TV Rewind: Even for Fans of HBO, Oz Remains a Hard Watch
Photo Courtesy of HBO
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For the last few decades, much of HBO’s bread and butter has been in the exploration of stories about toxic masculinity. The Sopranos became one of the greatest shows in the history of its medium by using the allure of manliness to crash wannabe mobster’s ships against the rocks. Game of Thrones, at its best, often concerned eking out survival in a world driven by ego-stroking power plays. With The Righteous Gemstones, Danny McBride is currently starring in his third beautiful show about men troubled by their inability to control the world. But in this genre, HBO’s Oz serves as a sort of Patient Zero.
Pre-dating the “Golden Age” of HBO and series like Sopranos, Deadwood, and The Wire, Oz concerns the goings-on of a section of a maximum security prison nicknamed the “Emerald City” or “Oz.” It is an experimental zone, one managed with the idea of rehabilitation and cohabitation among various groups, but this goal rarely works out in the slightest. Instead, Oz frequently descends into a racial and sexual nightmare, with status built around basic dick-swinging brutality. The fear of assault and rape are constant and very well-founded.
Like many of the aforementioned series, Oz delights in a robust ensemble cast. But unlike them, there is no Tony Soprano or Al Swearegen to anchor it with wide discourse about the difference between antiheroism and villainy. The closest Oz has to a poster child, and often through sheer force of talent and charisma, is Vernon Schillinger, the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood, played with sneering cruelty by J.K. Simmons. Simmons’ brand of domineering, hands-on-hips force that he’d later unleash in films like Whiplash is also in full effect in Oz, and the series is quick to fall in love with his presence. He could very easily be one-note, but Simmons also imbues him with deep paranoia befitting his white supremacist values.
On the other side is Tobias Beecher, played with a kind of burgeoning wildness by Lee Tergesen. Beecher is tricked and then bullied and raped by Schillinger upon arriving in Oz, and as his ties to the outside world and wife and kids are frayed and eventually destroyed, his integration into the community of Oz increases. He eventually manages to even the odds with Schillinger, and their rivalry becomes the consistent dramatic backbone of the show. Meanwhile, Beecher’s relationship with Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni), another Brotherhood member, rises to the forefront. What could easily be the fodder of juvenile “gay in prison” jokes becomes something that’s actually emotionally poignant, as the two discover that they need one another.