Oz (hbo)

[Ghostvirus]

HBO is reshowing the old show OZ. I watched it when it originally aired. Loved it. So far it has held up nicely.

Love the evolution of Beechers character. His snap scene is classic!

Also the already large amount of people from LOST on here is pretty cool. Already four members from LOST have appeared on OZ.

Anyway. Anyone else watching it?

 

[Pink Ranger]

I loved this show. Also alot of Oz alumni on Dexter as well.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

This show was a classic example of jumping the shark.

The first two or three seasons were awesome.

By season six the show was almost unwatchable though. It's been too long, but I remember the plot twists just became terrible.

 

[Pink Ranger]

This show was a classic example of jumping the shark.

The first two or three seasons were awesome.

By season six the show was almost unwatchable though. It's been too long, but I remember the plot twists just became terrible.

Hmmm ... I kind of see where you're coming from, but I disagree. I think the show changed from a drama about prison life to a complex allegory about political power, manipulation and ethics, that used a prison as a backdrop. It got better in that respect for me.

 

[RetroNaz]

I enjoyed the few seasons. There just wasn't anything on TV like it.

 

[Ghostvirus]

About 4 episodes into the first season. Still love it. I love the cat & mouse games that go on. I forgot how devilishly awesom O'Reilly is,

 

[Ghostvirus]

I just watched the episode where the cannibal went to the dentist. HAHA, Priceless!!"up:

 

[Golgo-13]

I love this show; the only thing i didn't like was how gullible Beecher was when it came to Keller.

 

[RetroNaz]

I loved when Beecher went from a broken shell of a husk, to the psycho that scared everyone.

 

[Metallo]

OZ was a great show. It was sad that after a while The Sopranos (another great show) got the lions share off the attention and Oz was treated like a red headed stepchild.

That first season of Oz was brilliant drama though. Beecher, Keller, Schillinger, Adebisi, Said, The O'Reilly brothers, Warden Glen, McManus...so many interesting characters. And everybody had a motivation or agenda.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Yeah, Oz is still probably my fav tv show of all time, the most compelling tv drama I have ever watched. Lost was amazing too in that regard, but every episode, every moment of Oz was pure gold. Yes, the last season was not as great as the others, but up until then it was perfect, and the last season was not terrible by any means, it still had good plots. I did enjoy some of the Sopranos too, but it was not nearly as great as Oz in my book, and I agree, that got all the media attention, while Oz was more like the underground show. Oz was HBO's very first ongoing show I think.

I think the public could grasp onto the concept of the Sopranos more easliy, due to all the gangster movies it took inspiration from(Goodfellas mainly of course, Scorsese being in the pilot ep, as well as casting Spider). A lot of the time when I would ask folk if they watched Oz I would get mad looks from them, like, 'why would i want to watch a show about a bunch of guys getting bummed in prison and stabbed in prison while getting bummed and stabbed in prison?'
But when you found someone who actually watched the show, they would be like, 'Yeah!' and you would immediately get into a really good conversation with them, even if they were folk you had only just met. Because it was like being part of some secret club. This was due to the nature of the show, a lot of folk not liking to watch such brutal characters or situations, but also because UK television used to show it very late at night, usually between midnight and one, but the last couple of seasons were shown at 3 and 4 in the morning.
They tried showing season four at an earlier time, around 11.15-11.30pm, but the ads died down, most likely due to poor ratings, and after a couple of weeks you were basically down to one vaseline ad, and one stanley blade ad.

The cliffhanger(s) ep of season two is still my fav and most anticipated cliffhanger of all time, there was like, about a year and a half-two year wait on UK tv for s3, and thankfully it was worth the wait.

Also, there were a lot of Oz alumini on the Wire as well.

 

[RetroNaz]

What actually happened in the end? Was the show properly wrapped up?

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

What actually happened in the end? Was the show properly wrapped up?

Well, they wrapped up the plotline that had been ongoing since ep one, that of the Schillinger/Beecher/Keller wars, but what Tom Fonatana said he wanted to do with the last ep, was to treat it like any other season finale generally(apart from that plotline), and make it look as if anything could happen next to the prisoners, just as usual, although, y'know, with no real big cliffhangers, just showing that their life of uncertainty in prison goes on.

Cause, it is a difficult one to wrap up really, a prison show, you kind of have to leave it like that, with things still up in the air, maybe you will get one or two prisoners released, but you will generally get one or two big events. They did the same thing with Prisoner Cell Block in it's finale, one big event/ongoing arc wrapped up.
I can't even recall if they did have any prisoners getting released in the Oz finale, it's been ages since I watched it, I still have them all on vhs taped off tv.
Man, I used to love sitting down to Oz late at night, it was like a religious ritual for me, we used to have a really big screen tv back then too, so I would sit down on the floor right in front of the tv screen with a smoke and a cup of tea, just pure tv bliss.

