Warning! There are a lot of spoilers in this review! Can't help myself, if you don't like it, don't read it. But if you don't mind them, then please continue on!
So my curiosity definitely got the best of me. Over the summer, all I did was lay around and watch netflix which I'm starting to regret thanks to my weight! Ha. But I'm also not sorry because it turned me onto this show. Netflix didn't have it but I did end up seeing it on Youtube. It's off now thanks to claims made by HBO, but I'm glad I got to it in the nick of time. Watching Chris Meloni on Law and Order made me want to see what this show was all about because all the critics and people like that kept saying that it was such a cornerstone of his career.
There's a staggeringly amount of characters on this show, like just thinking about all of them is mind boggling, so for the purpose of this review, I'm only going to focus on the main characters and their story lines. It's going to be a little long, like I said, there are a lot of characters which means a lot of plot lines, but I promise, this is a really good show and it definitely brings it in the drama department. Here we go!
Initially, this show begins with Tobias Beecher, played by Lee Tergensen. If you remember, I did a post on him about his hair, and I mentioned that he played on this show. The show is narrated but I'm just going to go in the order that I saw them. Tobias got sent to Oswald Correctional Facility because he got wasted and killed a little girl on her bike with his car. He was wracked with guilt as any person should be and he was perhaps the only person I could say that had a moral conscience. Some of the characters on this show just makes you want to look at them and think who the hell raised them. Ha!
Tobias gets sent there and one of the workers there, Tim McManus, I'll get to him later, has made this grand idea for Oz. It's set up as a seperate wing for the group of guys who are bad but not past the point of rehabilitation or so Tim sees it. When Tobias gets there, Tim sends him to Emerald City in order to make him amend his ways and serve his time thinking about what a horrible drunk he was and to get clean. Tobias has really taken this to heart because he was the average white middle class American who probably only known violence on TV. So yeah, he's scared shitless.
What I liked about this show was it's realism. They had people of color, they had insults flying everywhere, and they kept the race thing a main issue of the whole show. Everyone knows that prison is divided by races, gangs, and all that fun stuff. Tobias had the misfortune of having Vern Schillinger as his roommate, I'll get to him next. Vern runs the Aryans, the neo nazis' who pretty much hate everyone but have their few alliances here and there. Right off the bat, this show lets you know what it's about. From day one, Tobias gets owned.
Vern makes a show of being nice to Tobias but in the end, it's all a front. Vern essentially makes Tobias his bitch. He tattoos a swastika on his buttcheek, makes Tobias suck his prick, has sex with him, makes him dress up in women's clothes complete with makeup and a hairdo, Vern just owns Tobias and since Toby is basically a punk, he can't do anything about it. He may try little things to get away like having his wife visit him who ends up killing herself, getting Vern's sons killed, trying to get other people to kill Vern for him, but Vern is practically indestructible.
Tobias' relationship with Vern carries until the very bitter end and though he's free from Vern in the end, how can you truly be free from someone when they literally emasculated you in a place where you might have needed it the most? Everyone knows that in prison, it's a dog eat dog world and if you aren't running the shots, then you're the one taking them and that's something you really don't want to do.
Tobias went through many transformations, there was a part where Vern conspired to break Tobias' limbs, kill his son and send his hand to Tobias, and kidnap his daughter. There was just no peace between these two from the very start. There was a point where Tobias ended up killing the officer with his long and sharp nails he had when he finally got out of the hospital. He grew some balls but it was too late because everyone already knew what a bitch he was. However, Tobias just seemed a little whiny to me. I didn't particularly like his character. I was watching and it seemed like he just never did anything for himself, beside those few points I mentioned. But he was an acceptable character, I'll give him that. Lee played his heart out in this role and it shows.
Vern Schillinger, played amazingly by J.K. Simmons, runs the town in Em town. But his antics eventually get him sent to Gen Pop where he still thinks he's running things, but he actually isn't. Now, I was surprised by J.K. Simmons in this role. The only other thing I've seen him in was those State Farm commercials and he just looked so harmless. But then watching this show and these episodes, I'm like wow! I really can't believe it's the same person.
Vern goes through his own things but he's basically an ass throughout the whole show. He calls people derogatory names, insults them, breaks their limbs, curses A LOT, and tries to seem like a good person to the people running Em City, but really he's just a snake. I didn't care for his character, simply because of what he stood for. Vern was just a nasty person who's spent his whole life in prison and then wondered why his sons were so messed up. I mean, no person should do what he did to Tobias and he really didn't care. But I will say that Simmons played his character with enough heart to almost make you believe the stuff he was saying. But of course, he's just an actor playing a role.
