Okay, Prison Break is still immensely stupid at heart, but I’ve actually been surprised by how well the show is progressing in the US. Last week, we had the flashback episode that showed most of the inmates on the outside and how they all wound up in jail. This week we had the “it’s all falling apart” episode. What I liked about it was the economy of writing. In a show like Prison Break that has a weekly cliffhanger and an ongoing plot, there’s a tendency on the part of the viewer to assume that any obstacle that gets thrown up is purely for the sake of the cliffhanger.
This week’s episode threw back two events that had almost been forgotten from last year. I won’t spoil it for UK viewers by saying what they were, but by episode end, you’ll be thinking to yourself “Ooh, that’s clever” and you’ll have new respect for Michael and his planning skills. And, incidentally, for the other inmates, who aren’t so bad at planning either, it turns out.
Plus it had Michelle Forbes in it. Anything with Michelle Forbes in it has to be good by definition.
By the way, for those of you not watching Prison Break and wondering if there’s going to be six more seasons of people trying to break out of jail and constantly being foiled, it’s already been revealed that season two is going to consist of the escapees on the run after their first season break out – although not everyone manages to escape. So it’s not going to be Lost – The Prison Days.
On that subject, could the writers get a move on with Lost please? It’s starting to irritate? Still, I was expecting that. After all, it comes from the writers of Alias, the show that was all tease, no real plot development and no real payoff. From what I hear, Alias‘s final episode isn’t even going to mention Rambaldi. No Rambaldi pay-off after five years? Bastardos! On that track record, I’m confidently predicting they’re all still going to be stuck on that island with no explanations at the end of the seventh season.
