Post THE SEVENTY-FOURTH, In Which We Get a Second Break (of the Prison Variety)

   Here I am looking forward to the third season of Prison Break, an apparently extremely popular show that ran from 2005 to 2009 that I'm just now getting into and have already watched the first two seasons of. I really wrote this (1) to advertise a pretty okay show, (2) because the first season left off into the second season in a pretty obvious place (the actual prison break) and where they would end season two to go into season three came as a surprise, and (3) it's something to write about, I guess. If you still have yet to catch up on an excellent show, be warned that there are spoilers from the second season ahead, though if you haven't seen any of it then probably none of this will mean anything to you. Good luck in your confusion.

   So, the third season of Prison Break is upon us, and it looks like the show's getting back to its roots: actually breaking out of prison. Last we saw Michael he was getting dropped off at Sona, a federal prison that not even the guards seem to want to approach. So, probably, a for inmates by inmates type deal, a veritable death sentence for those who are sent there. Whoever's in charge probably would want to keep a pretty tight ship, if such a system is to work at all, so watch out for him.

   It looks like this time Lincoln is going to have to be the one to break Michael out this time, an interesting reversal of the first season. With each season the show redefines itself, somewhat out of necessity, but it's all tied together by the overarching conspiracy. Now that Kellerman testified against the Company and Lincoln's been exonerated, though, maybe that will be less prominent. One thing we do know about the Company now, though: they want Michael to break out of Sona, and when he does, they'll be waiting for him.

   For they (and we) know that Michael will break out, along with maybe Mahone and Bellick, who are also there, and T-Bag's got to have been put somewhere, so, why not Sona? All that T-Bag has to go on now is his oily charm, now that the $5,000,000 is at the bottom a a river somewhere in the jungle. And, speaking of Benjamins, last time we saw C-Note, he's gone into WitPro for testifying against Mahone, so we know that he's (probably?) safe. Sucre, however, is another story: collapsed in Panama after losing a lot of blood after being shivved by T-Bag, with seemingly nobody going to assist him, and with Bellick not revealing where he left Maricruz. I think that about sums it up for where season two left all of the major characters (where's Sara in all of this? She's free, right?) Only time will tell where that leads us.

   A major flaw of the second season was that Michael's plan to run was much less well-defined than his plan to escape in the first place, which is what gave the first season a narrative push. Now that he's back in, though, there's a clear objective. Looks like it's back to smooth sailing and tight pacing once again.

   Yeah, it's a totally worthy usage of my time. All of this prison breaking has given me at least like three episode ideas for Artificial Winter, and one really solid one for The Artefact. Like I said. Pop culture is good for inspiration.