As mentioned previously, it's not a raw look at prison life. . .it is straight up genre fantasy where the only way to get negligent drunk drivers and hardened mafia bosses in the same area is with this contrived story. And the sub-stories, Jesus Christ: one guy turns down a pardon because he's worried about what the fellas on the INSIDE are saying about his commitment, one guy brutally, BRUTALLY assaults a guard to prove themselves, while another guard is BRUTALLY murdered after constant bullying of a guy (and this guy basically goes from Sheldon on Big Bang to Maximum Security Walter White) or the Boston flunkie whos retarded brother somehow also gets locked up in the same experimental prison wing. . .
It was all so fucking dopey. And bleak; like if you want to have fantastical stories to keep things interesting, that's fine - but there needs to be some light here. There isn't. Everything sucks, not just for the inmates, but for the people waiting (or who have stopped waiting) on the outside. At some point the bleakness (which is on THE KILLING Season 1 levels of emotional torture porn) just becomes comedic and you're laughing at the constant, CONSTANT, cavalcade of awfulness.
SOPRANOS was far more effective with its brutality because it felt believable and organic (compare the long, and painful road to the conclusion of the big event narrative thread in Season 2 of the Soprano's to the absolutely ridiculous storyline and resolution of the "reformed" mafia guy).
. . .for its time I bet it felt really fresh, but the brutality and cynicism was the point of OZ, not the stories.
