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Product Description

From the Oscar and Emmy winning team of Berry Levinson (Rain Man, Diner) and Tom Fontana, OZ is set deep inside the Oswald Maximum Security Prison, in an experimental unit known as Emerald City. Em City focuses on prisoner rehabilitation over public retribution. There's one set of rules from the outside looking in, and another once you're inside. Every group - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorizes their mutual enemies. OZ is a wake-up call.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Two audio commentaries by series creator Tom Fontana and star Lee Tergesen
Biographies
Deleted Scenes:WIth commentary by Tom Fontana
Episodic Previews
Episodic Recaps
Featurette
Music Video
Scene Access

The yellow brick road of the Oswald Correctional Facility (affectionately known as "Oz" among the inmates) leads to "Emerald City," an antiseptic cellblock of cement and glass overseen by prison-reform advocate Tim McManus (Terry Kinney). The first episode introduces its two most compelling inmates: meek lawyer Beecher (Lee Terguson), who transforms from a vulnerable lamb to a fearless, drug-addicted wildcat, and Muslim activist Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker), a fiercely non-violent leader whose campaign for reform explodes in a season-climaxing riot. The stunning first-season cast also features Ernie Hudson (the warden), Rita Moreno (a worldly drug-counseling nun), and Edie Falco (who jumped from her role as a single-mother prison guard to mob wife in The Sopranos). It carries no rating, but the drug use, nudity, and brutal violence make this highly inappropriate for young viewers and unsuited to the squeamish. Oz pulls no punches in its portrayal of prison violence and predatory abuse. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

• You won't find Dorothy or ToTo here
  You won't find ToTo here!!!! Oz is a prison where men are supposed to be rehabilitated. Instead the men are still committing crimes, being violated, fighting for their rights, their lives, and trying to maintain their sanity. Season 1 you are introduced to Warden Glynn, trying to maintain order in the prison, and keep the funding. McManus he runs the Oz section, but sometimes his best laid plans don't always work. Augustus Hill is in a wheelchair, and he narrates the episodes. Kareem Said is the Muslim leader. I love this guys character, despite being in prison, he still tries to bring a sense of discipline, order, and he does not allow anyone to mess with him or his religion!!! Do not try to cross this brother!! He tries to help other black men follow the faith even if they end up on death row. This man enters the prison, and you see people go nuts!!! Some men like him and some can't stand him and want to see him dead. Sister Peter tries to help the men with their drug problems. Beecher is the man that does not belong, he is a former lawyer who is serving time for driving while impaired, and for killing a young girl. He meets up with Schillinger and his life goes from bad to nightmare. Shcillinger makes him wear make up, violates him, and every chance he gets abuse and use him until Beecher has had enough!! Alvarez is not in prison for 5 minutes before he is stabbed. This show will have you on waves of emotion. You will be angry, you will be shocked, you will be surprised, you will be sad, you will cry, and in some cases you will find yourself laughing. You feel for some of the prisoners, you will hate some of the prisoner, and you will like or dislike some of the workers. This is a GREAT show, and I'm looking forward to seeing Season 2 of Oz.
  
