So late pass me if you must, but I just discovered HBO Go has every episode of pretty much every show of the network's last 14 years. Last night I watched the premiere episode of "Oz," which I haven't seen since it originally aired in 1997. I was obsessed with the show back then, at least for its first two and a half seasons, before something happened -- which I can't quite recall -- that went so over-the-top it turned me off to the show completely. I've been meaning to rewatch the show to see if they hold up a decade-plus later, or if I was just impressed because the level of violence and general crazy-ass shit happening blew my teenage mind. And after watching the first episode...well, I'm not sure what I think.

It's certainly way cheaper-looking than I remember, especially compared to today's cable dramas, but I guess you can't really hold that against it. JK Simmons, Lee Tergensen and Eamonn Walker are all pretty great, so the acting certainly holds up (and I completely didn't realize that LaGuerta from "Dexter" is the prison nurse). I thought it was cool they spent half the episode establishing one particular character only to kill him off at the end, letting the viewer know that no one is safe right off the bat, which is a pretty bold thing for a show to do even these days. But I sense a vague air of cheesiness floating through it that I definitely didn't feel when I watched it originally.

Obviously, "Oz" ushered in the golden age of cable dramas we're currently enjoying, so it's an important show, but I'm wondering if anyone else has revisited the show post-"The Wire," "The Sopranos," "Dexter," "Breaking Bad" etc. and what you think of it in retrospect.

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Adibisi was a great character though

I havent watched it in a few years. I'd love to watch it again though. Loved it back then

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:(

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... In its initial run or after? I can't remember what the general feelings were about the show when it was originally on. I'm wondering if they've changed over the last decade.

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admittedly, it was compelling when it first started. then it became increasingly silly.

sucked, etc., etc.

Anyway, Oz ALWAYS seemed cheesy and full of cheap shocks, even back then (and especially when it was running alongside Sopranos).

It kind of did usher in this new golden age of TV in a lot of ways. I loved a LOT of the characters and a lot of the stories, but it's always been cheesy. Those last few seasons...oh my lord are they bad.

But that said, I remember watching the first 3 seasons like a fiend.

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Plus, if I'm not mistaken, there's kind of an "Air Coryell" tree from Fontana to some of the other guys that have been kicking around HBO and AMC. Or maybe I'm remembering his connection to Dick Wolf.

Either way, it was pretty good up until they made Adebisi into superman.

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characters, some bad characters. Some good stories, some bad story lines.

I am going to finish it out, even though I see some comments in here that it becomes outlandish as it moves forward. I mean, even at season 4 some of this stuff is absurd.

Good enough winter COVID quarantine tv though!

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"Love is never any better than the lover" Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye)

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I think thats what it was its been a decade since I have seen that show and that part of Poet's poem always stuck in my head.

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fuck you.

Kareem: "here in Oz you will always be known as one of Adebisi's bitches..."

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how huge the show was and how much the last season has tarnished the memories of the show. I remember the show having a pretty fevered following before it started going downhill.

i stayed for the hot black manhood.

Beecher & Keller, man. MAN. i still have a crush on Chris Meloni b/c of Oz. initially, i watched L&O SVU b/c i recognized him from Oz. that was a compelling love story.

Adebisi was 1 of my favorites, of course. i quickly developed a crush on him. and on that light skinnded dude who ended up on The Wire. i can't recall any of his names. but, him.

so much hot manhood floated through that show.

fuck you.

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LOL

j/k

fuck you.

towards the end it was just plain ridiculous ( in a bad way). Even if you suspend disbelief, it was impossible to believe that all that shit would happen in a prison.

Somebody got killed on damn near every episode towards the end.

And that shit when Querns took over? C'mon. NO Prison would be THAT outta control.

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... Of all the ways to kill a guy in a prison, why would you choose to light him on fire? In light of that happening in the damn premiere, we probably should've seen the ridiculousness coming.

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until similar tapes leaked out of an Illinois prison. LOL

fuck you.

Notice how at one point or another, EVERYBODY on the show got their comeuppance.


Except for O'Reilly. He wheeled and dealed and had his finger in every pie, yet somehow, he always avoided that ass whipping.

