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Prison Break

It’s good to have Michael Scofield back, but be careful what you wish for.

In TV you’re never really dead, even when you’re dead.

Once an executive decides you need to be revived it doesn’t take much for a creative writer to fashion your rise from the dead. So it is with Prison Break’s Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) who expired in the ‘season finale’ in 2010.

Now most of the principal cast are back for this limited series 7 years later –and it has to be said, everybody has held up well.

The action kicks off with T-Bag (Robert Knepper) finally being released from Fox River Prison. Amongst his personal effects is a strange envelope sent from the Middle East. Inside is a document which appears to be a photo of Scofield in a Yemen prison.

Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) struggles to believe his brother could possibly be alive after all these years. He is dealing with his own demons in Chicago, with mounting debts and some heavies on his tail.

Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies) is now remarried with a son. She too finds it hard to believe Michael is alive.

But Burrows recruits C-Note (Rockmond Dunbar), who has since converted as Muslim, to accompany him to Yemen to begin a search.

T-Bag, meanwhile is about to undergo an operation to replace his prosthetic hand with something that looks like it belongs to The Six Million Dollar Man.

In Yemen there are signs of civil war, ISIL, and danger, which I suppose varies from the Panama prison that featured in Season 4.

The first episode keeps us waiting for the first sign of Michael, which frankly is what we’re all waiting for. Wentworth Miller still cuts a sexy, steely leading man even in these yellowy, rundown prison cells.

But it’s a tall order to match the first plot-driven series of Prison Break , as later seasons know tell. While part of me is excited to be revisiting the brothers and another jail break, there are choices here to be current but which inhibit early episodes from reaching their full potential. The setting is a bit too much Homeland meets Prison Break.

Still, it’s easy to forget how enjoyable the theatrical Robert Knepper was as T-Bag, and he gets all the best lines. Also returning are Amaury Nolasco as Sucre and Paul Adelstein as ex-guard Paul Kellerman. Sorely absent is William Fichtner as Mahone.

This Prison Break is an indulgence for fans, rather than winning newcomers, reminding us of a once-glorious ride.

9:40pm Monday on TEN.

8 Responses

  1. I’ve always been a big fan of Prison Break. I got to say it’s been the best show ever and its still is. I’m not to happy that its on late but I still recorder it and wish it was on more than just one night a week. We need more of shows like prison break to keep us watching. More of Prison Break please.

  2. So torn about this. Re-watched the first 2 seasons last year and the genuinely think Season 1 is one of the best tv shows in recent memory – smart, well-paced, layered, interesting and very entertaining. Just enough characters to have depth, not so many you forget their names like in OITNB.
    But then subsequent seasons were just stupid. It just got sillier and sillier. Its as if the producers/writers only ever planned for it to be one season and when it was a hit just started making up ridiculous plot twists because they had no plan for the show. The whole ‘troubled Mahone’ thing was just irritating.
    I guess I’ll watch the new season but don’t expect it will even as good as Season 2 (which wasn’t a patch on Season 1).

  3. Wow I cant believe its been 7 years. I reckon if I ever passed the person that plays T bag in the street Id cross the road. He is one creepy character but also a good one.

    But looking forward to seeing Michael back and how he gets out of prison.

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