27 Best Shows Like Oz ...

27 Best Shows Like Oz ...

If you liked this film , you will probably love these too! In this list we highlight some of the best films that share a very similar premise to '', and are worth checking out.

1. Cell 211 (2009)

1h 50m Action Thriller Drama

The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

2. Screwed (2011)

1h 50m Action Crime

The film is a semi-biographical story based on the experiences of former prison guard Ronnie Thompson who spent seven years working in some of the UK's most dangerous prisons. Based on Thompson's book of the same name, the project stars James D'Arcy (Master & Commander), Noel Clarke (Kidulthood), Frank Harper (The Football Factory), Jamie Foreman (Layer Cake), Andrew Shim (This Is England) and Kate Magowan (Stardust). The story revolves around former soldier Sam Norwood who takes a job as a prison officer when he returns from Iraq and becomes exposed to the underworld of prison culture - including corrupt guards and drug trafficking.

3. Felon (2008)

1h 43m Action Crime Drama Mystery

A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.

4. American History X (1998)

1h 59m Drama

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

5. Wentworth Prison (2013)

45m Crime Drama

Bea Smith is locked up while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of her husband and must learn how life works in prison. A modern adaptation and sequel of the iconic Prisoner series.

6. The Wire (2002)

1h Crime Drama

Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

7. Prison Break (2005)

45m Action & Adventure Crime Drama

Due to a political conspiracy, an innocent man is sent to death row and his only hope is his brother, who makes it his mission to deliberately get himself sent to the same prison in order to break the both of them out, from the inside out.

8. The Take (2009)

1h Action & Adventure Drama

Freddie Jackson is released from prison in 1984 having served a four-year sentence for armed robbery. His wife Jackie, who has been waiting for him on the outside in the mistaken belief that that he wants to go straight, soon finds herself disappointed: Freddie is in fact raring to get back into the game and has set his sights on becoming top dog in the East End underworld.

9. The Experiment (2010)

1h 36m Thriller Drama

20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.

10. The Shield (2002)

45m Crime Drama Action & Adventure

The story of an inner-city Los Angeles police precinct where some of the cops aren't above breaking the rules or working against their associates to both keep the streets safe and their self-interests intact.

11. Breaking Bad (2008)

45m Drama

When Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family's financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.

12. The Experiment (2001)

2h Drama Thriller

Das Experiment is a shocking psycho thriller about the potential for brutality that humans hide. Even more shocking is the fact that it’s based on an actual occurrence — a 1971 psychological experiment at Stanford University that was aborted prematurely when the experimenters lost control.

13. Lock Up (1989)

1h 55m Action Crime

Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after his administration was publicly humiliated by Leone, and has now arrived on the scene to ensure that Leone never sees the light of day.

14. Midnight Express (1978)

2h 1m Drama Crime

Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".

15. The Sopranos (1999)

1h Drama

The story of New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. Those difficulties are often highlighted through his ongoing professional relationship with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. The show features Tony's family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and story arcs, most notably his wife Carmela and his cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti.

16. Scum (1979)

1h 38m Crime Drama TV Movie

This is the hard and shocking story of life in a British Borstal for young offenders. The brutal regime made no attempt to reform or improve the inmates and actively encouraged a power struggle between the 'tough' new inmate and the 'old hands'.

17. Civil Brand (2002)

18. Bad Boys (1983)

1h 44m Crime Drama Thriller

Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.

19. A Prophet (2009)

2h 35m Crime Drama

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

20. R (2010)

25m Drama

R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour is a Canadian/American original anthology horror-fantasy series, with episodes each half an hour long. The series is based on The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It Movie, and the books The Haunting Hour and Nightmare Hour anthology by R. L. Stine.

21. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)

1h 27m Crime Thriller

After being cruelly set up by a crooked detective named Sugimi (Isao Natsuyagi), whom she loved, Nami Matsushima (aka Matsu the Scorpion) (Meiko Kaji) is sentenced to do hard time in a women's prison, which is run by sadistic and horny male guards. There are 700 other prisoners, making Matsu number 701. Her crime was making a failed attempt to stab Sugimi on the steps of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Headquarters because he used her to win favor with the Yakuza. While in prison she meets inmates like Yuki Kida (Yayoi Watanabe) who was committed for fraud and theft, Otsuka (Akemi Negishi), jailed for burglary and extortion, and Katagiri (Rie Yokoyama) who has been impounded for arson and illegally disposing of a body.

22. An Innocent Man (1989)

1h 53m Action Crime Drama Thriller Comedy

Jimmie Rainwood was minding his own business when two corrupt police officers (getting an address wrong) burst into his house, expecting to find a major drug dealer. Rainwood is shot, and the officers frame him as a drug dealer. Rainwood is convicted of drug dealing, based on the perjured evidence of a police informant. Thrown into a seedy jail, fighting to prove his innocence is diffucult when he has to deal with the realities of prison life, where everyone claims they were framed.

23. Animal Factory (2000)

1h 34m Crime Drama

Suburbanite Ron is spoiled, young and not overly worried about the marijuana charges leveled against him. But, after being made out to be a drug dealer, he faces a five-year jail sentence in San Quentin State Prison. Physically frail and unaccustomed to his rough surroundings, Ron is primed to fall victim to sexual predators and bullying guards – that is, until he's befriended by Earl, a veteran inmate who finds meaning in protecting the vulnerable new kid.

24. Fight for Your Life (1977)

1h 22m Thriller Crime Drama

A minister dispenses justice on three convicts who take his family hostage.

25. The Chamber (1996)

1h 53m Crime Drama

Idealistic young attorney Adam Hall takes on the death row clemency case of his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall, a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met.

26. Reform School Girls (1986)

1h 34m Action Comedy Crime

Jenny is sent to a women's reform school. It is run by evil warden Sutter and her henchwoman Edna. Jenny will stop at nothing to escape but she also has to deal with Charlie the bully.

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