spoiler:when he walks away from Chapman and Pennsatucky when it's clear the latter is preparing to shank the former.]]

--> "You think I want to end up with five different baby daddies and an ass tattoo of a dog?"
--> "It's a WOLF!"

--> "It's not just sex, it's love. It's two people connecting. With four other people. And aliens."

* LoveTriangle: The two major ones are [[spoiler: Piper/Alex/Larry and Daya/Bennett/Mendez.]]

Starting as a 30-something yuppie, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) has it all: a degree from a prestigious college, a cushy job making artisanal soaps, and a faithful fiancé in Larry Bloom (Jason Biggs). But it all collapses when Alex Vause (Creator/LauraPrepon), a member of an international drug ring, is brought to trial. Alex was Piper's college girlfriend, and Piper became an accomplice when she carried a suitcase full of money, once. Sentenced to 15 months for her crimes, Chapman must trade her life in New York City for a stay in Litchfield Federal Correctional Institution with a motley crew of inmates, each with her own story--a Russian mobster (Kate Mulgrew), a Hispanic woman (Dascha Polanco) whose first act is to get slapped by her angry mother, a trans woman who committed credit card fraud to finance her operations (Laverne Cox), and more--not to mention her own personal nemesis, Alex.

** There's also mention of parole for federal prisoners. Since 1984, there's no parole (although they can still get their sentences reduced by good behavior) so only inmates convicted before 1987 are eligible for it, but they say in regards to ones convicted long after that too.

* TheSpeechless: Norma. [[spoiler:It's revealed in Season 3 that she has a terrible stutter, which explains why she never talks except to sing at the end of Season 1. It's much easier for people with a stutter to sing than to speak.]]

** [[spoiler: Poussey]] being accidentally suffocated by a guard is very similar to the real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Eric_Garner death of Eric Garner]], who was killed in much the same way. The subsequent protests and riot are obviously taken from the riots in Baltimore and Ferguson as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. One black inmate complains, "Our lives don't matter to them!"

* PopStarComposer: The theme song "You've Got Time" was written and performed by indie musician [[ReginaSpektor|Regina Spektor]].

* PopStarComposer: The theme song "You've Got Time" was written and performed by indie musician [[tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/ReginaSpektor|Regina Spektor]].

* PopStarComposer: The theme song "You've Got Time" was written and performed by indie musician [[Regina Spektor]].

* PopStarComposer: The theme song "You've Got Time" was written and performed by [[ReginaSpektor]]

* LatinoIsBrown: A {{discussed}} trope. One of the Latinas asserts that there are many different Latino ethnicities. She says that a blonde woman in a lingerie brochure might be Latina for all they know. Likewise, the red-headed CO Alvarez is accused of being a fake Latino, but he counters that there are many Latinos who look anglo and points to Martin Sheen as an example. Mendez too could be considered a Latino due to his last name, and having a Cuban father, though neither he nor anyone else identifies him as such. Alvarez though later does identify himself as Latino due to also having a Cuban father, though he's blond and white, noting real life examples like Creator/MartinSheen in support of this.

** In season 3, a bedbug infestation leaves about half the inmates with only their bras and underwear to walk around in, leading to a mix of this and FanDisservice, depending on the viewer's preferences.

** Luschek gets stripped/strips down to his tighty-whitey underwear for three seasons in a row for those that are into that sort of thing.

* NobodyOver50IsGay: While most of the lesbian/bisexual/fluid women on the show are younger, the very ButchLesbian Big Boo is played by an actress in her 50s. In Season 4, Judy King is shown to be sexually fluid in a LoveableSexManiac way. She mentions making out with a female friend while high and later coerces the also older Yoga into a threesome while under the influence of molly. She also happily fakes a relationship with Black Cindy for PR. We also get an older gay man with Piscatella.

* MathematiciansAnswer: "How long am I going to be in here?" "Until we let you out."

** We see Piper and Larry's meet cute in flashback; she went to a friend's apartment for first aid while he was housesitting.

* CessationOfExistence: Taystee asserts that when you're dead that's it and ghosts aren't real as Suzanne tries to call up Poussey's spirit in a seance.

''Orange Is the New Black'' is a dramedy from {{Creator/Netflix}} based on the book of the same name. [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory Loosely based on the memoirs]] of Piper [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Kerman]], the series follows her incarceration in a female prison.

** Taystee's refusal to plea out on the [[spoiler: charge of killing Piscatella]] gets her a ''second'' round of applause from her cellblock.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Caputo isn't a saint by any means, but he genuinely wants to provide a safe, clean environment for the inmates at Litchfield, and tries to be a good custodian. Healy becomes this somewhere between the second and third seasons, though he's not perfect.