Oz: The Complete First Season

By:
In-House Review - May 05 2005

The complete first season of the hit HBO series: 1: "The Routine" In the "Emerald City" experimental unit of Oswald State Penitentiary, we meet Gangbangers, Latinos, Muslims, Westies, Aryans, and Wiseguys. No clear-cut leader emerges--with the possible exception of Kareem Said, a Muslim author who preaches non-violence and abstinence. 2: "Visits, Conjugal and Otherwise" With Schibetta and the prison brass in a race to uncover Ortolani's killer (for very different reasons), we see how inmates react to visits from both their wives and, in one case, family members who are also in prison. 3:"God's Chillin" Friction is growing in the wake of two deaths--first Ortoloni and now Johnny Post--so Wiseguy leader Schibetta, Said, and Gangbanger Jefferson Keane are brought together by Warden Glynn, who tells them to keep their boys quiet or else he'll lock the prison down. 4: "Capital I" Governor Devlin has reinstated capital punishment in the state; and the first Oz prisoner scheduled to die is Jefferson Keane, who killed a Latino in a skirmish. 5: "Straight Life" The infiltration of into Oz has reached unprecedented levels; and the undercover efforts of McManus and Glynn to find out who's smuggling it in backfires in a deadly way. Despite a lockdown in the Emerald City, continue to trickle in--and the blame shifts from prisoners to corrupt officials. 6: "To Your Health" Three generations of Alvarezes--all prisoners at Oz--are united when the partiarch, Ricardo, is found face down in his cell, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, Tobias Beecher, who as the neo-Nazi Schillinger's "girlfriend" has been to wear women's clothes, flips out after taking PCP and sends Schillinger to the hospital with an eye cut. 7: "Plan B" A recovered Said ostracizes Huseni Mershah for turning his back on him when he was dying--and orders all the Muslims to cast him out.Impressed by Said's power, Groves decides to kill Glynn in his honor, but ends up stabbing and killing an officer by mistake. 8: "A Game of Checkers" Beecher is released from the hole, and Schillinger is left eyeless and weak. A riot breaks out after two white punks get into a fight over checkers. Frustation, sexuality, hate, revenge, racism all rear their ugly heads, causing the violence to escalate.

By: Tomas

I'm a Latin American fan of the series. I watch them every week in HBO-Ole, so when you decided to put the first season on DVD I was Thrilled. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that even tough Hbo's Latin American channel HBO-Ole shows are in English with Spanish sub-titles they decided not to include Spanish sub-titles and instead create a fully translated audio track.
Question: Have you ever heard a foreign film fully translated into English. Is as awful as that. Please, please, please do not do that again. You loose the original voices that gave form to the characters. If it's a kids film... They're not very good at reading so it's understandable to have a separate audio track.
Why didn't they borrow the Spanish sub-titles already created by HBO's sister HBO-Ole. I'm sincerely thinking of returning my DVD for a full refund. That's how disappointed I am.
If they ever decide to issue a DVD version with Spanish sub-titles, please let me know so I can buy it.