| Product: |
Prison Break |
| Date: |
06/08/08 (108 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Gripping thriller
Disadvantages: Completely ludicrous
Prison Break:
A man robs a bank so he can deliberately get sent to the jail he designed so he can break out his brother who stands falsely accused on death row of the assassination of the vice president's brother - who isn't really dead? - using only the blueprints of the prison to help him, which he has tattooed on his back. Okay then. This is just the first episode, so it gets sillier and sillier on a weekly basis. Admit it, you want to watch it already. Once safely in prison, he befriends the warden, romances the prison doctor, and makes enemies of a mafia boss, a psychotic murderer and an evil prison guard. Having to keep ahead of these guys, it's lucky Michael Schofield is a genius with a photographic memory!
Everything builds towards Michael and his brother, Lincoln Burrows, putting their plan into action - all in convenient time for the season one cliffhanger, naturally. Meanwhile, on the outside, a dastardly secret agent menaces Lincoln's son and girlfriend, who is also his lawyer - convenient - as they try to unravel the secrets of the super duper conspiracy to... well, lets just say it's never really clear precisely why there is a conspiracy, but there is one, got it?
Robert Knepper, Paul Adelstein, Wade Williams and Peter Stormare revel in their villainy. Robin Tunney's lawyer, trapped in a thankless subplot, serves as the lightning rod for the fan's ire at the show's frequent bouts of stupidity. Sarah Wayne Callies keeps the shippers happy as the prison doctor - what's that you say, her father is the governor who can grant Linc a pardon? Well fancy that! Stacy Keach guest stars as the warden; Marshall Allman as the son. Patricia Wettig as the vice president. Muse Watson, Rockmond Dunbar and Amaurey Nolasco are the fellow prisoners who come along for the ride. William Fichtner turns up in season two as an FBI agent - total psychopath, of course. Robert Wisdom, Chris Vance and Jodi Lyne Keefe join the party in season three. Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell look pretty as the two brothers at the centre of it all. The writers leave their brains at the door, and deliver a gloriously ridiculous cartoon of a drama.
Summary: A bit uneven, but amounts to more than a guilty pleasure, with some fine moments
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