Prison Break 4x13 "Deal or No Deal" Dicussion and Spoilers

[Trekker4747]

From TV.com:

The General works to regain Scylla. T-Bag gets a new partner. Michael and Lincoln have an important meeting.

"Michael and Lincoln have an important meeting."

Yikes. I think I saw that to describe a fanfic once.

 

[TheInsideMan]

From TV.com:

The General works to regain Scylla. T-Bag gets a new partner. Michael and Lincoln have an important meeting.

"Michael and Lincoln have an important meeting."

Yikes. I think I saw that to describe a fanfic once.

Felt like a transitional episode. Sorry to see the cardholder with the hot wife blown away. I think the General's daughter may turn her back on the Dark Side of the Force after being witness to the General's handling of 'cardholder dissent' issues.

Nice to see Self get screwed over by Michael. That makes me feel a bit better about the previous episode, where Michael didn't even look at the freedom agreement Self gave him until it was too late. Now we know why - Michael had a back-up plan in case Self betrayed him.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, felt like a transitional episode to me. I do wonder what the cliffhanger is going to be leading into the Winter hiatus, which I'm surprised hasn't came yet.

Be interesting to see where this goes, for this to be the last season and for things to end "properly" our heroes still have to get celmency and Michael's "brain thing" still needs to be corrected.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Good. Nice character writing this time - everyone's reaction to the betrayal and their plans for the next steps struck me as very plausible - but I think I'm getting tired of the format of this show, all the who-has-what, who-screwed-whom-over back and forth just is getting boring. This will be the last season and even that's a stretch - they need to wrap this story up.

 

[Trekker4747]

Good. Nice character writing this time - everyone's reaction to the betrayal and their plans for the next steps struck me as very plausible - but I think I'm getting tired of the format of this show, all the who-has-what, who-screwed-whom-over back and forth just is getting boring. This will be the last season and even that's a stretch - they need to wrap this story up.

Is the current format better or worse than,

"Guys, we're at the next step on our way out of here, but we have a problem..."

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The PB format was good for a year, and on-the-run might have been good for another year. But this was never a show that could last long and not just run out of steam.

Plus, the writers seem to handle characterization well. Meanwhile, Heroes has a loyal audience higher than PB's, safely within survival territory, that cannot be shaken off by the most atrocious BS writing. I say match the PB writers and the Heroes audience, and fire the morons writing Heroes now. PB isn't going to make another season anyway.

 

[Darth_Daver]

The PB format was good for a year, and on-the-run might have been good for another year. But this was never a show that could last long and not just run out of steam.

Plus, the writers seem to handle characterization well. Meanwhile, Heroes has a loyal audience higher than PB's, safely within survival territory, that cannot be shaken off by the most atrocious BS writing. I say match the PB writers and the Heroes audience, and fire the morons writing Heroes now. PB isn't going to make another season anyway.

Nice to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks PB is superior to Heroes this year...

 

[witchie]

The PB writers learned from their mistakes from last year, unlike the Heroes guys. I know some liked S3, but it got to be too crazy to me. I stopped watching after 4 eps. Had no idea what had happened, but started this season with no problems. They have done a great job.

I want Self to go down. I don't like the actor that much anyway, but I'm not exactly scared of Self. He can point all the guns he likes, but something tells me in the real world, Gretchen would have already taken him out. I guess that's my one complaint.

 

[TheInsideMan]

Nice to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks PB is superior to Heroes this year...

Damn right it is.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The PB format was good for a year, and on-the-run might have been good for another year. But this was never a show that could last long and not just run out of steam.

Plus, the writers seem to handle characterization well. Meanwhile, Heroes has a loyal audience higher than PB's, safely within survival territory, that cannot be shaken off by the most atrocious BS writing. I say match the PB writers and the Heroes audience, and fire the morons writing Heroes now. PB isn't going to make another season anyway.

Nice to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks PB is superior to Heroes this year...

