Product Description
-------------------
All four seasons of the cult US prison drama series following
the increasingly desperate attempts of one man to free his
innocent brother from a top-security prison. Wentworth Miller and
Dominic Purcell star as brothers Michael and Lincoln. Episodes
are: 'Pilot', 'Allen', 'Cell Test', 'Cute Poison', 'English, Fitz
Or Percy', 'Riots, Drills and the Devil Part 1', 'Riots, Drills
and the Devil Part 2', 'The Old Head', 'Tweener', 'Sleight of
Hand', 'And Then There Were 7', 'Odd Man Out', 'End of the
Tunnel', 'The Rat', 'By the Skin and the Teeth', 'Brother's
Keeper', 'J-Cat', 'Bluff', 'The Key', 'Tonight', 'Go', 'Flight',
'Manhunt', 'Otis', 'Scan', 'First Down', ' 1213',
'Subdivision', 'Buried', 'Dead Fall', 'Unearthed', 'Rendezvous',
'Bolshoi Booze', 'Disconnect', 'The Killing Box', 'John Doe',
'The Message', 'Chicago', 'Bad Blood', 'Wash', 'Sweet Caroline',
'Panama', 'Fin Del Camino', 'Sona', 'Orientacion', 'Fire/Water',
'Call Waiting', 'Good Fences', 'Interference', 'Photo Finish',
'Vamonos', 'Bang and Burn', 'Boxed In', 'Dirt Nap', 'Under and
Out', 'Hell Or High Water', 'The Art of the Deal', 'Scylla',
'Breaking and Entering', 'Shut Down', 'Eagles and Angels', 'Safe
and Sound', 'Blow Out', 'Five the Hard Way', 'The Price',
'Greatness Achieved', 'The Legend', 'Quiet Riot', 'Selfless',
'Deal Or No Deal', 'Just Business', 'Going Under', 'The Sunshine
State', 'The Mother Lode', 'VS', 'S.O.B.', 'Cowboys and Indians',
'Rates of Exchange', 'Killing Your Number' and 'The Final Break'.
.co.uk Review
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Season 1
Season one of Prison Break is great television. Here's the
set-up. Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) is framed and
wrongfully convicted for assassinating the Vice President's
brother. Lincoln's brother Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller),
who just happens to have designed Illinois' Fox River
Penitentiary where Lincoln is on death row, hatches an elaborate
escape plan. Michael's plan involves getting himself incarcerated
in Fox River and smuggling the prison's blueprints by having them
hidden in tattoos that cover his entire torso. Once inside,
Michael must form alliances with a rogue's gallery of felons with
their own sometimes unsavory motives. Meanwhile, on the outside,
Lincoln's lawyer and one-time girlfriend Veronica Donovan (Robin
Tunney), pursued by Secret Service agents, attempts to unravel
the conspiracy that sent her man to the slammer.
Prison Break is anchored by tight, suspenseful writing clearly
relished by the largely little-known cast. Standouts include
Robert Knepper as the murderer/pedophile T-Bag, who somehow makes
such a despicable character likeable. Stacey Keach of Mike Hammer
fame plays the warden-with-a-heart-of-gold, who clashes with
Captain Brad Bellick (Wade Williams) over whether to rehabilitate
the inmates or makes their lives more miserable. Peter Stormare,
famous for his skills with a wood chipper in Fargo, turns in a
deliciously menacing performance as mob boss John Abruzzi, while
Amaury Nolasco's winsome Fernando Sucre shares a cell and secrets
with Miller's Scofield. Watching the show one gets a sense that
this is the opening salvo of Wentworth Miller's career, which
will doubtless include roles as assassins, detectives, super
heroes, and perhaps the champion of staring contests. Midway
through the season it's explained that Scofield is a genius with
an heightened sensitivity to other peoples' suffering, which sums
up what makes the show so great--the mind-bendingly intricate
plot is a framework for moments when people make others suffer
and cope with the burden of their own suffering.
