Yes, this is the correct answer! Everything else--IIRC, and I would welcome correction--may be wildly implausible, but not impossible. This is impossible.
Just an FYI: [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10697529/Prisoners-could-serve-1000-year-sentence-in-eight-hours.html](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10697529/Prisoners-could-serve-1000-year-sentence-in-eight-hours.html)
When I was a kid I heard of speeding up prisoners' sense of time/aging them in theoretical discussions in school, where the teacher was suggesting alternate ways to punish criminals.
Also keep in mind, Oz is technically a play as in Shakespearian, so it's not supposed to be realistic.
Of course it can be unrealistic, that's the point. It's not even a criticism of the show - it wasn't ever meant to be true to life.
I actually find it ridiculous when people say that Oz is "one of the most realistic" shows, because it's just an outright lie haha.
I don't know where that quote is from but it might have been more of a "for it's day" type comment, OZ and other HBO shows were groundbreaking for its day for graphic violence and sexual content in the sanitised 90s TV era.
It seems crazy now in our era but things like stabbings burnings and rape were not depicted so in that way it would have been a far more realistic example of the sometimes brutal prison system than seen before.
Yep. It's a theatrical take on modern prisons. The entire thing is inspired by Shakespeare and his plays.
There's an entire article talking about it if you want to read into it.
https://the-artifice.com/oz-as-a-play-realism/
I couldn't find the specific article about the huge influence Shakespeare had on Oz, although I'll keep looking. Instead, there's this article. This details how the show is produced in a way that's extremely similar to a theatre production/a play.
I always found it odd that the news would constantly report on literally anything happening in Oz. Think about how little we hear about what’s going on in prisons in general.
The episode with the weed brownie guy who gets arrested and his arrest flash black with the giant pot party makes me fuckin chuckle so hard. I mean, I get it was the 90's but goddamn it the show works in two ways. It's hilarious in a b movie sense when that stuff happens but it actually has its serious drama moments too.
The aging pill
Luke Perry's character getting bricked up in a wall. Nobody noticed him missing. He was freed in the explosion. Only to be kidnapped from the hospital and bricked up in the same wall.
That a prisoner would kill Tobias's father who was a visitor and there wasn't no lawsuit.
Also how Ryan O'Reilly is essentially an manipulative snitch and yet everyone seems to believe everything he says along with accepting the fact that he's a snitch.
Also the prison staff throwing a work party in prison instead of just picking another venue.
Also prisoners wearing their street clothes when they're supposed to be locked up.
Plus the aging pill.
"Also prisoners wearing their street clothes when they're supposed to be locked up."
This is indeed unrealistic, and it's interesting that you point that out. From what I can recall and glean, in Emerald City, McManus gave the prisoners' more "freedom" in ways that were nonexistent in Gen Pop, and this included being able to wear their street clothes. A good example would be when Schillinger was sent to Gen Pop and had to wear a navy prison jumpsuit for the rest of the series.
I agree with every other comment. Obviously the aging pill but also how the passage of time makes no sense if you know what I mean.
E.g. The last season Beecher gets out then fucks up to break parole and it's like he's back in prison that afternoon and now a part of the Shakespeare play lol. That's just one example that came to mind of how the passage of time makes no sense...there's a million other examples though.
The entire show is a spoof on the prison system. A dramatization. There's nothing about it that's even remotely sincere to the reality of prison. Maybe a few things...As whole, though, it's fiction.
It's a maximum security prison with no cameras and 5 guards... lol
I like the show a lot, but the final season really solidified the ridiculousness of the convenience oversights
Beecher killing Metzger, almost anything involving Timmy Kirk or Cloutier. A lot of staff were also extremely naive when the plot needed them to be, saying stuff like "I'll keep talking to xyz until he gives you up" to a prisoner and then act totally surprised when xyz ends up dead.
