Prison Break returned from its second season cliffhanger finale with an all-new prison for Michael and crew to bust out of, but despite his early efforts, this inmate run prison was a tad more difficult to escape from than originally anticipated. With a host of new faces, as well as some returning characters from the shows previous two seasons, Prison Break’s third season mixed up the formula once again with all-new situations for the boys to work through. With the writers’ strike happening shortly after the shows debut, Prison Break was hit hard by the disruption and was forced to finish up the season with only thirteen episodes.
After escaping Fox River, Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) and his brother Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) went on the run. Along the way they disbanded from the other Fox River inmates they escaped with, but soon found themselves reunited. Most of the Fox River escapees were either caught or killed, but the remaining few escaped to Panama. While there, Michael and T-Bag again find themselves caught by the police and thrown into a local prison, Sona, which they soon find out is not run by the government but by its inmates. In order to survive, Michael must again escape with help from his brother on the outside.
Season two of Prison Break was such a departure from the first season, that jumping into the series at that point wasn’t going to harm you any. The characters acted differently than they did out of prison, but with the third season knowing how they acted is key to understanding their motivation in this season. Not to mention that a season two regular carried over to this season as well, Alexander Mahone (William Fichtner), so being caught up on the series was a must for this season. If you were like me, however, that wasn’t a problem; initially I started to watch the series as something to watch while 24 wasn’t on, but I quickly became invested in the characters themselves. It was a very easy show to get caught up in, and despite what you may think about the formula becoming dry, the series proved itself again in the third season.
When it first started I actually became quite disinterested in the series and ended up switching over to another network and show that was on at the same time. I still caught up with the show with recorded copies, of course, so I didn’t drop it completely; yet as my schedule got busier and busier as the TV season progressed, I noticed a large pile of episodes stacking up that I hadn’t watched. I think I had just genuinely become bored with the weekly waiting and my interest just waned. The episodes remained well-written and my attention was kept when I did watch them, so it was an odd sabbatical I took from the series. When I finally had some time to actually catch up on the series, it was no-holds-barred; the seven episodes I was behind on I caught up on in the same day and before I knew it I was already on the last episode and still ready to watch more.
Like 24, Prison Break suffers when it’s split up into weekly episodes. Plot points really excel when you watch multiple episodes back-to-back, which allows you to really get caught up in an episode because you know that there will still be more to watch after the fast-moving forty minutes has passed. I knew it when watching the first and second seasons of the show, but the writers’ strike break made that ever more evident with this third season. So if you can manage another year without the show, I’d hold off on watching the show as it airs; or at the very least, stack up a few weeks worth on the TiVo before blazing on through.
With the accommodations the show works best with covered, let’s talk about the actual season itself. The new characters we got in this season were all very interesting, although I quickly grew tired of the Susan B. Anthony (Jodie Lyn O’Keefe) character, as she caused nothing but trouble on the show. I know that was her job and in the sense that she actually annoyed me, I suppose she did her job, but after thirteen episodes (all of which she appeared in), and her character just got to be a real drag. Hopefully she’ll have a character change in season four now that she’s got her man, James Whistler (Chris Vance).
A major development with this season was the character in change in Scofield. Always played as the man with the plan and the “good guy”, chinks in his armor started to show this season, with an incredible amount of anger pooling forth from his character once he learned of the fate of his girlfriend. While it’s hard to believe that he’s going to go bash in some skulls, the finale to this season showed otherwise, with a seeming intent to eradicate Susan and Whistler.
All of the shows characters shined, but to be honest the characters of Sucre (Amaury Nolasco), Mahone, and Lincoln didn’t progress all that much. They pretty much stayed in the same area as the past seasons, although Sucre’s life will be an interesting one with T-Bag, since both are still in Sona. That in itself will create an interesting dynamic, with two stories that will be switching back and forth the prison and Michael. Hopefully Lincoln still gets worked in there as well…without a doubt, it’ll be an interesting change up for the shows fourth season.
Although the first season is still my favorite, the seasons that have followed it have proven to be a ton of fun to watch, so there’s no real knocking those either. It’s a really fantastic show that even in its slow moments remains intense and that always makes for good television. While the formula felt a bit familiar this season, it was still unique compared to the other two and kept things interesting—even if killing off of one of the characters was a bit of a cheap trick, it appears it will have some very satisfying results. Recommended.
