The original post: /r/television by /u/KRIEGLERR on 2025-02-20 14:39:10.
I was thinking about Oz again after a couple of scenes popped up on my Youtube feed, looking back on the show , I’m not sure what to think of it, obviously compared to other HBO Shows , it aged rather poorly but I still think it had some amazing moments but also some really out of pocket crazy surreal things.
It becomes pretty over-the-top as the seasons go on and the writings gets worse and worse but one thing was always present and it’s the incredible cast and the great acting.
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From JK Simmons as Vern Schillinger , a performance so good that 25+ years later people can still only see him as the vile Schillinger.
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Lee Tergesen as Tobias Beecher , probably one of the most satisfying revenge arc I’ve seen on Television.
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Christopher Meloni as Keller
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Kirk Acevedo as Alvarez , ultimately probably not as prominent as the others but I feel like I should include him because Acevedo is one of those actors that you see pop up everywhere and never give a bad performance.
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And last but not least Dean Winters as Ryan O’Reilly a character you either hated to love or loved to hate.
So it made me think , what other shows had a very good cast and/or great acting but ultimately poor/mediocre writing, and one show that came up right away is The Walking Dead. I honestly think the cast was really good (and it’s no wonder when you look at Jon Bernthal and Steven Yeun’s career now) and in particular Andrew Lincoln who truly did great work considering the writing in the later season was abysmal.