Oz -- any fans?

I started watching this HBO show I'd previously heard was just about prison rape and psychopaths. Damn I'm hooked!

Knowing it came out in the late '90s, it has some slightly archaic editing and film work, but I find overall it holds up a little better than Sopranos.

I'm currently near the end of the 4th season. Beecher and Keller stab me in the feels. Hot damn Meloni you shouldn't be so sexy as a despicable sociopath but gaaah!

Anyone else a fan?

edited 10th Nov '14 6:55:49 PM by Phoenixflame

Solid show, though it hits what should have been the end of many of its natural story arcs around the end of the 4th season and starts getting into goofy territory with some of its plots.

I will say its honestly really tricky for me to see JK Simmons as anyone other than Schillinger. First time I saw Juno I was half expecting his character to crucify Bleeker to a floor for knocking up his daughter.

I retroactively had the same reaction. At first I was "Awwww, narmy mentor guy!" Then "oh dear God!!" Then Dexter's Detective Batista and La Guerta showed up and I was rather amused. I never really watched CSI but I last saw Meloni as Roman in True Blood so I was like "careful Beecher, he's holding back his vampy superpowers." Though, I'd seen clips of Meloni on Oz a long time ago and without knowing the context found him pretty mesmerizing.

Where I'm at, Redding and Coutier just showed up.

Happiest death for me was Wangler. God I hated that punk. Not the love to hate way. At least Schillinger is entertaining and has his human moments, and Adebisi has his magical hats.

edited 10th Nov '14 9:11:33 PM by Phoenixflame

My favourite death/killer is late is season four when Keller and Robson independently go after the same guy in the photocopying room and the poor guy has a heart attack and drops dead. The look between Keller and Robson is great

edited 11th Nov '14 2:45:20 AM by Anteres

Oz went on too long, killed off too many of the interesting people and abandoned its principles. Sort of like Glee, but without the show tunes and with added shanking.

To be perfectly honest, I only know one thing about Oz. When Jerry Seinfeld hosted Saturday Night Live after the show ended, there was a sketch where Jerry was sent to the prison in Oz for making too many jokes.

YES! Their shared look, plus "Later..." "Later." Capped off with "I told him to lay off the red meat."

That female CO Claire is the most terrifying character on the show. If she and Adebisi ever teamed up, holy shit.

And now Dr. Nathan is in love with O'Reilly? I'm not sure if that's so messed up it's ridiculous or so ridiculous it's realistic.

Ok, gotten a little farther. My thoughts on some characters...

Beecher — I like how they play with the Woobie trope. He's way more likeable than, say, Piper from Orange Is The New Black, despite the disparity of their crimes. I applaud his eventual badassery though. His fingernail trick probably got him some fans, but for me honestly the most awesome "fuck yeah, Beecher!" moment was when he used his cane to parry Schillinger's shiv and knock him over. Yeah he still got shanked but it was awesome.

Wangler — Thank God he died; I hated his Scrappy ass. Seriously the most irritating character. I mean, compared to Schillinger...

Schillinger — I love Schillinger in the sense he's so viscerally detestable and keeps me emotionally invested in seeing him get fucked over. That said, the actor is talented enough to convey his humanity; "humanity" to me has always been a term not really associated with good or evil so much as feeling/acting like a human, and humans can sometimes be sick, mob-lumbering bastards. It's rather amusing to see him so happy to see his son Hank and how he checks up on his daughter-in-law.

Keller — Motherfucking Keller! Ugh he stabs my emotions into little pieces! Goddamn his charismatic and sexy actor's ability to make him so human—I should not be sympathizing with him when he snaps the neck of that guy giving him a BJ. And yet I just want him and Beecher to cuddle a bit before they get into another tiff. And on another level I'm like "Beecher, stay away!" It's totally fitting Keller's friendliest relationship is with O'Reilly.

Said — This dude is majestic. It's hard to think of an apter term. He's like a frickin' Aslan, except he's really human and flawed. The moment he cried in Beecher's pod made me hurt. I think in a lot of lesser "gritty" series, he'd be portrayed as a complete and utter jackass hypocrite. I really respect how he tries to be as noble and holy as his public persona, but he finally has to deal with his shortcomings, like admitting he did nothing to quell rumors of a riot that ended in a lot of dead people. And if I were that Ross lady I would've climbed him like a tree, but their handholding was pretty cute.

