Customer Reviews

Oz: Season 2 (Full Screen) [3 Discs]

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This griping look inside the American penal system will leave you gasping for air and wanting more. As HBO's first original series, "OZ" set the stage for "The Sopranos," "Rome," "Deadwood" and many more. As an HBO fan, I picked up "OZ" long after the series had closed. It was hard for me to believe that it started in 1997, as it deals with ground breaking subject matter in a balls out fashion (literally!). "OZ" forces the viewer to question our widely excepted system of contemporary crime and punishment, as it takes us into a world entirely real, and mostly unknown.

If you're tired of milky prime-time TV shows, get this DVD and have your mind blown. Trust me.

EACH SEASON IS 8 HRS. [480 MINS.]OF ON THE EDGE OF YOUR CHAIR SUSPENSE.WE TALK ABOUT THE REALITY SHOWS ON TV NOW WELL THATS OZ IS REALITY BEHIND THE BARS.LEE TERGESENS DID A GREAT JOB.IM 50 YEARS OLD NOW AND SEEN A LOT BUT OZ IS NUMBER ONE.

OZ Season 2 is when Fontana and the crew really start to develop the edge that made OZ such a success. Some key characters are developed quite nicely. Beecher has completely hatched out of his OZ cocoon as his entire life's morals have been put into a blender and spit out again. The brutality and corruptness of the inmates and hacks are full blown. Season 2 really sets the stage for Season 3 and 4 (arguably the best seasons of OZ). If you only have the money to buy one season, buy season 2 over season 1. You won't regret it. Then go buy season 3 at the end of Feb. 2004 (Took them long enough to release it)

This series isn't for everyone.The series does portrays the stark realities of prison life and is well written. Don't purchase 2nd season without seeing 1st season.

At first glance, Tom Fontana's extraordinary television series "Oz" seems to be a hyper-naturalistic view of the hellish life behind bars in American prisons. It is that, of course. But the title is a tip-off that Fontana also has larger, more mythic concerns on his mind. His tortured Catholicism plays a role in the world-view presented here, as it did in his wonderful earlier series "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "St. Elsewhere." It turns out that Oz (the prison) is a kind of purgatory where wounded spirits struggle with good and evil. Even the best (like administators Tim McManus and Leo Glynn) are highly fallible, even misguided and foolish at times. And even the worst prisoners have sparks of humanity in them. These worst include the amazingly terrifying Simon Adebisi, the larger-than-life Nigerian criminal who controls the heroin trade in Oz. And J.K. Simmons deserves some kind of special award for his portrayal of Vern Schillinger, the leader of the neo-Nazi prisoners. He is the worst human being imaginable, but Simmons plays him with such style and elan that you have to grant the devil his due. As the recappers on "Television Without Pity" put it, if "Oz" were more well known, Schillinger would join Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates in the Fictional Villains Hall of Fame.

The battle for the souls of these men is best shown in the ordeal of Tobias Beecher, an upper-class lawyer who is convicted of a drunk-driving homicide and finds himself in the middle of this inferno. His horrible experiences in Oz reach a Job-like intensity. The second season sees the arrival of actor Christopher Meloni as the sociopathic Chris Keller. The three-way tango of betrayal between Keller, Beecher, and Schillinger is absolutely chilling. The storytelling of "Oz" is intricate, densely layered, and paced like a rocket taking off. If you miss five minutes of a single episode you may miss the fate of a character's entire life being sealed. There is a heightened, almost magic realism to much of what goes on. (In the land of Oz, it only takes a few weeks from a death sentenced being pronounced until its execution; and each episode is narrated by inmate Augustus Hill inside some kind of omni-aware, postmodern space.) This can be a little disconcerting at first, but the final impact is exhilarating. If you can take the intense (but never gratuitous) violence and the hair-raising prison sex, "Oz" is a wild ride from one of the best writers working in television.

Oz was one of the best shows on tv and im very upset that it is off. I was very excited to purchase this dvd but i agree with some others when they say that it is kinda over-priced. it may be expensive but its worth the money cause i love this show

Season 1 ended leaving all of us in question about what happend after the whole riot incident occured. We were left in confusion as to just who died, who lived, and what the punishment would be to the prisoners. Luckily, the first episode of season 2 goes into detail about the aftermath of the riot aznd answers all of our much-asked questions.

Season 2 further develops all the characters, adds great new storys, and introduces one of the most consistent and greatest storylines of Oz history: The bizarre Beecher-Keller love story. This season may have it's share of boring moments, but it's an overall great DVD set.

this is an awesome show, but the bang for the buck simply isn't there.

an 8 episode dvd set for 55+ dollars?
are you mad?

other than that it really is a great show, and I would snag this up quick if it were priced accordingly.
29.99 anyone?

The Oswald Maximum Security Penitentary is alot more grittier, violent, bloody, and with sexual situations and nudity. The addition of Christopher Meloni and Luis Guzman really set OZ on the HBO map and increased more viewership ever since. Elaine Stritch makes a guest appearance in Episode #4. Episode #4 also marks the entrance of Christopher Meloni as "Prisoner Chris Keller", a role he played to the last season in 2003. Episode #6 includes the controversial sodomy scene and marks the entrance of Luis Guzman as "Prisoner Raoul Hernandez", a role he played until the year 2000. LL Cool J also makes an appearance as a Prisoner.

The first season was more compelling. It had a greater degree of realism (relative to this one), a greater sense of urgency, and it was new. Here, the same characters go through the same kind of motions we're used to, including a strong factor of shock value being written into most episodes.

It'll still hold your interest, and the cast are again excellent. But the show starts to move at this point towards being a strange soap opera full of sadism, rather then being something like the first season where you really sensed that anything could happen. And whereas the first season ended brilliantly, it really whimpers here.