The Conclusion of HBO's "Oz" (Years After the Fact).

Today M. and I completed our viewing of the complete series of HBO prison drama Oz. It truly was a long, strange trip. Six seasons of machismo, menace, shifting alliances, violence, and betrayal should satiate even the most bloodthirsty of viewers. Yet at the dark heart of this journey, there is some humanity to keep us engaged. If Oz doesn't make you reflect on the prison industry (one of the fastest growing sectors in our 'New World Order economy'), then you're not watching closely enough. This milieu represents the most fatalistic and complex microcosm of our society, and if you think it represents only a narrow portion of the United States- then I think you are sadly mistaken. While it's true that life in 'Emerald City' (the 4th level unit in which most of Oz's action takes place) is an exaggerated depiction of what modern incarceration is like, it does present us with a general picture of some of the extreme difficulties that we face in our administration of 'justice'.

Season 6 brought us a heaping dollop of what we'd come to expect from watching the previous seasons. Oz's creators were never shy about eliminating its main characters, no matter how much we were led to feel for them. The last eight episodes clearly illustrate that absolutely no one is untouchable. Sometimes the abrupt endings of these lives is randomly meaningless, just as in our external reality. If we learn nothing else from this show, it is that fate is often arbitrary and capricious. One major player is eliminated in such a shockingly unexpected way that it seems anti-climactic. At other times the demise of an inmate occurs in such a dramatically poetic way that it seems almost inevitable. In fact one such episode is underscored by a big house production of Shakespeare's MacBeth that contains a fitting resolution to a conflict set up in the very first show of the series. Part of the fun (as it were) of watching Oz lies in the anticipation of these conclusions. As in life, sometimes they are satisfying, and sometimes not.

Even when I thought that I could track the logic of the scriptwriters, I occasionally found myself tricked, and sometimes devastatingly so. Episode 6 is particularly wrenching. M. and I found ourselves viewing an unthinkable story arc that inverted our feelings and hopes for those involved. It was amazing that we could be taken to such emotionally vulnerable states simply with the dramatic depiction of something we know has happened in the past. Good television strives to close the distance between the cold hard facts we hear in the news and the visceral effects of harrowing experiences, aptly portrayed by competent professional actors. Sometimes the result is magical, causing us to feel a depth of compassion we were barely aware existed within ourselves. The realization of deeply held empathy is our reward for subjecting ourselves to such tragedy. Episode 6 was the perfect example of this process. I found myself weeping for almost a half hour after seeing it.

The ultimate finale of Oz was (I believe necessarily) a bit dissatisfying. Within the last couple episodes there were intriguing new characters introduced, and tales just beginning their development. There were plenty of threads left unexplored, and their presence suggested that the creators had enough material available for an additional season. I'm not sure whether or not the word of Oz's cancellation came down while they were still shooting Season 6, but it really seemed as if Tom Fontana and company had more up their sleeves. Ultimately it doesn't matter because Oz is gone now, and has been for several years. It is left up to the viewer to speculate on the lives of the remaining inmates and administrators of Oswald Penitentiary. Neither M nor I knew what to expect in terms of resolution before watching Season 6, but I am comfortable with my speculations about the unseen futures of the characters.

It seems that any lack of closure in a television series is enough to keep curious viewers from engaging it. In the case of Oz, I feel that any hesitation based upon this absence of tidy endings is a mistake. If you have a strong stomach and enough open-mindedness to take a look at the underside of humanity, then you owe it to yourself to watch Oz. As citizens of the US, each and every one of us is complicit in a justice system that aims to protect us from those who stray outside the bounds of our laws. Turning a blind eye to the ugly realities that are created by our methods of incarceration and punishment only contributes to a collective ignorance. Having the courage to confront the complexities and consequences presented by our choices will not yield pat answers, but it can be enlightening. Why not shine a bright light into society's black corners? Can the revelations about what lurks in the darkness be as frightening as the darkness itself?