OZ: The Complete Second Season

The second season of Oz, HBO's mid-'90s prison drama which paved the way for future programs by fusing violence, profanity and nudity with a multiethnic, multitalented cast to assay rich plotlines, picks up in the aftermath of the prison riot that served as the previous season's finale. Its characters will shift and evolve over its several hours, many of them going from bad to worse. The season's eight episodes, now available on DVD, are worth investigating; on top of their more salacious aspects, they also provide some of the most intelligently constructed and executed bits of television seen in the decade.

As we open the season, Emerald City, the experimental division of Maryland's Oswald State Penitentiary run by Tim McManus (Terry Kinney) and Warden Glynn (Ernie Hudson), has been shut down after the costly attacks that left eight dead. Governor Devlin (Zeljko Ivanek) orders an investigation, sending Professor Alvah Case (guest star Charles S. Dutton) into the breach. The more questions that Case asks, though, the more troubling answers he receives, and Dutton's powerhouse turn guides us from curiosity to indignation at a corrupt prison system. The character also serves as a stabilizing bedrock, as his interviews with each prisoner help to reacquaint us with this particular penitentiary's yellow brick road.

In time, Em City reopens and business inside the prison proceeds as usual. Aryan chieftain Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) resumes his feud with former lawyer Beecher (Lee Tergesen). Thuggish O'Reily (Dean Winters) learns that he has breast cancer. Impressionable Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo) falls in with the wrong group of Latino gangsters. Sociopath Adebisi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) falls for a Death Row inmate. And Muslim leader Said (Eamonn Walker) grows disillusioned with the ways of his flock. Throughout it all, wheelchair-bound Hill (Harold Perrineau) provides to-the-camera commentary on everything from natural selection to the value of family, all delivered as a prisoner's blues.

These are merely a few of the plotlines extrapolated over the course of the episodes; the show lists no fewer than fourteen regulars, each with his or her own two to three storylines, and to call the densely plotted overall narrative Dickensian would still fail to do it justice. The different plot strands are so tightly woven and bound up so well together that, even with so many events and characters, we are always kept aware of what is happening and when. This should come as no surprise, however, seeing as executive producer/head writer Tom Fontana was previously responsible for one of network television's most complex and edgy programs – Homicide: Life on the Street.

The previous season focused on the mutual antagonism between Beecher and Schillinger and, while this strand continues (Beecher delivers a particularly disturbing punishment to an Aryan in the first episode), the focus shifts more towards Said and Adebisi, who seem the closest to

pure representations of good and evil that Oz has to offer. Watching Akinnuoye-Agbaje take steps toward humanizing his monster is fascinating, as are Walker's struggles to help those who do not want his aid. Yet every actor has his or her moments "” not just the regulars, but also the bevy of guest stars which includes rapper LL Cool J, Broadway veteran Elaine Stritch and longtime character actor Luis Guzmán.

Much of the show's appeal comes from watching truly dangerous men commit foul misdeeds; a lot of rape happens in Emerald City, and it's always motivated more by lust for power than any other kind of desire. At the same time, the monsters stay men, and watching them get hurt is just as interesting as watching them hurt others. Oz is a dangerous show in the best possible sense, as we are placed in the hands of masters navigating an unpredictable ride.

Special Features:

The menu for each episode includes both a recap of the previous episode and a preview of the ensuing one; a recap of Season 1 and a preview of Season 3 are also included. The DVD also includes a short promo for Season 2.

Speaking of "short," that is probably the best word to describe the four-minute featurette comprised mostly of brief interviews with guest directors (the likes of which include Bob Balaban and Kathy Bates) and promotional information about the season. The meatiest special feature is a twenty-one minute conversation sponsored by the Museum of Television and Radio with the show's creators and some of the cast. Fontana facilitates the discussion and comes across as a domineering ringleader, asking leading questions of people and then cutting them off after less than a minute. With that being said, however, several interesting nuggets arise from the talk, such as Winters' revelation that Walker told him to base O'Reily on Iago (an amusing factoid when one considers that Walker played Othello for British television in 2002).

The disc also includes biographies for most of the principal cast and crew members and web links to both HBO's home page and Oz's. My hunch is the second is a nice place to visit, but that nobody should want to stay in Em City for too long.

Movie Grade: A

DVD Features Grade: B

Overall Grade: A-