Product Description
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All 56 episodes of the gritty, thought-provoking prison drama
from HBO. Set in the Emerald City experimental wing of Oswald
(Oz) Correctional Facility - the series takes a futuristic look
at crime and punishment. Emerald City was set up with a
pre-agreed a of members of ten racial and social
demographics (The Muslims, The Homeboys, The Aryans, The Bikers,
The Italians, The Latinos, The Irish, The Gays, The Christians
and The Others) to see whether they might be able to sort things
out among themselves - or at least to witness their attempts.
There's no shortage of shankin', cussin', fightin' and lovin',
though - the prime ingredients in any prison drama. Season one
episodes comprise: 'The Routine', 'Visits, Conjugal and
Otherwise', 'God's Chillin'', 'Capital P', 'Straight Life', 'To
Your ', 'Plan B' and 'A Game of Checkers'. Season two
episodes are: 'The Tip', 'Ancient Tribes', 'Great Men', 'Losing
Your Appeal', 'Family Bizness', 'Strange Bedfellows', 'Animal
Farm' and 'Escape from Oz'. Season three episodes comprise: 'The
Truth and Nothing But...', 'Napoleon's y Parts', 'Legs',
'Unnatural Disasters', 'U.S. Male', 'Cruel and Unusual
Punishments', 'Secret Identities' and 'Out o' Time'. Season four
episodes are: 'A Cock and Balls Story', 'Obituaries', 'Bill of
Wrongs', 'Works of Mercy', 'Gray Matter', 'A Word to the Wise',
'A Town Without Pity', 'You Bet Your Life', 'Medium Rare',
'Conversions', 'Revenge Is Sweet', 'Cuts Like a ', 'Blizzard
of '01', 'Orpheus Descending', 'Even the Score' and 'Famous Last
Words'. Season five episodes comprise: 'Visitation', 'Laws of
Gravity', 'Dream a Little Dream of Me', 'Next Stop, Valhalla',
'Wheel of Fortune', 'Variety', 'Good Intentions' and 'Impotence'.
Season six episodes are: 'Dead Man Talking', 'See No Evil, Hear
No Evil, Smell No Evil', 'Sonata De Oz', 'A Failure to
Communicate', '4giveness', 'A Day in the Death...', 'Junkyard
Dawgs' and 'Exeunt Omnes'.
.co.uk Review
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Season One
HBO's violent men-behind-bars drama is an addictive,
testosterone-driven soap opera for guys. The eight episodes of
the first season set the style for the show: a massive cast of a
vivid characters on both sides of the bars, four or five stories
unleashed at a breakneck pace and framed by angry, oddball
introductions, and a soaring casualty rate. Created by Homicide
producer Tom Fontana, this drama quickly earned its rightful
reputation as the most brutal show on TV. It's simple chemistry:
combine volatile ingredients in a confined space, shut tight, and
shake. The yellow brick road of the Oswald Correctional Facility
(affectionately known as "Oz" among the inmates) leads to
"Emerald City," an antiseptic cellblock of cement and glass
overseen by prison-reform advocate Tim McManus (Terry Kinney).
The first episode introduces its two most compelling inmates:
meek lawyer Beecher (Lee Terguson), who transforms from a
vulnerable lamb to a fearless, drug-addicted wildcat, and Muslim
activist Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker), a fiercely non-violent
leader whose campaign for reform explodes in a season-climaxing
riot. The stunning first-season cast also features Ernie Hudson
(the warden), Rita Moreno (a worldly drug-counseling nun), and
Edie Falco (who jumped from her role as a single-mother prison
guard to mob wife in The Sopranos). It carries no rating, but the
drug use, nudity, and brutal violence make this highly
inappropriate for young viewers and unsuited to the squeamish. Oz
pulls no punches in its portrayal of prison violence and
predatory abuse. --Sean Axmaker
Season Two
If the title of HBO's brutal prison drama suggests a fairy tale,
be warned that this Oz lies on the other side of the rainbow.
This gritty portrait of men behind bars is a testosterone-driven
soap opera packed with murder, suicide, sadism, and savage
battles for dominance in the concrete jungle. Season 2 opens in
the wake of a prison riot that shut down the experimental cell
block known as "Emerald City" among the inmates, but it doesn't
take long to build a whole new head of steam after prison
reformer Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) reopens the unit. The drug
wars pit the Italians against the blacks, the Aryan Brotherhood
re-establish their campaign of intimidation, and Alvarez is
pushed to desperate measures when he's ousted by the new Latino
leader (Luiz Guzmán). Even more volatile than the physical
brutality (this season offers up a bloody blinding and a
crucifixion) is the soul-crushing psychodrama played out between
vicious Aryan leader Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) and Beecher (Lee
Tergeson), the meek lawyer transformed into a drug-addicted wild
man by prison's predatory world and seduced by cold-blooded
killer Chris Keller (Law and Order: SVU's Christopher Meloni).
