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DVD Oz - The Complete Fifth Season
Raw, uncompromising, and brutal, the fifth season of Oz represents a turning point for the series, tying up loose ends and preparing for the closure of season 6. As with all previous seasons of HBO's hard-edged prison series, the outbreaks of violence, racial tensions, emotional bleakness, and full-frontal male nudity ensure that Oz is decidedly not for the weak of heart. Simmering animosity between the Aryans, Muslims, Sicilians, and Latinos continues unabated; these eight episodes include numerous shankings and slashings, a severed arm, strangulation, a stabbing with a crucifix, and the death (among others) of one of the series' most prominent characters. As Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) and his skinheaded Aryans exploit a naive pair of new inmates, tensions mount between the weak-willed Omar (Michael Wright, in a standout performance) and his prone-to-rage Muslim mentor Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker, also excellent); Ryan O'Reily (Dean Winters) continues to protect his volatile brother Cyril (Scott William Winters) and reunites with his mother (Betty Lynn Buckley) who's in Oz doing community service; McManus (Terry Kinney) locks horns with his ex-wife over prison policy; Alvarez (Kirk Acevado) seeks partial redemption by training a guide-dog for the guard he blinded; and Keller (Christopher Meloni) returns to the "Em City" cellblock, to the relief of his bisexual lover Beecher (Lee Tergesen) who attends "interaction" sessions with Sister Pete (Rita Moreno) to encourage tenuous peace among inmates.
With subplots involving guest stars Luke Perry, Peter Criss (from Kiss), Malachy McCourt, and others, the fifth season of Oz is weak at times, but series creator and primary writer Tom Fontana keeps a lot of characters in steady play, covering impressive dramatic territory after the relatively generous allotment of 16 episodes in Season 4. The series is clearly winding down here (the semi-musical episode "Variety" is a curious attempt to broaden the show's creative horizons, and works surprisingly well), and the outbreaks of violence now have a rather predictable and oppressive frequency. Anyone looking for "feel good" entertainment should stay away, but Fontana and the uniformly excellent cast maintain admirable depth of character and incident, including a tragic loss (in "Visitation") that resonates throughout the season. Extras are slim: commentary by Fontana and Dean Winters accompanies episode 8 (aptly titled "Impotence"), and like the fifth season itself, it's recommended primarily for devoted Oz viewers who've enjoyed seasons 1-4. --Jeff Shannon
OZ is by far my favorite drama series ever put on television. What makes this show so unique is the amount of characters on the show. There are about ten main characters and everyone else is part of the supporting cast and yet everyone manages to get their own storylines. Many shows suffer from the sophmore slump in which they continue to do more of the same rather than to explore new territories. When I rented the first disc of season 1 a couple years ago i loved it so much that i just went out and bought it. Then I bought season 2, 3, 4, 5 as they would come out. Each season is just as good, if not better than the last. Season one is the hinter as to what may come later. Season two is the most violent and is also the beginning of long lasting relationships (ex. Beecher and Keller), season three is very much a charater focuser. It's still violent but they focus more on characterization probably more than any other season. Season four is a combination of everything. At the time they thought it was going to be their last season and so it has 16 episodes, almost like having two new seasons at once! At first everything goes extremely well for some of the baddest characters (like Adebisi) and then when you get to about episode 9, everything goes back to normal, well normal in an Oz sense! Then season five (which oddly enough is just as good as 4 even though its only 8eps again) kind of slows us down and takes some time sort of to reflect on things that happened and things to come. Four and Five are my favorite seasons but each one before that is just as great. A lot of shows suffer because the creator of them doesn't write a lot of the episodes for the show. Tom Fontana (creator of OZ) writes almost all of the episodes. This show is so well written, and in my opinion quite unbiased, that you can't help but love this show. I cannot wait until season 6, i mean how the heck could they end this show?!
Oz - The Fifth Season
Get's off to a slow start but soon picks up with all the old favourites up to their usual tricks, cons and survival techniques within the walls of Oz, a must buy for all Oz fans.
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you...?
Another Year in the experimental cellblock known as Emerald City... Which means more twists and turns, more racial dealings gone awry, and more no-holds barred violence. Characters come and go... violently. And the C.O.s do their best to keep their power over the prisoners rather than keep peace amongst the prisoners. Yes, another year at the Oswald Prison.