The six-disc set includes 22 addictive episodes, audio
commentary on selected episodes, three featurettes, and alternate
and deleted scenes. As with most TV shows on DVD, the "previously
on Prison Break" intros can get tiresome, but that's what the
fast forward button is for. --Ryan Boudinot
Season 2
Prison Break season two simply shouldn’t work. Having effectively
concluded the story arc at the end of season one, there was real
cynicism as to whether the pace, energy and excitement could
possibly transfer to more episodes.
Yet that’s overlooking the sheer presence of the fascinating,
twisted bunch of characters we got to know, love, hate and jeer
at throughout the show’s maiden season. And in many ways, the
second series of Prison Break evolves into a logical extension.
If you’ve not seen series one, look away now.
With Michael and Lincoln Burroughs, along with the other
escapees, now on the run, the focus switches to keeping out of
prison rather than trying to break into it (not for nothing does
one of the show’s creators cite The Fugitive as an influence).
That’s no easy task though. On top of the media interest in them,
there are the political forces behind the scenes that were slowly
developed in the maiden season,
Once you add into the cauldron the simmering relationships
between the escapees themselves, and the feeling of distrust that
underpins them, the second season of Prison Break falls into
place. And do you know what? It’s genuinely as exciting as it was
first time round.
Sure, the show takes the occasional narrative shortcut, and
shows willingness to test the boundaries of realism as much as it
can. But there’s no getting away from it: Prison Break is
relentless, exciting television, and when this second season
concludes with a logical progression to what’ll happen in the
third, you can’t help but demand more. --Jon Foster
Season 3
It was always going to be a challenge to move a show whose
premise effectively fitted comfortably inside a single series to
a third season. And so perhaps inevitably, Prison Break moves the
action back to the slammer, this time in Panama. It proves to be
a wise choice, as, while plausibility has long since been thrown
out of the window, it’s a more natural setting for the show.
Prison Break still follows brothers Lincoln and Michael Burrows,
but this time there’s a far tougher prison that needs to be
broken out of. It’s a little less claustrophobic than the last
one, but more dangerous. And along with the usual terrific
supporting cast of characters, the tension, twists and violence
that underpin the show are all very much present and correct.
Powering Prison Break forwards, of course, is the pin-up star
Wentworth Miller, who owns his role as Michael, and grounds many
of the show’s extremities. And while it’s a shorter season than
the first two, this third run still manages to cram in some
strong entertainment.
Perhaps season three isn’t Prison Break’s finest hour, and
perhaps the concept has diluted somewhat since the show first
began. But this is still really good, assured entertainment, that
knows what it wants to do and simply gets on with it. For that
alone, it remains a show hard to resist. --Jon Foster
Season 4
In retrospect, it’s amazing that Prison Break got this far. The
original concept of the show surely demanded just a single
season, but such was the success that it enjoyed, that further
runs followed. It’s to the credit of the show’s creators that it
managed to make this work, too, right down to the agreeable
fourth and final season.
Thus, this final season of Prison Break sees Wentworth Miller’s
Michael Scofield attempting to hunt down The Company, the
organisation that’s been behind the various events that have
befallen him over the course of the show’s run. As you’d expect,
this quest is laden with some dramatic twists and turns, in
keeping with the spirit of the show, and it’s also got some major
surprises up its sleeve.
Determined to bring things to a proper close, this final season
of Prison Break does indeed bring things to an appropriate
conclusion. It’s a fairly bumpy ride in comparison to the more
confident earlier seasons, and it’s clear throughout that this is
a show coming to the end of its lifespan. Yet it’s still very
slick, and very enjoyable television drama. It’s also willing to
take a few chances, which is certainly appreciated.
With 24 episodes in all, this final season of Prison Break is a
fine denouement for one of the most exciting TV shows of recent
times. It might not be vintage quality by the standards that the
programme has set itself, but it’s still proven to be a far
tastier dish than many of the pretenders to its throne. And it
will be missed. --Jon Foster