I don't find it depressing, although it can be very tragic. (That's not a spoiler, it's about homicide.) But it certainly can be ruthless in a way that I've never seen on any other show, ever; not OMG deep fat fryer ruthless so much as in certain themes. I will discuss that more later on, when you've seen more of the show and I can use examples.
By the way, you should not watch this at the same time or your head will explode, but the show that had my entire grad class hooked, also prominently featuring POC and also created by Tom Fontana, was Oz, which was set in a prison. It was on HBO, and prominently featured horrifying violence and penises.
It was way more over the top than Homicide, and was more hyperreal or surreal than realistic; it was narrated from a giant plastic enclosure by Harold Perrineau, who would then get in a wheelchair to play his character on the show. (He's an excellent black actor whom you may have seen as Mercutio in Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet.) It too was largely about racial politics, plus other politics, fucked up relationships (mostly gay), complex portrayals of a number of different religions, identity and identity politics, and lots and lots of the prison equivalent of palace intrigue. It's brutal, compelling, and... did I say brutal? In spades.
Despite the difficulty of getting any female characters into the show, it did have some good supporting roles for them: a prison guard and a nun, the latter played by Rita Moreno (who is Latina) in a very non-cliched, positive portrayal. (The sexy B. D. Wong plays a priest!)
My favorite character was Simon Adebisi and his magic hat (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=simon+adebisi&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2). Though really, you have to see him moving around while wearing that thing to truly appreciate its hypnotic force.
The first four seasons were excellent, then it got increasingly implausible.
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Oz: save for future reference
Tue, May. 15th, 2007 05:53 am (UTC)By the way, you should not watch this at the same time or your head will explode, but the show that had my entire grad class hooked, also prominently featuring POC and also created by Tom Fontana, was Oz, which was set in a prison. It was on HBO, and prominently featured horrifying violence and penises.
It was way more over the top than Homicide, and was more hyperreal or surreal than realistic; it was narrated from a giant plastic enclosure by Harold Perrineau, who would then get in a wheelchair to play his character on the show. (He's an excellent black actor whom you may have seen as Mercutio in Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet.) It too was largely about racial politics, plus other politics, fucked up relationships (mostly gay), complex portrayals of a number of different religions, identity and identity politics, and lots and lots of the prison equivalent of palace intrigue. It's brutal, compelling, and... did I say brutal? In spades.
Despite the difficulty of getting any female characters into the show, it did have some good supporting roles for them: a prison guard and a nun, the latter played by Rita Moreno (who is Latina) in a very non-cliched, positive portrayal. (The sexy B. D. Wong plays a priest!)
My favorite character was Simon Adebisi and his magic hat (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=simon+adebisi&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2). Though really, you have to see him moving around while wearing that thing to truly appreciate its hypnotic force.
The first four seasons were excellent, then it got increasingly implausible.