wave of serialized television.

Shows like Sopranos, Lost, The Shield, and others pushed it into the stratosphere, but Oz is the show that provided that initial spark of life. I’m not going to front like the show doesn’t have some serious flaws- especially toward the end- but in many ways that’s part of the charm. It’s almost a jump-the-shark premise from the very beginning, and there’s a certain...... cheese to the show that ‘s actually very endearing.

Even when the show goes off the rails in terms of the overall story, many of the character threads remain strong throughout the entire run. I’d say it easily rivals Lost in the character department.

Beecher, Sayid, Shillinger, Alvarez, Adibisi, McMannis, Augustus, the O’Rielly brothers, and a host of others provide an excellent cast of characters throughout and it’s worth watching.

Hell, the O’Rielly Brothers alone get one of the absolute best storylines in any show I’ve ever seen at one point. Not necessarily their entire arc, though the totality of their story is very well executed, but they have one particular arc spanning seasons 5 and 6 that is particularly well done and make the series worthwhile on its own, not to mention help elevate those seasons from some serious flaws. If you have a brother and have ever been tasked with truly being his keeper, that shit will hit home like crazy.

That said, it’s uneven and downright hokey at times, but for me that was part of the appeal. Plus, it really does have something for everyone and hits so many emotional notes right & well that it’s nothing short of impressive. There are some solid cameos from big name actors, a nice slice of shady politics, a shit ton of revenge, redemption, struggle, triumph, love, hate, fear, dominance, submission, defeat, corruption, repentance, ignorance, violence, brilliance (Ryan O’Rielly once again, that motherfucker is slick and manipulative as it gets. He’s more or less a loner with no backup who winds up a legit threat to anyone and everyone, including people with plenty of muscle and influence behind them. One of my all time favorite television characters.)

All that said, it’s still relatively primitive compared to a lot of these other shows and would likely be very different if done today, but for my money it holds up extremely well despite that primitive nature. My guess others would differ with me or say I’m overhyping the show and I wouldn’t necessarily begrudge them that opinion except to reiterate my earlier point that some of the cheesiness, some of the shark-jumping elements are kind of part of the show and there’s sort of a ‘Fast & Furious’ element where it just owns what it is and if you just sort of go with it, you’ll have some fun on the ride.

Of course, if you can’t get past all the full frontal male nudity and ass rape, none of that other stuff matters and it’s definitely not for you lol.