Oz

Following some advice, I have started watching the first series of Oz to try to fill the void that finishing The Wire has left in my life. I hadn't realised that it was made in 1997, and it's kind of weird watching it, as it's sort of like a de-evolved Wire. I think if there had been no Oz, there would be no Wire, but I've still done things the wrong way round.

Although I am mainly enjoying it, it's not as pacey or gripping as The Wire (which is hardly fair as it was made 12 years before - or the bit I am watching was) but after The Wire, I kind of can't watch it without thinking, "Well I've just seen real criminals in The Wire. You people are a bunch of actors trying to look tough. It's just not as realistic as the mean streets of Baltimore, which I have never visited."

Although it does actually seem to use a lot of the same actors. It's quite fun playing spot the HBO actor, except this does mean that I've become one of those people who interrupts the viewing of others with the sentence, 'Hey look, it's him. Remember him? He's good, isn't he? I liked him in that other program. Doesn't he look young here?' And so on and so forth. Until I am told to be quiet and the DVD gets re-wound to watch the bit that was missed due to my deductions.

I'm only about 4 episodes in, but am getting really annoyed with the narrator, (who I recognized from Lost). (He looks younger in this). (I liked him in Lost). But I do not like him in this. He spins around when he is talking or dispensing his wisdom, and his wisdom isn't even wisdom, it's vacuous conjecture about prison life which doesn't really add anything to the plot or the feel of things. Plus he's just a bit too enthusiastic or impassioned or something, and really irritating. Kind of like Jar Jar Binks. I wouldn't be surprised if he is not in the next series as much. Kind of like Jar Jar Binks. When they realised.