What I also liked was their in-depth profile of characters. They really got into the minds of the characters and there came a point in the last few episodes where Vern was starting to question who he was, his role towards everyone else, and how irrelevant he was becoming. Of course, he didn't really care and that's just who Vern is. He just didn't care. And the running joke was that people kept messing up his last name. Everytime he corrected someone, I just had to laugh!
The show is narrated by Augustus Hill played by Harold Perrineau. The only other shows I watched him in before this was The Matrix and now that I've seen Lost and The Unusuals, I can say that he's a really good a versatile actor. He's in a wheelchair, having lost his legs as he tried to get away from the cops during his arrest. A cop flung him over the roof and he broke his back making him permanently paralyzed. I will say that I was shocked by all the gruesome acts of violence and all the nudity. Full frontal nudity where pricks were swinging everywhere and they didn't care. Looking at HBO now, they're not shy about showing sex scenes, but come on, they really aren't doing much and the most you'll see is a women's breasts jiggle up and down. But on this show, they masturbated, walked around butt nakey, and took showers and showing their pricks proudly. I'm no prude but there were definitely times I had to look away from that many things swinging around.
Augustus was caught by the police right in the middle of having sex with his girl, that's the only reason why I brought up the whole nudity thing. And because conjugal visits had been taken away from the prisoners, they had to accomodate some kind of way.
Though Augustus is a character in the show, he also exists outside of the show as the narrator. It wasn't just his voice, they showed him in varying ways. Sometimes he was in a spinning room, all clear because there is no privacy in Emerald City, upside down, or surrounded by other characters and inmates, or anything else that visually is astounding but also kind of makes your head spin along with the room. But I like how they did that part, it lended some visual creativity to the show and I liked how he touched on real subjects afflicting prisoners. They have to deal with racial tension, officers who beat on them, and authority figures with serious power trips, and drugs and all kinds of stuff that could happen inside a prison. I don't know how accurate their dramatization was but I'm guessing it was pretty close.
Augustus was also a sort of moral figure in the show. He used to be messed up with drugs but he tried to stay away from it, he tried to calm people down when they got too rowdy and if he believed in something, he tried to stop it or make it happen depsite people being real buttholes too him. When his father figure, Burt, showed up, he was happy because he finally had someone who was black but wasn't into the things the other blacks were into. However, when Burt started acting crazy, Augustus stepped away from all that even though he got ridiculed by the members of the black community. Augustus had strong beliefs and he was able to stand by them no matter what. He eventually died in a type of riot and he began to narrate from beyond the grave. I was wondering whether or not he would, but they answered that question.
I also like how the show runners handled their deaths. They weren't afraid to kill someone off, but they did it with such flair, it was almost an art form within itself. People died from AIDS, from falling off the second floor, falling from an elevator shaft, from a gas explosion, from being set on fire, from getting boarded up in the kitchen behind the wall, I mean these deaths were just so elaborate and yet plausible that I kept trying to find out where the next one would come from! All in all, I liked Augustus' character, Harold really brought it.
Another really important character was Ryan O'Reilly played fantasically by Dean Winters. He was another veteran of Law and Order SVU, the first season and some of the second. He couldn't handle it on the show, his character not him, so they wrote his character off the show, which was a shame because he was so cute in it! Anywho, his character is by far my favorite one. In the Irish clan, Ryan was just so good at getting people to do what he wanted and made it look like it was their ideas. Ryan would incite people to action against one of his enemies. There were only a bismal amount of times he actually did somethig himself, like when he ground glass and put it in the head of the Italians' food, he hit one of his Irish mates over the head with a ding bell because he raped his girl, put drugs in people's drinks so his brother would win the boxing matches, and he got his mentally ill brother sent to Oz for killing Ryan's crushes' fiance. Ryan definitely had no trouble getting his hands dirty but he was better at getting other people to do it. Thinking back now, I don't think he got sent to the hole at all. Which is a record because a lot of those characters got sent at least fifty times.
Ryan was just this skinny white kid with a gravelly, sexy voice that was just so cute. I would have never put him as the guy from the All State commericals, the Mayhem guy. Took me forever to know that it was him! But that's just the type of actor he is. He just blends so well into his characters it's just awesome. What I also liked was Ryan's loyalty to his brother. Cyril O'Reilly looked scarily just like Ryan, and it took me a long time before I realized that they actually were brothers in real life. Played by Scott Winters, Cyril was this guy that everyone tried to pick on just because he was slow. But Cyril was no punk. He was a hard core boxer and Ryan had no problem exploiting that.
