Sent to the Hole: When Did Oz Jump the Shark?

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

For me, Oz's transformation from a gritty prison drama to a prison-based soap opera happened at some point in Season 3, when Alvarez was repeatedly sent to Solitary "permanently," only to be let out an episode or two later.

It bottomed out in Season 4 when Beecher's children were kidnapped and his son's hand cut off and mailed to him. Why would I even want to watch this?

[clady]

For me the first season was gritty prison drama. Every season after that was pure soap. But I loved them all...except for the very last episode. Yuck.

[Wax Lion]

I'm rewatching the series now. The first season really works hard at being a serious social issue drama. They try to hold on to that in the second season but by then it's creating the template for the mansoap. Fashion and racism is all that separates Victoria Greyson from Vern Shillinger.

 

The moments from season two that might have been the shark jump:

1. When Schillenger has his son killed because Beecher implies that they're having sex together. It's the beginning of constant Vern vs Beecher schemes
2. Ryan falls in love with Gloria. That could start another issue storyline about something female workers in male prisons face. Instead, Ryan gets his brother to kill Gloria's husband.
3. Keller arrives and is scheming with Schillinger to get Beecher to fall in love with him and then to break Beecher's heart. That probably wasn't the shark jumping moment as much as confirmation that the shark had been jumped.

 

Its still an entertaining show but I think after the second season the lack of glamour and the grisly violence made us overlook that, with the betrayals and scheming it had become a soap with a new veneer.

[Eliot]

I'm rewatching the series now. The first season really works hard at being a serious social issue drama. They try to hold on to that in the second season but by then it's creating the template for the mansoap. Fashion and racism is all that separates Victoria Greyson from Vern Shillinger.

 

The moments from season two that might have been the shark jump:

1. When Schillenger has his son killed because Beecher implies that they're having sex together. It's the beginning of constant Vern vs Beecher schemes
2. Ryan falls in love with Gloria. That could start another issue storyline about something female workers in male prisons face. Instead, Ryan gets his brother to kill Gloria's husband.
3. Keller arrives and is scheming with Schillinger to get Beecher to fall in love with him and then to break Beecher's heart. That probably wasn't the shark jumping moment as much as confirmation that the shark had been jumped.

 

Its still an entertaining show but I think after the second season the lack of glamour and the grisly violence made us overlook that, with the betrayals and scheming it had become a soap with a new veneer.

 

I just started rewatching this past week and came looking for my former TWoP pod-mates here!

 

I haven't reached the jump-the-shark moment yet; still on Season 1. It's interesting to watch the show in 2015/16, nearly 20 years after it debuted. I keep reminding myself how revolutionary it was for its time--the nudity, the profanity, the violence had really never been done to that extent.

[sasha206]

On 1/1/2016 at 10:10 AM, Eliot said:

 

I'm I just started rewatching this past week and came looking for my former TWoP pod-mates here!

 

I haven't reached the jump-the-shark moment yet; still on Season 1. It's interesting to watch the show in 2015/16, nearly 20 years after it debuted. I keep reminding myself how revolutionary it was for its time--the nudity, the profanity, the violence had really never been done to that extent.

I'm 20 years late on this watching this show.  I binge watched it and enjoyed it up until about midway through the 4th season but I think this show should've ended season 3.

There are a couple of things that really stick out to me.

