switchbladeeyes

I’m starting a rewatch of Oz. I’m bringing the spouse along for the ride. He’s never seen it. He’s been suitably warned lol. I’m only planning to watch season 1-5. I can’t recall a ton of details about season 6 and, to be honest, I prefer it that way because I remember it really pissing me off.

Running from 1997 to 2003, Oz was HBO's first dramatic series. In so many ways, it set the landscape for what could be done for all the premium cable and, later, streaming dramas that would follow in its wake.

Oz pushed and, frankly, trampled every boundary for dramatic television that existed at the time. Maybe it won't be as sensational to watch now against the modern television landscape that it pioneered. We'll see. But even just thinking of some of the things that I remember going down on the show gives me a visceral punch to the gut.

The very first episode, "The Routine," was relatively mild for Oz (I mean, I say that of an episode with one shanking and two murders). It's just setting the table for the kinds of things the audience can expect from the show.

Let's do this.

Oz. That's the name on the street for the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary. Oz is retro. Oz is retribution. You wanna punish a man? Separate him from his family, separate him from himself, cage him up with his own kind. Oz is hard times doing hard time.

- Augustus Hill

Despite just recently coming off a rewatch of another 90s show, I totally forgot the format of the era: the screen is square rather than widescreen. This format actually works quite well for a show as claustrophobic as Oz. Everything is set indoors and in confined spaces, tight.

Again, this episode is table setting. We get introduced to many key characters among the staff and inmates, and we get the why of the experimental cell block nicknamed "Emerald City" or "Em City" for short. But most of the episode focuses on the unraveling of inmate Dino Ortolani. I'll talk about some of the others, but first, it's gotta be Ortolani, an Italian gangster who's going to be in Oz for the rest of his life.

Dino Ortolani

The routine of life in Oz is both grinding Ortolani down and keeping him anchored. We see him awaken in a sweat every morning at 6:00 am when he fills the sink in his pod with water and plunges his face in. This is his life for the rest of his life.

He's both violent and apathetic. He puts another prisoner, Billy Keane, in the hospital for making a pass at him, but is otherwise disinterested in those beyond himself and his immediate circle of Italians. After the attack on Billy Keane, the unit manager of Em City, Tim McManus, in an attempt to "try something different" (different than just throwing Ortolani in the hole, which has evidently been part of a repeating pattern of violence and punishment) re-assigns Ortolani from work in the kitchen to work in the AIDS ward of the prison infirmary. Ortolani is pissed at this change in the routine, but has no choice.

In the AIDS ward, he develops a both hostile and caring connection with one of the AIDS patients, Sanchez, and it is a bit of a turning point for him. At first, he's awful to Sanchez, roughly force feeding him. Later, he sees Sanchez as a fellow human being, a father just like Ortolani, who is suffering from a disease caught by sharing needles from injecting heroin. And maybe, it was even the same heroin from Ortolani's drug trade, a realization that puts Ortolani in an angry denial. Later, he takes care of Sanchez at an extremely low moment for Sanchez, who is in the final stages of his disease and asks Ortolani to help him to die. This throws Ortolani off. He's upset by this interaction and, conveniently, an old enemy, Ryan O'Reily, provides an excuse for Ortolani to kick someone's ass and release some of his frustration. But it's still there.

At this point, he has a brief interaction with inmate Kareem Said, the leader of the Muslims. Said can see that Ortolani is in a dark spot and is compassionate toward him. Said has calm and purpose, the very things Ortolani lacks. I wonder if events would have turned out differently if Ortolani had continued talking to Said in that moment instead dismissing him for being "the wrong color." At the end of the day though, I suppose Ortolani doesn't want to be saved. Not by anyone.

Ortolani's motivations for what happens next are unclear to me. He goes into the AIDS ward and smothers Sanchez to death. Possible reasons:

Genuine compassion for Sanchez. Sanchez, who was suffering terribly, wanted to die and is going to die, it's only a matter of how painfully. This would make the murder a damn near redemptive moment for Ortolani. Ortolani had nothing to gain by acceding to Sanchez’s wish for Ortolani to help him die. Or did he.

An act of violence to force a return to the routine that he knows. He'll go in the hole and then back to Em City and never be allowed near another patient again so probably back to his former job. Even assuming he'd get a murder conviction, so what, he's already in prison for life.

