Cheap Oz - The Complete Third Season (DVD) (Lee Tergesen) Price

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Customer Reviews of Oz - The Complete Third Season

If you're reading this, you've probably watched all seasons of OZ, or at least a few of them so I won't have to tell what it's all about. All I can say is, I'm in love with OZ. Tom Fontana is a genious, what he has created is magical, the characters are so alive and realistic, you feel for them, you start to love them no matter what crimes they've committed, you understand why they do what they do, you realize that everything they say and do is a part of survival, they have to survive in Em City, in OZ, no matter what it takes...

O'Reily, responsible for pretty much every murder in OZ, including the riot, Beecher, the extreme transformation, rivality with Schillinger and love for Chris Keller, Said, always keeping his faith, at least in this season, Hill, Rebadow, Schillinger, Adebisi, Pancamo..... I could go on and on.

My favorite characters of the inmates are Toby Beecher, Chris Keller - I find their love/hate relationship interesting. You don't have to put a label on it saying "Beecher and Keller are the two gay guys", it's far beyond that. As Tom Fontana said: "It's two men or two people struggling to find and maintain love in an environment that completely works against them." There are sad moments, good moments, Schillinger who constantly tries to get between them and destroy Beecher. And no matter what happens in Toby's and Chris's relationship, even if they're not together at the time, you know that they love each other, more than they'll ever love anybody.
Tobias "Toby" Beecher goes through the most extreme transformation I've ever laid my eyes on, it's amazing to watch him, from the beginning of his time in OZ until he finally makes his revenge on Schillinger in season 1, lands in the hole and comes out as a new man.
Chris Keller who first came to OZ as one of Schillinger's men, making friends with Toby, making Toby fall in love with him, then broke his bones and totally ruined everything they had togehter. And when Toby lands in the hospital, you see Chris back in their pod, his hands on Toby's bunk, touching Toby's pillow with a remorsefull look on his face - a 5 second sequence that makes me chill, no words can describe that scene.
In season 3 we follow his attempts to make Toby understand that he really does love him.
The chemistry between the actors, Lee Tergesen and Christopher Meloni, is brilliant, sparkling and convincing. And perhaps since they're good friends in reality, they know how to work so well together.

My other favorite is Ryan O'Reilly, the man nobody can trust. Always up to something and usually gets what he wants, O'Reilly is one of a kind. Played by Dean Winters, who I think is a very talented actor. The way I feel when I watch Winters is, he doesn't seem to be acting at all, and I mean that in a good way. He's tough, he's smart, he doesn't trust anyone, he is responsible for many of the murders commited in Em City, and since he's got a great brain he manages to stay out of trouble during the investigations. Also, there's not only a cold hearted side of O'Reilly. He backs up the weaker inmates, he stood by Beecher's side when he just got to Em City, and even though he made Beecher addicted to heroin, he was there when no one else was. And there's always Ryan's love for his brother Cyril, who he'd do anything for.

For the OZ fans that yet don't know - Season 4 will preliminary be out October 5 2004.

No offense but...
..there were 6 seasons of Oz, only ending last year (2003). Each consisted of 8 episodes with the exception of the fourth season which was broken up in two parts and had 16 episodes in it. There were a total of 56 episodes. I'm personally glad they ended it when they did, as the plots were getting a little thinned out--they'd pretty much done all they could do with the series. What I'm not glad about is the frequency of the series being released to DVD. Every Sopranos season is already on DVD and they come out about six months after that season ends. With Oz we've had one DVD set per year for the past two years. Thankfully, they're releasing season four in November (?) I believe.

A Good Show If You Can Suspend Disbelief As You Watch It
First of all, this review is really for the first three seasons of Oz, not just the first. I have to say that I never watched a single episode of Oz in its six year run on HBO. But one day at the video store, I couldn't find anything to rent, so I picked up a couple of discs of the first season of Oz. I was hooked within a couple of episodes. A story about life in a prison doesn't sound very entertaining, but it is. The cast is one of the biggest you'll see and since it's a prison, characters are getting added pretty much each episode while others exit from time to time (usually with the "help" of other prisoners). So it always seems to stay fresh for me.

The cast is a good one. Standouts for me are Lee Tergesen as Beecher, Chris Meloni as Keller, Eamonn Walker as Said, Terry Kinney as MacManus, Edie Falco (in a role she did before the Sopranos) as Wittlesey and the guy who plays Adebisi (won't even try to spell his name!) But the other cast members all seem to fit well and there are usually 4 to 5 stories going on at one time.

My only qualm about this show is that some of the story lines are just hard to believe. For example, if you were a female doctor at a prison and a prisoner fell in love with you and arranged to have your husband killed so that you would be free to give your affaction to the prisoner, would you still want to work at said prison? This doctor barely lets it bother her. There are many others that have made me say "Yeah, right", but all in all, the freshness makes it worth it.

I wish HBO would issue these shows faster.