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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
It would have been impossible for writer Tom Fontana to follow up on the cliffhanger ending of season 4.1 so he has rightly not tried and deserves credit for this . He deserves even greater credit for the pressures he was under . Due to problems on THE SOPRANOS running behind schedule HBO found they had an empty television space that needed filling so an unplanned season of OZ was commissioned . It could have been an absolute disaster and while season 4.2 doesn't hit the heights of seasons one and 4.1 it's certainly much better than can reasonably be expected Episode one is effectively self contained but fans of Ryan O'Reilly will enjoy it as an egocentric TV journalist does a story on prisons and O'Reilly has a personnel reason for manipulating the situation . for his own ends . This also involves new arrival Omar White who is a pathetic drugs fiend but both the way he's written by Fontana and played by Michael Wright makes him sympathetic to the audience . There's other new introductions . Former teenage pin up Luke Perry plays corrupt TV evangelist Jeremiah Cloutier which is something of a surprise since he was merely considered as merely some pretty boy actor . The season also reintroduces Jackson Vahue who appeared in season one which is also slightly surprising since all too often characters disappear for no real reason never to be seen again As always OZ works best when its at its most gritty and sadistic and there's plenty of sadism on show , most memorably when Morales murders a Chinese immigrant . Some people may criticise the unlikelihood of a bunch of illegal immigrants being housed in a maximum security prison and admittedly this thread is often forgotten about only to reappear when needed but it certainly shows what a cruel and calculating character Morales is . There's also some subtlety to the suffering shown . Lance Reddick as Basil/Mobay gives a haunted performance as a former cop facing many years in jail . There's also a touching scene where Said realises he's made a great mistake in trusting Moses Deyell Unfortunately there's a few things that don't work . Some things you have to accept in order to follow the show like Keller and Beecher's on/off love affair and Gloria continuing to treat the O'Reilly brothers despite them murdering her husband but some things strain common credibility such as the ridiculous ageing pill plot . Why would anyone invent an ageing pill ? Is this for teenagers who want to look older so they'll get served in bars ? Watch out for the ridiculous Burr Redding played by Anthony Chisholm who will have you laughing out loud as he plays a feared ghetto kingpin in much the same way as Robin Williams played Popeye . There's also a subplot of an IRA terrorist being confined in Emerald City which is rather offensive to the average Brit . I guess it didn't cross Fontana's mind to make the bomb maker an Arab ?So season 4.2 is a rather strange mix of both good and bad . For the most part it's gritty , involving adult drama which will have die-hard fans rubbing their hands in anticipation at the end of each episode wondering what's going to happen next . Unfortunately when Fotana throws a spanner in the works it's a fairly big one but never enough to make you stop watching
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