Prison Break (2005 - ?)

Since the last TV Thursday was devoted to Heroes, it seems like I should write a little bit about the other competition for my attention Mondays at 9: Prison Break.

Or as I called it in season 2: Prison Broke.

Then in season 3 it was Prison Break (Panama Edition).

Now in season 4 it's Stay out of Prison by Taking Down the Company, which isn't really as catchy, so I just call it Prison Break.

There are quite a few things that PB has in common with Heroes, and, although Heroes has been better in the last two episodes, PB still does those things better.

1) The Company

In Heroes' land, the Primatech Paper is a front for the shadowy and mysterious "The Company," a nefarious organization behind pretty much every bad thing that happens on the show: the virus, the formula, kidnapping, murder, synthetic abilities. You name it, they did it. The Company on PB is much the same: an overarching, multinational corporation that is responsible for every bad thing, ever. In season 1 we learned that they sent Linc (Dominic Purcell) to prison, and they've been behind everything that has happened to the brothers ever since (although it's kind of funny that Michael's (Wentworth Miller) the genius who engineers prison breaks and all manner of escapades, but they still consider Linc a serious threat). Both Companies can be difficult to swallow at times (just like the hotels in Monopoly), but the difference is the way they are treated on the shows.

In Heroes, the Company is a catch all. The bad thing (e.g. the formula) is invented first and then linked it back to the Company (turns out they used it years ago to create synthetic abilities, felt bad about it for unspecified reasons, and hid the formula rather than destroy it).

On PB, however, the Company is the show's driving force. What the Company does and why is almost a Macguffin at this point, but it's existence is enough. What they've already done (put Linc in jail, killed his ex-wife, set up his son for her murder, put Michael back in jail, Head in a Box,* etc.) is reason enough to want to take the Company down. Their nefarious dealings in Laos or anywhere else are just the icing on the evil cake. Each person as his or her own personal reason to want revenge, which makes it all the more interesting to watch. It's not just blathering about heroes and villains.

2) The Brothers

At the centre of both shows are a pair of brothers: the older, former bad boy (Linc, Nathan) and the idealistic, fatally loyal younger one (Michael, Peter). Nathan's conversion from bad to good happened onscreen over the course of season 1, while Linc's seems to have happened before we even met him. Linc was never that bad a person to begin with (he never plotted to blow up New York and his brother), but he's still trying to be a better person, brother, and dad. He's even put aside his quest for revenge against the man who killed his father, Alex Mahone (William Fitchner), and offered to help Mahone track down the man who killed his son instead.

Michael's a tougher nut to crack and, like, Ventimiglia, also had trouble with the Blue Steel early on. Miller's less reliant on it and more expressive as the seasons go by, and he gets to do something new this season: jokey Michael! When Scott Tobias pointed out earlier this year that, "as an actor, Ventimiglia seems incapable of having any fun," it was one of those thunderbolt moments for me. That's totally the problem. He never smiles or laughs ever even when it would be appropriate, script-wise. Miller, on the other hand, now gets to joke at least once an episode, and it allows him to keep sharpening Michael as a well developed person.

Though both shows have large casts, Michael and Peter are definitely their central characters, and it can be limiting to build a show around an actor who is, well, limited. Kristen Bell could take whatever the Veronica Mars writers threw at her (the subject of another TV Thursday, I suppose); others cannot. Despite the outlandish plots, the PB writers respect that they have a genre show/live action graphic novel on their hands and have carefully and slowly developed their characters (for the most part) accordingly.

Also, they are not afraid to kill a bitch. Roland, Whistler, and Cameron are characters that died just this season. Who will be next? That's half the fun of watching.

*Sadly not as cool as Chief Head in a Box, largely because the head in question turned out to be a fake.