Watch enough TV, and your imaginary world will seem a whole lot smaller

I’ve been watching a lot of “Oz” lately. I mean a lot. In case my references to the series about life in a maximum security prison in previous blog entries and columns haven’t been enough to convince you, here goes.

“Oz,” created by Tom Fontana, ran for six seasons on HBO at a time when such groundbreaking mixtures of the poetic and the profane were a rare commodity on cable TV. It predated “Sex in the City” and “The Sopranos,” and at least in my opinion, was far more significant an achievement than either.

I never watched “Oz” when it was on, because I always thought it looked depressing. I’m sure to some people it would be. But like a vicarious version of the prisoners in Oswald State Penitentiary, you as a viewer eventually find yourself adjusting to a different set of expectations. Disturbing moments become funny or touching, lyrics of priceless beauty emerge out of the diatribes of the insane or inarticulate.

Another complaint that’s often made about “Oz” by insecure men is that there’s too much guy-on-guy sex. First of all, let’s be straight about this: There is some sex, but rape and sex are not the same thing.

As a heterosexual male of average insecurities, I’ve had trouble myself watching two men kiss in a lustful manner in the past. I still wouldn’t rate it up there with watching Eliza Dushku and Sarah Michelle Gellar fight, but that’s just me. If all you feel is disgust when you see two people, regardless of gender, show affection, then you’re probably not ready for “Oz,” and that’s cool.

“Oz” is the kind of show that tells such compelling long-form stories that you can’t stop watching it once you begin. That it also forces you to think about social issues, injustice and redemption is just the icing on the cake with the file in it.

But this isn’t really a column about “Oz” and how great it is. Never mind that my other two favorite shows of all time are “Farscape” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” both about a million miles away from the brutal violence and filth of “Oz.”

This is a column about Ryan O’Reily. Even more, it’s about the actor who plays him, Dean Winters. Around the time I began watching “Oz,” I also started watching FX series “Rescue Me.” It stars Dennis Leary as a post-9/11 firefighter in New York, and it’s pretty damn good.

Oddly enough, the actor that played his brother, Johnny, looked oddly familiar. Turned out it was Dean Winters.

Shortly after that, my girlfriend insisted that I watch sitcom “30 Rock,” starring the lovely and brilliant Tina Fey as NBC producer Liz Lemon. Not only did I laugh my ass off, but I discovered that here again, playing Lemon’s apparently braindead boyfriend Dennis, was Dean Winters.

Neither of these other roles are as wonderfully complex as that of Ryan O’Reilly, but they did show me an actor who could move easily from the hard drama of “Oz” to the sassy comedy of “30 Rock” without missing a beat. Even more importantly, it got me thinking.

Erik King played both Michael C. Hall’s lover, Keith, on “Six Feet Under” and his mortal enemy, Sgt. Doakes, on “Dexter.” And wasn’t that him on death row in “Oz”?

Speaking of “Dexter,” what are both Lauren Velez and David Zayas doing here? They were on opposite sides of the bars in “Oz.”

And hey, that’s Lee Tergesen, who played Beecher on “Oz,” playing Sully in the beginning of the second season of “Rescue Me.” Wasn’t he that cop who got blinded on “Homicide,” Fontana’s first show?

Don’t even get me started on Christopher Meloni, who’s been everywhere from “Oz” to “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Or Harold Perrineau, whom I first saw as Michael on “Lost” before being blown away by him on “Oz.”

Then there’s the intricately layered, cops-and-drug dealers show “The Wire.” Pretty much every actor from “Oz” who didn’t go on to star on either “Lost” or “Dexter” turned up on “The Wire.”

This is just the beginning, the first scratch that turns into a tunnel out of your cell or into a looney bin, depending on how much time you spend thinking about this stuff.

I’m not saying there’s any special significance to this incestuous family tree of TV land; more that it’s interesting to see how many great actors work almost exclusively within a medium not exactly known for great acting. Perhaps that’s changing.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to wonder if the TV is some sort of strange prison of its own, locking these amazing actors behind its glass screen, keeping their inimitable talents the sole property of those of us so transfixed by TV’s transformation over the last 10 to 15 years that we can’t look away.

Of course, I’ve been watching a lot of “The Prisoner” lately, too. So, perhaps you should take my rantings with a giant menacing bubble. I mean, a grain of salt.

Jake TenPas can be reached at jake.tenpas@lee.net or 758-9514.