June 17, 2005
What Did I Do For Entertainment Before "Oz"?
I'm in love with HBO. Ed & I have recently discovered Oz and we're currently 3 episodes into Season 2. We almost overdosed on it last night watching 3 episodes within a 5-hour period. But it's addictive.
It's not a show I thought I'd like. Gritty, violent, disturbing. But it's so brilliantly written, acted, and directed and it meets my main requirement for enjoyable TV/movie-watching (drama category) -- it makes me feel something. I cried through the last 20 minutes of the prison riot episode. Of course I was PMSing at the time, but I'll bet I would have cried anyway.
As Ed noted last night, Oz doesn't contain a single weak character. You loathe a character one minute and cheer for him the next. It turns upside down your entire concept of good and evil. And of course there's the whole sociopolitical aspect of it. I've never seen anything like it on television, and few movies come close to its intensity.
How does HBO keep getting it right? I know Oz isn't new, that it's from the late 90's, but I mean why is HBO so damn good at churning out quality programs? Six Feet Under, Sex & the City, and Curb Your Enthusiasm have all become an important part of my TV-viewing life.
A wise man (Harper) once said (and I'm paraphrasing) that we rave about these shows only because they're on HBO -- that you could take the sitcom According to Jim, move it from ABC to HBO and the critics would go nutty for it.
I wonder if there is some truth to that. Is there something novel and edgy about HBO programs simply because they're on HBO? Do I just like hearing naughty words on TV? How do the folks at HBO keep churning out a product far superior to the crap on ABC, NBC, and CBS?
I don't know. I just hope they keep doing it.
Posted by kristin at 00:00 | Comments (0)