Some the stories get lost in the thrilling runaway pacing, but at
its best Oz's searing stories of men penned in and pushing back
goes straight for the jugular and invariably draws blood. In
addition to HBO's four-minute promotional short is an interesting
featurette in which the creators and select actors discuss the
show. --Sean Axmaker
Season Three
A volatile men-in-prison soap opera, fueled by testosterone and
lubricated by blood, HBO's Oz is addictive viewing. The third
season of the most violent show on cable TV, set in a cage of
concrete and steel and glass, opens with echoes of violence past.
Miguel Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo) is in solitary confinement for
brutally blinding a guard, one-time drug lord Simon Adebissi
(Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) mourns for his murdered her, and
Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) nurses s broken by Aryan
Brotherhood leader Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) and a heart broken
by the betrayal of Keller (Law and Order: SVU's Christopher
Meloni). Their stories of vengeance, redemption, and forgiveness
anchor this season. The show races through each episode with a
driving pace that only intensifies the ferocity. But for all the
show's physical brutality, the most affecting violence is
emotional, from the strange and savage love affair between
Beecher and Keller to the escalating war of terror between
Beecher and Schillinger. On a lighter note, this season marks the
debut of both Miss Sally and new prison CO Sean Murphy (Robert
Clohessy), whose understated strength is too often overlooked in
the face of the show's more explosive personalities. Season 3
ends pitched on a powder keg, with the fuse in the hands of the
show's most ferocious, unpredictable character. It's the kind of
promise that will have you slavering for season 4. The three-disc
set features all eight episodes along with a season 2 recap,
episode recaps and previews, commentary on the episode "Unnatural
Disasters" by writer-creator Tom Fontana and episode director
Chazz Palmintieri, and 22 minutes of deleted scenes. --Sean
Axmaker
Season Four
The heightened reality of Oz remains consistently engrossing in
the fourth season of HBO's volatile prison drama. All 16 episodes
were written or cowritten by series creator Tom Fontana, and are
bookended by the wisely sardonic observations of paregic
prisoner Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau), whose terse,
philosophical ruminations about life in "Oz" give the series its
literate edge. The 2000-2001 season finds Oz in the wake of
racial warfare; tensions remain high among the factions that make
the "Em City" cell block a hotbed of seething animosity among the
skinhead Aryans led by Shillinger (J.K. Simmons); Muslim splinter
groups led by Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker), the fearsome Adebisi
(Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Supreme Allah (Lord Jamar); and
the resident Mafia, Latinos, and lowlifes who make up Em City's
embroiled population of newcomers, hard-timers, and death-row
inmates. Unit Administrator McManus (Terry Kinney) sets up a
centrally located penalty cage for anyone who causes outbreaks of
violence (which are shockingly frequent and frequently lethal),
but loses his job in a mid-season plot development that spins Oz
into a maelstrom of internal politics and brutal retaliation.
Through it all, Fontana and his collaborators (including guest
director Steve Buscemi) maintain impressive focus on dozens of
finely drawn characters. Laced with sexual tension,
jealousies, religious fervor, and threats of betrayal, the
season's most compelling conflicts involve impulsive killer Ryan
O'Reily (played with cagey menace by Dean Winters) and his
brain-damaged half-brother Cyril (Scott William Winters); and the
manipulative Keller (Christopher Meloni) and his prison lover
Toby Beecher (Lee Tergesen), a lawyer and convicted murderer
whose survival seems perpetually uncertain. Tenuous order is
barely maintained by warden Glynn (Ernie Hudson) and Catholic
counselor "Sister Pete" (Rita Moreno), but the bulk of Oz's
fourth season is devoted to chaos, as shifting loyalties keep all
prisoners (and all viewers) in a state of anxious anticipation.
