OZ chronicles the attempts of McManus (Terry Kinney) to keep control over the inmates of Em(erald) City as well as the drug trade and the violence. There have been many groups of inmates during the run of the show and not everybody makes it out alive. There's the gangstas (Adebisi, Wangler, Redding, Poet, Keene), Muslims (Said, Arif, Supreme Allah), Italians (Pancamo, Nappa, Schiebetta), bikers (Hoyt), Aryans (Schillinger, Robson, Mark Mack), Christians (Cloutier, Cudney), Latinos (Alvarez, Morales, Guerra, Hernandez), gays (Hanlon, Cramer) and a whole pile of others (the O'Riley brothers, Keller, Stanislovsky, etc.). And there's a great "everyman" character called Beecher who gives a good look at a normal man who made one tragic mistake. Besides the regular inmates, there's guest stars such as Method Man, Luke Perry, Master P, Treach, etc. and a bunch of prison staff doctors (Dr. Nathan), a nun/psychologist (Sister Peter Marie), a bunch of guards some honest, some crooked and of course the warden Leo Glynn. The whole thing is narrated and held together by inmates Augustus Hill, who provides the show with some context, some sense of theme, etc. and ties everything together really nicely.

Starring:

Harold Perrineau, J.K. Simmons, Lee Tergesen, George Morfogen, Ernie Hudson, Dean Winters, Terry Kinney, Rita Moreno, Eamonn Walker, Granville Adams, Kirk Acevedo, B.D. Wong, Craig "muMs" Grant, Tom Mardirosian, Chuck Zito, Scott William Winters, Robert Clohessy, Christopher Meloni, Kristin Rohde, R.E. Rodgers, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, David Zayas, Željko Ivanek, Edie Falco, Anthony Chisholm, Michael Wright, J.D. Williams, Kathryn Erbe, Betty Buckley, Seth Gilliam, Eddie Malavarca, Philip Casnoff, Lance Reddick, Ellen McElduff, Luis Guzmán, Lord Jamar, Erik King, Rick Fox, Luke Perry, Austin Pendleton, Mark Margolis, Sean Whitesell, Sandra Purpuro, Robert John Burke, Reg E. Cathey, Tony Musante, Patti LuPone, Joel Grey, Charles Busch, Sandra Denton, Arija Bareikis, Edward Herrmann, Leon Robinson, Lauren Vélez

Genre:

Drama, Crime