Oz
Starring Harold Perrineau Jr., Lee Tergesen, JK Simmons, Christopher Meloni, and many others.
Written & Directed by various.
Created by Tom Fontana.
Genre: Drama
Released: 1997-2003
Running time: Generally 50 mins, give or take.
Rated: About as hard a rating you could get, really.
IMDb link: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0118421/
To those of you living in the States who are fortunate enough to have
HBO, Oz is really old news. But for us in Australia, its a completely
new revelation, with the hardcore prison drama having debuted on our
screens only a couple of months ago. And ever since it did, Ive been
getting increasingly obsessed with it, to the point that its now one of
my favourite television shows.
Oz is an hour-long drama series
set in the confines of a maximum-security prison, detailing the lives
of both the inmates and the staff. Being that its a cable series, there
are absolutely no punches pulled; theres full frontal nudity, graphic
violence, coarse language, drug use, rape scenes basically all the
stuff youd encounter if you were thrown into a maximum-security prison.
All of this makes for some pretty tough viewing, but somehow the show
transcends the horrific nature of its content and becomes truly
engrossing, to the point where you cant wait to see the next episode.
Perfectly
cast, the series has a large ensemble of characters from a variety of
backgrounds who, over time, become truly three-dimensional. Though
theyve all done despicable things, you cant help but like and care
about a good portion of them with the exception of neo-Nazi
Schillinger, that is, whom you just love to hate (and whom, by the way,
has played bombastic newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson in both the
Spider-Man movies, and has done so to a tee).
[BB]
Another
interesting aspect of the series is its storytelling structure.
Scriptwriting is, overall, extremely formulaic; especially in
television. In TV, you have your A plot, which is the episodes main
storyline, your B plot, your C plot, and so on. All of them interweave,
and in general, all of them are resolved by the end of the episode. Oz,
however, is told in vignettes. Though the storylines are continued
week-to-week, theyre generally separate in the episodes themselves. The
first ten minutes of the show will be the A plot -- and then youll have
to watch the next episode to see the continuation of that plot. It
makes for some truly unique television -- that much is certain.
Adding
to this uniqueness is the shows production values. Each week, the
paralysed character Augustus Hill gives a series of monologues that
parallel the various storylines. It sounds fairly flat, until you
actually see it, and some of the amazing visuals they use to help sell
the things that Hill is saying. Perhaps the most vivid example is when
Hill is sitting in the middle of a glass-walled cell that is constantly
revolving as he talks, so one minute hes upside down and the next hes
right side up. Another example would be when the monologues are
projected on a giant screen behind whatever character Hill is
discussing, the character acting out whatever problem he is suffering
through in a somewhat pantomime fashion.
The first hour-long
show to be produced by HBO, Oz often gets lost amongst the other shows
on the network; stuff like Sex & the City and Six Feet Under. This
is a real shame. Obviously, its not a show that everyone can watch,
being that its as troubling as it is. But its also an extremely
satisfying series. With strong character development and storylines
that never fail to have as many twists and turns as possible, it makes
for riveting viewing. If you live in the States, you can pick up a
number of the shows six seasons on DVD. If you live in Australia, make
sure to catch it every Monday night at 10:00 on SBS. And if you live
anywhere elseumI have no clue. Sorry.
Next week: Back to the movies!
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