After coming across this video I knew I had to use it for Video of the Day. I LOVE The Walking Dead and this is pretty inventive. I can’t wait for the new season to start next month. This should hold me over for at least a couple days! Enjoy!
I am a huge Jim Carrey fan. I love everything from Ace Ventura to Truman Show (recently he has been less than awesome). When I saw that his daughter, Jane, auditioned for this season's American Idol I had to share it with everyone.
Some people are saying she only got through because of Jim Carrey. I watched and think she is ok. She probably should have moved on to the next round, but I do not see her winning this season. What do you guys think?
A couple days ago, I told you about my ambition to get the great HBO series OZ returned to the air. I promised to bring you a five part series on how awesome this show was and why it deserves a second chance at life. I then went on to quickly sum up the show as best I could. Today I am going to talk about the one thing that makes OZ stand out back then - and even today.
OZ was gritty, and not gritty in that family-friendly kinda way that NYPD Blue was. Those behind this iconic television series made sure that there was no envelope left unpushed. Like any prison or crime drama, there was rampant violence and drugs, but the show went deeper than that.
On the surface, OZ looks like nothing more than a reason to show violence, drugs, and nudity for ratings. Every episode included one, if not all three, of those ratings boosters. The inmates of Oswald State Penitentiary were mostly looking for a way to make it from day to day. If this involved some murder and tit slinging (tits is the term for drugs within OZ), then so be it.
This violence was always increased when race was involved, which was a daily occurrence. The inmates generally associated with different groups, usually based on race. Within Emerald City, there was strict control over how many of each group is allowed in. Even though this measure was meant to reduce the race violence, it never seemed to work out that way.
Most of these groups are fighting for certain power, like the tit trade. Drugs are a major problem in Oswald. All day long inmates are either selling drugs, taking drugs, killing over drugs, or finding new ways to get drugs (no postage stamp is safe). The drug of choice among the inmates of OZ is heroin, but all sorts of drugs make an appearance.
This is all surface stuff, though. Below this, HBO and OZ take on a variety of deeper topics; the biggest of these topics being redemption and reform. Tim McManus, the man that runs Em City, has a heart of gold and tries everything he can to turn these prisoners into reformed members of society. Over and over, he gets burned by these lost causes; yet he continues to fight for them.
We get to watch the inmates as they struggle with doing the right thing and survival. You really begin to feel for these people. You actually realize that they are people. I understand this is a way over the top tale of life in prison, but it does make you wonder if it is possible to reform some people.
Still a hot topic today, capital punishment was another ongoing topic on the HBO series. Sister Peter Marie, a therapist and nun that worked at Oswald Prison, was strongly against capital punishment. A very vocal activist about capital punishment, she put her beliefs ahead of her job or any politics on a number of occasions. This really came to a head when she fought to save Cyrill O'Reily, a mentally ill prisoner, from being executed. Watching this man who has the mental capacity of a small child, try to deal with things like murder and execution, is a painful reminder of the real life problems of inmates such as Cyrill.
Other topics touched upon in OZ were religion, sexuality, homosexuality, love, and so much more. Nothing was off limits for the writers. This mentality is one that would play well in today's race for ratings. HBO has lost much of its foothold in the television drama market, and bringing back a show as gritty as OZ would be a ratings and cred boom for the cable network. The topics that could be touched upon are almost infinite.
Stay tuned for the rest of my Bring OZ Back series of blog posts. Make sure you sign and share the online petition to bring this classic series back.
"OZ, that's the name on the street for the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary. OZ is retro, OZ is retribution. You wanna punish a man? Separate him from his family, separate him from himself, cage him up with his own kind." ~ Augustus Hill
So my girlfriend and I
just finished watching the full series of OZ
and I realize I miss the hell out of it. I have seen the whole series a number of times,
but she was an OZ virgin. Like so
many prisoners in Oswald State Correctional Facility (Level 4), she was gripped
by the gritty, prison drama and beaten into submission. It did not take long
for her to become an OZ fan.
I have been a fan of many
shows that have received a stay of execution at the zero hour. I love Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place
(even without the pizza place). Roswell
was the best show about high school aliens ever. I still hope that somebody will see the
awesomeness in Jericho and finally
give us some answers. And now we have shows like Family Guy and Futurama that
get cancelled and come back for round two.
That all got me thinking
– Why not my OZ? The shows I
mentioned were cool shows, but they are pretty much forgettable. That is not
the case with HBO’s OZ. This is one
show that really does deserve a second chance. Why was it cancelled, you ask?
As far as I can tell, the
show was too gritty and pushed the envelope too far for a mainstream audience
by 2003. Plus, the stars were all moving on to higher paid and better gigs.
Finally throw in The Sopranos really
getting big, and there was just too much stacked against OZ.
The fans want OZ back, though. That is why I started
an online petition to bring OZ back
on the air. To kick off the launching of this petition, and the launching of
this site, I am going to do a five part series showing how awesome it would be
for everyone to bring this great show back to the masses.
Today I just want to
familiarize everyone with the basic story of OZ. Stay tuned for posts talking about other aspects of the show;
including writing, cast, style, and even my suggestion for new season
storylines. Make sure you sign the Bring OZ
Back petition and tell your friends, family, and pets.
OZ told the stories of the inmates and workers of the fictional
Oswald State Correctional Facility. Inside this maximum security prison was an
experimental unit nicknamed‘Emerald
City’. This special unit of OZ was meant to concentrate more heavily on the
rehabilitation of the prisoners. It did this by allowing them more freedoms
than the general population; but it also had a much tighter control over many
aspects of the prisoners’ daily lives.
In charge of Em City was
Tim McManus, a dreamy-eyed man who really wanted to help the inmates of the
prison. His philosophy was that every man, no matter how violent his crime, can
be returned to the public a better person. It was this blind optimism that
really kept the Em City project from being shut down.
Warden Leo Glynn butted
heads with McManus a lot, but usually gave in to most demands. The warden was a
good man, but he was hardened from busting his ass all the way up from a
correctional officer. He also had a boss that he had to deal with, and that
boss was a real douchebag.
Governor Devlin is the
poster-boy for corrupt and evil politicians. Every decision this creepy, little
man makes is for his own benefit. Em City, and Oswald State Facility in
general, is always a thorn in his side. There are only two people in this
series that you do not end up rooting for at some point, and Devlin is one of
them.
The inmates of Oswald are
just trying to survive. Most of them fall into certain groups within the prison
walls, generally centered on race. Each group is battling for the drug trade,
money, power, or just simply waving their junk around to show whose is bigger.
This is where a lot of the drama in OZ
comes from.
While you are waiting for part two of my Bring OZ Back series, please head on over and sign the petition and tell HBO what we really want.