Ryan was in love with Dr. Gloria and though she was definitely feeling him too, she kept keeping him at arm's length. What I didn't like about Gloria was that she was a blatant tease but then tried to act all offended when Ryan would do something outrageous like kill her husband or kiss her. She would kiss him back but then regret it, get all hot and bothered when he said something sweet or hot, it was like you're dangling a carrot in front of a hungry rabbitt, what did you think was going to happen? All of the inmates had been deprived of sex for forever and while some turned to each other, Ryan didn't swing that way and wouldn't so he started having sex with one of the officers, but pictured Gloria instead. Though he was a sneaky little crafty devil, Ryan will remain my favorite character.
A really important character was Miguel Alvarez. He's played with so much heart by Kirk Acevedo, he fast became my favorite character. In the beginning, Miguel was very loyal to his Latino gang. He didn't run it but he was definitely willing to do anything for them like gouge someone's eyes out or kill someone. What broke my heart was how torn his character was. As a writer myself, I know how important it is to put your character on the ledge and throw rocks at them but be satisfied that they stood their ground. With Miguel, the writers just threw him completely off the ledge and threw bolders at him instead.
Miguel had his girl pregnant but the baby ended up dying. Miguel slit his hands and marked his face because of it. His girl left him for his friend and he wanted to beat him up. He punched a member of the parole board! Later in the show, he started to feel really guilty about all the things the Latinos were making him do. He escaped but got sent back to Oz where he got sent to the hospital room for getting shanked. He messed with a cop, I think he killed him, or something like that, and got sent to Solitary just like his dad and grandpa before him, and the guards wouldn't feed him. He went crazy and started smearing poop everywhere. All over the walls, all over his face, I just don't think they were nice to his character. Of course, which meant that I was totally in love with him!
Miguel grew a conscious and out of all the characters, he was the one who came close to actually rehabilitatiing. Towards the end, he was literally fighting each day to stay alive but after punching the parole guy and his folder was just chock full of everything he's ever done and Em City just wasn't done with him. He wasn't ever getting out and you could see how weary he was getting. He spent six seasons trying to hold onto some kind of moral code while also not dying, and he was just tired. His whole life was going to be spent in Oz now, he finally gave up. Some hot shot drug pusher came to Em City, he was openly gay, and he kept after Miguel but he didn't do drugs and he didn't swing that way. But at the very freakin' end, Miguel succumbed to doing drugs and to the hot shot. I literally screamed no at my computer screen. I really thought he was one of the ones who were going to make it, but I guess when forever stretches in front of you inside a cage, there's nothing to live for anymore.
I've put off writing about this character because he just did some truly eye brow raising things. And because I can't spell his name to save my life! Simon Adebisi played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, yes I had to copy and paste that! And I still don't know how to pronounce it. Such a shame. Anyway, his character was apart of the blacks. He didn't run it, he was more like second fiddle but definitely towards the end, he started calling the shots. In the beginning, you only see him as this big black guy with a little hat on his head and the running joke was how he kept it on there so long and so perfectly in place.
Simon was originally harmless. Everyone just assumed that he was this big, dumb black guy who did drugs and went with the flow. He raped one of the Italians, putting him the mental ward there, he helped Ryan grind glass, he worked in the kitchen. He was bad and fearful but he wasn't exactly a serious heavy weight in the show. But this African dude came along and messed with his mind and the African dude ended up dying. It messed with Simon's head and then he retreated into himself and eventually, healed himself. Still, we're supposed to think he's harmless, and he has everyone fooled until we see him take a needle full of blood with HIV and infected the new leader of the Italians. I mean they went through so many leaders, it wasn't even funny. They were heavy weights in Oz but they quickly dwindled down.
Then after his little secret got out that he wasn't this remolded citizen of Oz, he began acting all out. The inmates got tired of Tim so they brought in a black guy to run Em City and Simon went full out. He had his own little butt slaves, he put a curtain up in his room, he had full use of drugs, he video taped everything. I mean, he really got lucky but finally Warden Glynn got wise and got rid of him, and brought back in Tim. Simon ended up dying in a knife fight with Said. It was kind of fitting because Simon was truly losing his mind towards the end. And the fight was so visceral. The curtain got this big red stain and Said came out all bloody, holding a knife, looking horrified, (because the fight was done off camera), and then Simon stumbled out and fell down the stairs. That whole scene, I was literally holding my breath. But Simon's character was definitely weird and I didn't like the rape scenes. That wasn't pleasant at all.