  ...more info
• It all began here...
  Prison rape, beat downs, riots, and rival cliques: this is perhaps the first show to begin the truly gritty standard of drama in the 21st century. Before The Sopranos, Rome, Deadwood, or The Shield there was Oz, a show which proved that cable could create viable, original programming of a graphically adult nature. Following the subplots of various inmates, one isn't expected to love these people. They are horrid, vile individuals. But they are human. There is Beecher, the lawyer who drove drunk and killed a girl landing him on the inside for vehicular manslaughter. You can only watch as he gradually falls apart under the stress of prison life only to gradually find himself anew as a bizarre, near insane lunatic who everyone comes to fear. There's Ryan O'Reily, manipulating every faction in order to further his own interests even if that means others have to die for actions he is culpable for. There is McManus, one of the prison's officials who hopes to create programs in order to rehabilitate inmates in order to prevent them from reoffending. These men are but a few of the complex and intriguing characters peppered throughout the show. Watching them change throughout the seasons...this is true drama where anything goes. Death is always around the corner. It all started here folks....more info
• If Hearing Problem..... disappointment
  Im only writing this to warn anyone who has a problem hearing and needs closed caption..... IN ENGLISH.... then you are out of luck. The only closed caption on this dvd is in Spanish... I had to return this because I have a hearing problem and need the closed caption...in English.....more info
• OZ the soap opera
  Coming from a person who has worked in a state prison for 15 years, stuff that goes on in OZ is absolutly ridiculous. But having said that I am hooked on the series. I enjoy the mix of strange and interesting characters, and the stories are creative enough. Again I like the series, but the writers and directors should hire someone for realistic content, oh buy the way I could be available. LOL...more info
• OZ - A great series to have on DVD
  This HBO series is so addicting! The characters are original, and the stories and writing are unique and interesting. It's a very gripping show. There's not much on TV these days that I like, so having this on DVD is great. I'm already on Season 5. My husband and I are really enjoying it....more info
• BROUGHT BACK MEMORIES
  ITS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I HAVE WATCHED OZ ON HBO AND AFTER WATCHING SEASON 1 ON DVD BROUGHT BACK MEMORIES OF HOW VIOLENT AND GRITTY THIS SHOW WAS. ALL I CAN SAY IS THANK GOD I AM NOT IN JAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!...more info
• Maimum Entertainment
  I always thought it was hilarious when the guy who play Schillinger said in an interview that it's a little unsettling to hear himself described as the guy who plays the bad guy in a show set in a prison. I mean, aren't they all bad guys? But he does play a bad guy- the worst guy- and he plays him well.

  OZ is scary. Oz is uncompomising. And Oz is unstoppable. WHo'd have believed this show would last more than one season? It's a soap opera set in prison. Pretty near unresistable.

  The best part of this set is the unfolding of the Beecher Saga. And with voice-over from Lee, you get insight as to how the charactarization took form.

  You won't watch this just once....more info

• The best TV drama ever, even better than "Homicide."
  I'm with James Fearn, Oz is the best TV drama ever. So why does this series, with its harsh, violent, brutal characters and unrestrained language and violence rate so high?

  Oz is about the two most important issues we all face: sin and redemption. And not sin and redemption in a Catholic or Christian sense, but in the sense of how we all belong to and participate in humanity. To address these issues most directly, the writers (most of the time, the brilliant Tom Fontana) and producer (Barry Levinson) go to the worst sinners of all and those most in need of redemption, the prisoners (and their jailers) at Ozwald State Correctional Facility, a mythical maximum-security prison in New York.

  Fontana and Levinson have dealt with these issues before, most notably in "Homicide," but this time all the stakes are doubled. In Oz, violence and survival are minute-to-minute issues. So how, in the midst of such violence and brutality, does one find one's way back to a place in humanity? Some of the characters struggle to redeem themselves, some get by from day to day, some have just given up, and some go mad, like the chronically depressed and desperate Alvarez.

  Of these, some even attain true redemption, coming at last to a kind of peace and reconciliation. And then Levinson and Fontana remind us of the true dilemma of redepmtion: it's just so damn fragile. Some of the most dramatic and heartbreaking moments of all are when we see the best characters, those who have found their fragile peace, descend once again into the violence they (and we) thought they had escaped. Because redemption isn't absolute. Like the prisoners and jailers in Oz, it lives moment to moment, and at any time we can lose our grasp on it and fall back into pit.

  It's safe to say that no television drama has ever addressed these issues so directly or in such harsh, unremitting terms. Oz should stand as a classic in drama, right along with the works of Shakespeare and the ancient Greeks. Besides, once you start watching it, you just can't stop....more info

• One of the main reasons I had HBO
  If you have never seen this series, rent it first. It is very graphic, but a very good show. This and The Wire were the only reasons I had HBO. One down side is that this season is only eight episodes. One of the best things about this series was the character development. Only gave four stars becasue of the length of the season, would have loved to see this one last a lot longer...more info
• Interesting characters adrift in a sea of left-wing bias
  In the past I avoided the HBO channel, its movies and shows because of their consistent anti-Americanism and hard-left bias. But "The Sopranos" lulled me into a false sense of security, so I decided to rent "Oz" because it looked interesting and because I like Ernie Hudson. However, instead of a hard-hitting, character-driven prison drama, too often I got issue-driven speechifying and a post-modern politically-correct guy in a wheelchair inside a spinning glass cube.
  