This is only the second TV show that I’ve reviewed on Blu-ray and I’m becoming more impressed with TV shows on this format than films. I suppose I shouldn’t take it too much of a surprise, as the TV shows are newly produced, but Prison Break really just looks fantastic on this format. I’ll save the gushing for the technical area, so for now we can tackle the packaging: a four disc Blu-ray case houses each disc of the season in a nice, slimmed down casing. I’m glad they’re taking the less extravagant route with some of these Blu-ray releases, certainly saves shelf space. And unlike with the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, this set actually holds onto the discs inside the slimmer case, so that’s always a positive. Included in the case is a booklet with information on what’s on each disc, as well as advertisements for other Fox Blu-ray’s and information on keeping your player up-to-date with the latest firmware. Menus are simple and easy to navigate, although the pop-up navigation is a bit strange at times; generally when you click a directional arrow on a menu when it indicates that there’s more to go through, it will move down by just pressing the arrow key. With this set you have to actually highlight the arrow and hit OK. Not a huge issue by any means, but took a bit getting used to.
And now for the gushing! Prison Break: Season Three is quite possibly one of the finest high-definition TV shows I’ve ever seen. The amount of detail on the image is absolutely astonishing, as all of the stubble filled and sweat drenched faces just pop off of the screen. There’s an incredible amount of depth to the image and overall it is just a fantastic looking AVC encoded transfer. The show is almost as much fun to watch simply for the detail you can pick out of the scenery as it is to enjoy for the plotlines themselves. Not only is the video fantastic, but the included DTS 5.1 HD Master Lossless Audio is a fantastic experience as well. A myriad of surrounds are used throughout the season and the subwoofer is always pumping with sound effects or the music of the show. Really a fantastic visual and aural experience—hopefully the Blu-ray format is able to impress with future television releases just as strongly.
Moving onto the extras…well, that’s just about the only disappointing area of the set. There is a nice mix of things to check out, but there are no commentaries on any of the episodes, which is a tad disappointing, although we do get specific episode discussion from the directors on the fourth disc on the set (where all the bonus features are housed). The first extra is “Season 3: Orientacion” (16:59, 1080i), a featurette that acquaints the viewer with the newcomers of the season, as well as what returning favorites are up to. It’s a nice crash-course summary of the season, but aside from some cool comments from the existing members of the crew, there’s not too much of worth to glean from this extra.
“Breakout Episode” Featurette (13:25, 1080i) houses plenty of on-set behind-the-scenes footage as the cast and crew shoot in the streets of Panama. Purcell takes the reins for most of the extra, spending time with the crowds that gather around the recording as well as talking about how popular the series is worldwide. Next up is “Director’s Takes” Featurette (40:05, 480p), which are individual director commentaries on each episode of the series. There’s a nice mix of comments from the various directors of the series here and each are around two to three minutes long; not a lot of time to talk about a forty minute episode, but enough to point out any interesting experiences they had while shooting their episodes.
Finally we have “Between Takes”, a seven part featurette that interviews individual cast members about what they do when the cameras aren’t rolling. This is presented in 480p as well and all of the segments are around a minute and a half long, some a few or more seconds over, but rarely. These are nice little extras, but since they’re so short, they seem more like something that should be found online as the season airs (the way they’re put together makes me think they were, although I never browsed the site when it was airing so I don’t know what these were made for exactly).
Overall Prison Break – Season Three is an already fantastic experience made even more powerful by the Blu-ray format. I’m reminded by these sets just why the format is such a visual wonder, as the amount of detail they pack into each frame is impressive and about as detailed as the faces on the Blu-ray cover. The season may not be as amazing as the first season, but that doesn’t stop you from getting wrapped up in the season regardless. The extras are a bit light on this season and with a $30 difference in MSRP compared to the DVD edition, the price difference may be a bit hard for some to swallow. But for those of you who are a fan of the format, you will not be disappointed with the level of clarity that this set offers in both the video and audio departments. Recommended.
Prison Break: The Complete Third Season is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.