All good things come to viewers who wait. And the payoff starts tonight for the remaining fans of Prison Break (Fox, Global at 8 p.m.).
Those devoted viewers who have stuck with the show through scheduling changes and interminable breaks between seasons will now receive closure with the final five episodes of the cliffhanger drama. Everyone else is left to wonder: Did those guys ever get out of that prison?
The rugged felons of Prison Break did escape - they went over the wall at the end of the first season - and they've been running ever since. The series has spent four full seasons focused on half-brothers Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) breaking in and out of various correctional facilities, including a really nasty Panamanian prison, all while trying to expose an ominous government-linked agency known as The Company, which wants to eradicate Linc and Michael for reasons not yet made clear.
In the B storyline, Prison Break has also followed the life on the lam of the other escapees, most often the engaging con known as T-Bag (Robert Knepper). Sociopath or psychopath? Who cares, he's adorable.
In the beginning, however, Prison Break was a soap opera set behind bars. First conceived as a cable miniseries, it launched on Fox one week before Labour Day in 2005.
The premise found the remarkably capable young engineer Michael committing a robbery to get himself into the fictional Fox River Penitentiary in order to break out his wrongly accused older brother Linc, sitting on death row for a murder he did not commit. The original Prison Break game plan for 13 episodes was bumped to 22 once the show became a hit. More than 10 million U.S. viewers watched faithfully each Monday night.
Few were shocked by Prison Break's success. Did the presence of two alpha males - one painfully handsome, the other with simian good looks - as the principal leads contribute to the show's mainstream appeal? Most likely. Were the occasional scenes of graphic violence a draw for some viewers? All signs point to yes.
In keeping with films such as Escape from Alcatraz and The Shawshank Redemption, the prison itself played a full character in the series as well. "The story will always spread outward from those grey prison walls," predicted creator Paul Scheuring at the time. "The prisoners go off in every direction after the first escape, but the characters will always be bound together by their time in Fox River."
Like all new programs, Prison Break was great, for a while. It was serialized TV that closed each episode on a cliffhanger note. But as with 24, or The Young and the Restless, strict viewer devotion was required. Miss one episode and you were left wondering why Michael was so familiar with the confines of Fox River Penitentiary (before entering he had the prison blueprints tattooed on his torso).
The audience drop-off for Prison Break began in the second season, when The Prison as a character was effectively replaced by The Company. As established in year one, the conspiracy connected to Linc's framing reached up into the highest corridors of government. The federal agent Mahone (William Fitchner), assigned to capture the fleeing prisoners, was revealed to be a Company operative.
Simply put, Prison Break became a different show in its second season, which concluded with most of the original escapees killed or captured, while Michael and Linc fled to Panama. Upon arrival, Michael was arrested and imprisoned in the dank prison Sona, improbably accompanied by the wretched T-Bag, Mahone and the former sadistic Fox River prison guard Bellick (Wade Williams). The bizarre plot twist began to push Prison Break's credibility with some viewers.
The story stayed unfocused in season three, with Michael inside the Panama prison and Linc on the outside. In some episodes, the writers appeared to be making up the story as they went along.
Michael was now conscripted by The Company to extricate a valuable prisoner named Whistler; Linc was forced to deal with the new Company agent Gretchen (Jodi Lynn O'Keefe), who kidnapped his son. Gretchen also made Michael believe she had beheaded his prison-doctor lover, Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies). The season ended with yet another prison escape, and more confusing conspiracy theories.
By season four, which aired last year, Prison Break's U.S. audience was down to roughly six million viewers - a drop of nearly four million.
And by now the story was all over the map: T-Bag and Bellick went free when the Panamanian prison burnt down. Dr. Sara's head turned out to be attached to her body after all. Michael returned home to Chicago and was recruited by Homeland Security agent Don Self (Michael Rapaport) to expose The Company's dirty dealings. Linc also headed to Chicago and formed a ragtag group in order to obtain a MacGuffin-like computer device called the "Scylla," believed to be The Company's little black book.
That brings us to the here and now. A veil of secrecy has been placed on the final five episodes of Prison Break and no advance screeners were sent out. The show's creators have promised the final five shows will wrap up any and all existing storylines. The star-crossed Michael and Sara, for example, are now united in a common cause: "They both want to bring down The Company, because it's the right thing to do," said executive producer Matt Olmstead in a recent interview.
The show's family theme will go on too. The remaining outings of Prison Break will see the appearance of Michael and Linc's own mother, Christina (Kathleen Quinlan), who, of course, has her own dark history with The Company and has somehow come into possession of the Scylla.
But this is still Prison Break, remember, so best not to expect simple resolutions. Rather than bring the brothers together, their mother's presence will have a divisive effect. "For the first time, Michael and Lincoln are at odds," said Olmstead. "And it is very much brother against brother."
This story is far from over.
Ryan's picks
FRIDAY
Nitro Circus
If there are any male viewers under 18 in your household, this show is likely a weekly habit. Hailing from the MTV reality factory, the series follows professional motocross rider Travis Pastrana and a handful of his equally foolhardy friends trying to one-up each other with incredibly dangerous stunts. Jump out of an airplane without a parachute? No problemo, dude. Perform the first attempted double backflip on a motorcycle? Hey, why not? Lensed in the identical style of MTV's Jackass - the two shows have the same executive producers - the show travels to rugged terrain somewhere in Utah, where they try to recreate their own version of the Roman chariot race with souped-up vehicles. Next comes the race with motorhomes on a figure-eight track. Nitro Circus is wildly redneck but entertaining. Kids, don't try these tricks at home.
MTV at 10:30 p.m.
SUNDAY
Sit Down, Shut Up
This new animated series should fill the void for those viewers still bemoaning the loss of Arrested Development. Co-created by Arrested kingpin Mitch Hurwitz, and featuring most of the same cast as voice talent, the series is set behind the scenes at the rundown Knob Haven High School. The less-than-stellar staff includes gym teacher Larry Littlejunk (Jason Bateman), self-adoring English teacher Ennis Hofftard (Will Arnett) and aging nihilist Willard Deutschebog (Henry Winkler), who teaches German. None of the teachers possess any redeeming qualities. In the first show, vice-principal Stuart Prozackian confiscates prescription medication from a student's locker, and immediately starts popping the pills himself. Sit Down, Shut Up is edgy TV, and in good company with The Simpsons and Family Guy on Fox's Sunday-night lineup.
Fox, Global at 8:30 p.m.