The Steamiest Shows On Netflix Right Now

Based on Piper Kerman's memoir about spending a year in a woman's prison, "Orange Is the New Black" is easily one of the most influential series in recent memory, winning seemingly countless awards for its unflinching gaze at everything from carceral injustice to sexual politics. Based on a true story but liberated to go its own way through a distinctly fictionalized narrative, the series introduces us to Piper, a woman imprisoned after being caught with a suitcase full of drug money for her girlfriend, Alex. The verdict comes years after the fact, meaning Piper's new life post-Alex is fully disrupted as she is suddenly sent away.

Though "OItNB" is perhaps most vital for its ongoing criticism of the privatization of prisons, the life-altering effects of a sentence of any time period, corruption among officials, and the many injustices of an often bigoted judicial system, it's the character conflicts and resolutions that kept people tuning in throughout its seven seasons. The connection between Alex and Piper is both messy and charismatic, but they're far from the only ones who experience steamy affairs, on-again off-again relationships, or heart-wrenching breakups. A series that truly lives and breathes through its expansive cast and its care toward displaying the many different personalities that might find themselves experiencing a prison sentence, "OItNB" delivers emotional resonance, moral complexity, and sexual chemistry in equal measure.