Prison Break: Season 4

The new series of Prison Break started over here on Tuesday. Amazingly, the US only shows the episodes on the Monday, not even 24 hours before hand! I remember, not too long ago, when we’d be whole series behind and someone who was smart enough (and rich enough) to be able to download all the episodes was revered as some form of TV God!

The thing is, I’m not as excited about Prison Break as I maybe once was. For those who haven’t been following the escaped of Michael Schofield and Co., the first series was one of the freshest things to hit our TV screens in quite a while. It dispensed with many of our TV conventions and had a very linear plot with a very linear storyline and a defined ending. Schofield got himself arrested and sent to a Maximum Security Prison where, with the aid of a bunch of impressive tattoos, he aimed to break his brother Lincoln, who was on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, out. It sounds a little stupid (and to be honest, it was) but it seemed high concept: A defined end to a show in this day and age? Surely not!

Of course not! Season 2 began with Schofield, his brother and all the people they escaped with on the run from the law. Somehow Schofield had predicted his plan failing and he had a series of new tattoos to guide him to new destinations. Some men lived, some men died (in a nice touch, one guy and his family got away with it scot-free) but Schofield and his brother seemed set to get away with it for good.

No chance. Obviously this TV show was a big money spinner. There were even talks of a spin off set in a women’s prison but it never got off the ground. So, for season 3, they decided to go back to the shows original concept: Breaking out of prison. This time, it was a hard ass prison with no guards deep in Panama. Turns out, the guys who set Lincoln up wanted some guy broken out of this new prison and, because Schofield had broken out of prison once before, they figured he could do it again. In order to persuade Schofield to do this, they killed his girlfriend and dumped her head with Linc. Suitably pissed off, Schofield broke out and the season ended with him in the mood to kick some Company ass.

Season 4 started, however, with the guy they broke out getting shot in the head, the guys they left behind in the Panama prison just suddenly out and Sarah, the decapitated girlfriend, suddenly alive again. “Yeah, we didn’t really kill her” was the explanation we were supposed to just swallow.

At the end of season 3, some of Schofield’s friends had been captured and placed in Sona, the Panamanian prison. This could have led to some interesting developments; especially considering the fact that one of Schofield’s enemies was running the prison now. But no. During the off-season, the prison burnt to the ground in a riot and everyone escaped. Convenient much?

Also, for some inexplicable reason, Schofield got all his tattoos lasered off at the start of season 4, presumably so that Wentworth Miller didn’t have to sit in the make up chair for 3 hours a day getting them applied.

Frankly, I was disappointed with the start of season 4. I nearly turned it off at several points. If the lazy writing doesn’t stop, I’ll have to stop watching it. That will leave me with just 24, Lost, Ugly Betty and Heroes to watch.

And we can’t be having that.

Peace out,

Sexy Irish Leprechaun