Prison Break… Give me a Break!
Not long ago, Fox decided to premiere a new show series called ‘Prison Break’. What was this show about, the title explains all. More in depth, it is about structural engineer who tries to break his innocent brother out of prison by becoming a convict within the prison. The rest of the episodes revolve around irritating back-stories, obstructive situations, conspiracies, and other convicts who wish to join the break out, and you guessed it, their back stories as well.
When I first saw the series premiere, it seemed alright. The acting was decent, the story was good. And it was good, for the first episode. All that just went downhill. When you watch a show, movie, documentary, cartoon, about a prison break, do you think of a 61 episode series spanning 4 seasons. I mean, you can only have so much to say about a simple plot. Making this enormous television series about a prison break is like making a feature film trilogy about brushing your teeth; sure it’s possible but it would be ridiculously implausible. How can anyone go on about something that should have concluded in the 3rd episode?
Take the greatest prison break movies ever made for instance, Shawshank Redemption, The Great Escape, and documentaries about prison breaks, as well as news reports and so on. And think about their timeframes. The Shawshank Redemption took two and a half hours to tell a story spanning 20 years as well as character side plots and plot twists. “Prison Break”, let’s see 61 episodes x 1 hr per episode that’s 61 hours to tell a painfully long prison break, which isn’t even close to coming to an end.
You might argue the producers wish to put more detail so it seems more interesting, well, THERE is a fine line between details and details you don’t need to know about (also known as bullshit). Take Shawshank Redemption for instance, the details provided in the movie strictly refer to…. Uh let’s see, breaking out of prison, maybe. In a episode of Prison Break, generally speaking, the only part which relates to breaking out of prison is the series title. I mean talk about details like you DON’T need to know like how Sculfield (the protagonist) has to go rescue the prison doctor, whom he has a love affair with, while other members of his gang continue to dig a hole to freedom. Is it just me, or is it a convenient time to have a random love affair with a woman who you barely know, when you have to break your brother out of prison to save him from dying? THAT was only in the first season, the season which just remotely relates to prison breaking. As the series continues, unfortunately, the plot starts revolving around smuggling people out of the country, evading federal agents, and ‘holy mother of the God of Stupidity!’, being incarcerated into another prison which they have to break out of. Seriously folks, if the series title even remotely relates to the series itself, it would be called, “Gang of Prison Breaking Dipshits who have to evade the Corruption of Federal agents while sentimentally reflecting on their Lives and getting caught up in add-on sub-plots”.
I think I have made my point clear (but probably not clear enough as I rushed this article in 30 minutes), the producers of Prison Break suck. They suck because they do not understand the difference between cliché main plots that can sustain 61 plus episodes of add-ons sub-plots and reasonable main plots that cannot. You would have to be somewhat of an imbecile to not see that Prison Break is a run on series that should have ended when the goal was achieved (which was breaking out of Prison). Since Prison Break’s premiere season received good ratings, Fox decided to cash in, they decided to keep the title of the popular series and lose the motif, as well as sensibility. So do quality television programs a favour, don’t buy into add-on sub plots with irrelevant details, DON’T watch prison break!