Perhaps one of the most important characters would be Kareem Said played by Eamonn Walker. He was the head of the Muslim faction of Em City and he was definitely controversial. He mostly didn't get along with anyone because a lot of people made fun of his religious rituals, but that doesn't mean he wasn't cool with at least some people. His biggest enemy in Oz would have to be the blacks, I would think. They just didn't get along. So while the show had racial tension, there was also an underlying religious faction as well.
The only thing I didn't like about Said was how exaggerated his piousness was. He was always reading, always doing his little rituals, always praying, and if things didn't go his way, he made it seem like it was attacking his soul that it didn't happen. His mental state and religious state were so important to him, that moral dilemmas like liking a white girl, or dealing with the other inmates, caused him to get high blood pressure and he refused to take medicine because it was so important that he have a pure body. I just didn't like how overly pious he was. I think they should have toned that down a little bit.
Underneath it all, Said was nothing more than a little power hungry person. He did things his own way and if Tim disagreed with him, Said made a big stink about it. He was almost like a huge petulant child. Said did have his points. He did truly want to help a lot of the people in Em City but it was almost like he did it just so he could feel high and mighty about himself and about his little status in Em City. This isn't to say that his character is bad, I actually liked Said's character. I just wished he toned down on the religion.
Warden Glynn.. What can I possibly say about Warden Glynn? Played by Ernie Hudson, I felt like in light of all the characters, his character was just so irrelavent. He liked his little position because it was a power trip over Miguel. But at the end of the day, he was just so useless. Warden Glynn spent most of the show upset over all the violence and drugs pushing around in Oz. During the course of the show, Oz got changed into a Max Security Prison, level four. Just because of all the violence. But instead of doing anything, he just listened to complaints from his staff, talked a lot, told them how his hands were tied because of the idiot governor. Honestly, who elected that joker in office?
His character didn't get meatier until the end where he felt guilty about his partner dying. Back in the day when he was an officer at Oz, his partner got shanked. So now, his partner's son came looking for a job at Oz but Glynn treated him with kid gloves. He wouldn't let him get in at Gen Pop so he got sent to Em City. But he was such a punk that the inmates ran all over him. Angered, he brought in a stun gun and instead of Glynn firing him, he just gave him a desk job. Glynn made so many excuses for this guy, it wasn't even funny.
The son just got meaner and meaner, underwent a radical change and ended up killing someone and got sent to the cops' ward where they kept the bad cops away from the rest of the population. The whole time I'm just like why are you making excuses for this guy? Can't he see how bad he is? I don't know, I just didn't see the point of this character except to say that they did have a Warden and someone for Tim to butt heads against. Ernie Hudson did his role justice, I just didn't see the point.
Finally the man I keep referring to, Tim McManus, played by Terry Kinney. Honestly, in the beginning I thought this character was an idiot. He was so dillusioned about his little project, it was terrible. Anyone could see that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that these inmates were going to change their lives around. There was just no way. But slowly, I could see that Tim actually had a back bone and didn't put up with their mess.
Tim ran into some road bumps. He was knockin' boots with one of the lady cops but she ended up leaving him, he did Gloria but that ended quickly, then got off with Claire, (hated her) but made her mad so she filed a sexual harrassment suit against him. His greatest weakness was women. He just couldn't freakin' win and I was hoping in the end that he would find some kind of happiness, but he really didn't.
But I liked that Tim came down from his cloud really quick. Over the seasons, he toughened up and took no mess from anyone. He did have a problem with one of the inmates, I mean this guy was just terrible. He was always doing something bad yet Tim kept giving him chances because he wanted to help at least one person. But even I was hoping he'd get over it. I liked Terry's character though, he played it really well.
I'm going to combine the religious figure heads in this how. Father Ray Mukada and Sister Peter Marie played by B.D. Wong and Rita Moreno respectively. I actually really liked Father Mukada, B.D. Wong is so great on SVU and it took me until now to realize that he did the voice of Shang in Mulan. Gee, I'm really late with stuff aren't I? What I liked about his character was that he didn't force Christianity down anyone's throats like some shows tend to do. Personally, I'd like to keep religion out of TV because I just don't like how they protray it sometimes. It's either a joke to them, inaccurate, or a whole bunch of stuff that's just offensive to me. I'm pretty sure you can have great TV without religion but it is what it is.
Fr. Mukada really cared about the inmates and really took it to heart Miguels' troubles. I liked how invested he was in the characters and how he truly wanted to help. Even in times he felt lost, he found some way to help others and he was such an easy guy to talk to. Wong just has that couch look to him where he looks like you can just spill your whole world to him and he won't judge. I didn't particularly know what he was doing with his hair in some of the episodes, but he still looked cute, so who cared?
