Product Description

On the surface, not much has changed inside the walls of Oswald State Penitentiary. Schillinger has revenge on his mind, Cyril is facing execution, Beecher is hoping for parole, and McManus is finding solace in a meditative maze. But there's toil and trouble brewing in the Oz cauldron, as the Oz players rehearse for their presentation of Macbeth and the climactic final act.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Three optional audio commentaries ("Dead Man Talking," "A Day in the Death" and "Exeunt Omnes") with series creator Tom Fontana, cast members Terry Kinney, Eamonn Walker, Dean Winters, Scott Winters and writer Bradford Winters
Deleted Scenes:30 minutes of deleted scenes
Other:Original cast audition tapes Exclusive extended cut of the series finale: Exeunt Omnes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4487 in DVD
• Brand: OZ
• Released on: 2006-09-05
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .55 pounds
• Running time: 520 minutes

Features

• On the surface, not much has changed inside the walls of Oswald State Penitentiary. Schillinger has revenge on his mind, Cyril is facing execution, Beecher is hoping for parole, and McManus is finding solace in a meditative maze. But there's toil and trouble brewing in the Oz cauldron, as the Oz players rehearse for their presentation of Macbeth and the climactic final act.Running Time: 520 min.

Amazon.com
The sixth and final season of HBO's prison drama Oz--which aired in 2003--is brutal, passionate, and gritty. Compellingly addictive with taut storylines and superb acting, each of the eight episodes on this 3-disc set nicely paves the way for the series finale, which wraps the show up in a satisfying (and surprising) manner. Often told through the eyes (and voice) of deceased prisoner Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau, Lost), Oz isn't an easy show to watch. Inmates are routinely raped, tortured, and killed--not out of need, but out of boredom and cruelty. And in a corrupt system where too few bureaucrats actually care about these men's lives, few are willing to do anything about it. Those that do give a damn--Sister Peter Marie (Rita Moreno, West Side Story), Father Mukada (B.D. Wong, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Dr. Nathan (Lauren Velez), Warden Glynn (Ernie Hudson), McManus (Terry Kinney)--face an uphill battle.

One of the strongest storylines is the ongoing romance between murderer Keller (Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: SVU and Beecher (Lee Tergesen), who's hoping to be paroled. Series creator Tom Fontana doesn't allow their arc to be diluted by any idealistic expectations. The viewer is acutely aware that Beecher is an easy target for annihilation whether or not he is released from prison. The viewer is never quite as certain of Keller's motives--whether they're borne of love and affection, or a selfish need to satisfy his own primal urges. Like Beecher, Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo) is trying to keep his own nose clean in the hopes that he'll be eligible for parole three years down the line. It's easy to understand the almost suffocating feeling he lives every day, knowing that three years may as well be a lifetime when you're behind bars and the target of both your former gang and the Aryan brothers, led by Schillinger (J.K. Simmons, Law & Order: SVU, the Spider-Man films). And Ryan (Dean Winters) desperately tries to save his mentally retarded brother Cyril (played by Dean's real-life sibling Scott William Winters) from being executed.

There are a few subplots that don't ring true, such as the quasi romance between a librarian (Patti LuPone) and one of the prisoners, and an elderly inmate's (Joey Grey) implausible death wish. And for all the constraints the majority of convicts face, some appear to have almost free run of the prison. Still, Fontana has created a vivid, dark world where the occasional acts of humanity are as important as the non-stop chaos that is Oz. While it certainly helps to have seen the previous five seasons of the series to enjoy this season, it's not mandatory. These last eight episodes work fine as a stand-alone piece of drama. --Jae-Ha Kim

Customer Reviews

The blood drenched yellow brick road comes to a dead end
Before the sixth season of HBO's Oz began, many knew that this would be the last hurrah from creator Tom Fontana and co., as the volitale men behind bars drama comes to an ever dramatic close in it's final eight episodes. Everything that has been built up since the show's debut reaches critical mass in this final season, as characters who have been here since the beginning meet their demise and the light at the end of the tunnel keeps dwindling. For Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen), freedom is so close he can taste it; but not if his sociopathic lover Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni) has anything to say about it. These two men, whose bizarre, savage, and heartbreaking love affair have been a highlight of the series since the middle of the second season, have always helped make Oz worth watching, and when the end comes, it comes without warning, just as long time viewers would come to expect. Beecher also has to contend again with nazi leader Vern Shillinger (J.K. Simmons) who wants his blood, while other prisoners (and long time characters) Miguel Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo), Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker), Ryan and Cyril O'Reilly (Dean and Scott William Winters), narrator Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau), Reabadow (George Morfogen), Robeson (R.E. Rodgers), and Jaz Hoyt (Evan Seinfeld) all have their dates with destiny as well. Even prisoner reformer Tim McManus (Terry Kinney), warden Leo Glynn (Ernie Hudson), and Father Mukada (B.D. Wong) don't remain untouched by the series of events that brings the series to an end that at first may seem unlikely, but in the long run of things, couldn't have been any more fitting. For it's entire run, Oz was one of the best and underrated shows in HBO's history that never really got it's share of the limelight while mega hits like the Sopranos and Six Feet Under took all the glory. The blood drenched yellow brick road comes to an end here, and yes, there's nothing left but a dead end.

AT LONG LAST IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!
For all you OZ fans that have been waiting, as I have, for what appears to be a life sentence without the final season of OZ, the wait is finally over!!! The 3 DVD set will be released in September and Em-City will rule again! I don't know why it took solong to come out, considering all The Sopranos DVDs came out in basically a month. In my opinion OZ is a better show, although Tony and Paulie Walnuts never dissappoint. It's good to know that Tom Fontana (OZ Creator) hasn't forgotten us down in The Hole and decided to give us what we are all waiting for....THE FINAL SEASON OF OZ!

THAT'S HOW IT ENDS?!?!?!?
I understand that the ending of a fantastic series should both leave you dramatically satified while at the same time leave you wanting more.

But both I and a friend who have recently finished Season 6 both agree... it left us both seriously let down.

For starters -- and I will try not to spoil it for people who haven't yet seen it -- there are faaaaaar too many storylines left unresolved. I mean, at this point in watching the series, I care a LOT about many of these characters. I want to see if Alvarez can keep up his good behavior; I want to see what's going to happen to Beecher after Keller's latest psychopathic relationship decision; I want to see a lot of things that you just don't get to see.

Initially, we both thought that maybe there was a seventh season in the works, but the past-character appearances throughout the season and the big montage toward the end clearly meant the show's writers knew it wasn't coming back, which makes the ending all the more mystifying.

I mean, I understand that not EVERYONE's story can be resolved -- short of another explosion that just offs the whole prison population -- but at eight episodes, it just seemed to short and not comprehensive enough. I wish they would have saved the longer season -- was it 4 or 5 that had like 15 or 16 episodes? -- for the last.

I agree with several people's assessment that the body count this year -- and really, throughout the whole series -- was ridiculously high, but c'mon. If it were some regular prison where no one ever got killed, no one would be watching. However, my inkling that the show had jumped the shark in season 5 with the whole "Rev. Cloutier has spontaneously disappeared"-thing (which gets resolved in S6, by the way) was only reinforced by a politically- and racially-motivated series of incidents involving the Midget-Rat King, Gov. James Devlin, and was another reality-stretching reach that, of course, remained unresolved as the season closed.

All I can say, I suppose, is that with all of the build-up and arcing storylines, I was expecting an atomic explosion to end Oz, and instead I got an M80 in the mailbox.

Disappointing.