• Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Jul 12, 1997
Season #: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 91 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 75 out of 91
  2. Negative: 11 out of 91
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User Reviews

  1. Feb 23, 2015
    3
    Oz really does not hold up well at all, from its incredibly unrealistic take on prison to it mediocre acting in the first season. The acting feels like a low budget off Broadway play, even though there are some great actors on the show. The plot in the majority of these episodes is more absurd then Days of Our Lives from ghost priests to the lottery this show is just silly. I will sayOz really does not hold up well at all, from its incredibly unrealistic take on prison to it mediocre acting in the first season. The acting feels like a low budget off Broadway play, even though there are some great actors on the show. The plot in the majority of these episodes is more absurd then Days of Our Lives from ghost priests to the lottery this show is just silly. I will say however this show paved the way for some great tv that followed. Expand
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 17
  2. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. Reviewed by: Terry Kelleher
    Jun 26, 2013
    83
    You won't escape easily from this drama's grip.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Lee Winfrey
    May 15, 2013
    100
    The first new drama series ever produced by Home Box Office, Oz, is a powerhouse. It will probably push the quality standards for television drama as far as HBO's masterful Larry Sanders Show has expanded the parameters of TV comedy series. [9 July 1997, p.C01]
  3. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Gail Pennington
    May 15, 2013
    100
    In a stifling summer of same-old, same-old on the tube, HBO's Oz is a shock of ice water in the face, a kick in the stomach, an exciting, exhausting, horrifying, mesmerizing trip to hell, operating as the Oswald Maximum Security Prison...For adults who choose to go to hell and (not quite) back, Oz is just about as powerful as TV drama gets. [10 July 1997]