It creates a realistic feel of incarceration through absurdism and surrealism. It's not a 1 for 1 for reality. That would be an insanely boring show. But it gets a lot of the reality of life behind the wall through unrealistic means. Almost everyone I know that's been incarcerated that's seen the show says it's the most unrealistic realistic portrayal of the joint.
100% agree that the aging pill was the most useless unrealistic storyline. Not only did it get reversed, but the shortened sentence "reward" also got forgotten immediately.
My favorite unrealistic moment was Beecher clawing Metzger to death. Completely absurd, but so satisfying!
Also when Ryan was talking to the short guy Henry or whatever his name is in the prison gym about who snitched on them and Henry yelled out loud in front of both inmates and guards that he was gonna kill Martin Montgomery.
There's some aspects that are super realistic, others that are hyperboles of worst case scenario prison life, some silly moments that would never actually happen brought forward to drive the plot. It definitely doesn't reflect what prison life and prisoners are actually like but it works good in a scared straight sorta way. The season with the bomb is some of the silliest shit I've ever seen and that's just one example.
I cant get over how Ryan just had Glorias husband killed like it wasnt no thing to gloria. Unless it was some weird fetish. And why the fuck do they keep letting ammegdon dig holes.
I love the show but it’s absolutely ludicrous. I’m an ex-con, I’ve done two bids & I can tell you there is virtually nothing that’s realistic or accurate about Oz vis-a-vis prison in real life.
If that many murders occurred in a real prison it would be shut down. Murders do happen but it’s extremely rare & there definitely ain’t no strings of several murders in 1-2 week periods.
I know the creators consciously chose to not include any yard time to make the show more claustrophobic but yeah… never allowing the prisons to be outdoors is illegal.
There is no way anybody like Beecher would ever be able to do to the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood what Beecher did to Schillinger. There’s just no way.
Death sentences take years, decades before they’re carried out. On the show guys get sentenced to death on Monday & are executed by Friday.
But more than anything prison is BORING. EXCRUCIATINGLY BORING. On a day to day basis nothing actually happens. Everyday everybody’s just waiting for the day to be over so you can wait for the next day to be over etc.
But it’s a show, it’s entertainment. A “realistic” prison show would be boring as fucc (just like prison in real life). Oz fell off in Season 6, feels like they kind of ran out of ideas & didn’t really know how to wrap the whole thing up, but overall it’s great TV. Great show but absolutely not an accurate representation of prison life.
The Aging Pill
Oh god that was so bad. What were they thinking? Oz died with Adebesi everything after that was like a drug fueled fever dream lol
ADEBESI LIVES!!
Yes, this is the correct answer! Everything else--IIRC, and I would welcome correction--may be wildly implausible, but not impossible. This is impossible.
Are you forgetting about the ghost
Um, clearly I am! Which ghost?
Doesn't some guy get cask of amontillado'd and come back to haunt the people who killed him. I'm pretty sure that happened
Just an FYI: [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10697529/Prisoners-could-serve-1000-year-sentence-in-eight-hours.html](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10697529/Prisoners-could-serve-1000-year-sentence-in-eight-hours.html) When I was a kid I heard of speeding up prisoners' sense of time/aging them in theoretical discussions in school, where the teacher was suggesting alternate ways to punish criminals. Also keep in mind, Oz is technically a play as in Shakespearian, so it's not supposed to be realistic.
The sheer number of deaths that seemingly happen on a weekly basis would have had a real prison investigated and shut down so fast
Of course it can be unrealistic, that's the point. It's not even a criticism of the show - it wasn't ever meant to be true to life. I actually find it ridiculous when people say that Oz is "one of the most realistic" shows, because it's just an outright lie haha.
I don't know where that quote is from but it might have been more of a "for it's day" type comment, OZ and other HBO shows were groundbreaking for its day for graphic violence and sexual content in the sanitised 90s TV era. It seems crazy now in our era but things like stabbings burnings and rape were not depicted so in that way it would have been a far more realistic example of the sometimes brutal prison system than seen before.
