TV Review: Prison Break, "Eagles and Angels" - Still Fun, But Slowly Wearing Thin

Prison Break’s fourth episode this season, “Eagles and Angels,” was fun to watch, much like the preceding episodes in this new season. There were some exciting moments, some thrilling scenes, and it all added up to a pretty enjoyable way to spend the evening.

Sarah Wayne Callies, who plays Dr. Sara Trancedi, was given a larger role in this episode, and the thespian brought all the emotive displays and underlying sense of tribulation needed in order to make the audience actually feel the sorrow and danger her character was going through. Callies did a pretty good job in the emotional scenes she shared with Wentworth Miller on the boat, as she told him she is to be blamed for Bruce’s death. It’s a pity that the same can’t be said of Miller, who last week brought his emotions perfectly to the surface to show a firm and in control Scofield, but this week Miller seemed to have gone back to his blank, expressionless way of acting. I’ve noted before that Miller is more than capable of carrying the scene when his character is feeling extremes of emotion; he is, however, not quite capable of playing “ordinary” yet.

Despite Callies giving us a more than decent performance in “Eagles and Angels”, one can’t help but wonder what her role in this whole series actually is. Aside from being Scofield’s girlfriend, and the return of Sara being widely used by FOX as a publicity tool, there doesn’t seem to have been much point in bringing her back. Whilst I enjoyed seeing her little dramatic scenario unfold, and the sweet romantic gestures between Sara and Scofield was a nice touch, Sara’s story this week really didn’t help move the plot along, and neither did it add any dimension to her character since we already knew she had an addiction in her past. The audience also would’ve been able to work out that she only had Scofield to fall back on now, and we didn’t need her story to show us that.

Another gripe with this episode is that the holes in the storytelling are starting to get so big that it might just be a short while before the fun that Prison Break brings may not satisfy any longer. A relatively astute person cannot go on ignoring the blazing holes that lie in the plot. It all boils down to this — sloppy and lazy writing makes for a puerile and amateurish series. And we saw very jejune and dull writing in this episode.

Article Author: Sharmila

Sharmila is an ex-university professor, ex-PhD student, current writer, who started writing professionally at 12, becoming a full fledged reporter at 16, and moved exclusively into entertainment reporting 2 years later in 2003. …

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