"Oz" A Game of Checkers (1997)

Director:

Jean de Segonzac

Writers:

Tom Fontana (creator)
Tom Fontana (written by)

TV Series:

"Oz" (1997)

Original Air Date:

25 August 1997 (Season 1, Episode 8)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

After a visit with his sons, Schillinger realizes he needs to get paroled. He convinces McManus to let...

Plot Keywords:

Sadistic Governor | Reference To Gandhi | Prison | Violence | Aryan

Cast

Ernie Hudson	...	Warden Leo Glynn
Terry Kinney	...	Tim McManus
Harold Perrineau	...	Augustus Hill
Eamonn Walker	...	Kareem Said
Kirk Acevedo	...	Miguel Alvarez
Edie Falco	...	Officer Diane Whittlesey
J.K. Simmons	...	Vern Schillinger
Lee Tergesen	...	Tobias Beecher
Dean Winters	...	Ryan O'Reily
B.D. Wong	...	Father Ray Mukada
Zeljko Ivanek	...	Governor James Devlin
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	...	Simon Adebisi
Rick Fox	...	Jackson Vahue
Stephen Gevedon	...	Scott Ross
George Morfogen	...	Bob Rebadow

Trivia:

Earlier drafts of the first season finale had Sister Peter Marie directing a the musical West Side Story using inmates as cast members. The riot that was planned was supposed to start when the inmates began fighting each other while in character during the musical. Having Peter Marie direct West Side Story was supposed to have been a homage to actress Rita Moreno, who was in the movie version of West Side Story and won an Oscar for her performance.

Quotes:

Tim McManus: Said, I grew up in a small town, upstate New York. There was only one major industry there, the prison. Everybody's parents either worked at the prison or made a living from, you know, motels, gas stations, or, like my dad, had a diner. Right across the street...
[...]

Movie Connections:

References "Seinfeld" (1990)

Soundtrack:

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Like No Other Show You've Seen

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I first heard of OZ in a British tabloid involving an American inmate who was suing the state because the prison had run out of icecream " American prisons are known as hell holes . A reputation that is reinforced by a new show called Oz which started last night where a Neo Nazi carved a swastika on a fellow inmates backside . Why was the inmates backside bare in the first place ? Don't ask " Hmmm sounds compelling I thought Doubt if it'll be turning on British network TV soon though , But with descriptions of swastika's on bare backsides it's not something you forget about and was surprised when it appeared in the TV listings of channel 4 a year later .

Nothing had prepared me for this mindblowing drama . Within seconds I was hooked as an inmate was stabbed in the reception area and after that comedy interlude things started getting very nasty indeed . Tobias Beecher a lawyer who killed a young girl in vehicular manslaughter finds himself used as a sex slave by neo nazi Vern Schillinger . Mafia enforcer Dino Ortolani gets burned to death . Ryan O Reilly tries to get play all the sides off one another and governor of Emerald city an experimental unit tries to keep order but it's obvious by the end of the first episode that this will be in vain

The first episode is probably the best but all the episodes are very strong drama . It's also very obvious how thematic they are . Episode three revolves around religion , episode four capital punishment episode , episode five drugs etc . This is related to us by Augustus Hill , the series narrator done in an abstract street theater manner which is bizarre and surreal but works wonderfully . Despite being violent murderers etc you really do make a connection with them which speaks well of how well crafted they are from the pen of Tom Fantana . It's highly quotable too . " Death is certain . life is not " and " If sex is sweet and death is bitter love is both . Love will always and forever break your heart " being my personnel favourites . It's also a show that where you never know what's going to happen next . Wait till you see Beecher's revenge on Vern !

The cast also contribute to the drama greatly and everyone will have their favourite performances . Eamon Walker will be well known to Brits since he played Alf Garnett's gay home help IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH but this is forgotten by you sa he becomes becomes Karim Said . Despite ending up inprison for killing a child Tobias Beecher manages to elicit great empathy helped in no small part by Lee Tergesen's intense performanceand Dean Winters is superb as O'Reilly the brash confident anti-hero responsible for so much carnage between the prison tribes . Most underrated performance is surely Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje as Simon Adebisi who on paper might just come across as the " stock scary black guy " but his intimidating presence means he doesn't have to say a word to terrify an audience . All he has to do is just appear and ... gulp pass the Valium

What about flaws ? It's not family television so the fact that every scene has extremely foul language is not a criticism nor are the scenes of graphic violence . There are one or two plot turns that are quickly forgotten about such as Joey being beaten senseless , landing up in hospital and then never being seen again . Likewise Keane and Groves commit murders and are effectively executed in an implausibly short period of time but with hindsight it's nowhere as bad as it becomes in latter series

If there's a problem with the casting is that it has destroyed other shows for me . I know many people love THE WIRE and one of the reasons I was unable to get in to it totally is that many of the cast from OZ would go on to appear in that show . JD Williams plays a very similar character in series one called Kenny " Bricks " Wangler and he'll always be Wangler a violent imprisoned street thug to me so I'd be interested in finding out how fans of THE WIRE view the casting between the two shows . There's also something else puzzling me - why didn't the actors go on to Hollywood stardom ? They certainly deserved to do so