Following the release of the highly-anticipated series “Luke Cage,” Netflix servers crashed this Saturday from the high volume of users logged in to marathon the show. The new series is the first Marvel Studios production to feature a black superhero as the central character.

Similarly, Netflix released the Marvel series “Jessica Jones,” one of the first female-led shows in the superhero genre, in 2015. The show garnered a strongly positive response and is set to have a second season.

Two years earlier, in Netflix’s most revolutionary year, the company introduced the original series “Orange is the New Black,” a story loosely based on a woman’s experience in a women’s prison, among other thought-provoking creations.

The success of these Netflix originals has played a large role in earning the streaming service a household-name status in recent years. More importantly, these originals have been instrumental in introducing diverse stories, characters and ideas that set a precedent for other forms of entertainment.

“What Netflix is doing is it’s taking social and political issues that need to be talked about and working them into a story arc with characters that are mostly marginalized people,” said Jack Cowart, freshman in LAS. “I think that’s a really strong thing that they’re doing.”

Netflix is not afraid to tackle topics that are typically regarded as taboo. “Orange is the New Black” covers issues such as the socioeconomic imbalances between different races, homophobia, the unhealthy way society approaches mental illness and the ineffectiveness of the American prison system. One of the newest originals, “The Get Down,” discusses subjects such as gang culture and racism while one of the older originals, “House of Cards,” focuses on political corruption.

Each show produced by Netflix brings these topics to the forefront, whereas shows from other studios have historically been censored. Less than twenty years ago,  when the show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” introduced one of the first main lesbian couples in television, The WB network postponed a kiss between the two characters for an entire season. Now, over ten of Netflix’s originals feature openly gay characters in relationships, including “Hemlock Grove” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”

“Netflix seems to understand what people want to watch in a show,” said Almasa Krvavac, freshman in Business. “Sometimes you want to talk about these issues but you’re not really comfortable talking to other people around you, so having this outlet to do this is something that a lot of people like.”

Even through casting alone, Netflix continues to break boundaries. Many forms of entertainment have been known to “whitewash,” or cast white actors to play characters of color. One more recent example is the 2015 fantasy film, “Pan,” where caucasian actress Rooney Mara was cast as the Native American princess Tiger Lily. Netflix, however, actively embraces storylines with characters of color.

Shows like “Orange is the New Black,” “The Get Down” and “Luke Cage” not only feature primarily non-white casts, but also discuss stories unique to those perspectives. This representation serves to allow audiences, who realistically are not all caucasian, a chance to further relate to their favorite characters and to address problems in society that are often overlooked.

“(Netflix) is open to many different audiences,” said Dunia Ghanimah, freshman in LAS. “Any Netflix original is going to be wanted to be watched by plenty, and it’s easy access for people who already have an account to watch these shows.”

This can also be seen in the genders of the main characters of each original.

More and more shows are featuring females as complex, main characters, rather than including a “token girl” character to be lusted after.

Netflix originals like “Orange is the New Black,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Jessica Jones” all portray the women characters as women, not as objects. Each character in these shows has a purpose, a backstory and personal development in their respective shows, demonstrating that women don’t inherently need a man to lead them.

“I had a friend a couple years ago, who, when I said that I was watching ‘Orange is the New Black,’ sort of made fun of me for it because it was a ‘girly show,’” Cowart said. “But six months in the future, he messaged me something like, ‘Wow, I was so wrong about this show because it’s actually really great.’

For people who maybe have some internalized sexism, watching a show like this and liking it can sort of plant seeds in their head, going against sexism.”

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