Fox HD East: Prison Break: End of the Tunnel [Season Finale] : Nov 28th, 2005 9pm ET
- Thread starter Sean Mota
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 50
- Views 7K
A determined man risks everything to save his innocent older brother from execution in "Prison Break," a compelling Fox drama series premiering with a special two-hour episode on Monday, Aug. 29.
The first scripted series of the 2005-06 season gets under way as Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller, "Joan of Arcadia") contemplates a bleak family situation. His older brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell, "John Doe"), is on death row, scheduled to be executed in a few months for a startling assassination Michael is convinced he didn't commit.
With time and options both running out, the desperate Michael holds up a bank in order to get himself incarcerated alongside his brother in Fox River State Penitentiary.
"'Prison Break' is a thriller, but it's really a family drama," Miller says. "It's really the story of: How far would one go to save a loved one? And in Michael's case, it's to the wall. Each episode will be his resolve and ruthlessness and brilliance running smack into the brick wall that is chance and fate and human nature and all those things you cannot predict or prepare for."
Actually, for most of the first hour -- which is all Fox made available to TV critics for preview -- things go pretty smoothly for Michael, almost to a point that strains credibility, as he coolly stands up to and even baits some very dangerous thugs behind bars. He's in for a rude awakening, however, Miller adds.
"You didn't see the second hour, but I can tell you, things go wrong very quickly," the 33-year-old actor says. "There's a great deal of coolness and assertiveness on Michael's part in the first half, but the second half definitely will be a struggle for him, getting punched and shoved and getting flipped over a balcony. Someone also may come after him with some very sharp instruments.
"I wanted to make sure that while it's clear Michael is somewhat smarter than your average bear, he isn't a superhero. Michael has worked out a certain persona that he hopes will help him navigate these very dangerous waters, but he doesn't have Jackie Chan martial arts moves. He very much is in very real danger."
On the other hand, series creator Paul Scheuring adds, "Prison Break" won't be nearly as relentlessly bleak and violent as HBO's controversial prison drama "Oz" was. Eventually, Michael, Lincoln and some other inmates will actually break out of the prison. Until then, the tone will lighten up from time to time.
"Everyone asks about that, because 'Oz' is kind of the last serial TV prison show," says Scheuring, who is also head writer and an executive producer on "Prison Break." "I think people either really liked ['Oz'] in kind of a dark way or they have a very caustic reaction to it.
"This story is about hope. It's about the caper. It's about the mystery. It's all that stuff. So this is not about the depravities of mankind."
"But it's also got a lot of humor," adds executive producer Brett Ratner, who directed the pilot. "My attraction to it was that not only was it smart and compelling, but it also had moments of humanity and humor. These characters are very colorful, and most of the best drama happens when there also is humor. So I think it's really smart that you're going to be able to laugh and maybe be scared for these characters, maybe even cry at some point."
Scheuring won't reveal when the prison break actually will occur, but he says that big event certainly won't signal the end of the series by any means.
"There is a larger canvas here, and it is longer than a season," he says. "It's not going to be something like '24,' where we're perpetually reinventing a new obstacle to overcome each season. Season Two will just be the escalation of Season One.
"The model is going to be very much like 'The Great Escape,' in which we spend 'x' amount of time within the actual walls and, thereafter, we're going to break quite a number of people out and scatter them into the winds: They're going to go to the four corners of the country in planes, trains and automobiles. Each of them has an individual kind of end to their story line -- one for hope, one for love, one for exoneration, and one for truth."
Meanwhile, Miller is focused on bringing to life Michael's scary new world behind bars.
"Michael is not going to breeze through this experience," he says. "It's going to transform him in ways both unexpected and expected."
Source
The first scripted series of the 2005-06 season gets under way as Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller, "Joan of Arcadia") contemplates a bleak family situation. His older brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell, "John Doe"), is on death row, scheduled to be executed in a few months for a startling assassination Michael is convinced he didn't commit.
With time and options both running out, the desperate Michael holds up a bank in order to get himself incarcerated alongside his brother in Fox River State Penitentiary.
"'Prison Break' is a thriller, but it's really a family drama," Miller says. "It's really the story of: How far would one go to save a loved one? And in Michael's case, it's to the wall. Each episode will be his resolve and ruthlessness and brilliance running smack into the brick wall that is chance and fate and human nature and all those things you cannot predict or prepare for."
Actually, for most of the first hour -- which is all Fox made available to TV critics for preview -- things go pretty smoothly for Michael, almost to a point that strains credibility, as he coolly stands up to and even baits some very dangerous thugs behind bars. He's in for a rude awakening, however, Miller adds.
"You didn't see the second hour, but I can tell you, things go wrong very quickly," the 33-year-old actor says. "There's a great deal of coolness and assertiveness on Michael's part in the first half, but the second half definitely will be a struggle for him, getting punched and shoved and getting flipped over a balcony. Someone also may come after him with some very sharp instruments.
"I wanted to make sure that while it's clear Michael is somewhat smarter than your average bear, he isn't a superhero. Michael has worked out a certain persona that he hopes will help him navigate these very dangerous waters, but he doesn't have Jackie Chan martial arts moves. He very much is in very real danger."
