Premium channel programming has gone insane with hype. I admit I am very critical of shows on HBO and Showtime because there's a certain elitism that comes with it. Oh, I watch good television: HBO. Bullshit.

But before both networks became the bloated messes they are today, they started out with more experimental shows. One of these shows was: Oz.

I've avoided "Oz" for all this time, because it just seemed too dark and mean spirited for me. But a few weeks ago I gave in and finally started watching it; if for no other reason than to just see Mr. Eko and Michael again.

I was surprised to see the show was a lot less dark than I had built up in my head. If anything it was a glorified prison soap opera. I did love the more experimental aspects of the show, namely Harold Perrineau's narrations and the random poetry segments.

Now, I'm wrapping up season four right now and I still have two seasons to go after that. For the most part, the show really maintained a level of quality through out its whole run. You can tell with the fourth season more money was coming in, but sadly also most of the cast started leaving. Actually, the second half of season four is where I'll say the show starts slipping for me.

First, there's a sci-fi esque experimental drug tested on the prisoners that's supposed to rapidly age them. That's so out of character for this show, I'm debating to call it the shark jump. The second half of season four is also notably more violent. While violent things occurred earlier in the series, things just became too much. Things became darker for lesser reasons: a character's Achilles heal is cut so they can never play basketball again. In season one, a character gets high on PCP and craps on J. Jonah Jameson's face. In season four, a future "Fringe" actor takes his shit out of the toiler and rubs it all over his cell walls and his body. It's like the show knows how much attention its getting and is trying to live up to raised expectations. I HATE it when that happens!

While season four is the beginning of the end, there's still a lot about the show I like and find myself going through episode after episode to see what happens.

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

Syd Lexia wrote: Tebor wrote: It's like the show knows how much attention its getting and is trying to live up to raised expectations. I HATE it when that happens! Nip/Tuck does that. I've only watched a little bit of Oz, as I don't have HBO. As I recall, Luke Perry got buried alive in the walls. and you got to see his penis

Yeah... Didn't need/want to see that... ever!

The bricking really came out of nowhere though. How'd they get him behind the wall to bury him in the first place? There was some wonky editing going on there. It was: Luke Perry's penis, Luke Perry admits to B.D. Wong he is guilty of pride, and then he's being bricked behind a wall!?!? But tre "Dark Shadows", so it was awesome. Plus, I LOVED how he got out of there.