Quote:HBO'S HIT SERIES OZ KICKS OFF SIXTH AND FINAL SEASON IN JANUARY

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Directors Include Series Veterans Adam Bernstein and Alex Zakrzewski, Plus Six Directors Making Their Episodic TV Debuts; Guest Stars Include Betty Buckley, Joel Grey, Patti LuPone And Malachy McCourt.
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Coming off its most-watched season, HBO's acclaimed prison drama OZ returns for its sixth and final season this January with eight new episodes. The season begins with the show entitled "Dead Man Talking," debuting SUNDAY, JAN. 5 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET), followed by other shows on subsequent Sundays at the same time. The directors for the final season include series veterans Adam Bernstein and Alex Zakrzewski, plus six directors making their episodic TV debuts: Marc Klasfeld, Judy Dennis, David Von Ancken, John Henry Davis, Daniel Loflin and Ted Bogosian. Among the guest stars are Betty Buckley (reprising her role as Suzanne Fitzgerald, mother of Ryan O'Reily), Joel Grey, Patti LuPone and Malachy McCourt (reprising his role as jailed priest Dylan Meehan).

The returning ensemble cast includes Ernie Hudson as Leo Glynn, Oz's warden; Terry Kinney as Tim McManus, who heads up Emerald City, the prison's experimental unit; Rita Moreno as Sister Peter Marie Reimondo, the prison's staff psychologist; Harold Perrineau as Augustus Hill, the wheelchair-bound narrator; JK Simmons as neo-Nazi Vern Schillinger; Lee Tergesen as luckless Tobias Beecher; Eamonn Walker as Kareem Said, a Muslim who considers himself a political prisoner; Dean Winters as the crafty Ryan O'Reily; and Kirk Acevedo as the troubled Miguel Alvarez.

Among other returning cast regulars are Granville Adams, Tom Mardirosian, Christopher Meloni, George Morfogen, muMs, Kristin Rohde, Lauren Velez, Scott William Winters, B.D. Wong, David Zayas and Chuck Zito.

Also making special appearances on OZ this season will be former cast members Zuill Bailey, Andrew Barchilon, Kathryn Erbe, Fred Koehler, Leon, Mark Margolis and Jon Seda.

Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana and Jim Finnerty continue as executive producers of OZ, which debuted on HBO with eight shows in 1997. HBO will have presented 56 episodes when it completes its run.

With storylines again written by Fontana, OZ returns to the relentless struggles for power inside the Oswald State Correctional Facility, where inmates and correctional officers battle ruthlessly for survival amid warring factions and explosive acts of retribution. In this final season, OZ will wrap up some of its storylines, and some of the main characters will experience redemption and spiritual awakening.

The executive producers of OZ are Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana and Jim Finnerty; supervising producers, Jorge Zamacona and Bridget Potter. The series is a Levinson/Fontana Co. production.

Quote:What makes this final season different is that Fontana and HBO went into it knowing it was going to end, with no chance for appeal, so all bets - like all gloves - are off. Fontana and company are free to shock and challenge, to explore unexpected avenues and, most of all, to put any character in jeopardy at any time.

Fontana is already famous for going all-out and doing the unexpected. With eight episodes per season, he's averaged more than one death per show, and many of the casualties are principal characters. So what is he going to do with eight episodes left, and no need to leave anyone on their feet when the final credits roll?

Stand by, sports fans.

I've seen the first three episodes of this final season. I refuse to spoil any surprises, but I will say this: In the first episode, there is a moment so casually shocking, even by HBO standards, that you'll know it when you see it. In a screening room full of tough-guy actors from "Oz" and "The Sopranos," it elicited a squeamish round of groans and laughs. In the second episode, there's a scene involving cutlery that has nothing to do with shanks for the memories.

And in the third episode, there's one of those "oh wow" moments that you watch television for - the stunning things that you don't see coming, can't forget afterward and recognize instantly as high art and realistic drama.

Quote:Coming off its most-watched season

Quote:Didn't they kill off the guy in the wheelchair last season?
If so whose gonna narrate the episodes?

Quote:The narrations from the glass box, formerly presented by Harold Parrineau, continue, even though his Augustus Hill was one of many who left in a body bag last season. So who's in the box this year? Hill and Kathryn Erbe's Shirley Bellinger, and other "Oz" inmates who have shuffled off this show's mortal coil. In this last season, death isn't final - or at least, it's not an impediment to bringing some fine actors back for one more appearance.

Quote:Is there a gay sex scene every show

Quote:Damn, the nigger muslim leader got killed

Quote:And how did the guy get the gun past the metal detectors anyway?