  Here's an example from episode 4, titled "Capital P," that deals with Jefferson Keane's execution. First this gem between the pro-death penalty governor and a reporter:
  
  Governor: "The people want the death penalty...They need a sign that something's being done."
  
  Reporter: "Even if it's been proven that capital punishment has no effect on crime?"
  
  Governor: "Especially if has no effect. These days murders are random, senseless. Maybe the punishment should be too."
  
  To call the above exchange a straw man argument wouldn't do justice to scarecrows. That has got to be the stupidest, most ridiculous lie a liberal has ever come up with on this issue.
  
  "Capital P" has many other idiocies besides the almost perfect one described above. For example, the wheelchair guy claims that the state is going to "put down [Keane] like a rabid dog." How many rabid dogs get automatic death penalty appeals? Also, since when can a prisoner in general population (or even "Emerald City") waltz into death row (which amazingly, also happens to be the protective custody unit -- what luck!), chat with the condemned prisoner, then waltz out again?
  
  What hurts most is that some of stories are really good. When the show doesn't flaunt its cultural liberalism, the characters are outstanding. But I just can't take the B.S....more info
• This show just grabs you and won't let go!!!!
  You won't find ToTo here!!!! Oz is a prison where men are supposed to be rehabilitated. Instead the men are still committing crimes, being violated, fighting for their rights, their lives, and trying to maintain their sanity. Season 1 you are introduced to Warden Glynn, trying to maintain order in the prison, and keep the funding. McManus he runs the Oz section, but sometimes his best laid plans don't always work. Augustus Hill is in a wheelchair, and he narrates the episodes. Kareem Said is the Muslim leader. I love this guys character, despite being in prison, he still tries to bring a sense of discipline, order, and he does not allow anyone to mess with him or his religion!!! Do not try to cross this brother!! He tries to help other black men follow the faith even if they end up on death row. This man enters the prison, and you see people go nuts!!! Some men like him and some can't stand him and want to see him dead. Sister Peter tries to help the men with their drug problems. Beecher is the man that does not belong, he is a former lawyer who is serving time for driving while impaired, and for killing a young girl. He meets up with Schillinger and his life goes from bad to nightmare. Shcillinger makes him wear make up, violates him, and every chance he gets abuse and use him until Beecher has had enough!! Alvarez is not in prison for 5 minutes before he is stabbed. This show will have you on waves of emotion. You will be angry, you will be shocked, you will be surprised, you will be sad, you will cry, and in some cases you will find yourself laughing. You feel for some of the prisoners, you will hate some of the prisoner, and you will like or dislike some of the workers. This is a GREAT show, and I'm looking forward to seeing Season 2 of Oz....more info
• Like it or not, it sucks you in
  I have come to find that there are very few good dramas that center around prison life. Even then, the handful of films that I think are well done, like "Papillon" or "Sleepers", aren't really about prisons (they're about penal colonies and juvenile delinquency centers, respectively). Most films just follow the same formula: not-so-street-savvy person goes in, is told to beat up the first person he can, befriends some guy, gets sodomized in the shower, et cetera.
  This HBO series, however, is surprisingly good. At times it gets a little too ambitious and tends to lose focus in trying to delve into each of the diverse characters, but by the last three episodes or so the action really gathers momentum. In fact, the plot is perhaps one of the most interesting I've yet seen; the problem is in the delivery. Tacky lines (for instance, "Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment", from Reilly) muddle the action, and the Aryan Nations inmates feel a little too much like "American History X" clones. The worst part of the show, however, is the wheelchair-bound guide, whose incessant gesticulations and headset and dialogue are enough to make you want to stop watching.
  All in all, though, its solid. The cast is pretty convincing, the violence is intense, and the climax is unbelievable. My verdict: good to rent, but not the best buy....more info
• An Outstanding Show, A Must-See DVD.
  This is, by far, the most ambitious project that HBO has ever done. I've seen every episode of other HBO hit shows like Sex and the City and The Sopranos, but Oz is definitely in a class by itself. The viewer will be riveted from the very beginning of the first episode to the unforgettable season finale.

