04.11.07

Looking Back on Season 2

Posted in Reviews at 2:15 pm by Administrator

From the very beginning, “Prison Break” was the perfect companion and lead-in to “24”, the Monday-night powerhouse for FOX.  Packed with a weekly litany of improbable plot twists and over-the-top characters, “Prison Break” has provided fans with a surprisingly enjoyable experience for two seasons in a row.  In fact, many fans of both shows now feel that “Prison Break” is more reliable than “24”, with a stronger emphasis on characterization and plot continuity.

Of course, unlike “24”, “Prison Break” is constrained by the nature of its premise.  The first season was an easy sell: Michael Scofield, a genius, would put together a complex plan to break himself and his brother out of prison, while several forced conspired to prevent it.  The season arc was built into the very first episode, and the writers were able to put together a compelling roadmap.  The average review rating for the first season was a solid 7.6, rivaling some of the best shows on television.

The second season was far more complicated.  The characters were on the run, and quite often, the plot demanded that they scatter.  That took away a primary element of focus, challenging the writers to find something interesting for nearly every minor character from the first season.  The conspiracies had to come front and center as well, and while those elements were substantial in the first season, the writers had to keep things fresh.

The writers started off on the right foot with the introduction of Special Agent Alexander Mahone, played by the talented and underappreciated William Fichtner.  Mahone was quickly established as Michael Scofield’s equal but opposite, a man with just as much insight and just as much incentive.  Where Bellick in the first season was more of a thug, Mahone was a true threat.

The first third of the season set up Michael and Mahone in a complex chess game with unusual moral implications.  Michael was the apparent hero, but he was forced into committing and allowing immoral actions to achieve his goals.  Mahone was the apparent villain, but he was dedicated to preventing further crime and taking down dangerous fugitives.  Neither man was completely wrong, and neither man was completely right.  It was a nearly perfect construction.

Unfortunately, the middle third of the season hit a rough patch when Mahone was revealed to be working with the conspiracy, which took something away from the symmetry between Michael and Mahone.  While Mahone’s character would ultimately gain substantial and intriguing complication, the initial treatment of the twist coincided with a string of episodes designed to position the various characters into positions.

By the end of the fall run and the beginning of the mid-season hiatus, the season was teetering on the edge.  Many of the character turns felt aimless, as if the writers had a clear sense of what to do early in the arc and then hoped for inspiration from there.  Things changed quickly coming off the hiatus, with the swift and methodical exploration of key elements of the conspiracy and Michael’s more proactive approach to resolving the problem.  Kellerman’s reversal and Sara’s interaction with Michael, mated with welcome depth for Mahone, created an incredibly strong primary plot thread.

This gave the writers enough slack to bring the subplots into order, especially in the final third of the season, and the result was a return to the thrill-ride quality of the first season.  An amazing number of subplots were linked to the main plot, and in the final episodes of the season, there were very few loose ends.  This made it easier to forgive the rough patches earlier in the season, even when some character threads still felt contrived.

The strength of the second half of the season brought the average review rating to 7.3, which in relative terms, is not significantly lower than the first season average.  The difference lies in the middle third of the season and how the writers initially dealt with revelations about Mahone, and that is largely subjective.  Ultimately, as different as the second season was from the original premise, it worked because of the balance between the familiar and the new.

04.03.07

Episode 2.22: “Sona”

Posted in Reviews at 6:36 pm by Administrator

Much like the first season finale, it wasn’t particular hard to figure out where the story would lead. In this case, we knew that Kellerman would produce the evidence necessary to clear Sara, and that Michael’s confrontation with Mahone would probably lead to his arrest in Panama. (Both predictions were made in the review for the previous episode, based purely on the information available.)

However, unlike the current season of “24”, the writers work overtime to ensure that the predictable elements are mixed with stunning turns in the story. In the case of this finale, that pertains directly to Michael’s fellow inmates. Michael manages to double-cross Mahone, and the end result is that both of them end up in the same terrifying prison facility. The possibility of Michael Scofield and Alex Mahone working together to escape prison is more than enough to justify a third season.

They won’t be alone, however. T-Bag will likely end up in the same facility, after being tossed aside by the Company, and Bellick is already there. That makes for a wildly contentious core group within the Sona prison. Considering that Michael has no plan for escaping this time and plenty of uneasy allies (one would assume), the third season won’t feel like too much of a retread.

On the outside, Lincoln and Sara will no doubt try to help Michael however they can, while dodging the Company, who still seems to have an agenda above and beyond the Steadman debacle. Looking back on the series to date, the Company must have had some reason for supporting Caroline Reynolds, and they seem to be using Michael to facilitate their plans. My early suspicion is that they need to extract someone from the Sona facility, and they plan on using Michael as the means to that end.

Since Bellick is the only person who knows about Maricruz, Sucre would have a good reason for helping Lincoln and Sara. Lincoln could conceivably retrieve the money (if the authorities didn’t get their hand on it) and might be able to call on his father’s organization. The interesting twist is that Lincoln will now need to choose between being a free man and saving his brother. This would put pressure on Lincoln to act quickly, because Sucre doesn’t know if Maricruz is still alive.

As I said in previous reviews, the survival of this series into a third season was largely dependent on the writers’ ability to give the second season a solid conclusion and set up a compelling scenario for a continuation. Frankly, if Mahone had been killed or removed from the show, the loss would have been devastating. Now, the five best characters in the series will ultimately be front and center.

The structure of the episode is noteworthy, because the writers put together an installment that could have been a series finale, with a few minor changes along the way. That’s not always an easy thing to do. Sometimes, the effort is made to commit to a cliffhanger, and the series is never given a proper ending. Other shows bring the season to such a definitive close that the next season, when it comes, suffers as a result. This was about as well-balanced as one could desire, and as such, it made the final act that much more impressive.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

(Season 2 Final Average: 7.5)