Because of the nature of the Oz series, always pushing the envelope, striving to redefine television, Season Five continues to excel and suffer. It excels by getting excellent performances from the inmates all around. But it suffers from a familiarity of story ideas and the need to sometimes go WAY OVERBOARD to shock the audience. Those risks often work, but sometimes land like a hit gone wrong. Characters are stretched and contorted, taken to areas that would seem out of step with their introductions. And that is probably at the core to OZs success.
This fifth season is not the best, and comes in rather short at eight episodes. It is still intriguing, but appears to rush to wrap things up as if this were the last season (which it is not). In the first seasons, issues were introduced and remained the major focus and act as a spine for the episode. Now, the later seasons juggle so many storylines that even the new ideas are only briefly mentioned and return for a second look two episodes later. I found myself thinking "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that."
All in all, OZ is excellent television, suffering mostly from its own longevity. But the whole experiment has a strong effect on all television we see now.
A volatile men-in-prison soap opera, fueled by testosterone and lubricated by blood, HBO's Oz is addictive viewing. The third season of the most violent show on cable TV, set in a cage of concrete and steel and glass, opens with echoes of violence past. Miguel Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo) is in solitary confinement for brutally blinding a guard, one-time drug lord Simon Adebissi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) mourns for his murdered father, and Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) nurses bones broken by Aryan Brotherhood leader Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) and a heart broken by the betrayal of Keller (Law and Order: SVU's Christopher Meloni). Their stories of vengeance, redemption, and forgiveness anchor this season.
The show races through each episode with a driving pace that only... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lee Tergesen DVD Release Date: Released the 24 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Facing an indeterminate sentence of weeks/months/years until new episodes, fans of The Sopranos are advised to take the fifth; season, that is. At this point, superlatives don't do The Sopranos justice, but justice was at last served to this benchmark series.
James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano in a not-so-nice mood
For the first time, The Sopranos rubbed out The West Wing to take home its first Emmy® for Outstanding Dramatic Series. Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo also earned Best Supporting Actor and Actress honors for some of their finest hours... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 07 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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No other show captures the ebb and flow of day-to-day human relationships like Six Feet Under, which chronicles the dysfunctional lives of the Fisher family, who run a funeral home in Los Angeles. Though the overt theme of the series is mortality--every episode opens with the death of someone whose body will end up on the Fishers' slab--but the third season, even moreso than the first two, explores the intertwining struggles for connection and for personal freedom. The season starts slowly but compellingly, laying out the changes in the Fishers' lives. Nate (Peter Krause, We Don't Live Here Anymore) has married and has a baby. David (Michael C. Hall) is settling into tense domesticity with his angry boyfriend. Claire (Lauren Ambrose) has launched into art school. Ruth... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Peter Krause DVD Release Date: Released the 17 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This penultimate season of Six Feet Under continues further down the darkly disturbing path so evident in the third season. To be sure, the signature--and ultimately undefinable--blend of tragic mishap with tripped-out comic eccentricity that has stamped the series from its debut remains pervasive. It's the concentration of the mix that has changed. Leavening moments seem less organic, much as the bizarre death sequences that open each episode often turn out to be rather contrived preludes to the ensuing thematic obsessions. Which isn't to say season 4 lacks the delightfully memorable quirkiness fans have grown to expect. Recurring incidents of fecal revenge bring tensions to the surface between Ruth (Frances Conroy) and her new husband George (James Cromwell), in turn leading to... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Peter Krause DVD Release Date: Released the 23 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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If the title of HBO's brutal prison drama suggests a fairy tale, be warned that this Oz lies on the other side of the rainbow. This gritty portrait of men behind bars is a testosterone-driven soap opera packed with murder, suicide, sadism, and savage battles for dominance in the concrete jungle.
Season 2 opens in the wake of a prison riot that shut down the experimental cell block known as "Emerald City" among the inmates, but it doesn't take long to build a whole new head of steam after prison reformer Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) reopens the unit. The drug wars pit the Italians against the blacks, the Aryan Brotherhood re-establish their campaign of intimidation, and Alvarez is pushed to desperate measures when he's ousted by the new Latino leader (Luiz Guzmán). Even more... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lee Tergesen DVD Release Date: Released the 07 January 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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