Product Description
-------------------
Oz: The Complete Sixth Season (DVD)
On the surface, not much has changed inside the walls of Oswald
State Penitentiary. Schillinger has revenge on his mind, Cyril is
facing execution, Beecher is hoping for parole, and McManus is
finding solace in a meditative maze. But there's toil and trouble
brewing in the Oz cauldron, as the Oz players rehearse for their
presentation of Macbeth and the climactic final act.
]]>
.com
----
The sixth and final season of HBO's prison drama Oz--which aired
in 2003--is brutal, passionate, and gritty. Compellingly
addictive with taut storylines and superb acting, each of the
eight episodes on this 3-disc set nicely paves the way for the
series finale, which wraps the show up in a satisfying (and
surprising) manner. Often told through the eyes (and voice) of
deceased prisoner Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau, Lost), Oz
isn't an easy show to watch. Inmates are routinely raped,
tortured, and killed--not out of need, but out of boredom and
cruelty. And in a corrupt system where too few bureaucrats
actually care about these men's lives, few are willing to do
anything about it. Those that do give a damn--Sister Peter Marie
(Rita Moreno, West Side Story), her Mukada (B.D. Wong, Law &
Order: Special Victims Unit), Dr. Nathan (Lauren Velez), Warden
Glynn (Ernie Hudson), McManus (Terry Kinney)--face an uphill
battle.
One of the strongest storylines is the ongoing romance between
murderer Keller (Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: SVU and Beecher
(Lee Tergesen), who's hoping to be paroled. Series creator Tom
Fontana doesn't allow their arc to be diluted by any idealistic
expectations. The viewer is acutely aware that Beecher is an easy
target for annihilation whether or not he is released from
prison. The viewer is never quite as certain of Keller's
motives--whether they're borne of love and affection, or a
selfish need to satisfy his own primal urges. Like Beecher,
Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo) is trying to keep his own nose clean in
the hopes that he'll be eligible for parole three years down the
line. It's easy to understand the almost suffocating feeling he
lives every day, knowing that three years may as well be a
lifetime when you're behind bars and the target of both your
former gang and the Aryan brothers, led by Schillinger (J.K.
Simmons, Law & Order: SVU, the Spider-Man films). And Ryan (Dean
Winters) desperately tries to save his mentally retarded brother
Cyril (played by Dean's real-life sibling Scott William Winters)
from being executed.
There are a few subplots that don't ring true, such as the quasi
romance between a librarian (Patti LuPone) and one of the
prisoners, and an elderly inmate's (Joey Grey) implausible death
wish. And for all the constraints the majority of convicts face,
some appear to have almost free run of the prison. Still, Fontana
has created a vivid, dark world where the occasional acts of
humanity are as important as the non-stop chaos that is Oz. While
it certainly helps to have seen the previous five seasons of the
series to enjoy this season, it's not mandatory. These last eight
episodes work fine as a stand-alone piece of drama. --Jae-Ha Kim