But 'Prison Break' is so energetically directed that it immediately conned me into swallowing even the most ridiculous plot points. Okay, so the story is more than absurd - it's utterly preposterous. (You'd think by this point he'd be more worried about saving himself, but never mind that.) On top of all this, in what can only be described as a conspiracy, the Secret Service is on to Michael's plot, and have started to kill off the family's friends and loved ones to ensure that Lincoln stays behind bars.
Will undergo all manner of humiliations (near-rape, torture, etc) as he attempts to form an inter-prison network to help save his brother. By the time the first season kicks into high gear, Michael It just so happens that Michael is also an architect, and wouldn't ya know it, he designed the prison, too! Even more brilliantly, Michael has the blueprints interwoven within a giant tapestry he gets tattooed over most of his upper body, so he's literally a walking roadmap to freedom.Īnd that's just where things start. So, he does what any loyal sibling would do in the same situation - he gets himself incarcerated in the very same prison as his brother to break him out. Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) has exhausted every last avenue of our legal system in an effort to clear his brother Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) of a murder he didn't commit. Sure, the concept itself often defies credibility, but like other superior serialized dramas including '24,' 'Lost' and 'Heroes,' 'Prison Break' so effectively creates its own self-contained universe that we can help but suspend our disbelief and hang on for the ride. 'Prison Break' is in fact a truly riveting show - the kind that grabs you from the first episode and doesn't let go.
Of course, as the show's millions of fans well know, I was dead wrong.
A television series about two guys trying to escape some dingy old jail? How could such a slim premise sustain itself for more than a few episodes? And what would happen once they did break free, anyway? High tail it down to Hawaii, and then we get 'Prison Break: The Magnum P.I. When I first heard about the concept for 'Prison Break,' I have to admit that I just didn't get it.