PRISON BREAK 4.1 & 4.2 - "Scylla" & "Breaking & Entering"

Writers: Matt Olmstead (4.1) & Zack Estrin (4.2)
Directors: Kevin Hooks (4.1) & Bobby Roth (4.2)

Cast: Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield), Dominic Purcell (Lincoln Burrows), William Fichtner (Alex Mahone), Danay Garcia (Sofia Lugo), Sarah Wayne Callies (Sara Tancredi), Wade Williams (Brad Bellick), Robert Knepper (Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell), Jodi Lyn O'Keefe (Gretchen Morgan), Michael Rapaport (Donald Self), Chris Vance (James Whistler), Amaury Nolasco (Fernando Sucre), Marshall Allman (LJ Burrows), Cress Williams (Wyatt), Wilbur Fitzgerald (Bruce Bennett), Leon Russom (Pad Man) & Callie Thorne (Pam Mahone)

"We all are a long way from where this started, but what
I can guarantee you is that if we do this thing right, we'll
be close to where it ends. Freedom, finally."

-- Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller)

Beware spoilers. Having broken out of a maximum-security prison, gone on the run from the Feds, and been thrown into a foreign jail, escapee Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) is now a fugitive with a vendetta against The Company -- the shadowy government cabal responsible for his misfortunes, and killers of his girlfriend Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies)…

You have to give the writers credit for managing to sustain Prison Break's premise into a fourth season, however awkwardly. Season 1 remains the strongest (a neat jailbreak with a conspiracy backdrop and inventive twists), while season 2's resulting manhunt struggled to keep momentum, before season 3 restored the incarceration but lost the heart. In essence, the beheading of Michael's sweetheart (the result of squabbles with pregnant actress Callies) left its lead rudderless and the ensuing prison break enjoyable, but lukewarm and silly.

Unfortunately, this third reinvention of the series may be one reshuffle too far. Irritatingly, some of the situations we arrived at in season 3's finale aren't pursued -- primarily the jailing of Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) in Sona, with inmates Bellick (Wade Williams) and T-Bag (Robert Knepper) for company. Instead, we're told Sona's prisoners have all rioted off-screen and escaped -- news that must annoy Michael and brother Lincoln (Dominic Purcell), considering all the trouble they went to weeks before!

The ambiguity over Whistler (Chris Vance) is also made clear, once and for all. It appears he was a good guy, trying to take down The Company from the inside, unbeknownst to handler Gretchen (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). Specifically, we meet Whistler in L.A trying to obtain "Scylla" (an electronic "little black book" that lists The Company's agents and activities), before he's interrupted by a vengeful Michael at gunpoint. Gretchen intervenes, admitting to Michael that Sara isn't dead, because she escaped. The head of a look-alike cadaver was used to fool Linc, in season 3's notorious Se7en-inspired misstep.

Ex-FBI Agent Mahone (William Fichtner) is helping Whistler, acting as a Company chauffeur, but Whistler's decision to pass on a duplicate of Scylla to Gretchen is uncovered by her boss, the ominous Pad Man (Leon Russom). As a result, Pad Man dispatches assassin Wyatt (Cress Williams) to kill Gretchen and Whistler, then "tie up loose ends"; meaning Michael, Mahone and Linc's lives are all in immediate danger.

Elsewhere, escapees Bellick and Sucre have become unlikely allies in Panama, after Bellick's mom arrives to whisk them to safety. T-Bag's also on the loose, with Whistler's all-important bird book of scribbled "clues" and codes. To be frank, it's become vague how important this bird book actually is, as season 3 left me with the impression it was a red herring anyway. However, T-Bag clearly thinks otherwise and makes some progress in deciphering the book's scribbled clues -- leading him to a locker in San Diego.

Anyway, the driving force behind season 4 is the recruitment of Michael by the US government to take down The Company on behalf of Homeland Security's Donald Self (Michael Rapaport), a man who worked with Michael's dead father Aldo. With Michael caught by the authorities, following the assassination of Whistler by hitman Wyatt, Michael's bail is posted by politician Bruce Bennett (Wilbur Fitzgerald), a friend of Sara's who later reunites Michael with his true-love -- in a frankly underwhelming scene.

Michael faces 15 years in jail for his crimes, unless he agrees to help Donald destroy The Company. After realizing there's a hired gun after them, Michael's forced to accept Donald's offer -- and recruits fellow "felons" Sucre, Bellick, Linc and Mahone to help him with the covert mission. Thus, the narrative splits three ways: ice-cool killer Wyatt tracking down his prey (targeting Mahone's family and interrogating an official over Michael's whereabouts), T-Bag's misadventures with his bird book (camp fire cannibalism!), and Team Michael trying to retrieve the real Scylla (a task that requires them to break into a luxury home crawling with security and high-tech alarms.)

But there's something exasperating about this latest revamp. Once again we've lost the prison-set basis for the show, and unlike season 2 this sojourn in the outside world isn't particularly tied to the jailbreak genre. Instead, Prison Break has started to resemble The A-Team, which is quite apt considering its '80s-style high-concept silliness. Unfortunately, the set-up is similar to the last season of The A-Team -- when Robert Vaughan became the group's taskmaster.

The few things sustaining interest are loyalty, having followed these characters' exploits since day 1 -- I'd be extremely surprised if Prison Break makes it to season 5 (jumping all these sharks will make any show tired), so we're hopefully twenty-odd episodes away from The End. And I'm also rather fond of the actors, even if they're two-dimensional marionettes for the writers to play with most of the time...

Wentworth Miller's an intriguing screen presence, although his charisma doesn't really stretch beyond quiet smoldering. The emotional highlight of both episodes was the Michael/Sara reunion, but it was curiously inert. And, while the return of Sarah Wayne Callies is welcome (if a little preposterous), having her safe denies Michael the enthusiasm to succeed. Everything boils down to vengeance for freedom this season, which is the best of limited options -- but with Pad Man untouchable (for now) and Gretchen out of commission for awhile, there aren't any villains audiences want to see punished.

William Fichtner is undeniably the best actor, but even he can't wring much from the writing. Season 2's Mahone was a complex, tragic figure being made to do bad things to keep his family safe. Mahone's family are killed in episode 2, but he practically shakes off the event within minutes and it doesn’t seem to have fuelled much appetite for revenge in him. It made me wonder; is Fichtner just fed up with the show's direction, or was the writing at fault? Hopefully he'll get a chance to vent his anger and flex his acting muscles soon.

Most worrying is the mechanism of season 4: finding Scylla, which we later learn is divided into 6 data units, meaning a half-dozen miniature "break ins" will be sprinkled throughout the year, before the conjoined data-cards are plugged into a reader hidden inside The Company's secret L.A stronghold. Hopefully these mini-missions will be exciting and inventive to sustain interest, as "Breaking And Entering" wasn't particularly enthralling.

Overall, "Scylla" was an extended, creaking attempt to gloss over plot-points from season 3 and struggled to refit the concept into a team-based revenge-fuelled action-adventure. I also had to laugh at Michael's tattoo-removal scene, which spiritually and physically scrubbed away the last vestigate of season 1 from the show. "Breaking And Entering" was more enjoyable, thanks to a diverting break-in scenario, but T-Bag (a character who became a joke the moment he jumped over Fox River's wall) continued to drift through another dumb sub-plot -- cooking and eating a fat Mexican in the desert!

For diehard fans, perseverance is called for in this likely final stretch. For anyone already clawing their hair out in season 3, it might be time to break loose from this show's grip. It's your call.


2 September 2008
Sky1, 9pm & 10pm