#The cast of oz tv series tv
documentary/docudrama), and while some might more starkly juxtapose them as quality TV versus trashy reality show, I suggest that they can provide a window into the (change in) story lines about and perceptions of prisoners, crime, and security that American audiences found, and continue to find, believable and compelling.ĥWhile Oz was notorious for its gritty violence, contemporary “documentaries” like Lockup draw on much more conventional (or perhaps even pornographic) methods in telling their story – and end up depicting greater violence – that might not be immediately recognizable as such to the audience.
#The cast of oz tv series series
While the two series belong to different genres (fictional drama vs. It also established HBO’s prominence in creating cutting edge cable television series, soon followed by shows like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, all of which were depicting language and imagery impossible to broadcast on existing network television.ĤI am interested in Oz specifically as a prison drama and connect the 1990s depictions of prison life in Oz to the more recent prevalence of prison shows like Lockup, currently shown weekly on MSNBC. 4 Peter Lehman notes: “With Oz, HBO has almost single-handedly changed Hollywood’s norms of represent (.)ģHBO’s first original dramatic series, Oz (1997-2003), was significant for American television for several reasons: it ushered in new standards for graphic depiction of violence, brutal sex scenes and unrestrained frontal male nudity 4.How is such (contradictory, one might think) affect produced, maintained, and disseminated? One useful avenue of investigation lies in the narratives people watch and listen to, find believable and resonate with, including, of course, on television. For example, it can be demonstrated that incarcerating more people does not make communities safer and yet, a majority of citizens vote for building more prisons, because doing so makes them feel protected. To most observers, the reality of mass incarceration in the United States of America is indeed astonishing, as are the stunning racial disparities, demonstrated most recently by Michelle Alexander 3.ĢActivists and scholars have been somewhat dumbfounded by the impossibility of using rational arguments in political debates. One could think that building and filling prisons and ever increasing mass incarceration are as American as apple pie 2. For Black males in thei (.)ġThe prison has been an ongoing theme in American literature and prisons are of increasing importance in political analysis 1. 3 More than 60% of the people in prison are now racial and ethnic minorities.2 As of June 2009 the US continued to have both the largest incarcerated population (2,297,400, a dec (.).1 Caleb Smith, the Prison and the American Imagination, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009 Angel (.).
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