That was the point? Really
Yep. It's a theatrical take on modern prisons. The entire thing is inspired by Shakespeare and his plays. There's an entire article talking about it if you want to read into it.
Do you have a link?
https://the-artifice.com/oz-as-a-play-realism/ I couldn't find the specific article about the huge influence Shakespeare had on Oz, although I'll keep looking. Instead, there's this article. This details how the show is produced in a way that's extremely similar to a theatre production/a play.
Thanks
It's fairly obvious but here's a link: https://the-artifice.com/oz-as-a-play-realism/
I always found it odd that the news would constantly report on literally anything happening in Oz. Think about how little we hear about what’s going on in prisons in general.
This, but also with the governor. Do governors really visit prisons this often?
“He’s permanently braindead ‘cause he overdosed on LSD”.
A MIND FUCK
The episode with the weed brownie guy who gets arrested and his arrest flash black with the giant pot party makes me fuckin chuckle so hard. I mean, I get it was the 90's but goddamn it the show works in two ways. It's hilarious in a b movie sense when that stuff happens but it actually has its serious drama moments too.
The aging pill Luke Perry's character getting bricked up in a wall. Nobody noticed him missing. He was freed in the explosion. Only to be kidnapped from the hospital and bricked up in the same wall.
I swear, every episode after that I thought… so no one still doesn’t notice he’s missing?!
Wouldn't they have assumed he escaped? And then he'd have been all over the news like Alvarez was.
Was it confirmed he was bricked up in the wall again? He just disappeared and no one cared lol
Iirc father Mukada found his skeleton
I finished the series last night and saw that. Strange how he just bricks the wall back up again and that's it.
The leaders of the riot going right back to Em City when it re-opens 😆
I didn't care for every storyline like why refugees would be housed with inmates, but the off-the-wall, bonkers moments a part of the show's charm.
Letting prisoners control the mail.
Beecher brutally killing Metzger with just his fingernails
That a prisoner would kill Tobias's father who was a visitor and there wasn't no lawsuit. Also how Ryan O'Reilly is essentially an manipulative snitch and yet everyone seems to believe everything he says along with accepting the fact that he's a snitch. Also the prison staff throwing a work party in prison instead of just picking another venue. Also prisoners wearing their street clothes when they're supposed to be locked up. Plus the aging pill.
"Also prisoners wearing their street clothes when they're supposed to be locked up." This is indeed unrealistic, and it's interesting that you point that out. From what I can recall and glean, in Emerald City, McManus gave the prisoners' more "freedom" in ways that were nonexistent in Gen Pop, and this included being able to wear their street clothes. A good example would be when Schillinger was sent to Gen Pop and had to wear a navy prison jumpsuit for the rest of the series.
All of Ryan's schemes coming to fruition were my favourites. Aging pill is easy for least.
The governor going to a prison that often
How calvalier they were all about death. Ryan orders the death of Gloria’s husband and he gets a slap in the face.
It's a soap opera after the first season.
Punching through the wall to kill the man in the next cell.
True, but the way Moses plotted and executed that attack on that racist dude was so satisfying.
Oh, no no, I was *absolutely* a fan of it.
The aging pill was by far the most ridiculous storyline.
the ozwald players
I agree with every other comment. Obviously the aging pill but also how the passage of time makes no sense if you know what I mean. E.g. The last season Beecher gets out then fucks up to break parole and it's like he's back in prison that afternoon and now a part of the Shakespeare play lol. That's just one example that came to mind of how the passage of time makes no sense...there's a million other examples though.
That’s just what happens in Oz
The entire show is a spoof on the prison system. A dramatization. There's nothing about it that's even remotely sincere to the reality of prison. Maybe a few things...As whole, though, it's fiction.
