Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25364 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-10-27
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Full Screen
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 21
• Running time: 3131 minutes

Special Features
Includes:
Episodic previews and recaps
Deleted scenes
Featurettes
Original casting auditions
Behind the Walls music video by Kurupt, featuring Natt Dogg
Museum of Television and Radio panel discussion

Synopsis
The Oswald Maximum Security Prison has opened an experimental new ward reserved for especially dangerous criminals. This unit, Emerald City, focuses on rehabilitation, but the world inside is even more corrupt and violent than the mean streets where these inmates come from. Inside the walls there are also two sets of rules, those laid down by the warden and those understood by the racially divided prisoners.


This HBO series, full of gritty and violent imagery, deftly handles some sensitive issues of the American justice system. This collection gathers together the first six seasons of the show, which has proved to be one of the most popular and long-running dramas in HBO's history.

Customer Reviews

Unflinching prison drama for those who can take it
Oz, is the slang name for Oswald State Penitentiary; the fact that it is (presumably) name after Lee Harvey Oswald - an innocent man - gives the audience some idea of where this programme is coming from.

Oz is a hugely neglected masterwork, featuring the best cast you've never heard of. This overlooked drama series never stepped out from The Sopranos' shadow, which is a great shame as it deserves to be considered alongside HBO's greats: The Sopranos, Deadwood and The Wire; that is, Oz can be considered as one of television's greats.

Viewer be warned, Oz is set inside a maximum security prison and it doesn't make for comfortable viewing, given that it is populated by neo-Nazis, bikers, black gangbangers, militant Muslims, Latino gangs, the Mafia, drug dealers, pimps, hustlers and killers. Trying to keep a lid on the escalating violence and even making a gesture at reforming the inmates, are a desperate staff of Correctional Officers, psychiatrists, doctors, priests and administrators.

At only eight episodes per series, unlike The Sopranos, The Wire's and Deadwood's thirteen (or thereabouts), Oz is fast-paced, intense, brutal and uncompromising but always intelligent and never sensationalist. There is humour in there too but given its subject matter, it's somewhat of the gallows variety. Creator Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote every episode of the entire six seasons, deserves great credit for depicting a world full of pretty vile but human people, people whom you generally wouldn't want to spend any time with at all - yet in his hands, they become compulsive viewing.

What seems to draw the most negative criticism of this programme, is not the violence, the drug use, profanity or sexual element of the series but rather the classical device of the Greek chorus, in which Augustus Hill, an incarcerated crack dealer and cop-killer, offers a commentary and reflection on the events portrayed in each episode. This has proven a frustrating interruption for some, an ironic interlude for others.

Rather than review every individual series, briefly put, the first four series of Oz are fantastic (including the fourth double-length series), the final two seasons are slightly uneven but are still far superior to much else on the fool's lantern.

If prisons are an extreme reflection of society at large, then Oz captures the paranoia and pre-millenium tension of a society at war with itself, unsure or perhaps even unwilling, of how to progress to a more compassionate level.

Ronnie Barker's 'Porridge' this ain't
Oz is one of the hardest hitting TV series ever made. Set in a US maximum security penitentiary, it follows the struggles of inmates and staff to cope with their dreadful environment.

Much of the drama is driven by the rivalries between the various prisoner factions, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Latinos, the blacks etc. There is a fantastic array of thoroughly unpleasant, yet highly watchable characters, most of whom are just plain bad.

The six series also chart the journey of everyman character Tobias Beecher, a Harvard educated lawyer convicted for vehicular manslaughter committed whilst under the influence. Beecher's ordeals inside Oz and the nature of his transformation in order to survive life there are truly disturbing.

Original UK fans of the show may particularly welcome this box-set as Channel 4 aired these series erratically, with ever-changing late night programme times and huge gaps between seasons. Having the complete works will allow viewers like me, who were sometimes remiss setting the video, to catch up on missed episodes and enjoy watching Oz with some continuity.

With its frequent and graphic scenes of brutal violence, this is definitely not for the faint-hearted, but viewers wanting challenging and compelling drama will find plenty of it here.

This is highly recommended.

Sometimes excellent; sometimes predictable and corny .... but the good outways the bad.
I have just finished watching all 6 seasons of Oz and I must admit that it is a hard peice of television to review. At times a little to obvious, a little to 'soap-opera', little too far fetched and cheap. At other times it can gritty, thought provoking, well acted, and must watch TV.

Many of the main story arcs are very absorbing like Beecher's conflict with Schinlinger and his freindship with Keller. Many other complex characters and storylines also grab you. However some of the story lines can be corny, unbelievable to the point of boarding on the super-natural. It can also be predictable but somehow I found myself interested enough to complete all seasons.

When I say "Oz can be far fetched" this opinion comes from episodes that concentrate on faith, god, the Devil .... and at one point it thought that I wouldnt be suprised if Aliens somehow made it onto the screen ... Honestly at times Oz can be as rediculus as Dynasty or Dallas.

Try to put the more stupid elements, that you may find in the story, to one side and you may find yourself liking OZ as I did. It is a mixed bag of poor TV and good TV but you should find the good outways the bad.