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Oz was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by HBO. The show, which aired for six seasons (1997-2003), is set in a maximum-security prison in an unspecified eastern state in America.
The series was created by Tom Fontana and produced by Barry Levinson.
Oz is the nickname for the Oswald State Correctional Facility. Most of the stories concern Emerald City ("Em City"), an experimental unit of the prison, where the unit manager tries to emphasize rehabilitation over pure punishment.
Oz avoids any easy answers as to the origin of violence and criminality. Even the worst offenders are shown to have moments of humanity, while the supposedly "normal" characters come to commit their own atrocities.
The ensemble cast included many famous actors including Rita Moreno, Ernie Hudson, as well as Christopher Meloni and B.D. Wong, both from Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
Oz is narrated by Augustus Hill (played by Harold Perrineau), a disabled inmate who uses a wheelchair, in surrealistic segments that usually relate to an overall theme of the episode. Hill, a former drug dealer and ex-junkie, appeared as a recurring character in the show's storylines until the end of the 5th season, when he was killed (although he still narrated the show until the final episode). The narrations by Hill are thus a form of breaking the fourth wall, although he did not address the camera during scenes where he was interacting with the other characters in the story.
The major plotlines in Oz typically involved rivalries between the different prison gangs (Muslim, Italian, Latino, Gays etc.), which often resulted in murder and retaliation. There are some long-standing individual rivalries including the ongoing struggle between Vernon Schillinger (played by J.K. Simmons), Aryan Brotherhood leader, and Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen), a family man jailed for killing a child while driving drunk.
Oz took advantage of the freedoms of cable television to show material that would be too extreme for traditional broadcast networks: coarse language, drug use, violence, male frontal nudity, homosexuality, rape, and ethnic and religious conflict. Interestingly, in Australia, Oz was screened on the relatively liberal-minded free-to-air channel SBS.
Characters
Main Characters
Inmates
- Augustus Hill played by Harold Perrineau
- Miguel Alvarez played by Kirk Acevedo
- Kareem Said played by Eamonn Walker
- Ryan O'Reily played by Dean Winters
- Tobias Beecher played by Lee Tergesen
- Vernon Schillinger played by J.K. Simmons
- Simon Adebisi played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
- Christopher Keller played by Christopher Meloni
- Cyril O'Reilly played by Scott William Winters
- Robert Rebadow played by George Morfogen
- Agamemnon Busmalis played by Tom Mardirosian
- James Robson played by R.E. Rodgers
- Jaz Hoyt played by Evan Seinfeld
Staff
- Warden Leo Glynn played by Ernie Hudson
- Tim McManus played by Terry Kinney
- Sister Peter Marie played by Rita Moreno
- Diane Wittlesey played by Edie Falco
- Father Ray Mukada played by B.D. Wong
- Dr. Gloria Nathan played by Lauren Velez
- Claire Howell played by Kristin Rohde
- Sean Murphy played by Robert Clohessy
External links
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