12 Most Underrated TV Shows Ever
5. Oz
The first ever original drama produced by HBO back in 1997, it's fair to say that Oz remains one of the most influential TV series ever broadcast. Would Chris Albrecht and Jeff Bewkes have greenlit The Sopranos if Oz hadnt been so creatively rewarding for HBO? Probably, but Tom Fontana and his crew of laser-focused, passionate, incredibly committed actors and writers certainly made the decision easier for them. But compared to the cable giants celebrated Mob drama - essentially a kinetic, realistic melodrama with the odd flight of lyrical fancy - Oz is a bizarre, hyperstylised chamber piece, an operatic grand guignol slice of the grotesque holding more in common with Greek tragedy than with traditional television.
Harold Perrineau's wheelchair-bound Augustus Hill serves as the shows narrator as well as playing a fairly central role in the narrative, and the former's uncanny parallel to the role of the chorus in Greek tragedy is brought into sharp relief when Perrineau continues to narrate the show in exactly the same arch, playful manner even after his character is murdered at the end of season five.
Thats Oz to a tee, though. It's both wholly authentic (Fontana researched super-max prisons and their malcontents for two years before beginning production) and histrionic, exaggerated and naturalistic. It's also brutally violent and desperately sad and only occasionally utterly hilarious. Trapped in the intimidating shadow of Tony Soprano, HBOs Emerald City never received the plaudits that its successor did, but it remains completely, defiantly unique; a groundbreaking piece of television history that more people need to know about, and a launching pad for a ridiculous number of careers.