# So I just recently watched "Oz" \[the prison drama\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 28, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539 "2011-05-28T06:51:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/1 "2011-05-28T06:51:27Z")
Never watched this show in its original run, but **Girl Wonder** and I recently watched the entire series through Netflix. My thoughts: 1. Good show, for the most part. I like the fact that the creator, Tom Fontana, had a hand in writing nearly every episode. Keeps a level of consistency that doesn’t appear in most shows nowadays. 2. I really, really, REALLY despised Ryan O’Reily. The show seemed to focus on him as the “sympathetic” character as the show unfolded, and he was anything BUT sympathetic. And why, as the show went on, would people still listen to this man? 3. Vern Schillinger was an evil fuck, wasn’t he? But, oh, was JK Simmons convincing. 4. _I_ personally wanted to kill Omar White. He annoyed the balls off of me. 5. The end of the series was weak. I could forgive some of it up until then, but the end sucked. 6. Beecher turned out to be kinda hardcore. Especially as he relates to Robson. 7. Christopher Meloni as Chris Keller seemed to be very Elliot Stabler-esque, but I think that’s more of a reflection on Meloni’s acting ability more than a condemnation of the writing. 8. I saw almost as many penises during the run of that show than I did on prom night. 9. I find it hard to believe that Cyril would be sent to Oz in the first place, given his mental capacity. Unless Oz is in Texas, I don’t buy him being electrocuted, either. 10. Would they REALLY send a woman to a men’s prison for her death row stay? Even if that prison was the only one to execute, wouldn’t they have kept her isolated until then? 11. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t buy Dr. Nathan forgiving Ryan for his role in having her husband killed, much less kissing him at one point. 12. There seemed to be a little too much of inmates being able to go in and out of other cells for me. I would think that they would restrict that more. All in all, I really liked the show, but there were some parts that just weren’t believable. Of course, I made the mistake of watching some of it with my brother, who has been a correctional officer for about 7 years. I know they have to sacrifice some true elements for the sake of storytelling, too. And someone in that field can destroy the illusion, much like my father (a career firefighter) ruined [Backdraft](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101393/). ETA: Hi, **Opal**! ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/2 "2011-05-28T19:15:39Z")
I always, always refer to J.K. Simmons as “Schillinger,” regardless of the role he’s in. Sorta like Ted Whatshisname, who plaed Jame Gumb in Silence of the Lambs. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/3 "2011-05-28T19:19:46Z")
The series got goofier and goofier as it progressed, to the point where you just give up on expecting plausibility and are just waiting to see who gets killed next. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/4 "2011-05-28T19:20:48Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > All in all, I really liked the show, but there were some parts that just weren’t believable. Of course, I made the mistake of watching some of it with my brother, who has been a correctional officer for about 7 years. I know they have to sacrifice some true elements for the sake of storytelling, too. And someone in that field can destroy the illusion, much like my father (a career firefighter) ruined [Backdraft](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101393/). I have no personal experience with prisons, but I found almost none of it believable, except for the personal relationships. I didn’t like the show until my daughter suggested I view it as a fantasy. It’s awesome, like that. ---
**Author:** ![Dietrich\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@Dietrich\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dietrich_K)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/5 "2011-05-28T19:36:32Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > The series got goofier and goofier as it progressed, to the point where you just give up on expecting plausibility and are just waiting to see who gets killed next. This. And it’s why it’ll never be in the same league as **The Sopranos** , **The Wire** , **Deadwood** , et al. Talk about a series going off the rails! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/6 "2011-05-28T21:25:02Z")
> [@Dietrich\_K](#): > > And it’s why it’ll never be in the same league as **The Sopranos** , **The Wire** , **Deadwood** , et al. Talk about a series going off the rails! I don’t think it was ever **on** the rails. 🙂 My daughter was wrong. It’s more of a soap opera (not fantasy). _Deadwood_ and _The Sopranos_ had some soap opera elements, but not at the level of _Oz_. All those deaths – “Emerald City” was a failed experiment from the beginning and in the real world, would have been closed with the first murder. Management was totally incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/7 "2011-05-29T04:36:35Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > And someone in that field can destroy the illusion, much like my father (a career firefighter) ruined [Backdraft](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101393/). I want to hear more about this! ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/8 "2011-05-29T05:51:58Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I want to hear more about this! I’ll get more into it later (perhaps its own thread?), but right off the top of my head: 1. No way do two brothers work on the same shift at the same firehouse. The way my dad explained it (at least in the Louisville, KY area. Chicago may be different, but I doubt it on this aspect), family members would either work at different firehouses, or at least on different shifts. The reason is that it’s a dangerous job, and family members working the same shift at the same firehouse would potentially make a family lose two family members in the same accident, rather than minimizing the risk. And they certainly wouldn’t have one of the brothers in charge, making him responsible for his own brother’s life. 2. That big, dramatic scene where Kurt Russell comes charging out of the house with the kid? Never would have happened that way. My dad leaned over to me, and said, “his coat’s unbuttoned!” When I tried to explain that he was trying to help shield the kid from the flames, it was pointed out that that goes against just about every bit of their training. The coat is to protect THEM, and opening it is just exposing them to the risk of being injured, making them another person that needs to be rescued. If you want, I’ll try to think of more. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/9 "2011-08-07T05:19:26Z")
