Oz: De-cleansing Soap

‘Now, normally when you see a special about jail, it’s on regular TV and there’s a lot of shit they don’t show. Oh, not the HBO jail specials...’

- Chris Rock

The above quote is one I used before to describe HBO's 'The Wire', but if there was ever an HBO show to attribute this quote to, it's 'Oz'. But where 'The Wire' unfolds like a novel, 'Oz' is a more formulaic approach to television, playing out like a soap opera.

''Oz': The name on the street for the Oswald State Correctional Facility, Level 4.'

- Augustus Hill

The line that greets nearly every episode, introduced by wheelchair-bound cop-killer Augustus Hill. Like all US TV shows, each episode of 'Oz' comes with a moral message, quickly to be forgotten by the start of next week's episode. But, unlike the convenient closures to justify thirty minutes of ignorance typically displayed by US sit-coms, the messages present in 'Oz' are less easy to swallow, offering no solutions and posing a question rather than an answer to the audience. In this sense, 'Oz' acts as a lesson in social studies.

But this is one side of 'Oz', a show that fills many roles: a violent drama; a platform for social comment; a critique of the US prison system; homosexual titillation; entertainment camp enough to match any soap opera; an addition to rappers' pension funds. But watching 'Oz', there are several things, good or bad, that are evident throughout:

There are no easy answers:

Tim McManus, head of the 'Emerald City' wing of the prison is part prison warden, part liberal sociologist. His belief is that prison should be more about rehabilitation, not punishment. 'Emerald City', therefore is an area where the prisoners have greater freedoms, with a more open policy, with glass cells offering literal transparency, and everything out for all to see.

But, these pesky criminals don't get this, exploiting the freedoms offered to get away with (actual) murder, betraying McManus' trust in them, failing to learn lessons, for the most part. McManus' constant struggles to keep Omar White out of trouble are a father's trying to do right by his prodigal son, only to see him fail time and time again. In the age of neo-liberalism, we all spout how change comes from greater understanding to get through to people rather than simply punishing them, but for this to happen requires greater social change and transformation, McManus realising this every episode.

August Hill's lectures throughout each episode also pose difficult, often unanswerable questions about the workings of US political structures, prison systems and man's general inhumanity to man. To see social change, humanity needs to evolve, but the human mentality can't keep up with the endless pace of the modern day milieu.

Weren't you in 'The Wire'?!:

'Oz' ran on HBO from 1997-2003; 'The Wire' starting in 2002. Much of the cast of 'The Wire' popped up in 'Oz' before, many in smaller roles, before making bigger names for themselves in the seminal show. 'Oz', while trying, can't match the same level of depth in its commentary; a more short-hand version of society's ills, but is a quicker and more easily digestible form; a more casual watch. All round, it has the feel of an audition for what was to come.

Alongside the cast of 'The Wire' are many Nineties rappers popping up here and there, with Method Man and LL Cool J making brief cameos, while Lord Jamar and muMs are in more regular roles; the latter often reciting his poetry to reflect storylines. 

That, and Ernie Hudson from 'Ghostbusters'.

Sausage-fest:

There are a lot of dicks and arses in 'Oz'; literal and metaphorical. There are a lot of excuses for largely unnecessary male nudity within the show. Whether it's getting thrown naked into the 'Hole' for naughtiness, good ol' fashioned buggery, or just standing about with your tackle out, pissing into a bucket, every episode comes complete with some quick flashes of meat and two veg. Part of the contract for featuring is that all of you must feature.

Obviously being an all-male prison, there are various boy-on-boy (usually Nazi-on-middle-class-whitey) romances/violent bum sex scenes, but the amount of nudity is usually unnecessary. Notable scenes where Irish naughty boy Ryan O'Reilly walks into the evening light to show off his semi-tugged falace; and Chris 'bi-sexual sociopath' Keller pissing into a bucket while in the 'Hole' for ten seconds of non-meaning television.

The creators and writers would not suggest homosexual titillation for the show; and the number of typically tolerant rappers in the cast would also suggest as much. Perhaps, being a 'soap', it is to keep the housewives interested.

Small World:

As with any good soap, 'Oz' revolves around about two places. But here, the cast are in a prison, rather than the self-imposed narrow universe of typical soap operas.

Apart from grainy flashbacks as to what brought each character to Oz in the first place, everything is contained within its walls. All scenes are indoors, in a small number of locations, creating a claustrophobic feel, reinforcing that monotonous world of everyday life in a prison.

There is no going outside: Once you're in, you're in.

Is it Really Like this?!:

'There is no yelling, no fighting, no fucking...'

- Diane Whittlesey

I've never been to prison; no really! Least of all a maximum security US prison. I've not even been to the US Embassy. So, I come in ignorance. But, harking back to Mr Rock's comment earlier, is it really like this?!

All the prisoners are greeted to the above rules; all of which will be broken within their first twenty-four hours, if they survive that long, of course.

But c'mon: All this sex, murder, drug trafficking, pissing in buckets - all overseen by corrupt guards that have their price - how true to life is this? This is a question I can't answer, but the televisualisation (my word) of prison life here is to entertain the audience, in the same way that any soap will show a fantastical (not my word) version of reality.

Not my Brother and Fuck your Mother!:

'In Oz, you don't have friends, just people that look like you.'

- Miguel Alvarez

One thing that's always got me about US popular culture - and I could be wrong here - but there is often a preoccupation with what makes us different, rather than what makes us the same.

In one episode in particular, McManus has his designs on a 'The Warriors' style world, where four delegates from each of the ten known groups will reside in Emerald City. These groups include: the Arians, the Italians, the Homeboys, the Hispanics, the Christians, the Bikers, the Muslims, the Gays, the Irish and, of course, the 'Others'. Naturally, chaos ensues.

But in 'Oz', there is very much an air of self-segregation, each group keeping among themselves, choosing to either do business or fight with each as the winds change. A dangerous 'Us' and 'Them' culture exists, one still with us today with recent political changes.

As Augustus Hill's lectures would suggest: 'Can't we just all get along?!' To which each and every episode responds with a unanimous 'No!'

Everybody Dies:

In the same way that everybody gets their tackle out, everybody must die! Most episodes introduce a new character to the party, and, more often than not, they may no longer be part of the cast by the start of the next episode. Fed to the wolves of Oz, outsiders are often met with aggression, often resulting in death.

Death row is a predominant feature of 'Oz', often posing the moral question as to its existence. But, with the sheer number of killers committing further and further murders while in prison, pretty much everyone in 'Oz' should be there, failing to rehabilitate themselves. The last series (not season), seeks to resolve a number of the long-running plot-lines, culminating in key characters' deaths. Many are sent to Oz to die, though this is often the result for those that aren't.

I originally watched 'Oz' on Channel 4 late night, in the days before it decommissioned 'Big Brother' and simply became Big Brother. Due to the scheduling, I watched the odd episode here and there, rather than following the storyline through. Though, to be honest, as with any soap, it's pretty quick to pick up the storylines.

Recently re-watching it in its entirety close to two decades before it was launched, it's clear that this is a show largely from the Twentieth Century: before 'box-set' series became endlessly drawn-out developments, unfolding like novels, post 'The Wire'. This is more a magazine, providing easily digestible social comment and political looks at life.

A prison drama, this shows some of the darker sides of the US, intentional or not. 'Oz' is a world where drugs, violent crime, sex and prejudice rule; and good intentions are punishable by death.

Or is it just me over-thinking everything and being confused about my own politics, here?! I should probably be locked up.