On July 12, 1997, HBO showed its viewers what it was like to be locked up for life when it premiered the gritty prison drama series, Oz. Coming before The Sopranos and Sex and the City, Oz was actually the first one-hour drama series to be produced by HBO. Still, during the time of its run, the show was not highlighted by the network as much as its other series, which was likely due to the extreme violence, language, and nudity seen on Oz. However, as we’ve seen since, this kind of graphic content has only gotten to be more prevalent in other popular TV programs, making Oz several years ahead of its time.
Now, 22 years after Oz first opened its gates to HBO viewers, we take a look back at the classic series to remember some of the aspects which made it so enjoyable.
The Beginning
The “Oz” title comes from the name of the fictional prison in which the series is set, the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary. A majority of the story is set in an experimental unit in the prison referred to as Emerald City, run by unit manager Tim McManus (Terry Kinney). Under the watch of Warden Leo Glynn (Ernie Hudson), McManus aims to provide better rehabilitation for the prisoners by allowing them certain freedoms and teaching responsibility. Inmates in “Em City” are also carefully selected to allow for a certain balance between every social group with the goal of easing racial tensions between prisoners.
In the very first episode of the show, viewers get to see what it’s like to enter Oz when Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) is incarcerated. An alcoholic lawyer on the outside, Beecher is sent to Oz after accidentally killing a young girl on her bike while drunk driving. Through his point of view, we come to see the process of his booking along with the challenges of fitting in – especially for a meek, milquetoast attorney who’s never gotten into trouble in his life. It quickly becomes clear that the only way to survive his time is to drastically harden up, and unfortunately for Beecher, he’s left to endure total torment before he makes it to that point.
Getting Beecher acclimated with life in Oz is his sponsor, Italian mobster Dino Ortolani (Jon Seda). Unlike Beecher, Ortolani is a hardass who seems to have figured out prison survival. “Don’t smile, ever,” he informs Beecher when the locked-up lawyer asks him for advice. For all intents and purposes, it seems Dino is being set up as the primary character of the show, as he’s given the bulk of the screen time. By the closing moments of the pilot, however, Dino’s been burned to death in the hole, setting the tone for what was to come. By killing off the main character in the very first episode, it was instantly established that anything could happen at anytime on Oz.
The Narrations
Each episode of the series also featured excellent narrations from prisoner Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau). As explained in the start of the series, Hill was tossed from a rooftop after shooting dead a police officer, leaving him incarcerated for life and paralyzed from the waist down. He is often seen in his wheelchair roaming around Em City, but in between scenes, Hill also delivers monologues that read like entries of an inmate’s diary. The scenes were very much so a nice touch and really helped give Oz that unique vibe that it had.
This theme is constant throughout the whole series. Some of these musings relate directly to the storylines on the show. “When you take revenge on somebody, you are actually paying them the highest compliment possible,” Hill states in a monologue after one inmate betrays another. “It’s like saying, you affected my life to such an extent that I must reciprocate. I must affect your life as deeply as you have mine. Revenge may be the ultimate Hallmark card. Yeah. When you think of it like that, the cliche is true: Revenge is sweet.”
Other times, Hill’s monologues seem to come across merely as the random thoughts of a prisoner forced to live the rest of his days behind bars. Once, he randomly went on a tangent about how his dead friend’s name was misspelled in the newspaper, lamenting how “his name, which is probably the thing he was proudest of in life, is gonna be wrong, forever and ever.” Another time, he spoke about how depressing it must be for goldfish to live their lives in 30-second intervals. “When this little goldfish is happy, he thinks he’s been happy his whole life, since his whole life was just 30 seconds ago,” Hill says. He adds: “And when he’s dying, this little goldfish thinks he’s been dying his whole life. Imagine that – death being the only life this little goldfish will ever know.”
The Characters
Where Oz shines perhaps most of all is with its unique cast of characters. Because the show takes place in a prison, most of the characters have done some pretty terrible things, so the “good guys” and “bad guys” are not as clearly defined. Yet, there are some downright scoundrels on the show that are still just impossible not to like. The casting was always on point too, contributing towards the series having some extremely memorable characters.
In the first season, we meet such people as an African murderer and heroin addict played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Suicide Squad‘s Killer Croc), Dean Winters (Allstate’s Mayhem) as a scheming Irish gangster and murderer, Eamonn Walker (Chicago Fire) as a political prisoner and head of the Muslim brotherhood, J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man) as a murderous white supremacist who turns the lawyer Beecher into his “prag,” and Kirk Acevedo (Fringe) as an inmate arrested along with his pregnant girlfriend for terrorizing an elderly man. While all of these characters are guilty of dastardly behavior, they’re highly entertaining and expertly portrayed.
