Thoughts on events, music, books and the whole enchilada of my human experience

  I'm going to start this thing with an ending.

The ending of Oz.

I only discovered this HBO drama in the last year, but it's quickly become a favorite. I've watched most of the first two seasons on DVD, have caught the final two on TV and also seen a few in the middle. I've yet to be bored or unchallenged. The show is as addicitive as the "tits" (Oz-talk for drugs) that are smuggled daily into the prison under the noses of the "hacks" (guards).

While I cannot pretend that I know (or hopefully will ever know) what life inside a maximum security prison is like, there's something about the grittiness of Oz that makes it feel real. Sure, the show's premise in unrealistic -- any prison that has as many murders as the Oswald State Correctional Facility does would be shut down immediately. The show has averaged over one murder per episode over its six years. That's just not possible, particularly in a facility that only holds 1400-1800 inmates at any time.

But once that initial suspension of disbelief is made, the acting and writing are gripping. The graphic and imaginative ways in which people are killed, the ever-present full-frontal male nudity, the unpleasant rape scenes -- all of those add up to something greater than the sum of the parts. Now, the individual stories are not completely without hope and they're not all ugly -- inmates fall in love (either with each other, with those who work at the prison or with visitors), look forward to parole, try to better themselves and even occasionally escape from Oz. But none of that is accompanied by sappy music or a laugh track or by product placement. If inmates in Oz want to better themselves, it's an uphill battle. We see each frustration, each struggle, each step forward being negated by an equal step backwards into vice or despair. No punches are pulled. No heed is paid to the sensitivites of the viewer. This is life in all its ugliness and daily grind. There's usally no happy endings and when there are, they're unexpected and often undeserved.

I'm going to miss Oz. It was superior television.

posted by Jon at 11:41 AM