(Continued...)
In 1998
Oz exploded on to the screen. Short for Oswald penitentiary,
Oz focused on the fictional Oswald maximum security prison. Named after Russell G. Oswald, the prison warden during the real life Attica riots.
Oz was the first hour long drama produced for HBO, paving the way for
The Sopranos. As well as being a highly entertaining crime drama,
Oz is filled with philosophical conversations about love, life, death and religion and raises many questions about the judicial system. After prisoner Ryan O’ Reily gets caught for murdering the husband of the female prison doctor (who O’ Reily is in love with) a character tells him love’s not a reason to commit murder-to which O’ Reily replies “maybe you’ve never been in love.”
A deeply cynical programme,
Oz is about deep inner pain people go through that even those closest to them don’t understand. One of the many ironies of
Oz is that all the prisoners in Oz are remarkable people from their deviousness to their resilience at surviving in prison. Some prisoners, such as Arian brotherhood leader Vern Schillinger are so feared they feel comfortable, maybe even at home in prison.
Oz proved that
Punishment could have been a success if only TV executives had stuck with it. Pre September the 11th,
Oz was the first programme to have a muslim as a main character and launched the careers of Harold Perrineau and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who both later starred in
Lost. It Occurred to me, while watching
Oz that everything that happens in prison also happens outside of prison. So as extreme as the violence and betrayal is in prison, it happens in our everyday lives, maybe to a less exaggerated extent.
Oz acts as a Parable for society as a whole, using the incarcerated to hold up a mirror to outward society.
At the end of each hour long episode you’ll find yourself taking in a long deep breath and wanting to sit and think for a while about what you’ve just seen! The influence of
Oz can be seen in all of the American drama’s made since.
Lost, for example is about a group of people closed off from society, it has big, movie style production values and some hand held style camera work, it has a muslim character and features long conversations between non English speaking characters.
Oz creator, writer and producer Tom Fontana seems to realise the power and potential of television, using the power of sight and sound to their full potential, to shock, to entertain, to provoke thought and discussion and to surprise the viewer. The shocking violence, thought provoking dialogue, hand-held style camera work and screeching music make
Oz immensely entertaining and infinitely re-watchable. American television became braver after
Oz. The picture quality of
Oz, particularly in the first season is grainy and even pixilated, performances are very enthusiastic and there seems to be synchronicity issues with sound. For the most part though the first four seasons are perfect television. Season 5 was only OK and season six didn’t offer a satisfactory conclusion to the series. All six seasons of
Oz are available to buy on DVD.
Prison Break was promoted as a real prison drama, like
Oz, and as such was a real disappointment. Where as
Oz took prison drama and TV drama in general a step forward
Prison Break took it a step back. It’s pretty much the very antithesis of
Oz.
Prison Break just isn’t bolstered in any reality. The programme combines elements of different programmes and films. It’s basically a much toned down rip-off of
Oz combined with the conspiracy element of
The X Files and Michael Scofield is basically a modernised, American version of James Bond…in prison! The feel to the programme is similar to a Saturday morning adventure series, since a run of absurd coincidences constantly occur which keep the main characters alive and as a viewer you “know” Michael Scofield will survive until the end. This makes it very difficult to get into and take seriously. It’s so unbelievably far fetched it’s insulting to the viewer’s intelligence. One of the most annoying things about it for me is how it’s constantly filmed through wide angle lenses, it just doesn’t look realistic enough. Not a real drama at all but rather a far fetched adventure series,
Prison Break is an absurd guilty pleasure that’s entertaining despite itself.
A few more, short lived, less memorable prison dramas worth noting are
Corelli, an Australian drama about a female prison psychologist, it starred Hugh Jackman before his movie career took off,
The Governor, A British drama written by Linda La Plant and
Buried, another downbeat, pretentious British drama.
Prison dramas are generally much more “over the top” than most programmes and films, not just in content but in style (offbeat camera angles and loud, bold incidental music) and as such more entertaining than most other programs and films. It’s been said conflict is the main component of a good drama, and you couldn’t find a better setting for conflict than a prison! A prison is the ultimate setting for a drama because it allows for maximum scope for drama and conflict between many varying characters, all in an enclosed environment where emotions are heightened and things happen at a faster pace and to a greater extent. A theory put forward for the fascination of prison drama’s is that we enjoy watching the underdog struggling for survival. Exploiting voyeuristic human nature, prison drama’s allow us to peer behind the walls, to a world unfamiliar to us.
There are four more prison drama’s rumoured to be coming soon.
Eden is being touted as being like a female version of
Oz. A female version of
Prison Break, entitled
Prison Break: Cherry Hill, An American remake of
Bad Girls (I’m sure they’ll do a better job than us Brits!) and most interestingly of all
Women In Chains by
From Dusk Till Dawn writer and director Robert Rodriguez, which will have a deliberate B movie feel like those old women in prison exploitation movies. It’s ironic
Women In Chains will have a deliberately kitsch feel to it, the very thing
Prisoner Cell Block H has been mocked for all these year’s. So your TV might be holding you prisoner for some time yet…
Chucky
http://www.youtube.com/user/ChuckyBl...t?feature=mhum http://chucky-blackheart.blogspot.com/