• The warden's daughter was raped and there's a prison connection in that a prisoner is trying to leverage that information; the warden's brother murdered and there's a prison connection. The sister's husband was murdered and there's a prison connection.  Does that seem like a lot of tragedy to happen with family members of a small staff?
• Just how fucking easy it is to plan murders while you're sitting in jail and not get arrested for it?  Let's see Shillinger, Beecher, O'Reilly all very easily order hits sitting in a jail.  Is there no one monitoring mail and visits?  Aren't calls monitored?  
• The seduction of Beecher for payback.  Up until then, Beecher was a family man prisoner who was raped by Verne and didn't seem to have converted him. So why would seducing him be assumed to work?  Seemingly Beecher could have just as easily been like, no man, not interested.  
• Keller's sudden role reversal on Beecher.  He really loves him for fux sake!  Don't get it.
• Sister Peter Maria.  I just couldn't buy her being seduced by Keller and that it was the catalyst for her deciding to stop being a nun.  That story line rang so hollow.
• The aging drug trial thing.  WHAT?  
• Dr. Gloria falling in love with a sociopath who killed her ex husband.  Just not even remotely believable.  O'Reilly was never anything more that a petulant immature snake.  It would've made more sense for Dr. Gloria to fall in love with Beecher who was attractive and intelligent.  

After a while, the show was just so repetitive and boring.  It became new person challenging the person running the drugs.  O'Reilly seemed to have snits that spanned several episodes that were not interesting.  I mean how many episodes did there need to be of him trying to keep his brother from being sent to the mental ward?  And Christ, how many fucking murders happened in the jail on a weekly basis there?  And how does anyone on that staff keep a job?  *Confession* I only made it through season 4, episode 15.  I gave up.

Edited February 28, 2017 by sasha206

[Eliot]

Quote

And Christ, how many fucking murders happened in the jail on a weekly basis there?

LOL. And such creative murders to boot!

You'd think sooner or later the inmates (and staff!) would catch on that storage closets & dimly-lit corridors were bad places to be.

[sasha206]

I will admit, i had a real thing for Claire.

Claire Howell, I love you.

Sad to find out the actress who played her died in December.

[AndySmith]

Aw, that is sad. Way too young. May she rest in peace.

[Fiero425]

On ‎2‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 1:16 PM, sasha206 said:

I'm 20 years late on this watching this show.  I binge watched it and enjoyed it up until about midway through the 4th season but I think this show should've ended season 3.

There are a couple of things that really stick out to me.

• The warden's daughter was raped and there's a prison connection in that a prisoner is trying to leverage that information; the warden's brother murdered and there's a prison connection. The sister's husband was murdered and there's a prison connection.  Does that seem like a lot of tragedy to happen with family members of a small staff?
• Just how fucking easy it is to plan murders while you're sitting in jail and not get arrested for it?  Let's see Shillinger, Beecher, O'Reilly all very easily order hits sitting in a jail.  Is there no one monitoring mail and visits?  Aren't calls monitored?  
• The seduction of Beecher for payback.  Up until then, Beecher was a family man prisoner who was raped by Verne and didn't seem to have converted him. So why would seducing him be assumed to work?  Seemingly Beecher could have just as easily been like, no man, not interested.  
• Keller's sudden role reversal on Beecher.  He really loves him for fux sake!  Don't get it.
• Sister Peter Maria.  I just couldn't buy her being seduced by Keller and that it was the catalyst for her deciding to stop being a nun.  That story line rang so hollow.
• The aging drug trial thing.  WHAT?  
• Dr. Gloria falling in love with a sociopath who killed her ex husband.  Just not even remotely believable.  O'Reilly was never anything more that a petulant immature snake.  It would've made more sense for Dr. Gloria to fall in love with Beecher who was attractive and intelligent.  

After a while, the show was just so repetitive and boring.  It became new person challenging the person running the drugs.  O'Reilly seemed to have snits that spanned several episodes that were not interesting.  I mean how many episodes did there need to be of him trying to keep his brother from being sent to the mental ward?  And Christ, how many fucking murders happened in the jail on a weekly basis there?  And how does anyone on that staff keep a job?  *Confession* I only made it through season 4, episode 15.  I gave up.

You left off ghostly apparitions going "thumbs down" on prisoners! Rev. Cloutier storyline was a hoot! How does a "screaming Twink" get control over white supremacist goons doing his bidding? And when it came to assassinations, a simple phone call was all that was necessary to knock off a mayor and the warden! ;-(