 -- 3-Disc Boxed Set -- Welcome to Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison or OZ. As run by McManus and uverseen by Warden Leo Glynn, Em City is about prisoner rehabilitation over public retribution. No matter how hardened a criminal of killer, whether you're in for a few of in for life, you have a role to play. Once inside, choose your friends carefully. Every group-Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans-stick close to mutual friends and terrorize enemies. Don't smile. Get yourself a weapon. Stay on everybody's good side...if you can find one. Plot Summary for "Oz" (1997) - OZ chronicles the attempts of McManus (Terry Kinney) to keep control over the inmates of Em(erald) City as well as the drug trade and the violence. There have been many groups of inmates during the run of the show and not everybody makes it out alive. There's the gangstas (Adebisi, Wangler, Redding, Poet, Keene), Muslims (Said, Arif, Supreme Allah), Italians (Pancamo, Nappa, Schiebetta), bikers (Hoyt), Aryans (Schillinger, Robson, Mark Mack), Christians (Cloutier, Cudney), Latinos (Alvarez, Morales, Guerra, Hernandez), gays (Hanlon, Cramer) and a whole pile of others (the O'Riley brothers, Keller, Stanislovsky, etc.). And there's a great "everyman" character called Beecher who gives a good look at a normal man who made one tragic mistake. Besides the regular inmates, there's guest stars such as Method Man, Luke Perry, Master P, Treach, etc. and a bunch of prison staff doctors (Dr. Nathan), a nun/psychologist (Sister Peter Marie), a bunch of guards some honest, some crooked and of course the warden Leo Glynn. The whole thing is narrated and held together by inmates Augustus Hill, who provides the show with some context, some sense of theme, etc. and ties everything together really nicely. Season 1 1. The Routine - Written by: Tom Fontana - Directed by: Darnell Martin 2. Visits Conjugal and Otherwise - Written by: Tom Fontana - Directed by: Nick Gomez 3. God's Chillun - Written by: Tom Fontana - Directed by: Jean De Segonzac 4. Capital 1 - Written by: Tom Fontana - Directed by: Darnell Martin 5. Straight Life - Written by: Tom Fontana - Directed by: Lesley Libman and Larry Williams 6. To Your Health - Written by: Tom Fontana - Directed by: Alen Taylor 7. Plan B - Written by: Tom Fontana - Directed by: Darnell Martin 8. A Game of Checkers - Written by: Tom Fontana - Directed by: Jean De Segonzac 1. The Routine -- In the "Emerald City" experimental unit of Oswald State Penitentiary, we meet some of the diverse inmates who live within a pecking order of Gangbangers, Latinos, Muslims, Irish, Aryans, and Wiseguys. No clear-cut leader emerges--with the possible exception of Kareem Said, a Muslim author who preaches non-violence and abstinence. Said's arrival doesn't prevent a short-fused Mafia inmate named Dino Ortolani from ticking off just about everybody--a habit that ends up burning him. 2. Visits Conjugal and Otherwise -- With Schibetta and the prison brass in a race to uncover Ortolani's killer (for very different reasons), we see how inmates react to visits from both their wives and, in one case, family members who are also in prison. 3. God's Chillun -- Friction is growing in the wake of two deaths--first Ortoloni and now Johnny Post--so Wiseguy leader Schibetta, Said, and Gangbanger Jefferson Keane are brought together by Warden Glynn, who tells them to keep their boys quiet or else he'll lock the prison down. The tension increases following a visit from Governor Devlin, who was responsible for the ban on smoking and conjugal visits. Meanwhile, Keane has found God--just as a couple of Latinos with a grudge find him. 4. Capital 1 -- Governor Devlin has reinstated capital punishment in the state; and the first Oz prisoner scheduled to die is Jefferson Keane, who killed a Latino in a skirmish. Before he's executed, Keane donates a kidney to his ailing sister, then turns down lawyer-turned-inmate Tobias Beecher's offer to take up his defense. After Keane's death, Richard L'Italien (played by Eric Roberts) -- slaughterer of women -- is given a lethal injection and dies. 5. Straight Life -- The infiltration of drugs into Oz has reached unprecedented levels; and the undercover efforts of McManus and Glynn to find out who's smuggling it in backfires in a deadly way. Despite a lockdown in the Emerald City, drugs continue to trickle in--and the blame shifts from prisoners to corrupt officials. 6. To Your Health -- Three generations of Alvarezes--all prisoners at Oz--are united when the partiarch, Ricardo, is found face down in his cell, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, Tobias Beecher, who as the neo-Nazi Schillinger's "girlfriend" has been forced to wear women's clothes, flips out after taking PCP and sends Schillinger to the hospital with an eye cut. Other inmates aren't exactly the picture of health, either: mob boss Schibetta has stomach pains caused by ground glass intentionally mixed in with his food, and Muslim leader Kareem Said has a heart attack after refusing to take medication for high blood pressure. 7. Plan B -- A recovered Said ostracizes Huseni Mershah for turning his back on him when he was dying--and orders all the Muslims to cast him out.Impressed by Said's power, Groves decides to kill Glynn in his honor, but ends up stabbing and killing an officer by mistake. Condemned to death, Groves chooses his form of execution: the firing squad. Meanwhile, Schibetta is still being fed ground glass by O'Reilly and Adebisi, and ends up hemmorhaging. Beecher, transformed by prison life, finally gets revenge on his nemesis, Schillinger. 8. A Game of Checkers -- Beecher is released from the hole, and Schillinger is left eyeless and weak. A riot breaks out after two white punks get into a fight over checkers. Frustation, sexuality, hate, revenge, racism all rear their ugly heads, causing the violence to escalate. Finally, after several prison officers are taken hostage, tear gas is thrown into the Emerald City and the SORT team arrives, guns blazing. Cast Notes: See Oz: Episode List for full cast information and much more. User Comment: Dashiell Christopher, Los Angeles • Consistently well-written and acted, Oz is without a doubt the best thing on TV. Quality wise, it's up there with the first 4 seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street as the most compelling hour of television drama. Presenting a harsh and realistic view of prison life, Oz is a wonderful mixture of superb acting and character development; all of which rides on a nuanced and erudite core (Foucault's Panopticon is the inspiration for Em City's design...and ultimate failure). It is the only show on TV, that I can think of, that has presented characters who were intensely dislikable one moment and oddly empathetic the next. That I am repulsed by, sympathetic with, intrigued about, and involved with every character that has lived, died or survived on the show, is no small feat. Good TV exists. And, for my money, Oz is not only good TV, it is better than most films released throughout the year. Summary: Not only the best show on TV currently, but one of the best shows of all-time. IMDb Rating (08/20/06): 9.3/10 from 729 users
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