Oz

1997

Seasons & Episodes

  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
8.7| TV-MA| en| More Info
Released: 12 July 1997 Ended
Producted By: Rysher Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.hbo.com/oz/index.html
Info

The daily lives of prisoners in Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison where ingroups - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorize their mutual enemies.

Genre

Drama, Crime

Watch Online

Oz (1997) is now streaming with subscription on Max

Director

Production Companies

Rysher Entertainment

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime.
Watch Now
Oz Videos and Images
View All

Oz Audience Reviews

Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.
Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Victreebong IMDb reviewers are not wrong. Oz is phenomenal. I don't normally review a show until I've watched every minute of it, but Oz is a series that will stand tall in premium television history.This show gets compared a lot to Orange is the New Black because they're two shows centered on penitentiary systems. Where Oz waivers from OitNB is how characters have minor backstories and most of the camera time is spent with the infinite twists and turns. Both shows can be graphic, sexually, violently, with lots of drugs use, but Oz has a focal point on the visceral.This is neither a dark nor an uplifting show. It is as real as a series can get while still being acted. People come in, you get hooked on them, sympathize, and minutes later they're stabbed. A protagonist one minute, a serial offending villain the next. Nobody's ever a hero, even those touted such as the Imam.I'm huge for JK Simmons. He's a mans' man and he defined a comic book character better than the original with his patented Jay Jonah Jameson in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. And it is almost baffling how the guy we have come to expect on Farmer's commercials is a dominating (as in top) white supremacist who runs the Caucasian unit of Oz's Emerald City. Many familiar faces from other series pepper Oz, a slew of them you'll recognize from House M.D. cameos. Eddie Falco from Nurse Jackie fame is another alum to come from Oz.So if you're in the mood for tension, drama, superb acting, friendly faces, violence and lots of graphic nudity, Oz is a show that you need to dabble with. Scratch that. It's a show that you'll try and immediately bing all weekend.
mattiasflgrtll6 That's right. This show is so fantastic there are no words which make it justice!Right from the very first episode, there is a LOT going on, and many reasons why the next episode is worth watching. Conflicts are introduced which are built upon in the next episode, and new conflicts then arise in THAT episode. Sometimes as a result of the PREVIOUS conflicts. That's how complex this show is, the heat is in the air the whole time.The writing is AMAZING. You never can be certain of what will happen next and the dialogue ranges from witty or darkly hilarious to intense or very heartbreaking. A lot of episodes among all the violence and scumbags contain interesting messages about life. Every episode has a theme; it could be revenge, sex, love, drugs... These are presented with the narration by this show's moral centerpiece Augustus Hill. And still, he's not perfect himself. All of the characters have their own flaws which this series present excellently.The characters are MANY, but somehow this show manages to make almost every one of them fascinating in some way. Even those who appear in only one single episode can make you attached to the screen and anticipated over what will happen with him next (it's USUALLY a him, it's a prison full of males after all). Just when you think you know how someone is like, that character can go through things which radically alter their behavior. Even the most innocent of people can suddenly flip. Among my favorites are Tobias Beecher (the closest thing to a main character), Vern Schillinger, Tim McManus, Kareem Said, Father Ray Mukada, Simon Adebisi, Omar White... There are just too damn many, man! There are all sorts of people to get invested by, and the writers respect character development to such a point that you rarely feel like someone is one-dimensional.Taboo subjects are touched upon, such as racism, homophobia, rape, drug abuse among other things. You will find at least 10 people here who either holds these opinions or has done any of the latter stuff. Despite what is said to be a maximum security level, Oz is a rat maze! You have to look around the corner, be suspicious about everyone. Somebody could act like your best friend just to later brutally execute you. Sure it occasionally gets unrealistic and even a bit convoluted (Aging pills? An unconscious body which disappears without explanation?) but it's easy to overlook since there's always something to keep my eyes on. It never gets so distracting that I become angry and turn it off. Oh no, boy. My eyes are glued to the screen even more than Charlie Sheen is addicted to sex.Everything is mesmerizing. Hell, it even has one of the best theme songs of all time! The cinematography as well, it's shockingly impressive! I especially have to praise Alex Zakrzewski, who is the most frequent director of photography. Give the man an award already!To say this show is a must-see would be an understatement. If you've never seen Oz, you haven't completed your life. Breathtaking television.
HeidiELove Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co- wrote all of the series' 56 episodes. It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by the premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons. The series finale aired February 23, 2003.OZ was a genius idea of writing and for its time it is still incredible. Oz is the name on the street for the Oswald State Penitentiary. Our wheelchair-bound narrator Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau Jr.) takes us through the wacky world of Emerald City, the experimental unit started by Tim McManus (Terry Kinney). It is very graphic and highly riveting. The acting is somewhat amazing. It is grit and pure evil. It stands on a monument - The first new drama series ever produced by Home Box Office!!!!It is for sure exciting, exhausting, horrifying, mesmerizing trip to hell highlighting Prison Drug Problems, Rape and Murder……….Hello America. Emerald City is set up as an experiment that clearly does not work. We see the Arians, the Blacks, the Latinos and different religious sects put in a giant box and asked to play their part out. In contrast to the dangerous criminals, character Tobias Beecher gives a look at a usually law-abiding man who made one fatal drunk-driving mistake."Oz took advantage of the freedoms of premium cable to show material that was too excessive for traditional American broadcast television, including elements of coarse language, drug use, violence, male frontal nudity, homosexuality and male rape, as well as ethnic and religious conflicts" (Bruce Fretts (11 July 1997). "Nasty As He Wanna Be". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-10-21). I love this show. I adore the Actors. The ensemble cast included Christopher Meloni, Ernie Hudson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Harold Perrineau Jr., Eamonn Walker, Rita Moreno, Terry Kinney, Betty Buckley, Kathryn Erbe, Lee Tergesen, B. D. Wong, J.D. Williams, J. K. Simmons, Dean Winters, Scott William Winters, Kirk Acevedo, Erik King, Evan Seinfeld, David Zayas, Lauren Vélez, Otto Sanchez, Robert Clohessy, and Edie Falco. EDIE FALCO LEGENDARY!!!!!!!!!!! And look where these names are now!!!!
digitalbeachbum I originally watched this on HBO when it first came out but watched it again recently on Amazon. The first time I watched it I really enjoyed it but the second time I didn't like it as much.I found the story too convoluted and too much happens within a very small time span. Too many people die, too many corrupt guards, too much drama with out much consideration for reality.Individually I really enjoyed the first two seasons, but after that I find that the quality of the writing goes south. Things which happen in the show are more of a condensed symbolic gesture at real life behind prison walls.This is a graphic and violent movie with sex, rape, profanity and much, much more. Keep it away from little kids and even young adults; it could cause nightmares.