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cyril was the ultimate victim of ryans schemes, and ryans love for cyril was as great as any man for his baby brother. ryan ultimately paid for his sins by having to watch cyril's downward spiral, knowing it was literally all (well... mostly) his fault.

ryan still skated, but he suffered in a way that cuts deeper if you ask me

still, truth be told, NOBODY on that show had more gangsta than ryan o'reilly. he manipulated everyone to do his bidding from the get go and never let up.

to take care of his enemies

which got pretty funny because everyone knew how he was and would still be like "he said what about my mama?!"

Jeevus. No wonder it was so real

(For anyone in here that hasn't watched it)





It really never recovered after Adebisi died. Once you kill a monster heel like that, there's no where else to go.

But yeah, those last few seasons got SUPER ugly. The aging pills (though apparently based on reality), the Chinese refugees, the unrelenting misery poured on Beecher (dude's wife and father were killed, I think one of his kids were killed, gets both his arms and legs broken, he gets out only to have Keller send him back in). In general, the Beecher/Keller romance was interesting for maybe three seasons, until you found out Keller's motivation behind it. Otherwise, it got beyond retarded.

In general, there was just too much misery, even for a show about prison. I mean, after it was all over, NO ONE was redeemed, except maybe O'Reily.

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What was the point of that 'development'?

Anyway, I enjoyed Oz at the time (used to watch it I believe right after the Chris Rock show) but it's definitely in that 'Dream On' territory of cooler-at-the-time but upstaged by later HBO shows.

I haven't watched it since it was still airing, the last season (maybe two or even longer but especially the last) ended up being pretty bad because they'd just killed off too many key characters after awhile but it was definitely entertaining for a good stretch in the early years.

Always found it funny that Lord Jamar was on that show, not that he really did much on it, I think I remember more about Treach's short stint on there than Jamar's whole stretch.

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he became a bitch to some gay raver weirdo because he was tired?

too fucked up

going longer than expected?

i forgot that show. i used to think the lead actor was sexy. in an odd way.

i have to go read about the show. i don't recall the premise.

fuck you.

That show fucking launched the careers of like EVERYONE who's been on TV over the past decade

Sopranos
Wire
Dexter
Law and Order
Lost
Spiderman/The Closer

I fucking loved the early seasons but didn't have HBO all the time so never saw it through. Recently watched from beginning to end. The writing and plots were much better early on, but it really did lose focus when Sayeed killed Simon. The warden getting with McManus's ex and later being killed just all went kind of out of control. And the Beecher saga wtf. Thought it was fucked up how they killed Augustus too, enjoyed his narration and dropping of some real ass facts about the prison system. That shit about how while not being able to vote prisoners count as numbers for voting districts blew my mind.

some GREAT acting performances in there. the only Law and Order I've watched more than two episodes of are SVU but I still see Chris Keller bout to fuck up and rape someone. Kathryn Erbe played the shit out of that broad on death row.

Besides a brief tour of one, I've never been and never plan on occupying space in prison so I can't say how "accurate" the depictions are but it was some good shit.

How the hell did he keep that hat on the side of his head?

But on the real, that was one trill ass show

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like 48.7% of the show is "just go with it".

So that can be a difficult sell for people that weren't all in from jump.

To me Oz felt ridiculous pretty early on, but the characters were generally so engaging that I didn't care.

Later seasons doubled down on the absurdities of it, but there's still a lot of powerful moments to be had.

They managed to make Robson a sympathetic character, for example. The bit with Cutler was a hard watch, and despite the horrific nature of Robson's therapy sessions, those are some of the most human moments on the show.

Season 6, getting the dead to take on Augustus' narrator role (Augustus included), was fantastic, and a solid love letter to the fans who rode through to the end. I loved the surprise of seeing Tizi Ouzou narrating.

There's a lot of facepalming to be had, and the show looks and feels extremely dated. For me that's much of the charm. It's a perfect storm, to that end. Even worthless oafs like Ralph Galino, and they're otherwise stupid story lines, have a certain charm to them.

The show is well worth watching, particularly for the arcs of Sayid, O'Reilly, and Beecher. But there are so many more.

IMO this is a deeper, wiser show, with more heart, and with more profound things to say, and questions to ask, about the human condition than it's betters.

And yeah... it's the joint that kicked off the golden era. Not in many ways, not in some sense, it straight up is. The Sopranos nailed the shot, but Oz helped get that ball in play.

I fucking love this show.