Prison Break – Season 3
Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 104 June 2008
(2 votes, average: 7 out of 10)
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New prison, new escape plan!
The Lowdown: After breaking his brother Lincoln out of Fox River Penitentiary in Season 1 and escaping to Panama and exonerating him in Season 2, Season 3 of Prison Break sees Michael Scofield behind bars in Sona, a notorious Panamanian hellhole. Even worse, three of his worst enemies are there too!
Review: As Prison Break Season 2 drew to a close, I’m sure that many fans were rubbing their hands with glee. The hyper-intense Michael Scofield was back behind bars and he was joined by his three worst enemies: sadistic Fox River warder Brad Bellick, violent sex-offender T-Bag and drug-addicted FBI agent Alexander Mahone. As is always the case, Michael’s loss is the viewers’ gain!
Sadly, the last five minutes of Season 2, which saw Michael thrown into a rain-lashed Sona, are far more menacing than anything that happens in Season 3. Any fans who fear that Prison Break is overstretching itself with a third season will sadly have their fears confirmed with this truncated offering. The chaotic writers’ strike may take the flak, but the producers only have themselves to blame for turning a genius idea for a third season into only mildly diverting entertainment. Classic characters like T-Bag and Bellick are nudged into the sidelines by unconvincing new characters like Luchero, the drug lord who nominally runs Sona, and the mysterious inmate Whistler, who is far too enigmatic for his own good.
In fairness, the series picks up noticeably halfway through, cranking up the tension and brutality markedly. Whilst Prison Break Season 3 isn’t a disaster, nor is it the compulsive drama it once was. Rudimentary special features mean are equally uninspired. After months of indecision, Season 4 has officially been picked up by Fox, allaying fans’ worst fears. Whether they can get back to the brutally effective quality of the first two seasons remains to be seen…
FILM: 6 EXTRAS: 5
DVD Info:
Certificate: 15
Starring: Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell, Robert Knepper, William Fichtner
Directed By: Various, 2007-2008
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 546mins
Price: £34.99
Film supplied by: Premier PR
Special Features:
Episode Selection
‘Season 3: Orientacion’ Featurette
‘Break Out Episode’ Featurette
‘Director’s Takes’ 13-Part Documentary
‘Between Takes’ Featurette
July 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I loved the first 2 seasons of “Prison Break”, but at the finale of the second season, as we see Michael, T-Bag, Bellick, and Mahone put back behind bars, and Sara and Sucre still on the run, I couldn’t help but wonder, how the heck are they going to make a 3rd season not just seem like a re-imagining of what happened before? The answer unfortunately is that the 3rd season did just become a re-imagining of the earlier story.
There is very little new to this season that we haven’t seen before, and on top of that, it doesn’t even seem that gritty anymore. Despite what originally looked like a “Hell On Earth” location, Sona quickly loses it’s edge, and actually ends up looking less intimidating than Fox River, same goes for it’s inhabitants.
Memorable characters from the previous seasons including Bellick and T-Bag, also seem to get a lot less screentime, and their storylines become a lot less memorable too. some of the new characters are alright, but they definately seem weak when compared to what has come before them.
The cliff hanger moments also seem a lot less chilling than previous seasons too.
But despite all it’s problems, the show still provides a decent level of entertainment. The performances are still solid, the bad guys are still merciless, and there’s plenty of events happening throughout.
Many people seem to think that “Prison Break” has pretty much dug itself an early grave, but there have been many very succesffull and critically acclaimed series that have never managed to have all perfect season’s in their show’s history. “Friends”, “24″, “CSI”, and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, have all had at least one duff year. I actually feel that seeing how this season has developed, and ended, there is more than a good possibility that the creators of the show can pull off the perfect ending to the series with Season 4.
So overall: A dissapointing season, but with an ending that suggests much better things to come.