FOX's new series, Prison Break, has already received a "Season Pass" on my TiVO. It's the story of a man who goes to prison in order to help break out his brother, wrongfully accused of murder and condemned to die.
The Ultimate in Brotherly Love?
Like Rome on HBO, though, I think it may appeal more to men than women. By the time the main character Michael Scofield (played by Wentworth Miller) was getting his toe clipped off in the final shot (by the guy who played the crazy cosmonaut in Armageddon, no less), my wife was outta there for good. She won't be watching with me next week. She only agreed to check out the premiere in the first place because Stacy Keach who plays the warden is also in my upcoming Blackbeard miniseries, starring as BB's mentor, Captain Benjamin Hornigold.
If you can stand feeling a little uncomfortable, this is a good series to get into. At least it is, based on opening night. Like Lost, it opens up the show with flashbacks outside the prison, and even goes the ABC show one step further by having a whole conspiracy plot unfolding beyond the prison walls.
And I just have to say this to my own brother: if you get put away in the slammer and I know you're innocent, I am going to march right out and — hire you the best damn lawyer I can find. Count on it. Going to prison for you, that stuff only happens on TV. But that's why we watch...
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News! — Views! — & Schmooze! (Dispatches, POVs and Idle Chat from Hollywood's Front Lines) is the flagship blog of Bryce Zabel — covering TV, film, culture, writing and politics.
Bryce is a working screenwriter/producer whose current credits include The Poseidon Adventure and Blackbeard. He was the chairman of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences from 2001-2003. He maintains two other blogs: Instant History and Movies-Squared.
Article comments
1 - ecfifi
This woman can't wait for the series premiere of Prison Break. It holds her interest neither because of nor in spite of the violence, seaminess, degradation, bleakness and starkness of penal existence but because it is realistic, intricate, clever, complicated and unexpected. There is no laugh track, every stereotype has a twist, and the characters are very pretty and very ugly at the same time. I love Prison Break.
2 - eriqo
isn't that the guy from mariah's video?