Oz
“Life's not a word. It's a sentence.”
Creator
Tom Fontana
Oz drops viewers inside Emerald City, an experimental cell block at Oswald State Penitentiary run on a philosophy of rehabilitation that the prison's warring factions treat as a joke. Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans, and Irish gangs carve up territory and settle scores under the watchful, ambiguous eye of unit manager Tim McManus, while inmate Augustus Hill narrates from a wheelchair suspended in a void. Lee Tergesen's fragile Tobias Beecher and Eamonn Walker's commanding Kareem Said become the show's moral battleground, with Harold Perrineau and Dean Winters rounding out a cast unafraid of permanent consequence. As television's first hour-long HBO drama, it set the template for the prestige violence that followed.
Seasons
6
Episodes
56
Country
United States of America
Status
Ended
Cast
Lee Tergesen
Tobias Beecher · 56 eps
Harold Perrineau
Augustus Hill · 56 eps
J.K. Simmons
Vernon Schillinger · 56 eps
Kirk Acevedo
Miguel Alvarez · 56 eps
BD Wong
Father Ray Mukada · 56 eps
Terry Kinney
Tim McManus · 56 eps
Ernie Hudson
Leo Glynn · 56 eps
Rita Moreno
Sister Peter Marie Reimondo · 56 eps
Eamonn Walker
Kareem Saïd · 56 eps
Dean Winters
Ryan O'Reily · 56 eps
Craig muMs Grant
Poet · 56 eps
George Morfogen
Bob Rebadow · 56 eps
Luna Lauren Vélez
Dr. Gloria Nathan · 52 eps
Ra Hanna
Nacim Bismilla · 49 eps
Tom Mardirosian
Agamemnon Busmalis · 48 eps
Chuck Zito
Chucky Pancamo · 46 eps
Scott William Winters
Cyril O'Reily · 45 eps
Christopher Meloni
Chris Keller · 43 eps
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Simon Adebisi · 40 eps
Otto Sanchez
Chico Guerra · 38 eps
David Zayas
Enrique Morales · 32 eps
Željko Ivanek
Governor James Devlin · 32 eps
Edie Falco
Officer Diane Whittlesey · 24 eps
Seth Gilliam
Clayton Hughes · 24 eps
J.D. Williams
Kenny Wangler · 22 eps
Luis Guzmán
Raoul 'El Cid' Hernandez · 14 eps
Cyrus Farmer
Officer Adrian Johnson · 15 eps
Lance Reddick
Desmond Mobay · 11 eps
Blake Robbins
Officer Dave Brass · 12 eps
Jerome Preston Bates
Officer Travis Smith · 12 eps
Reviews
TMDB
8.1/10
★★★★★★★★★★
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Trailer
Official trailer
Oz
Where to Watch
Streaming
HBO Max
Paramount Plus
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1
The Routine
In the "Emerald City" experimental unit of Oswald State Penitentiary, we meet some of the diverse inmates who live within a pecking order of Homeboys, Latinos, Muslims, Irish, Aryans, and Wiseguys. No clear-cut leader emerges—with the possible exception of Kareem Saïd, a Muslim author who preaches non-violence and abstinence. Saïd's arrival doesn't prevent a short-fused Mafia inmate named Dino Ortolani from ticking off just about everybody—a habit that ends up burning him.
2
Visits, Conjugal and Otherwise
With Schibetta and the prison brass in a race to uncover Ortolani's killer (for very different reasons), we see how inmates react to visits from both their wives and, in one case, family members who are also in prison.
3
God's Chillin'
As friction grows in the wake of increasing deaths, Schibetta, Saïd, and Keane are brought together by Glynn, who tells them to keep their respective groups quiet or else he'll lock the prison down. The tension increases following a visit from Governor Devlin, who was responsible for the ban on smoking and conjugal visits.
4
Capital P
Governor Devlin has reinstated capital punishment in the state, and the first Oz prisoner scheduled to die is Keane.
5
Straight Life
The infiltration of drugs into Oz has reached unprecedented levels, and the undercover efforts of McManus and Glynn to find out who's smuggling them in backfires in a deadly way. Despite a lockdown in Emerald City, the drugs continue to trickle in—and the blame shifts from prisoners to corrupt officials.
6
To Your Health
Three generations of Alvarezes—all prisoners at Oz—are united when the partiarch, Ricardo, is found face down in his cell, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, Beecher, who as Schillinger's "prag" has been forced to wear women's clothes, flips out after taking PCP.
7
Plan B
A recovered Saïd ostracizes Mershah for turning his back on him when he was dying—and orders the rest of the Muslims to do the same. Impressed by Saïd's power, Groves makes a deadly decision in his honor. Meanwhile, Beecher, transformed by prison life, finally gets revenge on Schillinger.
8
A Game of Checkers
Beecher is released from the hole and Schillinger is left eyeless and weak. A riot breaks out after two white punks get into a fight over checkers. Frustration, sexuality, hate, revenge, racism all rear their ugly heads, causing the violence to escalate.
Gallery
From the same creator: Tom Fontana
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