If you have access to a Netflix account, you may want to check out the new streaming series Orange Is the New Black. It tells the story of a thirtysomething educated woman who lands in prison for a crime she committed years ago. Jenji Kohan, who also created Weeds, brings the same fish-out-of-water sensibility to this series, but the tone is less harsh. I watched the first episode last night and came away impressed. The characterizations and writing are solid without relying on easy stereotypes.

I’m pleased to see that NBC has renewed Hannibal for a second season. What first seemed like a desperate attempt to revive a 90’s-era pop culture phenomenon has turned out to be one of the most compelling network dramas since Lost (before Lost became too clever for its own good). Mads Mikkelsen plays Hannibal Lecter with a sophisticated air of menace that is missing from Anthony Hopkins’ iconic but scenery-chewing portrayal. And Hugh Dancy is brilliant as the borderline autistic criminal profiler Will Graham.

The show is uncompromising in its bleak vision and contains scenes of pretty horrifying violence, making it an unlikely candidate for a network primetime slot. Kudos to NBC for giving the series to develop and attract more of an audience. Let’s hope it lasts long enough for creator Bryan Fuller to realize his plans to bring in David Bowie as a guest star.

While I’ve been fighting this cold, my reading quota has fallen sharply. I hope to begin correcting that soon. But first, the latest episode of Mad Men calls. That Don Draper is a right bastard, isn’t he? I’m expecting epic fallout once Megan takes the blinders off. Don’t disappoint me, Matt Weiner.

The Syfy Channel, the cable network that has long operated under the woefully misguided notion that what science fiction fans want to watch is more pro wrestling and high school dropouts hunting ghosts in the restrooms of abandoned shopping malls, is planning a miniseries based on Philip K. Dick’s novel The Man in the High Castle. The book describes an alternate history where the Axis powers emerged victorious in World War II and occupied America. But this being a Dick novel, the story gets pretty meta.

Syfy has a mixed track record of developing book adaptations. Its version of Dune was mediocre to good, but it made a hot mess of Ursula K. Leguin’s Earthsea. I worry that a network suit will take a red pen to anything in the script that addresses the book’s more metaphysical themes while shouting at the writers, “No, no, no! Less late-night freshman dorm bullshitting, more Nazis! And let’s make one of the Nazis a hot but icy blonde who kills American resistance fighters with a katana! I’m thinking Scarlett Johansson. Get me her agent! And get me some more coke!” Or something like that.

The fact that Frank Spotznitz, a writer for The X-Files, is involved gives me faint hope that it won’t be a train wreck. But it’s usually wise to expect disappointment from Syfy and be pleasantly surprised if the final product doesn’t suck.