The avid fan had visited the facilities of Oswald penitentiary for more than 50 episodes. We spent our times with murderous psychopaths, drug-peddlers, white supremacists, Mafiosi and generally the scum of the earth, gleefully watching them scheming and wreck havoc among each other.
Well, all good things must come to an end.
"Oz", despite the excellent actors and often captivating story lines had, at the latest after the third season, begun to feed off its own carcass. Themes would often repeat themselves, plots took the most absurd turns and twists and one could almost smell the writers anxiety to churn out coherent stories. After all, there are only so many ways in which to depict prison murder and male-rape. In other words: the producers had tried to beat a dead horse into motion.
When the final episode was announced, it must have been clear to everybody that final would mean final. In a way it was sad to say goodbye to those characters we had come to know and even like, despite their despicable deeds and personalities, but at the same time we felt relief.
We must give credits to the writers for wrapping it all up for us and yet ending the show with a cliffhanger, leaving enough main-characters alive for a potential, though unlikely sequel. The finale gives us, what we had rooted for a long time: the end of odious Vern Schillinger and psychopathic Chris Keller; the execution of Cyril is touching but sweetened by seeing loathsome director Querns vomit and the saga of Ryan and Dr. Nathan comes to full circles (albeit as improbable as the storyline has been in the first place). Despite being relatively new, the character Torquemada is similarly colorful and intriguing as the satanic Rastafarian Supreme Allah in Season four but his hinted-at affair with Miguel Alvarez would (probably) have been nothing but a warmed-up rendition of the Beecher-Keller-storyline.
It was good while it lasted, despite lasting a little longer than it should have in the first place, but the conclusion compensated a lot for the shortcomings of the last two seasons.
Well, all good things must come to an end.
"Oz", despite the excellent actors and often captivating story lines had, at the latest after the third season, begun to feed off its own carcass. Themes would often repeat themselves, plots took the most absurd turns and twists and one could almost smell the writers anxiety to churn out coherent stories. After all, there are only so many ways in which to depict prison murder and male-rape. In other words: the producers had tried to beat a dead horse into motion.
When the final episode was announced, it must have been clear to everybody that final would mean final. In a way it was sad to say goodbye to those characters we had come to know and even like, despite their despicable deeds and personalities, but at the same time we felt relief.
We must give credits to the writers for wrapping it all up for us and yet ending the show with a cliffhanger, leaving enough main-characters alive for a potential, though unlikely sequel. The finale gives us, what we had rooted for a long time: the end of odious Vern Schillinger and psychopathic Chris Keller; the execution of Cyril is touching but sweetened by seeing loathsome director Querns vomit and the saga of Ryan and Dr. Nathan comes to full circles (albeit as improbable as the storyline has been in the first place). Despite being relatively new, the character Torquemada is similarly colorful and intriguing as the satanic Rastafarian Supreme Allah in Season four but his hinted-at affair with Miguel Alvarez would (probably) have been nothing but a warmed-up rendition of the Beecher-Keller-storyline.
It was good while it lasted, despite lasting a little longer than it should have in the first place, but the conclusion compensated a lot for the shortcomings of the last two seasons.
