Oz is one of my favorite shows. Have you seen The Wire? It is really good too.

Awesome show, but the first few seasons are really lightyears better than the rest. There's still good stuff throughout and the finale is great, but there's soooo many really dumb storylines.

The wire is a classic. I might rewatch that soon, it's been forever since I could find a good tv show and I basically binged oz in 5 days so now I'm kinda lost lol

i absolutely love all those shows you mentioned but i’ve never seen oz. adding it to the list.

Oz is amazing somewhere on top with Sopranos and The Wire imho.

Oz's value is that it opened the door for the potential of premium television shows. You don't get The Sopranos or The Wire etc... without Oz

OZ is not for everyone, that being said, I loved it. Great use of different actors throughout. Luke Perry being one that stood out to me.

The Wire is a great rewatch. It is just so well done.

Mad Men is good, have you ever watched that?

it is nowhere close to either, it is pretty mid overall, it's role in opening the door for others is its true value

Sorpanos is for me the number one.

It's not an easy watch as a heads up. But the writing and character arcs are right up there with the best.

It's not the best of the early HBO shows, but it's my favorite, just batshit craziness in every episode. Looking back, I'd argue it has the best cast out of any of the early HBO, Perrineau, Simmons, Meloni, Winters in the main cast with so many minor/guest characters rotating in and...out: Guzman, Falco, Margolis, Carnavale, Cathey, Reddick, Perry BD Wong, Rita fucking Moreno.

So many actors who are probably best known for cop roles also got to play criminals too, anytime someone brings up L&O:SVU, I always ask if they have seen Stabler in Oz.

Best prisoners

1. Adebisi
2. Ryan O'Reilly
3. Keller

This was the first “renaissance of TV” show I watched (thinking about the late ‘90s/early ‘00s period when TV started becoming as high quality as movies), and it blew me away. I still reference it as one of the best shows I’ve seen. Glad you had a chance to check it out! It definitely showed what TV is capable of becoming at the dawn of the current TV show age.

Dean Winters' performance as Ryan O'Reilly deserves some more love

It’s also the first hour long HBO show that paved the way for everything else. The sopranos blew it away once it got going.

I really didn’t like how the guard was about to join the NBA got his tendon cut just because one of the prisoners was a bit pissy.

It's fantastic. I haven't rewatched it in ten years but still remember it clearly. Whist the first few season are much better, the latter seasons hit harder with some really powerful scenes.

Whilst I didn't like the final episode, it's still a vastly under-rated show.

It turns into a soap opera after a while but Season 1 is amazing, and up until Adebisi's reign it stands out as some of the best tv ever

I remember being a kid and Oz playing on cable and I was terrified by it, that dark soundtrack and the visuals really scared at the time

A few years later I discovered it was Oz and I've seen it around 6 times already

Snowfall on Hulu might be a good next one.

I'm glad you enjoyed this show! I've rewatched it three times; the last two times, I stopped right when >!Kareem Said gets killed!< because the show objectively went downhill and started to suck petrified old dried dogshit from that point on.

Wonderful show.

I knew J.K. Simmons as Schillinger way before any of this other roles and he'll always be that one-eyed Nazi fuck to me.

I always get a kick out of seeing Ryan O’Reilly as mayhem in the Allstate commercial.

It spins its wheels in later seasons. And no idea why the warden was killed, like they just needed a major event for the series finale.

I think the last two were the ones I really sat back from and was like wtf is this

I'd argue that you could put a pin in the show's timeline as to when it goes from absolutely great to trending down to good/average/weird, and that's about the episode when >!Adebisi dies!<.

That's a perfect way to describe it. So much great TV has been made in the past twentyish years, especially on HBO. I don't think Oz quite makes that list, but as you said, it opened the door and there should always be a place in the books for Oz because of that. Prior to Oz, HBO had some half hour comedies that were decent but not great (with the exception of Larry Sanders, which was incredible). Oz broke the mold for an hour long drama that was relatively successful, and again as you said, that paved the way for stronger shows like Sopranos and The Wire.

1000% agree, the few times I’ve rewatched it I just stop there.

It doesn't hold up well imo. I would agree that it was revolutionary and instrumental in getting The Sopranos (which I'd say is the most influential show of the past 25 years) off the ground, so it deserves credit for that. There's a lot to like about Oz, but ultimately, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone in 2022. It's way too long of a show and there's a lot of dull moments.

If there was some kind of abridged version that was around half the total length of the series (so ~25 hours), that would probably be great and worth watching.

Didn't they do a plot line where they originally hinted someone resurrected from the dead or something? The preacher guy.

When I saw him in Spiderman I had a hard time unseeing scenes from Oz.

Schillinger as the Yellow M&M is very wtf.

I got a kick out of seeing him as Dennis on 30 Rock.

Watching him in Whiplash(in my top 3 movies of all time btw) actually gave me Oz flashbacks.

One of my favorites, no show ever made my jaw drop at the crazy shit I was seeing like Oz did. And the performances! Every main cast member is a powerhouse performance especially JK Simmons, Lee Tergesen, and Dean Winters. And Kirk Acevedo. Fuck, all of them man. Was so happy to see JK become so successful but he'll always be Schillinger to me. What a cast.

What season should I stop at?

What is that about?

Young dude starts selling coke in LA, starts moving heavy weight for the CIA who is funding the Contras and becomes somewhat of a kingpin. Eventually it deals with the crack epidemic.

Not on the same level as "The Wire", but if you are into that sort plotline, it is pretty good.

The finale of Season 4 has an event that massively affects the show, and things seem to change from there. It's not an immediate plummet in quality, but it does definitely start to shift there.

Agreed, I made it to S4 both times I tried watching and never finished.

I found OZ to be WAY over the top, too much so. I think it gets the love it does primarily because it was the OG of graphic everything

Yeah, season 4 really goes downhill with a bunch of stupid storylines. >!Rebadow going from harmless old man to crazed bloodthirsty murderer and back to harmless old man within a handful of episodes!<, >!Clayton Hughes' descent into whiny madness!<, >!Nikolai getting drowned by Officer Howell with zero consequences!<, >!Beecher's "whoops, it was all a dream" fake out release!< and of course the infamous >!aging pill storyline!<. All in season four.

Dull moments? Really? Wonder what you were watching

Seasons 4-6

Watch the entire series again, right now, and tell me there aren't dull moments. In 2022, I would make the episodes 30-50 minutes rather than 60 minutes, and probably cut out at least half the storylines. Basically everything from Adabisi's death isn't worth watching.

Pretty sure Edie Falco left Oz to play Carmela Soprano. Of course Gandolfini gets most of the praise for Sopranos, but Edie Falco nailed her role. She probably doesn’t get enough credit.