O'Reilly — I called this guy Packie for most of season 1. Now, I think of him as Peter Baelish if he'd started at the bottom of the class heap and never got a break. Dude's so clever, and his talent is utterly wasted, which makes me sad. Then he makes some dickwad move and I'm like "Dammit O'Reilly! Stop making it hard to like you!" This will sound horrid, but in a fictional characterization context, I find it interesting how he's assaulted by the CO Claire. He's such a manipulator, but she's just sadistic and has almost total power. Interesting reversal.

To me the outright stupidest subplot so far is frackin' AGING pills? What the fuck? The writers couldn't think of anything remotely more plausible and morally questionable? I shouldn't be thinking of Harry Potter and the Tri-Wizard Tournament when watching a prison show.

edited 11th Nov '14 6:16:19 PM by Phoenixflame

The funny thing about O'Reilly is that I think a lot shows today would have him spend a couple of seasons using his ability to manipulate to gain power, but in Oz he basically does it in the first season and spends the rest of the series more or less protecting/ruining the lives of people he loves.

The only thing I know about this show is "Orange is the New Black, but with dudes and the criminals are actually all assholes"

How accurate is this?

Pretty different—it's like comparing Inglourious Basterds with Saving Private Ryan. Same setting, that's it. The class of criminal is quite different, as Orange Is The New Black takes place at a minimum security prison, while Oz is a max. So the sweet lady who ran a food stamps scam wouldn't be there anyway. The criminals are in there for worse crimes. A male version of Vee would fit right in; Piper would have far more to worry about than pissing off the cook.

Also, the inmate backstory has less to do with anything. It adds a bit of context but with plenty of characters you only see the precise event that got them incarcerated. In a later season, one guy is falsely confessing to a murder to save someone he loves—he mentions how he loves the irony, that he got away with tons of murders, and the one he's innocent of is the one he's confessing to.

All the characters are one form of asshole or another, but what's intriguing about the show is how it makes them all human without excusing or justifying their crimes. It's the human struggle that makes it compelling. Plus all the gallows humor, shanking, and the uber hot Keller.

edited 11th Nov '14 7:21:12 PM by Phoenixflame

I'd honestly call it half prison drama, half male soap opera. It was the first HBO acclaimed drama but at times it does indulge itself into absurdity past the point one would typically see the Sopranos or the Wire do. Partly you watch the show for the exploration of despicable people and partly for how creative the next prisoner death is going to be.

edited 11th Nov '14 7:25:07 PM by BorneAgain

My vote so far goes to Fingernails to the Throat.

Haha, I agree on the soap opera part, but it's kind of like how I shrug at Sweeney Todd also being a melodrama.

edited 11th Nov '14 7:22:50 PM by Phoenixflame

So is it literally all male characters?

I won't knock it if so, because it make sense, but if it is I think I might have to pass.

Nah, there's some female corrections officers, shrinks, visitors, that kind of thing. It would pretty much conclusively fail the Bechdel Test during every episode though.

It has females in a pretty realistic context for a male prison. Namely, the prison psychologist is a nun played by Rita Moreno. She's awesome. There's the main prison doctor who's involved in some subplots. There are a few female C Os involved in the plots, a female inmate on death row, and an assortment of of wives/girlfriends/associates who visit the inmates, though the latter don't get much development. It's free to stream if you have Amazon Prime. If you watch the first several episodes, you'll have a good idea if it's your cup of tea or not. Though I recommend anyone stay around long enough for Beecher's epic chair escapade.

Recently got to one of the most hilarious Schillinger moments ever— Standing in the paternity room with the infant dolls and segregating them before leaving.

edited 11th Nov '14 10:43:09 PM by Phoenixflame

Oz was one of my favorite shows back in the day. Granted it got pretty ridiculous in the 5th and 6th seasons though. My favorite characters are Ryan O'Reily, Tobias Beecher, Augustus Hill, and Vern Schillinger. Sure Schillinger was a real bastard but he got many of the best lines in the series. I was surprised to find out J.K. Simmons did the voice of the yellow M&M in the M&Ms commercials.

When I was working my way through the Oz boxsets, my sister was feeding her Law & Order: SVU addiction.

It was really weird calling over to her and seeing members of the Oz cast being so... nice to one another.

OZ-The Wire-Sopranos. The Holy Trinity that made television for me. Goods times. Oz influenced many quality shows that came on cable TV later. Yet, none could replicate that gloomy, claustrophobic and hopeless atmosphere this show had. Except perhaps TheWire.

I agree that it had started to falter during the last two seasons, though.

I was a fan back in the day, and think of OZ as almost being a prototype of what has become HBO's signature style with its original shows.

Many of the elements that OZ had can be seen in shows that follwoed, whether we're talking about Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, etc.

I watched the whole series online. Good stuff.