Prison Break - Season 1

Prison Break is a solid, entertaining thriller with a fairly good, complex story running through the whole way. I don't think it's saying too much that they break out at the end of the first season, considering they say as much with just a glance at the cover art of the second. After all, how long can you really stay in jail before the show gets boring? Michael is a genius engineer who gives up his normal life to save his falsely accused brother Lincoln from the electric chair, a job that is made easier by the fact that he happened to help design the place. He schemes and prepares before he purposefully gets caught attempting robbery to make his way in, and starts to working. That's not all it is though, as a big part of the show is the huge conspiracy that landed Lincoln on death row in the first place. While their friends on the outside try to prove his innocence, they get chased by government agents and men who work for the "Company" (real original there, guys), who will do anything to keep things quiet. Despite all the planning, pretty much everything that can go wrong does, and the brothers have to recruit several hardened criminals to their cause.

The show does a good job of ratcheting up the tension, carefully laying piece after piece of the puzzle into place as things go wrong and time starts running out. Despite the unsympathetic nature of many of the characters, they're all at least interesting in some way, even if it's just how really messed up they are. I honestly much prefer the prison break aspect to the conspiracy aspect, because they treat everything in the jail so deliberately and realistically while all the lies and backstabbing on the outside seem a little unbelievable in contrast. Also, Lincoln's son is a gigantic idiot. I don't understand half the things he does. I also don't like how they don't give the audience much credit for remembering plot details. I get the need to keep people who can't watch every week in the loop, but most of it can be followed without that much help, and when every somewhat-obscure scene is accompanied by a glaringly obvious flashback, it seems cheap and unrewarding for people who watch closely. Despite some minor issues, it's a very promising first run of an enjoyable show.