TV Shows Like Orange Is the New Black
If you like Orange Is the New Black, here are 10 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
Netflix · Drama · Orange Is the New Black is ended
Orange Is the New Black works because it does something genuinely tricky: it takes an enclosed, often brutal world and finds humor, warmth, and recognizable humanity inside it without softening the edges. Piper Chapman's fish-out-of-water arc is the entry point, but the show quickly outgrows her, building out a sprawling ensemble of women whose stories carry real weight. The writing is unafraid to be funny and devastating within the same scene, and the setting forces characters into proximity they'd never choose, which is where the most interesting drama tends to happen.
The best shows like Orange Is the New Black
1. The Lincoln Lawyer
If OITNB's portrayal of the criminal justice system left you wanting to see more of how that machine actually operates, The Lincoln Lawyer is a satisfying place to go. Mickey Haller is a defense attorney who knows the system inside and out and uses that knowledge with real wit, and the show has the same mix of thriller tension and dark humor that makes OITNB so watchable. The courtroom drama is sharp, and the moral ambiguity of who deserves to win any given case keeps things interesting.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Renewed100%
2. Why Women Kill
Also drama
Stream on Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Paramount Plus Apple TV channel, Paramount+ Amazon Channel
Cancelled0%
3. Younger
Younger is built around a woman living a secret life inside a world with rigid expectations, which is a dynamic OITNB fans will recognize immediately. The female friendship at its center is warm and funny, and the show has a consistent interest in how women navigate institutions and social rules that weren't written with them in mind. It's lighter in tone than OITNB, but the sharp comedy and the pleasure of watching a woman successfully improvise her way through an impossible situation are very much there.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Ended0%
4. Oz
Oz is the natural companion piece to OITNB for anyone who wants to stay inside a prison setting but with the dial turned toward harder, more unsparing drama. The show is deeply interested in how group identity, power, and survival operate inside a closed institution, and it builds out its ensemble with the same care OITNB brings to its women's wing. It's a more brutal watch, but the same fundamental question, how do people hold onto their humanity inside a system designed to grind it down, runs all the way through.
Stream on HBO Max Amazon Channel, YouTube TV, HBO Max
Ended0%
5. Wentworth
Also drama · shares the prison theme
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Ended0%
More on shows like Orange Is the New Black
Fans of the show are usually drawn to a specific combination of things: strong female characters navigating systems that were not built for them, the tension between dark subject matter and sharp comedy, and stories where identity, class, and power are constantly in play. They tend to want their next show to have real stakes alongside moments of levity, and they respond to writing that treats women's inner lives as complex rather than decorative.
The recommendations here pull at different threads from the show. Oz shares the most obvious DNA, taking the prison drama into grimmer, more brutal territory with the same interest in how people form alliances and survive inside a closed system. Brassic picks up the dark comedy strand and the class-consciousness, following a group of working-class friends whose scrappy hustle carries a lot of the same energy as OITNB's more irreverent moments. The Lincoln Lawyer and Elsbeth both sit inside the criminal justice world but from the outside, following lawyers who navigate the same system from a position of more agency. Younger is the lightest of the group, but it shares a core thread: a woman reinventing herself inside a world with unspoken rules, relying on a tight female friendship to survive.
None of these are exact substitutes, and that's fine. Oz goes darker. Brassic goes broader. The legal shows flip the perspective. What they all have in common with Orange Is the New Black is an interest in people who are working against structures that don't favor them, and finding moments of connection, comedy, or cunning along the way.
More shows like Orange Is the New Black
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Orange Is the New Black?
- The Lincoln Lawyer is the most popular show similar to Orange Is the New Black in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Orange Is the New Black still on the air?
- Of the 10 shows similar to Orange Is the New Black listed here, 1 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Orange Is the New Black?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.