Oz/YMMV

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: A strange subplot dealing with "aging drugs" was dropped very, very quickly. Even referenced in the director's goodbye letter to fans.
• Better on DVD: While the arcs and loads of characters are easier to follow on DVD, the repetitive setting can get old quickly when watching a lot of episodes in a row...or, of course, put you in the right mood to take it all in.
• Better Than It Sounds: Lee Tergesen described it as the story "Of a young lawyer who gets raped and learns to like it".
• Complete Monster: Simon Adebisi and Vern Schillinger
  • James Robson, the right-hand man of Schillinger, is possibly worse than him. Malcolm Coyle also falls squarely into this category when he reveals he stabbed a baby for fun and raped the mother, and laughs.
  • Timmy Kirk left a baby to die in a dumpster filled with rats, and is one of the series' complete sociopaths.
  • Not just limited to the inmates:
    • Claire Howell, who sexually abuses many inmates and even kills one.
    • Mark Miles: He's a cold, unpleasant racist and homophobe murdered two of his families.
    • Karl Metzger, so much so that Beecher's cold-blooded murder of him is arguably a CMOA.
    • Governer Devlin. Until the final season he's presented as nothing more than an arrogant, bull-headed and corrupt politician. Then he has two people murdered. And then he kills Warden Glynn. Compared to the actions of some of the show's other cast members this may seem quite tame, but think again: This is the man who throughout the series made it his mission to punish and make life difficult for the inmates of Oz because they are apparently 'animals' and undeserving of any and all human rights. Then we discover that despite his posturing and moral conservatism he is nothing more than a spineless murderer. Not only that, but his victims were his mentor, an accomplice and WARDEN FUCKING GLYNN! His former running mate and one of the only (reasonably) honest characters on the show. And we still don't know the full extent of the crimes he and Leowen committed during Devlin's youth, the information he killed to keep hidden. And yet he still denies inmates their rights because he's still apparently better than they are.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Has its own page.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: Ditto.
• Foe Yay: Schillinger, Beecher, and Keller tend to have a triangle of this - lampshaded with Beecher and Schillinger in their song duet in "Variety",
  • Although their conflict is more of a struggle for influence over the other inmates, Adebisi openly admits he wants to kiss Said, though the latter's religious aversion to homosexuality prevents it from being mutual. After accidentally killing Adebisi, Said spends the rest of his time in Oz "embracing the Adebisi inside of him". There's also some (again, one-sided) between Adebisi and Peter Schibetta -- which comes to a brutal end when Adebisi rapes Schibetta.
• Growing the Beard: After the less interesting second season, the brilliant third season contains some of the best acting to be found on television.
  • More of a Sophomore Slump, the first season was absolutely brilliant and probably the series' best.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: CO Armstrong's helping a Christian inmate destroy the printing press that the Muslim inmates were using for a prison industry business, on orders of a rival business/gang leader, and his line "I guess this is one of those times you don't ask "What Would Jesus Do?"." The actor playing Armstrong, Tim Brown, is an ex-NYC firefighter and one of the main dissenting voices in the debate over whether to allow the building of a Mosque near WTC ground zero.
• Jerkass Woobie: A Trademark of the series. Pretty much every character is loathsome but is invested with a story or acting performance to show that They are still human and have suffered Their own tragedies. Schillinger stands out the most. He's crossed the Moral Event Horizon God knows how many times but J.K. Simmons' acting is so good and the writing is strong enough that he can still be sympathetic while ordering the deaths of children.
• Mind Game Ship: Chris Keller/Tobias Beecher. Ryan with whomever he is manipulating, to an extent.
• Moral Event Horizon: Hoo Boy.. Schillinger and Ryan O'Reily both could fit a whole page with this.
  • Beecher's manipulation of Adam Guenzel (who was a jerk) would normally count, but doesn't because the realization of what he has done causes Beecher to feel genuinely guilty.
  • In general, played with. While many appear to have crossed theirs (Keane, Adebisi and Timmy Kirk being some examples) by virtue of the crimes they committed, the show's themes of morality and redemption work it in such a way that they are not as evil as they may have been portrayed otherwise. While most cross theirs while in prison (Schillinger, Robson and Keller to name a few), they are never expilcitly viewed as beyond any redemption.
• Narm: Thy name is Cyril O'Reilly, especially in later seasons. The forced tender moments start seeming ridiculous when his death count reaches 4 or so.
  • Often Hill's narrations verge on this.
• Narm Charm: The series has tendency towards the melodramatic and can feel over-stylized at times... but most of the drama is compelling enough to make it work.
• Never Live It Down: Once someone is raped, he's forever a "prag," and while he can earn some respect, he can have no real power in the social order unless he, personally, kills his rapist. If the rapist has left Oz or died some other way, then that's just too bad for the victim.
  • The show itself is mostly remember in pop culture as being "that show with prison rape" and not for much else.
• Nightmare Fuel: Enough to have its own page.
• Retroactive Recognition: Oh my God, Elliot Stabler and Emile Skoda, what the hell are you guys doing?
• Seasonal Rot: Season 4 significantly upped the number of character deaths and unbelievable storylines, but managed to stay compelling largely due to Adebisi's arc. His death, which was followed a few episodes later by the infamous "Ageing Drug" storyline, is usually seen as a Jump the Shark that the series never recovered from.
• Selective Squick: Many (mostly male) viewers called out the series on its profusion of full frontal male nudity, and shots of prisoners using the toilet.
• Sophomore Slump: Season 2 tried to go in a lot more storyline directions. Some worked, some were annoying.
• The Scrappy: Kenny "Bricks" (eye roll) Wangler manages to piss away all his sympathetic character development by being generally evil, whiny, and an all around insufferable punk. One cannot help but cheer when Guillaume Tarrant puts a bullet into his back.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: One can forgive the writers for not wanting to touch this with a 39 and a half foot pole, but a plot where Said and the other Muslims face increased discrimination in the wake of 9/11 would have been potentially brilliant, especially since Oz was one of the only shows running during the attacks to feature prominent Muslim characters.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: Ryan's breast cancer is a good example.
• The Woobie: Beecher, Cyril, occasionally Alvarez, and Diane.
  • Also Father Mukada, sent to Oz because he questioned the conservative views of his powerful church patron, is clearly out of his depth in the madness and brutality of a maximum security prison.
  • Maybe Alvarez as well, though given that he gouged out a guy's eyes who had never done a single thing to him, pretty much everything bad that happens to him qualifies more or less as just punishment.
  • Peter Schibetta also. Things kept going horribly wrong for him, and the audience is invited to share his pain during his sessions with Sister Pete and when Schillinger mocks him.
  • Omar White could count as well, considering the fact that Mcmanus decides to stop giving him chances very soon after he actually begins earnestly heading in the right direction, and sends him back to solitary begging for forgiveness. White barely manages to get out of solitary again only to realize his mentor Said has been killed, and is then killed himself by the same person due to White wanting to respect Said's peaceful wishes and redeem himself to Mcmanus
  • Guillaume Tarrant, while only appearing in a couple of episodes, could be considered one of the most tragic characters: Sent to a maximum security prison because of a minor crime (destroying a statue at a museum), he is instantly targeted by the stronger inmates (particularly Wangler). Then, he is manipulated by Adebisi into killing his tormentors, and commites suicide afterwards.