OZ the tv show not the other thing

ruff sqwad the musical! rapid is whisked off from antarctica with his robot polar bear, meets tinman stryder, an mc who wants a heart and to be a bit taller. adventures follow in the wicked witch of the east london realm of council estates! but believing the east dead the wicked witch of the west persecutes them by delaying album deals. west is slain eventually but what's this? wizard and home never existed! it was all in rapid's mind oh no. so they all have bumsex instead

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.

his and Tobias' vendetta against each other lasts the entire series

thanks for the spoiler (not really)

schillinger has an alright voice!

He was in the 90s revival of Guys and Dolls.

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.

It probably got more exposure for The Wire connections but I'm annoyed it still hasn't gotten more credit and viewers

whut

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.

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.

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.

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.

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