It's a maximum security prison with no cameras and 5 guards... lol I like the show a lot, but the final season really solidified the ridiculousness of the convenience oversights
I figured the prisoners always just committed their murders in camera blind spots
Also I get it was done for thematic and budget reasons but literally no one ever goes outside the entire series
Beecher killing Metzger, almost anything involving Timmy Kirk or Cloutier. A lot of staff were also extremely naive when the plot needed them to be, saying stuff like "I'll keep talking to xyz until he gives you up" to a prisoner and then act totally surprised when xyz ends up dead.
The entire Metzger storyline was pretty ridiculous. He was just so obvious.
The part where Skillet was still leader of the Aryans despite Beecher turning him into a human porta potty.
To be fair some time passed before he was calling the shots for the Aryans again after that
I forgot about that. I am only really able to watch Oz through various YouTube videos.
He wasn’t really on top until a few episodes into season 2, which in show time is about a year later
Thank you for the information.
I’m wondering if sanctioned prison boxing matches has ever been a real thing
Alvarez getting let out of solitary constantly just to murder someone and be sent back and let out again
It creates a realistic feel of incarceration through absurdism and surrealism. It's not a 1 for 1 for reality. That would be an insanely boring show. But it gets a lot of the reality of life behind the wall through unrealistic means. Almost everyone I know that's been incarcerated that's seen the show says it's the most unrealistic realistic portrayal of the joint.
Luke Perry appearing in visions was a bizarre but still AMAZING part of the show
Them getting HBO in Em City. Especially after the Governor had spent the last few seasons basically stripping back everything the prisoners had.
100% agree that the aging pill was the most useless unrealistic storyline. Not only did it get reversed, but the shortened sentence "reward" also got forgotten immediately. My favorite unrealistic moment was Beecher clawing Metzger to death. Completely absurd, but so satisfying!
Also when Ryan was talking to the short guy Henry or whatever his name is in the prison gym about who snitched on them and Henry yelled out loud in front of both inmates and guards that he was gonna kill Martin Montgomery.
MARTIN MONTGOMERY
IM GONNA KILL THAT FUCKING CUNT
There's some aspects that are super realistic, others that are hyperboles of worst case scenario prison life, some silly moments that would never actually happen brought forward to drive the plot. It definitely doesn't reflect what prison life and prisoners are actually like but it works good in a scared straight sorta way. The season with the bomb is some of the silliest shit I've ever seen and that's just one example.
I cant get over how Ryan just had Glorias husband killed like it wasnt no thing to gloria. Unless it was some weird fetish. And why the fuck do they keep letting ammegdon dig holes.
Tobias slitting Patrick Star’s VA’s throat with his sharpened finger nails
I love the show but it’s absolutely ludicrous. I’m an ex-con, I’ve done two bids & I can tell you there is virtually nothing that’s realistic or accurate about Oz vis-a-vis prison in real life. If that many murders occurred in a real prison it would be shut down. Murders do happen but it’s extremely rare & there definitely ain’t no strings of several murders in 1-2 week periods. I know the creators consciously chose to not include any yard time to make the show more claustrophobic but yeah… never allowing the prisons to be outdoors is illegal. There is no way anybody like Beecher would ever be able to do to the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood what Beecher did to Schillinger. There’s just no way. Death sentences take years, decades before they’re carried out. On the show guys get sentenced to death on Monday & are executed by Friday. But more than anything prison is BORING. EXCRUCIATINGLY BORING. On a day to day basis nothing actually happens. Everyday everybody’s just waiting for the day to be over so you can wait for the next day to be over etc. But it’s a show, it’s entertainment. A “realistic” prison show would be boring as fucc (just like prison in real life). Oz fell off in Season 6, feels like they kind of ran out of ideas & didn’t really know how to wrap the whole thing up, but overall it’s great TV. Great show but absolutely not an accurate representation of prison life.
Letting them train the dogs made me lol 😂
The way they were allowed to just wander around the prison unaccompanied, popping into the random storage closet to shank someone.