Oz: The Complete Third Season

Starring: Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje, Ernie Hudson, Harold Perrineau, Terry Kinney, B.D. Wong, Christopher Meloni

RS: 3of 4 Stars

More than anything, Oz is about seduction. Each transaction on the show -- financial, violent, sexual, even mail call -- is fraught with slippery power dynamics. The show's third season, as usual, features more talk than action -- one conversation leads to another, and then to another, and only then are grisly events truly set in motion. But where Oz succeeds is in rendering the most mundane of interactions sinister.

JON CARAMANICA
(March 10, 2004)