OZ the tv show not the other thing

Fuck knows when they'll bother to show the last set of episodes. In another two years, probably.

I think I only saw half of it, which is why I'm confused.

Illegal immigrants in a high security prison? Prisoners' right decided over basketball games?

sasha this only caught ur eye this series? not like when er the ghost of luke perry ws tormenting timmy kirk or or...

is season 6 out on DVD?

Episode finishes with Robson having a spoon stuck up his arse by some other prisoner. Over the credits, the Big Brother voice bloke comes on with "And next on Channel 4 we get in the ring with KOTV - Knock Out Television".

You'd have to make a joke of it, really, wouldn't you?

taped it and got quite a few to watch now. maybe I'll do it all in one go and then afterwards take a trip down the rec and tape exchange and check that OZ soundtrack CD I saw, come back home and crank it up or something.

... seems to have not recorded it.

... not recorded.

VNLIDSNHVT ZGVJIH JFHSKJF!H2730711!!! FUXXXOR

(that oz s/t always looked grimy as hell)

They showed one of the bikers suffocating Jaz Hoyte and didn't even explain what if he died or not.

What's weirder is that Schillinger is also George's goofy boss Krueger on Seinfeld.

gri(m)ey soundtrack!! I'm so IN!!!

so i can't help but notice that pretty much everyone (that wasn't beecher) that was in this show have disproportionally (compared to the sopranos or whatever) gone on to have fairly successful careers on other shows. ffs 3 of the main characters in dexter alone are from oz. was it that seminal (heh) or good or what?

(note: i loved oz, i just find it surprising that these dudes get recycled so often. in a good way.)

beecher is on some show now!

i'm like halfway thru the 2nd (or 3rd?) season and i kinda stalled out. i don't think it's very good tbh! interesting to see the hbo format emerge, but the constant changes in who i am supposed to respect and sympathize with are becoming a little cumbersome. i've never warmed up to the narrator either, too writerly.

he's on life on mars now. i dunno that that refutes him being the unsuccessful one, though.

David Simon said that 'Oz' was related to 'The Wire' in a couple of interviews I've seen in some of the DVD extras I've seen and he's totally right. That really struck me when I started watching the very first series.

They also have received an equal measure of contempt from Broadcasters over here. But funnily enough all those late nights on C4 watching Oz made it that much more special. (xxp = I think 'Oz' is probably much more of a TV show in that you probably need that week's gap to digest and for the memory to degrade a bit before you take another hit, maybe the huge roller coaster arc isn't made for DVD; 'The Wire' has only gotten cable broadcast in the UK but it probably works better to see 7 or 8 eps in one go, so it hasn't mattered that its only been available to me on DVD)

you probably need that week's gap to digest and for the memory to degrade a bit before you take another hit

^^ yah i think you're right about this

pointing out old oz characters in new shows is a game me and my brother play from time to time, pretty much works with every show. Lost is sort of becoming a show like this too.

What's weirder is that Schillinger is also George's goofy boss Krueger on Seinfeld.
this is obviously very wrong, but what's even weirder is that Schillinger was also Juno's dad...

this bit always makes me lol

Sister Pete: [to CO Mineo] This session's over!
Officer Joseph Mineo: Let's go, Schillinjur.
Vernon Schillinger: [shouts] Schillinger! God DAMN IT! Schillinger! I've been here NINE FUCKING YEARS! You'd think you'd know how to say my goddamn name!

You almost feel bad for Schillinger.

I laughed at the episode on SVU where some boy raped a classmate because he watched some prison drama on TV and saw all that man on man action.

How did Adebisi manage to rape Peter Schibetta while keeping that little hat on his head AND listening to his walkman?

schillinger is also the yellow m&m to billy west's red.

Come on, this show was gay porn for people who didn't have access to gay porn.

duh

happened to feature some really good actors/acting, tho

Oh, most definitely. Which made for a very nice finished product.

(8,698 registered users) x 10% = ....

somewhere there is eight-tenths of a homosexual wandering these boards.

so i can't help but notice that pretty much everyone (that wasn't beecher) that was in this show have disproportionally (compared to the sopranos or whatever) gone on to have fairly successful careers on other shows.

It seems that for a bunch of these folks, "Oz" -> "Law & Order" -> $$$$$$$

I don't think I would be able to watch Oz these days without it becoming "Dennis Duffy: The Prison Years" in my mind.

I think there's a certain amount of injustice in this world over the fact that I have seen Stabler naked but never Benson.

