Oz starts off extremely well in the first season. I was almost to the point of convincing my wife to rewatch it with me since I knew I had a few more seasons to go, but I started the second season and was extremely dismayed.
If you're a fan of The Wire, you'll love seeing so many of the actors from that cast on Oz, but you'll miss the intricate plots. After season one, where characters' values actually mean something to them, it seems that the writers got as uncreative as Grey's Anatomy by just having each character question the values that defined his or her character.
There's way too much expositional dialog. So much of the show is recapped through inmates retelling what just happened in unnatural ways. If the plot needs to progress, they don't even bother waiting within a few tin minute blocks. Prisoner A needs to be killed? Prisoner B has a knife under his bed. Prisoner C steals knife; Prisoner A gets killed. That's about as complicated as the plot ever gets after the first season, and they don't at least give the audience the benefit of anticipating the action by letting the plot encompass a few episodes.
Throughout much of the show, I continually ask myself, "So what? What's the significance?" It becomes plot by the numbers with no metaphor.
I watched through half of the third season and just couldn't take it anymore. There are a few actors that still do a good job with the bad writing they are given, but it's not enough to continue.
If you're a fan of The Wire, you'll love seeing so many of the actors from that cast on Oz, but you'll miss the intricate plots. After season one, where characters' values actually mean something to them, it seems that the writers got as uncreative as Grey's Anatomy by just having each character question the values that defined his or her character.
There's way too much expositional dialog. So much of the show is recapped through inmates retelling what just happened in unnatural ways. If the plot needs to progress, they don't even bother waiting within a few tin minute blocks. Prisoner A needs to be killed? Prisoner B has a knife under his bed. Prisoner C steals knife; Prisoner A gets killed. That's about as complicated as the plot ever gets after the first season, and they don't at least give the audience the benefit of anticipating the action by letting the plot encompass a few episodes.
Throughout much of the show, I continually ask myself, "So what? What's the significance?" It becomes plot by the numbers with no metaphor.
I watched through half of the third season and just couldn't take it anymore. There are a few actors that still do a good job with the bad writing they are given, but it's not enough to continue.