Oz: Season 1

If you want to know what turned television into a genre that rivals the best of anything in film you have to start with the masterpiece HBO series "OZ."Without "OZ" there would be no "The Wire," no "Deadwood," no "Breaking Bad," no "Downton Abbey," no extended dramas you could watch for 60 hours without being able to shut them off.This was the beginning of "binge watching" and I am sure that anybody who is into high end television could name 10 more series' that make up their own favorites that completely changed for them what television is all about.Before "OZ" I think most people would agree that "Lonesome Dove" was the greatest 6 hours in the history of TV.Then HBO came at you with the baseball bat called "OZ." I have no idea how they got it even on cable.Back when I was in my youth it would have been X-Rated. Even from the standpoint of a jaded viewer like myself the violence and horror can be shocking. But "OZ" paved the way for all those great shows in which people speak to each other as they really speak and in which events unfold in ways that are not hemmed in by convention.This is the masterpiece that started it all. Even if there was nothing other than cartoons available on Amazon Prime I would consider that I got my money's worth as a result of being able to revisit the horrific brilliance of "OZ."As I suggested above this is an adults only show and I can imagine it making quite a few adults I know very squeamish as well. Be forewarned: This great series pulls absolutely no punches and is at least as hard hitting as anything that has followed in its wake.If you want to see where the renaissance of TV began this is it. Very highest recommendation and major thanks to Amazon for making it available with all of its original content on Amazon Prime streaming video. This should be the first thing on your watch list in my humble opinion.

I’m still watching the series and I’m obsessed with it

Great.

After seeing some raw violence and sex scenes in movies and cutting edge shows, this series is not as shocking as it once was. What is truly shocking is the twisted motives of some characters. Some characters like Arayan leader Schillenger are motivated by power. He needs his slaves to prove his authoritarian position. Many of the prisoners plot to control the drug trade, gain power, or just survive the onslaught of predators. The narrator scenes take us outside the drama and reminds us that this is just a show. However man's worst desires are shown and we know that such people exist. We get to know the characters and care what happens to them. This is not just about life and death, but about redemption and morality. A few struggle to keep their morals yet must break them in order to survive. If we know that they are doing acts that are repulsive to them, can we judge them and say that you can never harm others in order to save yourself. The show is compelling and worth a look.

Fun

The first season of Oz is little diffrent from the 5 seasons that follow it. For one thing the pace is a little bit slower than the others. Also it has a lot of memorable characters that are exclusive to the first season. Overall is is a great season. It sets up the series nicely and has alot of interesting plots going on. When its over it will leave you wanting more. What makes this show so interesting is how real it is, sure some stuff is exagerated like the number of rapes and death, but it gives everyone a glimpse into the American prison system. With a price tag of 15 dollars you cant go wrong here espicially if your a fan of the series. This season is a must for everyone.

It's a decent show but the depicted "prison life" is far from realistic. I have worked inside several prisons and can say from my experiences this show is entertaining but there are other "prison" shows that are closer to reality behind bars. Orange is the new black does a great job of hitting the small details such as the props like the beds and blankets are spot on. The prison issued clothes are also exactly what you see in most prisons.

This is a pretty solid show, better than I expected. I thought this show would probably be all about cruelty-porn: showing people in a brutal situation for the purposes of shock and titillation. I also thought it might be dedicated to the nice-white-guy trope, since the man who runs the unit the show focuses on, McManus, is an idealistic white man. But this idea is nicely complicated by the characters of Warden Glynn and Kareem Said, both intelligent and powerful black men who have their own (very different) ideas about how things should be run, and by the fact that McManus so often fails at his goals because admitting the power of larger systemic ills to himself is so difficult.The show is surprisingly political, genuinely addressing some of the most intractable problems with the way prisons and the legal system operate in the US. Sometimes it can get a bit strident, and in 2015, the narration gimmick has pretty much been murdered by Zach Braff, so the narrations that outline the theme of each episode can get tiresome. But the show is full of excellent actors, many of whom are still very relevant today. And for its time, it's a rare opportunity to see so many outstanding actors of color all at once in a drama. It's kept me watching, and I'm a tough sell.