Tonight I finally finished watching _Oz._ And I must say, though the show started off great, there were some unbelievably stupid plotlines. I agree, Cyril never would have been sent to that prison. But the most ridiculous thing about Cyril is how much his voice changed over the course of the show. Initially, he just spoke like a normal guy who had the mind of a child. But eventually he started talking like a child, and then, later, like a bad parody of a toddler. “WWWYYYAAAN!” “I want a fwuffewnuttew!” I also didn’t realize that head trauma can revert someone back to a child’s mind. I thought you have to be born developmentally disabled in order to be an adult with a child’s mind (retarded.) Can a blow to the head actually turn someone retarded? At one point there was some ridiculous plot line where they were testing out a new pill that caused prisoners to age rapidly. They gave them to Cyril, and then the next day, ALL OF HIS HAIR was white. That is absurd. Hair cannot just magically change colors. Hair is dead tissue. If your hair were to actually “turn white,” it would be over the course of several months as new hairs grew in white, replacing the old dark ones. This was totally fucking absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/10 "2011-08-07T05:32:33Z")
Minor trivia I read somewhere: The scene in the credits of someone getting the word Oz tattooed on their skin? That was Tom Fontana, because no one else was willing to do that. Also, any theory on how Adebisi managed to keep that hat on his head? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/11 "2011-08-07T05:46:19Z")
He had stubble on his head and the hat stuck to the stubble. That seems like the most likely situation. WTF ever happened to Greg Penders? The crazy, gangly goon who trained his dog to attack the guard, and then later sued Oz for making him sick with asbestos in the cell? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/12 "2011-08-07T07:04:20Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I also didn’t realize that head trauma can revert someone back to a child’s mind. I thought you have to be born developmentally disabled in order to be an adult with a child’s mind (retarded.) Can a blow to the head actually turn someone retarded? It’s not unheard of. In my capacity as an EMT, I’ve come across someone who, after an automotive accident, was essentially a functional infant. Levels of severity exist due to level and type of injury. Illness can cause it, also, such as meningitis and encephalitis. Added trivia, which took me forever to realize: The actor playing Cyril was the guy in _Good Will Hunting_ to whom Matt Damon quipped “how do you like THEM apples?” He also reprised the role for a cameo in _Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back_. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2011, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/13 "2011-08-07T07:28:33Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > At one point there was some ridiculous plot line where they were testing out a new pill that caused prisoners to age rapidly. They gave them to Cyril, and then the next day, ALL OF HIS HAIR was white. That is absurd. Hair cannot just magically change colors. Hair is dead tissue. If your hair were to actually “turn white,” it would be over the course of several months as new hairs grew in white, replacing the old dark ones. This was totally fucking absurd. The goofier thing about that storyline is just the very idea that the state would decide to let out prisoners early once it could use experimental medication to inflict upon the prisoners the biological equivalent of the aging they’d have undergone while in prison… Yeah, it was nuts. Off the rails. I don’t think Oz is nearly as great a show as I thought when I first watched it anymore, but I think it can be appreciated as pretty good so long as you approach it as deliberate fantasy/soap opera, as noted above. Realism was never what it was going for (as I recall, it even had the occasional supernatural element (with a hint of plausible deniability, sure, but clearly written as supernatural all the same)). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/14 "2011-08-09T18:18:02Z")
It’s years since I’ve seen it but the whole IRA-man plot was hilarious and not remotely related to reality. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/15 "2011-08-09T18:50:12Z")
I’ve said it before: if you wanna know what life is like inside a real prison, watch a documentary. If you want a great drama, watch OZ. OZ is my favorite show of all time. I’ll be back with more comments when I have more time. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/16 "2011-08-09T19:10:00Z")
**Mississippiene** , my wife is addicted to shows like [Lockup](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27118605/). And my brother’s a correctional officer, so I find out much about prisons. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-recently-watched-oz-the-prison-drama/583539/17 "2011-08-09T21:27:18Z")
I started a thread a few years back that was “HBO’s OZ… does it ever get… good?” The score alone made it impossible to take it seriously. Heavy bongo drums and yelps… geezus. Get it! The prison is like a jungle!