Prison Break - Season 1

PRISON BREAK – Season 1

Burrows & Schofield (Purcell & Miller)

From Hollywood powerhouse 'Fox' we are presented with ‘Prison Break’ Season 1, a prison conspiracy drama centred around the in-mates of Fox River Penitentiary.  Featuring an ensemble cast it charts multiple stories and plots, with the central story concerning the rescue of death row in-mate; Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), by his gifted and resourceful brother Michael Schofield (Wentworth Miller).  Throughout the series the enigmatic Schofield is faced with a variety of obstacles which he must overcome if he is to save his brother from death.

Abruzzi (Stormare)

Bellick (Williams)

One of the big draws of ‘Prison Break’ is the incredible production values the audience is presented with, that make the show look really authentic and realistic.  Indeed, the majority of the prison scenes are shot at the former Joliet Prison.  Certainly, from its well-crafted opening credits to its closing credits it is impossible to not appreciate  the attention to detail and effort put into the crafting of the prison sets and environs.

T-Bag (Knepper)

Though the production value is excellent it is matched by the actors themselves.  Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller, both show they have good chemistry between each other, and they actually look like they could be related, as opposed to many shows, where so-called ‘brothers’ couldn’t look less alike!  Prison Break features an ensemble cast, and thus Purcell and Miller, share screen time with some great other actors, including the capable Amaury Nolasco as Sucre – Schofield’s cell-mate, Peter Stormate as John Abruzzi  - an incarcerated mafia boss, Rockmund Dunbar, as C-Note, and entertainingly despicable Wade Williams, as Brad Bellick – the Captain of the Fox River Correctional Officers.  The show also stars Robin Tunney, and Sarah Wayne Callies as its two main female leads, though both are less than convincing, due to a mixture of being overshadowed by better actors, and weak character design by the show’s writers.  However, a commentary on the main cast of ‘Prison Break’ could not be complete though without mention of its greatest character and actor, villainous Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell, skilfully portrayed by the very gifted actor Robert Knepper.  T-Bag is without a doubt the season’s most interest character, particularly in terms of development and growth, and Knepper does this justice by really bringing the character to life.

Sara Tancredi (Callies)

Veronica Donavon (Tunney)

The writing for the first season of ‘Prison Break’ falls into two categories: ‘prison scenes’ and non-prison scenes’, and there seems to be a definite difference in the quality of the stories and characters between the two categories.  Whilst, the writing is of the highest calibre for scenes based at Fox River, the writing for scenes set outside, fail to match the same high standard.  This is not to say that they are downright bad, it’s just that they set the bar so high.  Fortunately, as the title suggests, much of the show is based in and around the Prison, so most of the time the writing is of the very highest quality.

C-Note (Dunbar)

Though there are many positives to this show, it is important to note its shortcomings, particularly the writing for the scenes set outside the prison as aforementioned.  Indeed, from the middle of the season onwards they just become more and more farcical and less interesting as a result.  Moreover, though the two main female characters feel quite wooden and two-dimensional, this is not much of a negative as they are not integral to the shows linear story progression.

Sucre (Nolasco)

Ultimately, however, ‘Prison Break’ is a very exciting and fast moving drama, which is filled with plenty of action, suspense and story, as well as a myriad number of twists and turns.  If you are of a mind for a very well made and well-acted drama it would be worth buying this show, as you would be missing out by not watching it!

9/10

IMDB: Prison Break