Fox Network Dumps Series in its Fourth Year
In what is likely neither surprising or saddening to anyone except Stephen King and myself, Fox has announced that Prison Break will be canceled at the conclusion of the currently airing fourth season.
The show stars Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield, an architect that intentionally winds up incarcerated in the same prison as his brother Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell). Wrongfully accused of murder, the soon-to-be executed Burrows is shocked to learn that Scofield has come to break him out of jail. His plan? He has a map of the prison tattooed to his entire frickin’ body.
Hilarity ensues.
While not the greatest or most intellectually stimulating series on televsion, there’s no question that Prison Break served a purpose as a highly entertaining guilty pleasure. The characters were surprisingly watchable, some of them even compelling. The addition of William Fichtner (Equilibrium, The Dark Knight) as bloodlusting special agent Alex Mahone brought excellent energy to the often laughable show. Still, the magnificent Robert Knepper (Transporter 3, Hitman) steals the show as the inbred murderous pedophile psychopath Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell. That one-handed monster will certainly be missed.
The show confused many a viewer when the first season concluded with the characters, well, breaking out of prison. The entirety of the second season featured Scofield, Burrows and the rest of the gang as fugitives on the run from the aforementioned Mahone. By season’s end, a large contingent of these characters — including Scofield, Bagwell, Mahone and ex-prison guard Bellick — wound up in a Panamanian prison and had to break out all over again. Break out they did by the third season’s conclusion. This year, the ex-cons are working to overthrow The Company, the shadowy bad guys responsible for framing Lincoln in the first place and setting up all sorts of terrible antics along the way.
I, for one, will miss Prison Break. It was a truly enjoyable if not altogether ludicrous way to spend a Monday evening. The often ridiculous series competed with NBC’s superhero drama Heroes. If you asked me, I’d take the Scofield/Burrows brother combo over the Petrelli family any day. At least Prison Break embraces its absurdist nature. But don’t be surprised if this time next year we find out that Heroes, too, has met the business end of a shiv.
Hilarious.
Fantastic write up sir, however, besides you and king who are going to miss it tremendously will be our batting champion who broke his nose on a fly ball…he loved that show as much as he loved black iced smirnoffs..