Sister Peter was thee homie of the whole show. She took lip from no one and she was just so good at getting to the heart of people's problems and helping them that I wished she had been around when I was growing up! There was a point where she was thinking about leaving the sisterhood. She got into it because someone murdered her husband and she felt like she could love no other, but when Chris Keller came around messing with her, she was seriously thinking about leaving because he was reawakening thoughts and feelings she thought she buried. I didn't like this mockery of sisterhood, they take their vows of chasity very seriously, but it was still enteraining to watch.
And finally, the whole reason I watched this show! Chris Keller played beautifully by Chris Meloni. I can see why this was such a big part in his career because he played this psychopath with such authenticity it was just beautiful. Chris doesn't come until the second season and when he first comes in, he's just this laid back guy getting used to his surroundings. By this time Vern has been moved to Gen Pop and Chris became Tobias' roommate. Chris has made Tobias so unsure of himself. Chris subtlely comes onto Tobias, driving him insane with lust and feeling him up in the dark. Tobias refuses but eventually gets swept up into Chris and there was a very pivotal moment in the laundry room where they tell each other they love each other and they kiss. Most people wouldn't like the homosexuality going on in this show, but oddly, when two attractive guys kiss, it's kind of hot. I can see why guys get off on two girls kissing.
But quickly we see that this was all manufactured. Chris was brought in on purpose by Vern and he helped break Tobias' limbs. I was at the point where I was rooting for their relationship and when that happened, I had to look away. I just had to. I literally felt Tobias' level of betrayal. It was almost like Keller betrayed me. Weird, I know, but I get invested in my characters and shows in case you hadn't noticed by now.
So Tobias is off of Keller but Chris is just so much of a psychopath, that he's trying to get him back. He's talking to Sister Peter Marie and he's telling her how he likes to see how far he can go with someone. He likes to see how he can hurt someone so badly yet see if they would still love him. Chris doesn't discriminate, he's bi, so while he's talking to Sister Peter, he's also messing with her mind. Chris just took this pyschopath thing to a whole new level that I fell in love with him all over again.
Chris just had fun messing with people and I hope to write a character like that someday. Someone so good at being bad that you forgive every little thing he does. It's so funny watching him here, and then watching him play this tough family man on SVU. It just shows how good Chris Meloni really is. I'm so sad he left SVU but I guess when execs wanna play around with people's money, you just have to make the tough decisions. I was also upset that they made this big thing about him being on Trueblood and they killed off his character, like wtf.
Anyway, though Chris was crazy, he actually really did love Toby and would do anything to prove it. He killed off all of Tobias' lovers, he helped Toby finally kill Vern, killed the boy who killed Toby's dad, and finally made a sort of chemical bomb that made Oz toxic so everyone had to leave. Then he killed himself because Toby wouldn't want him. I mean, there was just no end to what Chris would do. He was just truly unpredicatable that I didn't know what he would do next.
If you haven't guessed, yes I am in love with this character and not ashamed to say it. Meloni is just too damn sexy for his own good, especially here because he ran around in sweats and a tank. Um..drool?? And that shower scene! Whew!
I know this is long, thanks for sticking in there. I also liked the music on this. The intro was just so good and at points they had very basic music that to me, sounded like someone struggling to breathe. Sounds weird I know, but when you think about the context of the show, it just fits, you know?
Even though I've mentioned a lot of stuff in this review, this is just the tip of the ice burg. They've jampacked so many plots and storylines into this show, it's not even funny. And it wasn't just drama fodder, there were actually some points in the show that touched on things that made you think. Not just for a few minutes, sometimes I found myself pausing it and really thinking about what they said. I mean, that's just how good this show was. I'm sad it went off, I kind of hope it was still on. I know, I know, they couldn't be on there forever, but couldn't they have tried? Just a little?
LOL! So if this review hasn't turned you off of this show, you should definitely go and watch it however you can. I know it's on iTunes and like I said, HBO took it off of YouTube. Honestly, studios are so money hungry they hate it when someone isn't getting paid. This show has been off for years and yet they get mad that YouTube has it. They should be glad because it's still reaching the masses and just might provoke someone to want to buy the actual DVD. I also don't like how Youtube wants to make people pay for watching episodes. I tried to watch the first season of Suits, another amazing show, but I could only watch the first two minutes. The rest I had to buy. I mean, what a sellout you know?
Anywho, go see the show. You won't be sorry!