On the other hand, series creator Paul Scheuring adds, "Prison Break" won't be nearly as relentlessly bleak and violent as HBO's controversial prison drama "Oz" was. Eventually, Michael, Lincoln and some other inmates will actually break out of the prison. Until then, the tone will lighten up from time to time.
"Everyone asks about that, because 'Oz' is kind of the last serial TV prison show," says Scheuring, who is also head writer and an executive producer on "Prison Break." "I think people either really liked ['Oz'] in kind of a dark way or they have a very caustic reaction to it.
"This story is about hope. It's about the caper. It's about the mystery. It's all that stuff. So this is not about the depravities of mankind."
"But it's also got a lot of humor," adds executive producer Brett Ratner, who directed the pilot. "My attraction to it was that not only was it smart and compelling, but it also had moments of humanity and humor. These characters are very colorful, and most of the best drama happens when there also is humor. So I think it's really smart that you're going to be able to laugh and maybe be scared for these characters, maybe even cry at some point."
Scheuring won't reveal when the prison break actually will occur, but he says that big event certainly won't signal the end of the series by any means.
"There is a larger canvas here, and it is longer than a season," he says. "It's not going to be something like '24,' where we're perpetually reinventing a new obstacle to overcome each season. Season Two will just be the escalation of Season One.
"The model is going to be very much like 'The Great Escape,' in which we spend 'x' amount of time within the actual walls and, thereafter, we're going to break quite a number of people out and scatter them into the winds: They're going to go to the four corners of the country in planes, trains and automobiles. Each of them has an individual kind of end to their story line -- one for hope, one for love, one for exoneration, and one for truth."
Meanwhile, Miller is focused on bringing to life Michael's scary new world behind bars.
"Michael is not going to breeze through this experience," he says. "It's going to transform him in ways both unexpected and expected."
Source
My opinion about this show is that it was slow in the beginning but it picked up and between the conspiracy, the plan for breaking out of prison, and life inside the prison it became very interested. I will watch again to see where it ends. The PQ is outstanding through OTA on Dish 942 DVR. I also recorded through DIRECTIVO OTA and the PQ of the Dish 942 was much brighter and than DirecTivo. I did not bother with Fox HD through satellite on D*. In my experience the PQ of Fox HD on D* through satellite is subpar. The DirecTivo looks like suffers from black levels being low. The 942 exhibited very bright colors while the DirecTivo exhibits very dull colors through HDMI. I do not even have the 942 connected through DVI, it is only component.
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) FOX started the 2005-06 TV season with a pretty good-sized bang Monday, winning strong debut numbers for its drama "Prison Break."
The series, which benefited from generally positive reviews and a huge publicity campaign by the network, opened to about 10.5 million viewers Monday (Aug. 29), giving FOX its best summertime Monday numbers since episodes of "Melrose Place" and "Ally McBeal" aired there in September 1998. "Prison Break" helped FOX win the night in all the measures it cares about, including total viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 18-34.
The two-hour premiere (which FOX is counting as two episodes) delivered a 4.6 rating among adults 18-49, tying with the premiere of "So You Think You Can Dance" for the network's best performance of the summer in the demographic. It predictably carried the night among male viewers, but it also did surprisingly well among women, leading the night among women 18-34 and 18-49.
The show also grew in every half-hour, a good sign for any show.
"Prison Break" compares favorably to other recent FOX shows that started before the official opening of the TV season. "The O.C." debuted to about 7.5 million viewers in August 2003, while last year "North Shore," "Quintuplets" and "Method and Red" averaged between 5.9 million and 8.2 million for their premieres, all of which were in June.
Ratings for "Prison Break" will likely drop next week, when the show airs on the Labor Day holiday; FOX is planning to re-air the episode the following night, Tuesday, Sept. 6. The network will also repeat the premiere at 8 p.m. ET Thursday (Sept. 1).
Source
The series, which benefited from generally positive reviews and a huge publicity campaign by the network, opened to about 10.5 million viewers Monday (Aug. 29), giving FOX its best summertime Monday numbers since episodes of "Melrose Place" and "Ally McBeal" aired there in September 1998. "Prison Break" helped FOX win the night in all the measures it cares about, including total viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 18-34.
The two-hour premiere (which FOX is counting as two episodes) delivered a 4.6 rating among adults 18-49, tying with the premiere of "So You Think You Can Dance" for the network's best performance of the summer in the demographic. It predictably carried the night among male viewers, but it also did surprisingly well among women, leading the night among women 18-34 and 18-49.
The show also grew in every half-hour, a good sign for any show.
"Prison Break" compares favorably to other recent FOX shows that started before the official opening of the TV season. "The O.C." debuted to about 7.5 million viewers in August 2003, while last year "North Shore," "Quintuplets" and "Method and Red" averaged between 5.9 million and 8.2 million for their premieres, all of which were in June.
Ratings for "Prison Break" will likely drop next week, when the show airs on the Labor Day holiday; FOX is planning to re-air the episode the following night, Tuesday, Sept. 6. The network will also repeat the premiere at 8 p.m. ET Thursday (Sept. 1).
Source
