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I watched all 16 hour long episodes in just over a week. Though I thought this was one of the weaker seaons (none of their seasons have been bad and all have hooked me in), I found myself addicted to the DVDs (sometimes losing sleep because I couldn't tear myself away from it).
This season saw Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) get forced out of Emerald City, a plan that Adebisi (Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje) had set in motion a season before, so that Em City could be run by the African American prisoners and staff. This scenerio concludes in the eigth episode with a showdown between Adebisi and Kareen Said (Eamonn Walker), which ends with a really great moment.
Some other storylines inlcude Tobias Beecher's (Lee Tergesen) children getting kidnapped, Vern Shillenger (J.K. Simmons) finding his son, Hank and finding out that he may be a grandfather. The two bitter enemies (you have to start watching this series from Season 1 or else you'll be pretty damn confused) go through victim/offender interaction sessions with Sister Peter Marie (Rita Moreno). Beecher is also up for parole.
Ryan O'Reily (Dean Winters) has trouble dealing with his brother Cyril (Scott Winters), who's temper has increased rapidly since his boxing match with Khan (Season 3) in which Cyril turned him into a vegetable with a knockout punch. Ryan also makes an unexpected friend, meets his mother and tries to do the right thing during the final episode.
The storylines I wrote about feature some of my favorite characters, but Oz is so layered with storylines and interesting characters that it would take a long ass time to write about everyone. The characters have a real human quality to them, and you can both love and hate them at different times in the season (or sometimes simultaneously). The writers did an amazing job at making the viewers feel sympathetic for these crimanals and the staff at the prison. They give every character in the show, whether they be major or minor characters, a human aspect to them, as they show all sides that people can have (though I hope we're not all violent criminals).
I'm glued to my seat during every episode I watch and have bought the Oz DVDs the week they come out, even though I've seen them two or three times before when they were on HBO. I feel that this show never got the respect it deserved due to the popularity of "The Sopranos," and that is a shame. This is a really innovative and risk taking show that is full of great writing, directing and acting. All praise Tom Fontana for this wonderful series.
Written by: RF