OZ – Gone but never forgotten

Since its debut run in 1997, the tv prison drama that is OZ was a brutal and cruel depiction of the life in prison and the struggles of all inmates to serve their times in a penitentiary stripped of most of their rights and privileges.

This TV series created by Tom Fontana ran for 6 years and had already concluded last February 2003. The show had a total of 56 episodes spanning 6 seasons of stories of prison life and death, of fightings, rapes, bullying, substance abuse and withdrawal and everything else that happens inside the prison.

OZ is the nickname for the Oswald State Penitentiary, a maximum-security facility which was later changed during the second season as the Oswald State Correctional Facility, Level Four.

OZ is not related to the L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of OZ except for the one experimental section of the facility which Tom McManus created and labeled as the “Emerald City”.

In Baum’s novel, Emerald City was the capital of the Land of Oz and was found at the end of the “Yellow Brick Road”. This city was made of green glass, emeralds and other jewels and had rows of shops selling wares of green shades, green stuffs in all varieties and forms. Though it may not be too clear if the wizard of Oz built this city or usurped the crown from the former king of Pastoria, the wizard had control of his domain.

In McManus’s case, he created the Emerald City or the “Em City” as the center for the rehabilitation of prisoners, in the hopes that the inmates may find reason to be penitent and to learn how to be responsible for their actions during imprisonment.

Unlike the Wizard of Oz, McManus was not able to course the objectives of the Em City the way that he thought it would go. Under his leadership, the experimental center was the venue for drug trafficking, murder, rape, physical assault and lies.

This show caught my interest several years ago when its re-run was aired on the USA cable channel. The first episode I ever watched was episode 14 under season 2 where Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni) comforted the grieving Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) when the latter knew that his wife had committed suicide. Beecher woke up from a nightmare and started crying at a corner of the cell which he shared with Keller. Keller hugged him from behind and told him that everything would be okay.

That particular episode started the love-hate-love relationship between Tobias and Keller. This angle of the series had made my eyes glued to the tube almost every tuesday night.

Today is Black Saturday, and I am watching and am now glued to the second season of OZ. I borrowed the discs from Bro Bear last week along with another tv series Brothers & Sisters.

Aside from the homoerotic undertones and the budding relationship of Keller and Beecher, OZ had an interesting mix of characters. Em City being a controlled environment had about 10 nominal groups. The Muslims were composed of Afro-Americans with their requisite Qur’ans who dislike drugs and homosexulity. There are also the Homeboys (another afro-american group) who were deep into drug use and trade.

Homeboys clashed with the Aryans who despised them along with the Jews and those who do drugs. The Aryans however were sadists engaged in rapes and killings of inmates. They were allied with the Bikers but not with the Homeboys.

There were also a group of Italians who took control on the drug trade. They have strong influence over some prison officers. The Hispanics or the Latinos were also another cultural group whose members were into the drug trade. Another group were the Irish composed mainly by two hoodlum brothers Ryan and Cyril. Other background groups were the Christians and the Gays.

Beecher and Keller do not belong to the group of Gays. They were not affiliated with any of the abovementioned groups, thus they belong to the group called OTHERS. Aside from Beecher and Keller, other outcasts who belonged to this group were Augustus Hill, the series’ crippled narrator on a wheelchair, and the old Agamemnon Busmalis.

The number of members for each group were limited to avoid confict related to race or social group. The series allowed viewers to observe how these groups move and struggle against other groups. It opened venues for viewers to understand how beings behave in a controlled environment, in limited rights and priviliges and with different racial or social clusters.

That in the midst of serving time in Em City, a homo relationship could blossom and perhaps provide viewers with hope in finding their one true love.

But watching OZ had opened my eyes to the very fact that the Philippine judicial and penal system is as corrupt and imperfect as the Oswald Penitentiary. Compared to the Em City, the country’s prison is overcrowded. Some controversial and powerful inmates were given special privileges and treatment while most poor convicted Filipinos sleep side by side, elbow to elbow, feet to head with at least 40 other inmates in one small prison cell.

It’s hard to imagine how the catering service perform in our prisons. It could be worse than the catering service in my college dormitory. In Oz the mess hall was wide and the food was never limited, there were stockrooms of food, a big kitchen and complete cooking equipment.

Em City had clean shower rooms and toilets, several books in their library, and support systems like educators, psychologists, medical team and the spiritual advisers.

Watching OZ is like watching pitbulls fight or witnessing evolution in Charles Darwin’s eyes. You see an inmate brought in, forced to survive by attaching to a group and then eventually pushed to murder someone or be killed by another. Others snaked their way or adapt to the style of the leader just so he could live another day of his term in jail. It’s ’survival of the fittest’ in the Em City.

OZ. It is GONE. Even after the coming of the Sopranos, the sugar-coated Sex in the City, or the twisted Six Feet Under, and no matter what Prison Break brings, OZ will never be FORGOTTEN.