The writing is certainly stronger! But I gotta admit, I just like the idea of Heroes more, and want to find ways to salvage it. There are many good actors on PB, but I don't see why this premise needs another season. The writers, otoh, deserve another show to work on, and the Heroes writers seriously deserve the boot the way they've been squandering that show's potential. Criminal! This week's episode of Heroes was the biggest stinker yet, and the ratings went up. Think of how much better the numbers would be with writers who can handle characterization and twisty plot arcs without sacrificing every last shred of logic.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Nice to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks PB is superior to Heroes this year...

Damn right it is.

The words 'this year' were somewhat superfluous, IMHO. PB has always been better than Heroes. Season 1 of Heroes was good but 2 was dire and 3 is ok. Prison Break had two great seasons, one ok one and a pretty good one at the minute.

I vote 'good' - there have only been one or two excellent ones this year, but as I say, a good season. The twists keep turning - Michael with the Scylla component, the role of the senator and Self's boss, the General killing Mike Novak from 24, etc. It's just not entirely clear where the series can go from here, both in terms of the immediate next step and in the long run. I've been saying for a while that they can't outstay their welcome and the concept can only run so far. If they end this year, they'll go out on a high and it's possible to wrap everything up neatly.

 

[Mr Light]

Boy I don't see where they're going to get another 11 episodes of story out of this show (I read somewhere it was a 22 ep season but they added a 2 ep series finale on top of that).

I'm still enjoying the show, but I think they should have just ended it with getting Scylla. Self turning out evil was pretty left-field and I still don't understand his motivation to do it (money?).

And didn't Michael need to immediately be in a hospital like three episodes ago?

 

[Mallet]

I know a way to keep PB going... Cross it over with 24.

Mike, Linc & the crew could team up with Jack Bauer to take down the company. Both shows are on FOX and on Monday nights, so it would be perfect...

I joke, but how great would it be to have all these characters meet up.

 

[Aragorn]

Anyone know when this show is returning in 2009?

 

[Mallet]

Anyone know when this show is returning in 2009?

I think it is still up in the air. I've heard that they might do a two-hour movie a'la 24:Redemption that might serve as a series ender after the end of this season. I've also heard that they might be back for season 5 which would help get the show into syndication (I believe you need 5 seasons or 100 episodes to reach that goal) and the 2-hour movie would then serve to springboard the series in a new direction.

But in the end I bet it will come down to the TV market and new series/pilots that FOX might have for next season. Prison Break isn't huge in the ratings, but it is better then most shows FOX has, so if they can't find/create something that they think will have better ratings then my guess they will give PB another season. This is FOX after all, so it could go two ways: Either they will keep milking the series for everything they can, even long after it should go, or they will cancel it and replace it with something that sucks and does half as well in the ratings.

Either way creativity, art & insperation will have nothing to do with the decision.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

PB has always been better than Heroes.

Yet one got an Emmy nomination and the other didn't, hmm.

And before you crab about the Emmys, they had the sense to nominate Dexter and Michael C. Hall, so they aren't entirely out to lunch.

Heroes and PB both had very good first seasons that neither show has ever been able to live up to. But for PB, there was never any hope it could; it had a one-good-season premise. With Heroes, the jury is still out. They could conceivably have a better season in the future than the first someday.

PB is well written this season but I don't see any reason for a fifth season. The story is winding down. Heroes could have ten more seasons if they get their act together. it has an open-ended premise that has no expiration date.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ And The Wire, hailed by many critics as the greatest ever tv series never got a single Emmy nod in its entire 5 year run. So I'm afraid that says it all so far as that award ceremony is concerned. And IMHO, Robert Knapper (T-Bag) has deserved to be nominated as best supporting actor in every season to date.

I actually thought season 2 of PB was even better than its predecessor but I otherwise agree with you that the series concept has a limited run. 3 was a disappointment, 4 has been good but nothing much to do with the title any more. They could have finished the show after season 2, I tend to agree that this should be the final season (I've been saying so for some time now).

Heroes has a concept which should run and run but unfortunately the execution has left a lot to desire since the end of the excellent first series. I hope the return of Bryan Fuller signals a return to the quality of season 1. If the current season doesn't improve, I don't think I'll tune in for 4, unless word of mouth is incredible.