Welcome to Oswald State Correctional Facility - aka Oz - home to the most violent and unpleasant set of people ever assembled on the small screen. The nihilistic prison drama series in which they appear is due to return to Channel 4 early this year. It is the work of the US cable station Home Box Office (HBO) - the company that makes The Sopranos. Yet in Britain, it remains one of TV's best kept secrets, despite the fact that it has been created by some of Hollywood's top talents and stars of the stature of Kathy Bates, Matt Dillon and Steve Buscemi have signed up to direct episodes.
The action takes place in a special maximum security centre, devised by an idealistic and determined prison officer Tim McManus (Terry Kinney), with perspex cells and 24-hour surveillance. Here, prisoners are offered an opportunity to reform. Unfortunately, the inmates soon replicate the ethnic gangs of the old prison, with predictably explosive results.
It's amazing, in many ways, that Oz has survived as long as it has. It is incredibly violent - to a degree which would never be tolerated in mainstream Hollywood or US network television. By comparison, previous "brutal" dramas such Brubaker and Cool Hand Luke look like The Waltons. Indeed, the only prison film to come close to the show's atmosphere came out of Australia - John Hillcoat's Ghosts. . .of the Civil Dead, which portrayed a futuristic dystopia inspired by America's high-tech jails.
The previous three series of Oz have featured poisoning, lynching, burning, shooting, beating, eye-gouging and crucifixion. The actors admit they find it tough going sometimes. "I have difficulty watching some scenes," says Edie Falco (better known as Carmela Soprano, who plays the world-weary prison officer Diane Wittlesey). At times, even writer Tom Fontana finds it all too much. He claims that he closed his eyes while penning some scenes because "I didn't want to see myself writing the words I had to produce".
Oz is about political cynicism and a morally bankrupt penal system. The giant, harshly lit sets perfectly complement the bleakness of the script. Much of the drama's strength comes from the character-driven plots. And it pulls off the trick of making storylines, which on paper would seem preposterous, become compelling on screen - a tribute to the actors' powers. Prison psychiatrist Sister Peter Marie (played by West Side Story star Rita Moreno) is a nun with a tragic past. Vern Schillinger (J.K. Simmons) is a neo-Nazi whose son becomes a drug addict and is imprisoned in the same jail, yet outside his protection. Episodes are topped and tailed by wheelchair-bound Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau) - a one-man Greek chorus, summing up events in a few pithy sentences.
Oz's real strength, though, is that it is never gratuitous in dealing with the issues inevitably brought up by the brutalising influence of incarceration. Such as the story of Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergeson), a lawyer who killed a child while drink-driving. Alone and vulnerable in the prison, with no prospective allies, he teeters on the edge of a breakdown before taking revenge on a fellow inmate and killing a guard.
The programme is indisputably Tom Fontana's baby, and its dialogue, tight plotting and remarkable verisimilitude bear tribute to a rare talent. But executive producer Barry Levinson deserves credit too, for enabling such a singular and uncompromising vision to reach the screen. The ensemble acting is superb, and the cast speak warmly of the show's quality and integrity.
Once again, HBO has proved that programmes are only "risky" if they are substandard. Given good writing, directing and acting, anything can become great television. Audience reaction confirms this: Oz is so popular in the US that it boasts its own merchandise, Newzletter, website and chat room. Dean Winters (Ryan O'Reilly, streetwise survivor par excellence) may describe Oz as "the show about people that you would never want to spend five minutes with in real life". But once you invite this motley crowd into your livingroom, you soon find that an hour a week is never enough.
The next series of Oz will be shown on Channel 4 in the spring.