Thank goodness for HBO. To be more specific, thank goodness for HBO programming. The movies are nothing special, considering they'll get their 'play time' on other movie channels and DVD outlets [There's little red boxes now]. The programing is what sets HBO apart. I like to think of HBO as an outlet rather than a channel (dvd's, illegal internet pirating, a friend's house) as in 'You don't even have to own it to enjoy it'. Why am I going on about HBO near midnight? Simple Answer... OZ. I have seen every episode a few times over the course of it's run (and re-runs). When I first heard of Oz (I was about eleven or twelve at the time), it was a show of (urban) legend when the events on the show were discussed. When I finally got to the age where I could actually take it in, I was shocked. The violence and the language was the roughest terrain to get over. The method of the storytelling shocked me just as much. From that moment forth, 'mature' programming didn't necessarily mean nudity and senseless sex [Funny because Oz wasn't indifferent to those to]. I loved how they inter-weaved the stories so extensively that it felt like 2 1/2 hours passed in the hour air time. The show took a creative leap with crazy story-lines (aging pill, bombs, and prison shootings galore) that questioned if the show jumped the shark or not. There's no doubt the show went off of the rails but it was Oz. The story telling was amazing because it inter-weaved stories that would seemed like nonsense on paper. And somehow... it still made sense. I will admit that it was fun to watch the train wreck with the over the top violence near the mid point of the series, when the storytelling became more... hairy... ballsy... absolutely nuts... you can pick from one of those.
[ That is not James Hetfield of Metallica.]
Some of the images scarred my mind such as the Aryan branding of a weaker inmate and the new definition of 'spooning'. I'm not sure if the show was meant for the purpose of shock value but it did the job. Whether Oz was considered a male soap opera or a shock fest (or even that prison show that Edie Falco spent a bit of time on), it remains one of the reasons why I thank goodness for HBO. OZ provided an escape to an imaginary prison where the criminals commit worst crimes behind bars than outside. Oh, and where there is a death about every episode. Oh, and where Luke Perry is a money laundering televangelist. Oh, and where Christopher Meloni actually plays a sexual deviant grimy enough for the subject matter of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Oh, and where the only womanly 'women' aren't women at all. They're guys... in dresses... because in Oz, the dress factory actually makes dresses that people use.
If I continue, I'll end up working my way into a sick connect the idea game that will only end up in a posted YouTube video of the twisted genius that is Oz.
Thanks for reading.
[Image is NOT my property and merely used as an attention grabber. Did it work? If so, or If not, credit is still due to http://dvdmedia.ign.com/dvd/image/oz01.jpg]
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