 

[Metallo]

Well, they wrapped up the plotline that had been ongoing since ep one, that of the Schillinger/Beecher/Keller wars, but what Tom Fonatana said he wanted to do with the last ep, was to treat it like any other season finale generally(apart from that plotline), and make it look as if anything could happen next to the prisoners, just as usual, although, y'know, with no real big cliffhangers, just showing that their life of uncertainty in prison goes on.

Cause, it is a difficult one to wrap up really, a prison show, you kind of have to leave it like that, with things still up in the air, maybe you will get one or two prisoners released, but you will generally get one or two big events. They did the same thing with Prisoner Cell Block in it's finale, one big event/ongoing arc wrapped up.
I can't even recall if they did have any prisoners getting released in the Oz finale, it's been ages since I watched it, I still have them all on vhs taped off tv.
Man, I used to love sitting down to Oz late at night, it was like a religious ritual for me, we used to have a really big screen tv back then too, so I would sit down on the floor right in front of the tv screen with a smoke and a cup of tea, just pure tv bliss.

It was interesting to see Schillinger finally get his. But even he wasn't a totally black and white character. I felt some sympathy for him when his sons died. Its that path to redemption many of the characters were on. He was on it at some point too but like so many characters on Oz he didn't stay on it. He tried to bury the hatched with Beecher but in the end in a ironic twist they didn't get to move on and it wasn't their fault. But maybe in a way it was. Everything that they did before put them on that path.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

It was interesting to see Schillinger finally get his. But even he wasn't a totally black and white character. I felt some sympathy for him when his sons died. Its that path to redemption many of the characters were on. He was on it at some point too but like so many characters on Oz he didn't stay on it. He tried to bury the hatched with Beecher but in the end in a ironic twist they didn't get to move on and it wasn't their fault. But maybe in a way it was. Everything that they did before put them on that path.

Remember it was Schillinger who gave his own son that pack of heroin that killed him in solitary confinement, and afterwards he dismissed his son as being 'too weak', his son's death was his own fault, you don't give a heroin addict a dose that will kill them when they are locked in solitary going crazy as it is. I think it was uncut heroin.
Sure, Beecher headf***** his son against Schillinger before that, as well as head****ing with Schillinger, making him believe there was something homosexual going on between them, when there was not, and all that manipulation led him to being put in solitary.
But in the end, it was Schillinger who put his son in the life threatening situation. Beecher took some of the blame for that in his own conscience anyway, as his plans against Schillinger led to the circumstances of his son's death.
But, it was all mostly Schillinger's doing, that whole feud, that eventually led to a blood family fued, he was the one who had Beecher's kids kidnapped on the outside(one of whom was killed by the kidnappers), and there was also the supposed suicide of Beecher's wife, Schillinger claiming he was responsible for her murder, and it was not a suicide(I can't recall if they ever cleared that up either way, think they left it open). and of course the whole thing started with Schillinger abusing Beecher in prison, Schillinger took revenge on his family after Beecher busted up his eye when he had that crazy turn on the Pcp.

The only time I recall Schillinger making a real effort to reform was in the therapy sessions Peter Marie organised between him and Beecher, apart from that short time, the guy was an evil soab throughout the whole of the series run to my memory.
Actually, I forgot that Beecher organised that Mafia hit on Schillinger's other son right? I do recall that Beecher tried to have the hit cancelled, but it was too late by then. Wasn't it Schillenger's son who killed Beecher's son on the outside? He was one of the kidnappers as I seem to recall. So, that was not just revenge against Schillinger, it was wanting to kill the killer of his own son.

 

[kane9321]

i miss oz so much

 

[Pink Ranger]

Schillinger was an interesting character: he was unrepentently evil, but his was a structured, orderly evil that was easy for the viewer to relate to. He wasn't some unpredictable psycho serial killer cannibal that would suddenly bite out your eye for no reason; it's as if he was the CEO of his own company, admittedly a company that was basically Nazi skinheads.

 

[Harry_Lime02]

The whole cast was pretty strong, but Adebisi was my favorite. He was also Mr Eko on LOST, who was awesome too.

 

[Pink Ranger]

The whole cast was pretty strong, but Adebisi was my favorite. He was also Mr Eko on LOST, who was awesome too.

And of course Heavy Duty in GI Joe: the Rise of Cobra. The true triad of dramatic range.

 

[Ken-Kaniff]

I wish there would be more OZ fans in here, da show was amazing in its time (still is quite great tbh )

All the characters were unique and great, I loved Toby Beecher's development as well! My favorites were Chris Keller, Ryan O'Reilly, Kareem Said and Tim McManus. I just rewatched some of the show, Im at Season 3 now, Episode 4.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I've heard how good this show is. Tom Fontana is a Buff State alumni and he visited us TFA majors four months ago to present his Borgia tv show. He's a very nice, humble guy. He donated $10,000 for film equipment to our program.

He even said they wanted him to adapt the Sandman comics for tv, but he said it would be too expensive.