The criminal histories of many inmates are shown in flashback,
and one death-row scenario (involving guest star Kathryn Erbe)
reaches its inevitable conclusion. By the time episode 16 ends
with a blazing inferno, you'll be wondering about the e of
Rev. Cloutier (Luke Perry) and anxious for the tumultuous events
of season 5. --Jeff Shannon
Season Five
Raw, uncompromising, and brutal, the fifth season of Oz
represents a turning point for the series, tying up loose ends
and preparing for the closure of season 6. As with all previous
seasons of HBO's hard-edged prison series, the outbreaks of
violence, racial tensions, emotional bleakness, and full-frontal
male nudity ensure that Oz is decidedly not for the weak of
heart. Simmering animosity between the Aryans, Muslims,
Sicilians, and Latinos continues unabated; these eight episodes
include numerous shankings and slashings, a severed arm,
strangulation, a stabbing with a crucifix, and the death (among
others) of one of the series' most prominent characters. As
Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) and his skinheaded Aryans exploit a
naive pair of new inmates, tensions between the weak-willed
Omar (Michael Wright, in a standout performance) and his
prone-to-rage Muslim mentor Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker, also
excellent); Ryan O'Reily (Dean Winters) continues to protect his
volatile brother Cyril (Scott William Winters) and reunites with
his mother (Betty Lynn Buckley) who's in Oz doing community
service; McManus (Terry Kinney) locks horns with his ex-wife over
prison policy; Alvarez (Kirk Acevado) seeks partial redemption by
training a guide-dog for the guard he blinded; and Keller
(Christopher Meloni) returns to the "Em City" cellblock, to the
of his bisexual lover Beecher (Lee Tergesen) who attends
"interaction" sessions with Sister Pete (Rita Moreno) to
encourage tenuous peace among inmates. With subplots involving
guest stars Luke Perry, Peter Criss (from Kiss), Malachy McCourt,
and others, the fifth season of Oz is weak at times, but series
creator and primary writer Tom Fontana keeps a lot of characters
in steady play, covering impressive dramatic territory after the
relatively generous allotment of 16 episodes in Season 4. The
series is clearly winding down here (the semi-musical episode
"Variety" is a curious attempt to broaden the show's creative
horizons, and works surprisingly well), and the outbreaks of
violence now have a rather predictable and oppressive frequency.
Anyone looking for "feel good" entertainment should stay away,
but Fontana and the uniformly excellent cast maintain admirable
depth of character and incident, including a tragic loss (in
"Visitation") that resonates throughout the season. --Jeff
Shannon
Season Six
The sixth and final season of HBO's prison drama Oz--which aired
in 2003--is brutal, passionate, and gritty. Compellingly
addictive with taut storylines and superb acting, each of the
eight episodes on this 3-disc set nicely paves the way for the
series finale, which wraps the show up in a satisfying (and
surprising) manner. Often told through the eyes (and voice) of
deceased prisoner Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau, Lost), Oz
isn't an easy show to watch. Inmates are routinely raped,
tortured, and killed--not out of need, but out of boredom and
cruelty. And in a corrupt system where too few bureaucrats
actually care about these men's lives, few are willing to do
anything about it. Those that do give a damn--Sister Peter Marie
(Rita Moreno, West Side Story), her Mukada (B.D. Wong, Law &
Order: Special Victims Unit), Dr. Nathan (Lauren Velez), Warden
Glynn (Ernie Hudson), McManus (Terry Kinney)--face an uphill
battle. One of the strongest storylines is the ongoing romance
between murderer Keller (Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: SVU and
Beecher (Lee Tergesen), who's hoping to be paroled. Series
creator Tom Fontana doesn't allow their arc to be diluted by any
idealistic expectations. The viewer is acutely aware that Beecher
is an easy target for annihilation whether or not he is released
from prison. The viewer is never quite as certain of Keller's
motives--whether they're borne of love and affection, or a
selfish need to satisfy his own primal urges. Like Beecher,
Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo) is trying to keep his own nose clean in
the hopes that he'll be eligible for parole three years down the
line. It's easy to understand the almost suffocating feeling he
lives every day, knowing that three years may as well be a
lifetime when you're behind bars and the target of both your
former gang and the Aryan brothers, led by Schillinger (J.K.
Simmons, Law & Order: SVU, the Spider-Man films). And Ryan (Dean
Winters) desperately tries to save his mentally retarded brother
Cyril (played by Dean's real-life sibling Scott William Winters)
from being executed. There are a few subplots that don't ring
true, such as the quasi romance between a librarian (Patti
LuPone) and one of the prisoners, and an elderly inmate's (Joey
Grey) implausible death wish. And for all the constraints the
majority of convicts face, some appear to have almost free run of
the prison. Still, Fontana has created a vivid, dark world where
the occasional acts of humanity are as important as the non-stop
chaos that is Oz. While it certainly helps to have seen the
previous five seasons of the series to enjoy this season, it's
not mandatory. These last eight episodes work fine as a
stand-alone piece of drama. --Jae-Ha Kim