Brought to you courtesy of  ......  [The.Buzzsaw]


A series chronicling the daily activities of an unusual prison facility and its 
criminal inhabitants. Created by Tom Fontana, Oz was HBO's first foray into producing its one hour dramas and remains both one of the station's most critically acclaimed and most popular. Despite a consistently high quality output, the only show produced by HBO that has really had a bigger impact is The Sopranos. A decade after it first aired, Oz still stands ahead of its peers in terms of quality and relevance.

Oz tells the story of an experimental "society" inside the Oswald Maximum Security Prison called The Emerald City. Here prisoners are thrown together in a small metal and glass city where they are meant to not only live and work together, but also become rehabilitated if they ever manage to be released. 

But, The Emerald City is made up of prisoners of different religions, races, and social groups (many of which are mortal enemies) and when you throw all of that into a small-enclosed space such as a maximum-security prison, something is going to pop. 

With many characters entering and leaving Oz either living or otherwise, to peg one character as the "main" is a bit tricky, but season one begins with the introduction of Tobias Beecher to the Emerald City. 

Compared to the rest of the inhabitants, Tobias is just your normal guy. He's a family man and a lawyer, but just was a bit of a sloppy driver, which got him convicted of vehicular manslaughter and resulted in his sentence in Oz. 

Oz is rough, gritty, and knocks you for a loop. It's the type of drama that will never be possible on network television no matter how many curse words the censors eventually allow on the air. It laid the groundwork for HBO's newer dramas (Sopranos, Six Feet Under), and this first season is even good five years after it aired. 

It may be short (only eight episodes), but if you've never seen Oz you'll probably find yourself sitting through all eight hours in one sitting after starting up the first disc. Longtime fans of the series will definitely get a kick out of seeing the first steps of Tobias after these five rough seasons of the show. I know I did. 

The episodes are spread across three discs. The first two hold three a piece with the third containing the final two along with a couple minor special features. 



 Its diverse range of characters is largely what makes Oz so engaging. This first season is no exception, introducing us to:

*Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) - A meek alcoholic lawyer convicted of vehicular manslaughter, sentenced rather harshly to be made an example of in an election year.

*Vernon 'Vern' Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) - A sociopathic white supremacist.
Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau, of Lost fame) - A wheelchair-bound reformed drug addict and gang banger who narrates the show

*Robert 'Bob' Rebadow (George Morfogen)- An old timer doing life who thinks he can hear god.

*Dino Ortolani (Jon Seda) - A self destructive low level wise-guy.

*Simon Adebisi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, also of Lost fame) - A crazed Haitian drug dealer.

*Ryan O'Reily (Dean Winters) - a slippery Irish-descended thug, always on the lookout to make his life a step better.

*Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker - A militant Muslim religious crusader and terrorist determined to fight for the his people regardless of the cost or even the need to fight.

*Jefferson Keane (Leon) - Leader of the homeboy gang-bangers, and a fierce defender of his "brothers".

*Donald Groves (Sean Whitesell) - A mentally disturbed and impressionable cannibal.

*Miguel Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo) - A Latino gang-banger who is the third generation of his family to wind up in Oz.

*Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) - The manager of Emerald City, an idealist desperate to make a difference in his work.

*Warden Leo Glynn (Ernie Hudson, the fourth Ghostbuster) - The prison warden, a life-long prison worker that appreciates the grey nature of the work.

*Officer Diane Whittlesey (Edie Falco) - A senior corrections officer struggling to live from paycheque to paycheque.

*Sister Peter Marie Reimondo (Rita Moreno, Anita from West Side Story as a nun...) - A thick skinned nun who offers the inmates psychiatric assistance.
 

   The episodes of this season chart the rise of tensions in Em City up to an explosive event that completes the series. They are:

Episode 1: The Routine

    This episode introduces many of the characters that would go on to be series mainstays and starts up many of the relationships and tensions that went on to drive the plot for several years. In particular, we witness the start of Beecher and Schillinger's ongoing feud.

    The episode itself focuses on the stir-crazy madness caused by the daily prison routine, particularly how it affect the hot-headed Dino Ortolani.

Episode 2: Visits, Conjugal and Otherwise

    This episode looks at prison visitations on both sides of the glass, so to speak, with nearly every prisoner meeting someone from the outside.

Episode 3: God's Chillin'

    After a number of deaths in custody from different inmate factions, Warden McGlynn tightens security and threatens a full-scale lockdown but this does little to ease tensions.

Episode 4: Capital P

    As part of his "tough on crime" election platform, the govenor (himself no less of a crook than half the inmates) re-introduces the death penalty. It's not long before several heads are on the chopping block, including existing inmates.

Episode 5: Straight Life

    Tim McManus tries to make deals with several of the key players in Em City in an effort to stop the flow of drugs throughout the wing. The situation gets messier when Tim suspects the cons are getting help from some of the hacks in their endeavours.

Episode 6: To Your Health

    The Miguel Alvarez reunites with his father and grandfather, both of whom are long-term inmates at Oz, in a well meaning, but somewhat misguided, rehabilitation effort. Tempers flare elsewhere in Em City, and several incidents end with a significant number of the senior inmates in the medical ward - including a Mafioso whose "specially prepared" meals don't agree with him

    Ultimately, the moral of this episode is "enjoy your health while you've got it"!

Episode 7: Plan B

    Many a plot and plan hatched throughout the season reaches fruition. The Donald Groves, a white cannibal who literally butchered his family, has decided to become a Muslim but doesn't meet Said's racist approval.

Episode 8: A Game of Checkers

    An argument over a game of checkers explodes into a full-blown riot that many rival factions use as a guise to settle scores that have built up over the course of the season.



Video Ratings Summary [1(low)-5(High)]:

Sharpness - 3	

Shadow Detail - 4.5	

Colour - 4	

Grain/Pixelization - 3.5	

Film-To-Video Artefacts - 2.5	

Film Artefacts - 5	

Overall - 3


Technical specifications:

Film negative format (mm/video inches)
16 mm

Cinematographic process
Spherical

Printed film format
16 mm

Aspect ratio
1.33 : 1
	



Awards (Won and Nominated) 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118421/awards