A death wish. Certainly, the comments of Augustus Hill, who acts as a Greek chorus throughout the series, suggest this may be the case. There are hints Ortolani himself wants to die, especially in a scene earlier when he tried to cut ties with his wife ands kids. Yet I don't think he was serious because he didn't walk away from his family without turning around, he made a parting affection gesture toward his wife. Besides, why would killing Sanchez help fulfill Ortolani’s own death wish.

Killing Sanchez earns Ortolani a severe beating by the correctional officers, and then he's strapped down to a gurney, shot up with sedatives, and left in the hole. There, he is murdered by one of Jefferson Keane's gang members, who sets him on fire.

Whoa.

This really sets the tone for the show. Throughout the episode, the show made it seem like Ortolani was going to be the main character, but then it then wiped him off the board by the end of the first episode. No one is safe. Don't get too attached.

Other characters I feel like commenting on

There are way too many characters to comment on them all so here's just a few.

Tobias Beecher: I am buckled in because I remember that this is going to be a wild ride in totally tearing a man down to whatever is left when you strip away every part of who he thought he was. Beecher, upper middle class WASP lawyer, is thrown in Oz for manslaughter; he drove drunk and killed a little girl. This suburban, white collar dad bod is wholly unequipped for the world of violence and degradation he steps into. The man he is right now doesn't have any concept of how good Ortolani's advice to him is: “Get yourself a weapon. Anyone tries to fuck with you, take 'em down.” He’ll learn… eventually. One of my favorite characters.

Vern Schillinger: Oh man, I haaaaate this guy. Beecher goes right out of the frying pan and into the fire after Schillinger is nice to him. Beecher transfers from Adebisi’s pod (Adebisi had bullied and threatened Beecher) to Schillinger's pod thinking Schillinger will be a friend. Yeah, noooope. Schillinger is the head of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang and claims Beecher as his personal property, his “livestock,” branding Beecher's ass with a swastika in the night. It's as horrifying as it sounds. And this is just the beginning of the abuse Beecher will suffer at Schillinger’s hands.

(Also, regarding Beecher's whole initial pod assignment with Adebisi and then transfer to Schillinger, what the actual fuck is wrong with Tim McManus? He's hellbent on “saving” (whatever that means) lifers like the cannabalistic psycho Donald Groves and violent Dino Ortolani, but does fuck all to protect Beecher from the likes of Adebisi and Schillinger. McManus knows what kinds of men these are, but he throws probably one of his only rehabilitatable inmates to the wolves by putting Beecher in their pods. WTF.)

Kareem Said: Electrifying from the moment he enters Oz, Said is another favorite of mine. He's totally unintimidated by the prison or its denizens, staff and inmates alike. The man is on a mission to empower his followers and break the system that has ground them down. It's fascinating to see the influence he can have over other men, which both warden Leo Glynn and the likes of Schillinger see as a threat.

Ryan O’Reily: Another fave. We get just a little taste of his powers of pitting folks against one another to achieve his aims without getting his hands dirty. Can't wait for more.

Coooooount! A final tally on various subjects.

Best Bloodshed: Murder of Ortolani. Set on fire. On fire!

Body Count: 2

Bodies Connected to O’Reily: 1. I'm keeping track of this because I recall that most deaths in season 1 can be traced back to O’Reily. He was gunning for Ortolani the moment he stepped into Oz and eventually all his suggestions to Jefferson Keane that Ortolani had to die paid off.

Best Line: Italian gang leader Nino Schibetta talking about cannabalistic inmate Donald Groves - “What the fuck's wrong with this country? In the old days, murder was murder. You killed someone, it was business. You sure as Christ didn't eat them.”

Best Scene: Gang leader Jefferson Keane confronting Kareem Said. Though my memory of the show's details is hazy in many respects, I clearly remembered this and it was great to see again. Said just met a hostile Keane and yet I absolutely believe Said when he looks into Keane’s eyes and says, “I would give my life for you.” You cannot help but be drawn in by Said’s magnetism.

Best of the Worst: Schillinger. I mean, fuuuuuuck this Nazi douchebag.

(And I gotta say, J.K. Simmons is amazing in the role. What a great actor. When I started watching Oz, I only knew him as psychiatrist Dr. Skoda from Law & Order—and my roommate then had a major crush on him!—so it was certainly a shock to see him in a role like Vern Schillinger.)