  The great ensamble cast does an excellent job of portraying exactly what prison life is like. They show that life inside Oswald State Prison (Oz) is like living at the mouth of a live volcano. You never know when the volcano is going to erupt, and it erupts quite often. While all the actors seem to share equal screen time, the character that stands out the most is Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen), a lawyer serving time for killing a girl while driving drunk. He comes to Oz lacking street smarts, but he gradually learns the ropes as the season progresses. By the final episode, he's just as vicious as all the other prisoners. Another intriguing character is Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker), who is a passive-aggressive black Muslim militant who acts as the main shot caller.

  All the basic troubles of prison life are addressed in these eight episodes. Drugs, sex, boredom, routine, heirarchy, racism, violence, and capital punishment are all factored into the show at some point. Though I've never been to prison, I did spend some time in county jail, so I can attest to the accuracy of this show in terms of portraying what prison might really be like. I don't know what hell is like, but it can't be that much worse than Oz. I very highly recommend this DVD....more info

• Late to the Party, but the series is timeless
  After seeing some raw violence and sex scenes in movies and cutting edge shows, this series is not as shocking as it once was. What is truly shocking is the twisted motives of some characters. Some characters like Arayan leader Schillenger are motivated by power. He needs his slaves to prove his authoritarian position. Many of the prisoners plot to control the drug trade, gain power, or just survive the onslaught of predators. The narrator scenes take us outside the drama and reminds us that this is just a show. However man's worst desires are shown and we know that such people exist. We get to know the characters and care what happens to them. This is not just about life and death, but about redemption and morality. A few struggle to keep their morals yet must break them in order to survive. If we know that they are doing acts that are repulsive to them, can we judge them and say that you can never harm others in order to save yourself. The show is compelling and worth a look....more info
• Poor Writing and Acting
  After seeing parts of episodes while channel surfing, I thought I'd buy this and give it a go. WHAT A MISTAKE
  After watching the first three episodes I am ready to bail.
  The prison staff actions and dialog are the problem...WEAK
  Ernie Hudson keeps babbling "If we don't stop this...stop that.... there's going to be a riot"
  The Candyarse 'Emerald City' councelor, Rita Moreno,
  this show comes off more like "21 Jumpstreet" goes to prison

  Cussing and nudity may have made this show controversial in it's time but after watching one episode of 'The Shield' the writing is so obviously inferior and the dialog sounds downright silly....more info

• The best TV drama ever, even better than "Homicide."
  I'm with James Fearn, Oz is the best TV drama ever. So why does this series, with its harsh, violent, brutal characters and unrestrained language and violence rate so high?

  Oz is about the two most important issues we all face: sin and redemption. And not sin and redemption in a Catholic or Christian sense, but in the sense of how we all belong to and participate in humanity. To address these issues most directly, the writers (most of the time, the brilliant Tom Fontana) and producer (Barry Levinson) go to the worst sinners of all and those most in need of redemption, the prisoners (and their jailers) at Ozwald State Correctional Facility, a mythical maximum-security prison in New York.

  Fontana and Levinson have dealt with these issues before, most notably in "Homicide," but this time all the stakes are doubled. In Oz, violence and survival are minute-to-minute issues. So how, in the midst of such violence and brutality, does one find one's way back to a place in humanity? Some of the characters struggle to redeem themselves, some get by from day to day, some have just given up, and some go mad, like the chronically depressed and desperate Alvarez.

  Of these, some even attain true redemption, coming at last to a kind of peace and reconciliation. And then Levinson and Fontana remind us of the true dilemma of redemption: it's just so damn fragile. Some of the most dramatic and heartbreaking moments of all are when we see the best characters, those who have found their fragile peace, descend once again into the violence they (and we) thought they had escaped. Because redemption isn't absolute. Like the prisoners and jailers in Oz, it lives moment to moment, and at any time we can lose our grasp on it and fall back into pit.

  It's safe to say that no television drama has ever addressed these issues so directly or in such harsh, unremitting terms. Oz should stand as a classic in drama, right along with the works of Shakespeare and the ancient Greeks. Besides, once you start watching it, you just can't stop....more info

• increadible
  This was an intense series. Very good and it keep you wanting to see what happen next ...more info