Before The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Six Feet Under, The Wire, or any of the other popular HBO shows, there was Oz. The one-hour drama chronicled the lives of the staff and inmates at the Oswald State Correctional Facility, a maximum security penitentiary home to the most violent offenders in the state. It’s been over twenty years since the series concluded, but creator Tom Fontana is back with an Oz short film starring Lee Tergesen as Tobias Beecher and Dean Winters as Ryan O’Reily.
Titled Zo, the short film actually premiered at the ATX Festival in 2021, but few people were able to see it. Thankfully, Zo will premiere on YouTube on May 1st, giving fans around the world the chance to finally see it. According to Kirk Acevado, who starred in Oz as Miguel Alvarez, it could even lead to a sequel series if the short film gets enough buzz.
Oz is one of my favourite TV shows of all time. I probably re-watch it once a year, so the thought of a potential sequel series is very intriguing. Will it happen? Who knows, but I’m excited for the chance to reconnect with Tobias and Ryan at least one more time with this short film.
Over the course of six seasons, Oz featured one of the best ensemble casts on television. In addition to those I’ve already mentioned, you had Ernie Hudson, Harold Perrineau, J.K. Simmons, Edie Falco, Christopher Meloni, Eamonn Walker, Rita Moreno, Terry Kinney, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, BD Wong, Mark Margolis, Luis Guzmán, Lance Reddick, Reg R. Cathey, Luke Perry, and so many more. The series also pushed the envelope in ways that had never been seen on television before, with full-frontal nudity, frequent coarse language, and gruesome violence. It’s a rough series, but still one of HBO’s absolute best, even two decades later.
Would you like to see an Oz sequel series?