That just scratches the surface, as later seasons would bring in many more memorable characters. This includes Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU) as a seductive serial killer who forms a love/hate relationship with Beecher, Luke Perry (Riverdale) as a TV evangelist who embezzled money from his church, LL Cool J (Halloween H20) as a drug dealer who falsely claims to have sold cocaine to the governor, and Kathryn Erbe (Law & Order: CI) as an uber-religious mother sentenced to death for drowning her daughter,
If you watched Oz, you’re already thinking of tons of other names not listed here. Because the series consisted of a revolving cast throughout its run, there was no shortage of awesome characters, and part of the fun was always in seeing which kinds of bizarre personalities would be coming to Em City next.
The Storylines
While most seasons of the series consisted of just eight episodes, the show managed to pack a lot of compelling storylines into each installment. Each member of the ensemble has their own issues in Oz to deal with, and there was never a dull moment on the series. Take, for example, the season one storyline which saw double-murderer Jefferson Keane (Leon Robinson) repent after finding religion. Unfortunately, soon after, he kills another inmate in self-defense in a fight organized by corrupt guards, sending him straight to death row.
Sometimes, storylines between characters would mingle as well. When the former lawyer, Beecher, discovered how Keane was set up, he began working on an appeal on the prisoner’s behalf. This turned out badly for Beecher when his abusive cellmate Vern Schillinger saw what he was up to, as he preferred Keane to die. Beecher was then forced to eat the pages of the law book he was using for the case, and believe it or not, that’s actually the least terrible thing Schillinger does to the poor guy.
Meanwhile, other prisoners have their own struggles. After Ryan O’Reily (Dean Winters) discovers he has breast cancer, the inmate falls in love with the prison doctor, Gloria Nathan (Lauren Velez) when she helps him through his chemotherapy. He then convinces his mentally-handicapped brother Cyril (Scott William Winters) to murder Dr. Nathan’s husband on the outside, placing him into Oz as well. Ryan must then decide whether to confess his involvement in the crime to watch over his brother in prison, or stay quiet and be free in a few years’ time.
These are just a couple of the intricate storylines shown on Oz, with the overall theme being that life in a maximum security prison is horrible for everyone – from the prisoners to the “hacks” (inmate slang for prison staff).
The Deaths
The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones have both seen a lot of praise for being so bold as to kill off main characters. One or the other has often been credited as the “first” series to use this kind of storytelling, removing the plot armor from the main characters so anyone can go. However, years before either show had even been conceived, Oz was killing off main characters in every single season.
We’ve discussed how one inmate was burned to death in the very first episode of the show. As it’s set in prison, we see many others die due to executions and attacks from other prisoners. The use of homemade knives, known as “shivs” in prison, are seen quite a bit during the show’s run. As prisoners on death row are also allowed to choose their method of execution, the show also lets us see deaths by hanging, lethal injection, and even a freaking firing squad.
However, many of the other deaths were much more creative than that. Let us not forget how one inmate pricks another with an AIDS-infected needle, another person is killed by being fed ground glass in his food, and one man even dies of a heart attack while two others argue over which one gets to kill him. Needless to say, deaths were very prevalent on the show, and it wasn’t unlike Oz to randomly kill off a main character out of the blue in any given episode.
The End
In 2003, Oz ended its run on HBO after six seasons. As the series had developed a cult following and solid fan base by this point, many people were sad to see it go. Still, the show ended with a small hope of one day continuing. In the closing moments of the series, which concluded with an evacuation of the prison, Emerald City unit manager Tim McManus utters the line, “We’ll be back… some day.”
To be clear, there were no plans then, nor are they any now, for HBO to bring back the show. However, that line does hint at the possibility, leaving the door open for it to one day happen. Given the nature of the show, it would make sense for many of the surviving characters to return, still serving their time in Oz after all these years, while introducing many new prisoners as well. With Orange Is the New Black also ending its run on Netflix after seven seasons, perhaps the timing is right for HBO to look into a potential Oz revival.
Of course, as is the case with any reboot or revival of any classic film or TV series, there are going to be many fans against the idea. Maybe Oz is best left as it is, forever preserving its status in TV history. There would certainly be some creative challenges in relaunching the series, as most prison-based storylines seem to have been covered in the original run. Where else could you take Oz? A revival can only be considered if someone is able to provide a satisfactory answer to that question.
Oz was a fantastic series, and 22 years past its original premiere, the ’90s show still holds up. The characters are great, the acting is phenomenal, and the storylines are compelling. Even for those not immediately enticed by the concept of a prison drama series, Oz can be extremely addictive after watching just a couple of episodes. If you missed the show during its original run, start binging it now – you won’t be disappointed. You can watch it now on HBO Go and on Amazon Prime!
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