I have started to watch this from ep 1; five days later I'm about to start season 4 ep 3. I am addicted. My spoiler-filled observations so far:

• I hated Kenny, what a fucking little twat. I'm so glad he got offed as uneventfully as he did.
• I absolutely adore Wittlesey, Father Mukada, and Sister Pita Marie. I want them all to be my neighbors and/or friends IRL.
• I seriously thing Beecher + Keller is the single hottest couple ever portrayed in moving pictures.
• I find it amusing and triumphant how it throws around cock like MTV throws around cleavage. The entire program is quite ripe for a gender studies/queer theory analysis.
• God, Ryan O'Reilly is such a fucking tool. And Claire whats-her-face, what a fucking BITCH
• Rebadow is such a perfect character; I'm so glad he's on the show. The light-hearted comic relief he provides is priceless.
• The music, editing, and cinematography from season 1--not to mention Hill's rotating cell--in my opinion make it a candidate for one of the single best seasons in television history. Motherfucking riot, anyone?

recently gotten into this because a lot of the Wire actors were in this (same casting director as The Wire, makes sense).

Finished watching Season 4 last night. Was definitely "eh" on the narrator at first, but then decided that without those interludes the show would be excessively grim ... more so than the Wire. Thanks for the recommendation.

Oh man, I saw this thread and thought "Oh there's all this stuff I want to say about it!" and realized I'd already said it 6 months ago. This is definitely one of my favorite television series of all time

I find it amusing and triumphant how it throws around cock like MTV throws around cleavage. The entire program is quite ripe for a gender studies/queer theory analysis.

seriously. I watched season 5 yesterday ... and the variety show episode with the interstitial singing ... especially Father Mukada doing the Tori Amos song ...probably the most obvious example of self-knowing camp.

When Ryan asks Dr. Nathan (in season 4, I think) whether she'd still love him if he was old and wrinkled, my first thought was, "Dude, if you weren't boyishly cute, and seemed to have mysterious access to quality hair product ... not a chance." Honestly, if I didn't find him attractive, I'd loathe him.

Rebadow is such a perfect character; I'm so glad he's on the show. The light-hearted comic relief he provides is priceless.

Yeah, him and the tunnel guy together are great. When Rebadow tried to kill him, I was really sad.

OH MY GOD that musical episode was so fucking priceless!!

OZ is about the prison industry. The Sopranos is essentially a family/character study.

I'm certain there is a weird moment when Alvarez hands the dog over and whispers something, then the blind guy looks confused. It's very brief but I kept rewinding it trying to figure out what he whispered.

I feel like The Sopranos was more in keeping with television of the past, whereas OZ and the "social issues dramas" that followed were more of a departure. I also finally got around to watching The Sopranos, and I liked it a lot, so it isn't an issue of "which is better"

Oh the moment is weird -- he does whisper something -- but I don't think it's actually malevolent, but it is ambiguous

For me there wasn't a 'prison industry' angle so much although I'm sure I'd be more attentive to that on a re-watch. It was crazy plots, fucking and murder. It had some strong storylines and people you cared for and looked forward to watching.

that is really odd to me, it's like watching the Sopranos and saying "Tony was in the mob?"

haha well I don't quite see that. I was young when I watched it so what I'm saying is its any political angle wasn't so much a thing.

The opening monologues were all about that! It is what framed the show, like, the stories were often predominantly illustrations of these issues.

Has there been many re-runs in the last decade? Because I think maybe it would do better now. Maybe audiences are more accustomed to brutality now too.

Its been 10+ years since I watched so those opening monologues are...not the first thing that comes to mind.

Loved that monologue about prison creating worse criminals and multiplying them, and you see him surrounded by inmates.

It would be interesting to see Oz get a nightly showing on a British channel, like The Wire a few years back. It generally seemed to get more exposure in Ireland than the UK at the time, giving it was broadcast around 11 o'clock instead of 4 in the morning.

I stayed up very late to see OZ sometimes. Yeah I think the final season was on that late and I couldn't stay awake to finish it at the time.

Oz doesn't reward binge-watching like 'good' tv does starting with the Sopranos - it's too brutal and too episodic. I watched the last two seasons week to week when it was airing, that was just the right pace.

I binge watched OZ and I didn't feel it fared any worse than Sopranos. I think both shows didn't have the season arc thing down yet but it's hard to blame them because they were pioneering the modern form.

Speaking of Oz mysteries, what happened to that creepy Russian dude with the glasses in the third season? He was played by that guy who often plays Russian dudes. He gets thrown into solitary confinement, and then disappears forever. Obviously they weren't under obligation to explain or anything, but.

My favourite bizarro moment is the scene where a baffled Adebisi watches Hill (in narrator mode) on the computer!

Speaking of Oz mysteries, what happened to that creepy Russian dude with the glasses in the third season?

I think he got killed.

just started rewatching this with my bf, SO FUCKING STOKED, also never realized how damn 90s this was

HOUUHHHH

i love the theme music. it is so grim.

rn every time my bf and I see each other we go HOUUUUUUHRHHHH