Prison Break. Good Show?

[Dream]

I finished the first season of Prison Break. Season one was great! Right up there with LOST and 24. This show had even more plot twists then those two in their first season!

The writing was really good and the story was planned out extremely well. We learn so much about the main characters over the season, especially during the great flashback episode. Michael is likeable and a great lead along with Lincoln. The only person that I'm not a fan of is Veronica. She is really stupid and I can't believe that she has survived so long. Veronica feels too much like the Kim Bauer of the show, the one that takes away from the main plot whenever we go to her.

We find out that there is a history with Lincoln's father right away in the first season. There are plenty of great villains in this show. Robert Knepper absolutely steals every scene that he is in as T-Bag. He is great as the show's supervillain. You just love to hate him, but you dont want to leave. We get great villains like Reynolds, who is shown to be corrupt from the beginning instead of randomly turning from good to evil like President Logan from 24. Also Secret Service Agent Kellerman is so slimy, but I do like that he is so good at his job. He just survives everything. The Company looks like it is going to be interesting.

Over the first season the plot just builds and builds until we had the awesome last two episodes of the eason. The escape felt like something out of a movie, it was really well done. Looking forward to the second season. The first season was great, but they really needed to get out of there to keep the show going. Prison Break is one of those shows that have to reinvent itself every season like LOST, in order to stay fresh. I'm glad I have already heard that the later seasons aren't as great, so I won't be disappointed when I watch them.

 

[Trekker4747]

Veronica feels too much like the Kim Bauer of the show, the one of takes away from the main plot whenever we go to her.

Her story comes to pieces in the first or second episode of the second season.

 

[alica]

Prison Break is going well with its dramatic elements and don't need any popular to grasp space for best one. Its a best show at TV , Robin Tunney is hub of the show.

 

[Trekker4747]

Prison Break is going well with its dramatic elements and don't need any popular to grasp space for best one. Its a best show at TV , Robin Tunney is hub of the show.

Put the bottle down or have the bartender cut you off.

 

[Dream]

I finished season two. It was good, but not as great as season one.

The fugitive storyline began to drag at the very end. It felt like Michael and Lincoln were running around too much. I did like a few things. Mahone was a great new character, and we finally got someone as smart as Michael. Sara got way more to do, which is a plus. Agent Kellerman was awesome. The best part of the season was that they got rid of Veronica in the first episode, who I thought was useless. One of the things I really like about this series is that it has so many memorable villains. I was getting ready for the 5 million dollar plot to end halfway through the season, couldn't believe it lasted the whole year. T-Bag getting superpowers and killing so many people with one hand was too silly.

Now I need to decide if I should check out season three. I heard that there was no Sara in it, which makes me sad. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm starting to get a little tired of all plot twists. This show really lives and dies on its plot twists and cliffhangers. I think this show would be much better if they slowed down the story every once in a while.

 

[Trekker4747]

TBag's super powers was silly. But no sillier than the notion that a veterinarian in a kennel reattached TBag's HAND! Without anesthetic! Incredibly stupid. And he could wiggle his fingers afterwards and it wasn't tightly restrained. Getting a hand-reattached is an hours long process involving many surgeons, lots of recovery, rehabilitation, severe immobilization and even then it might go gangrene and need to be lopped off.

Why did they hack his hand off (behind the scenes, that is) knowing how much that'd "handicap" the character in the storyline and it'd be an issue they'd have to deal with in the story? Stupidness. Pure stupidness. Killing Tweener was also dumb.

One thing that also bugged be about this season, and I mentioned it in the discussion threads as it ran, was that there were no scenes at night. If there were any they were very few and far between. So from a viewer standpoint night scenes give us an "illuison" of time passing. So it's easy to watch this season and get the impression all of the events occurred over a very, very long day. (Insert Jack Bauer joke here) since all of these scenes take place during mid-day light. No dawn. No dusk. No night. Just daytime!

Season 2, for me, was probably the weakest. Season 3 is a mixed bag but it has the advantage of going back to the "premise" a bit which was fun and Season 4 I could go either way on, really.

On Season 3, spoilers regarding Sarah. (These are big spoilers so if you want to watch it and be surprised don't read them.)

Spoiler: Sarah in Season 3

During Season 3 while in the South American Prison Michael is tasked by a cover-group to break a fellow inmate out. (I forget the particulars) the leader of this group, and wife to the inmate, is "Susan B. Anthony" a character who had a divided "fan base." Susan leverages Sara to get Michael to do it, Michael fouls something up so as retribution Susan delivers Michael Sara's decapitated head. (In the real world something happened between the actress and the producers and she wanted out.) Later on during the course of the season it's discovered this was a ruse to get Michael to realize how serious The Company was about all of this as Sara is alive and her Michael get reunited somewhere in the course of the season. (Or it may have been the following season, I don't remember. In the real world whatever issue there was between Sara Wayne Callies and the show was worked out so they pulled a Mulligan on the whole "we killed Sara" thing. Really the second time they did this as she was supposed to have died following her OD at the end of S1.)

...

In checking, her "death" was retconned in S3 so, yeah, SWC doesn't appear at all during the third seasons. Any episodes with "Sara" in it use a double hidden by lighting.

 

[Trekker4747]

This thread has inspired me to watch through the show again on DVD. I've about watched the entire first disc and I had really forgotten how damn-near perfectly and tightly scripted and laid out the first season was. The use of the tattoo was also very, very nicely done. (The slight mechanical geek in me loved the bit with the allen wrench)

It's a shame the other seasons never quite made it to this level, but this first season is damn-near perfect.

 

[bik5isaac]

The story inside the show repersents the love, affection and care of two brothers. I really appreciate the concet. Paul has really one of the best person who has created really well show. This is my favorite show.

 

[Alisha]

I haven't seen this show yet. But thanks for the plot.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Prison Break is going well with its dramatic elements and don't need any popular to grasp space for best one. Its a best show at TV , Robin Tunney is hub of the show.

Put the bottle down or have the bartender cut you off.

Veronica was a roundly derided character when we had the original discussions of the show here.

I finished season two. It was good, but not as great as season one.

They never get back to the genius of S1, sadly. But it's ok to watch all the way thru. By S4, the conspiracy crap gets a tad tedious.

I think this show would be much better if they slowed down the story every once in a while.

You're watching it on DVD, probably not just one episode per week. Remember, it was originally designed to be viewed at a slower pace. DVD viewing always makes a show seem turbocharged.

 

[JD]

Dream, if you get done with the show and decide you want more T-Bag, he just popped up as the baddie of the week on the Prison Break creators new show, Breakout Kings, but don't watch it if you don't want to know his final fate yet.

 

[Dream]

I'm now watching the sequel to Prison Break!

Dr. Sara changed her name to Lori and got married to a guy named Rick. Also zombies have taken over the world.

 

[Trekker4747]

Sarah Wayne Callies is a gorgeous woman but, man her look and fake accent in The Walking Dead sort of removes all of that.