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.
― free jazz and mumia (sarahel), Sunday, 9 August 2009 02:01 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― claws of jungle red (Stevie D), Sunday, 9 August 2009 23:23 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― free jazz and mumia (sarahel), Sunday, 9 August 2009 23:44 (fourteen years ago) link
OH MY GOD that musical episode was so fucking priceless!!
― claws of jungle red (Stevie D), Sunday, 9 August 2009 23:51 (fourteen years ago) link
Felt a bit gypped that Keller didn't sing in it, though.
― free jazz and mumia (sarahel), Sunday, 9 August 2009 23:52 (fourteen years ago) link
How could anyone not love Ryan O'Reily...watching him get shit done every episode was a major part of what made Oz great.
― musically, Sunday, 9 August 2009 23:59 (fourteen years ago) link
I did grow to love him over the seasons ...
It's definitely one of those shows where it was genuinely heartwarming when something nice happened (or something awful didn't happen) because it was just so grim. When Alvarez got the dog, I was terribly afraid that someone was going to kill the dog to get back at him.
― free jazz and mumia (sarahel), Monday, 10 August 2009 00:07 (fourteen years ago) link
xp because he was such a sneaky, slimy, fucking BRO ASS TOOL
― claws of jungle red (Stevie D), Monday, 10 August 2009 00:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Schillinger was kinda the same way, and I can't stand that guy ... honestly, I think it boiled down to me being fond of him because he was cute. He also appeared quite well-endowed.
― free jazz and mumia (sarahel), Monday, 10 August 2009 00:14 (fourteen years ago) link
Done watching the final season ... pretty heartbreaking.
― free jazz and mumia (sarahel), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 22:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Dean Winters plays jerks really well.
― tokyo rosemary, Thursday, 13 August 2009 23:03 (fourteen years ago) link
My bf are in disagreement whether Keller intended to fall off the balcony and die. I kinda don't think so.
― free jazz and mumia (sarahel), Monday, 17 August 2009 18:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah I don't think so either.
― Alex in SF, Monday, 17 August 2009 18:56 (fourteen years ago) link
omg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDSJkMVLiF8
(i am working my way through oz for the 1st time)
― tehresa, Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:00 (fourteen years ago) link
remember him as a broadway dude bc we reviewed the miss saigon casting suit in my ent law class but wow.
― tehresa, Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:02 (fourteen years ago) link
i only watched it a few months ago, so it's still pretty fresh in my memory.
― new clusterfuck thread will eventually provide me a funny display name (sarahel), Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:02 (fourteen years ago) link
also i read m. butterfly in theater history and know he was in that originally but it that kind of knowledge just does not convey bd wong singing tori amos, you know?
― tehresa, Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:05 (fourteen years ago) link
no - that is potentially the campiest of the variety show performances, but they all are fairly campy ... this doesn't happen until the last season, however.
― new clusterfuck thread will eventually provide me a funny display name (sarahel), Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:06 (fourteen years ago) link
wait there's more camp in season 6? (this is s5)
― tehresa, Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:06 (fourteen years ago) link
the talent show - for some reason i thought it was the last season ... the last season has a production of macbeth
― new clusterfuck thread will eventually provide me a funny display name (sarahel), Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:10 (fourteen years ago) link
schillinger has an alright voice!
― tehresa, Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:15 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah ... that guy is also really good at being evil.
― new clusterfuck thread will eventually provide me a funny display name (sarahel), Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:16 (fourteen years ago) link
such a sucker for a good baritone, though.
not that he isn't evil and awful.
― tehresa, Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:17 (fourteen years ago) link
i want to go to karaoke.
his and Tobias' vendetta against each other lasts the entire series
― new clusterfuck thread will eventually provide me a funny display name (sarahel), Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:18 (fourteen years ago) link
thanks for the spoiler (not really)
― tehresa, Thursday, 17 September 2009 05:22 (fourteen years ago) link
He was in the 90s revival of Guys and Dolls.
― tokyo rosemary, Thursday, 17 September 2009 12:10 (fourteen years ago) link
Sometimes I still think this is my favourite tv drama. It probably got more exposure for The Wire connections but I'm annoyed it still hasn't gotten more credit and viewers. It should've been more acclaimed than Sopranos (I liked that too, much more than I thought I would).
Two questions linger...
Schillinger calls that guy who destroyed a museum sculpture a "sicko". I could never work out wether he is just joking because he doesn't care about art or he does find something genuinely perverse in the crime.
Alvarez trains the dog for the guy he blinded but quietly says something (which I don't think was subtitled/translated) when he hands over the dog. It felt like a sinister moment but nothing before or after that moment suggests any bad intent on Alvarez's part.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:10 (nine years ago) link
It probably got more exposure for The Wire connections but I'm annoyed it still hasn't gotten more credit and viewers
whut
― kissaroo and Tyler, too (DJP), Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:16 (nine years ago) link
please tell me you aren't in the US because otherwise nothing about that statement makes a lick of sense
UK.
I meant the cast and crew shared by Wire and OZ. I think some Wire fans watched OZ after but it still seems neglected to me.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:34 (nine years ago) link
It was HBO's first drama and was watched by a bunch of people; it's more accurate to say that The Sopranos and The Wire wouldn't have had the audiences they had without OZ preceding them.
― kissaroo and Tyler, too (DJP), Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:42 (nine years ago) link
there wasn't anything sinister about it -- the dog training bit was one of his acts of redemption that ended up amounting to little, because everyone in the show is pretty much damned. I recently rewatched this show -- it really is one of the most impressively feel-bad US tv dramas. The Wire is much "nicer" by comparison. Probably the only thing that comes close is The Walking Dead. I feel like OZ definitely paved the way for a lot of shows in terms of subject matter and tone.
― sarahell, Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:46 (nine years ago) link
Oz's role etc is acknowledged.
The Sopranos had more of a central performance of stature to focus on, not so macaronic and medieval violent as Oz. I do prefer it (not by much) but I can understand why people who buy into 'new golden age of TV' wouldn't like it as much.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:52 (nine years ago) link
OZ is about the prison industry. The Sopranos is essentially a family/character study.
― sarahell, Thursday, 30 October 2014 21:57 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:02 (nine years ago) link
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"
― sarahell, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:04 (nine years ago) link
Oh the moment is weird -- he does whisper something -- but I don't think it's actually malevolent, but it is ambiguous
― sarahell, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:05 (nine years ago) link
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.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:06 (nine years ago) link
that is really odd to me, it's like watching the Sopranos and saying "Tony was in the mob?"
― sarahell, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:08 (nine years ago) link
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.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:12 (nine years ago) link
The opening monologues were all about that! It is what framed the show, like, the stories were often predominantly illustrations of these issues.
― sarahell, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:15 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:23 (nine years ago) link
Its been 10+ years since I watched so those opening monologues are...not the first thing that comes to mind.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:41 (nine years ago) link
Loved that monologue about prison creating worse criminals and multiplying them, and you see him surrounded by inmates.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 22:47 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Duane Barry, Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:03 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:05 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:11 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:16 (nine years ago) link
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!
― Duane Barry, Thursday, 30 October 2014 23:20 (nine years ago) link