Customer Reviews

Prison Break: Season Three

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As the third season of Prison Break begins, Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) finds himself back in prison, only this time it's a down and dirty prison in Panama ruled by the tyrannical Lechero (The Wire's Robert Wisdom). Also sharing space with Michael are T-Bag (Robert Knepper), Bellick (Wade Williams), and Mahone (William Fichtner); while Linc (Dominic Purcell) works on the outside to get his brother free at any cost, with the assistance of a mysterious associate (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) who has her own agenda. The third season of Prison Break manages to provide pretty much the same kinds of action, suspense, drama, and twists that fans of the series would come to expect by now; which adds up to this season being a success. However, falling victim to the writer's strike, the third season of Prison Break ends up feeling rushed and somewhat incomplete. At only 13 episodes, this is something to be expected, but it still comes off as noticeable nonetheless. Flaws aside, this is still great TV to be seen, and everyone in it is in fine form as well. All in all, the third season of Prison Break while flawed, is still enjoyable, and sets the stage for even bigger developments to follow.

If you are into brutal action, seat-of-your-pants suspense, unexpected twists and turns every 5 or 10 minutes, get this set, block a couple of weekend nights and watch it. My wife and I couldn't stop watching. In fact, we gobbled up all 13 episodes over 2 nights and, when it was all over, we felt like we wanted more.

Michael is a different man in Season 3. Now, he is physically exhausted and emotionally drained, not sick but definitely tired. In Season 1, he generally knew what and whom he was facing; it was he who decided who were his friends, his allies, his enemies. He had studied their biographies and he was totally familiar with the environment and he knew exactly what to expect. He had a well-thought plan and he was implementing it. In 'Season 2' he was still following the plan but his control was slipping. By 'Season 3', he has to live with the consequences of his actions - people have died, people got hurt and more are dying and are getting hurt as the tale is told - and he is trying to make sense of his immediate environment (the prison) and those who are pulling the strings and seem to be in control (the Company). We see him tired, desperate, remorseful, doubting himself, sometimes unable or simply refusing to make sense of it all and yet hopeful, seeking some balance between the brutal world in which he has to survive and his desperate struggle to preserve his humanity.

This is the most testosterone-oozing, adrenalin-laced, action-packed TV show - and I could include 'movie' - I've seen in a long time and, possibly of all times. Think 'The Dirty Dozen' or 'The Great Escape' on steroids and uninhibited.

I am not going to give away any spoilers but, if you are going to watch this set, be prepared to for male bonding, explosive violence, brutality (they are not the same), torture (yes, waterboarding too), betrayal, barehanded fights to the death, stabbings, humiliation, sewer-level filth, desperation, blackmail, blood, mud, sweat, deception, mystery, misery, beheadings, execution-style killings, loyalty, fear, starvation, drug addiction, sweat, pain, just to name a few of the included attractions. You are NOT going to see: romantic kisses, bedroom scenes, shower scenes, sensitive metro-sexuals, preaching feminists, starry nights, fast cars, swimming pools or electronic gadgets.

Off the 4 women of this season we have one that's dead, a desperate prostitute, an absolute evil (but super-great looking) gargoyle and a naive but not exactly a shrinking violet, betrayed, girlfriend. I am not trying to even begin to portray 'the men'.

- The pluses - see above.
- The minuses - since we never 'watch TV', we are going to have to wait for one full year before we can lay our hands on 'season four'.

Disclaimer: I watched the Blu-ray release but, for this specific TV series, you should probably be okay with either the DVD or the Blu-ray. We have Seasons 1 and 3 in Blu and Season 2 in DVD. While it is true that the Blu visuals are better, this series is 90% about plot and action and you will be so immersed into it that you'll probably care little about 1080p or HD sound.

The third season of Prison Break was good television but lacked the key element that existed in seasons one and two and that was Michael's connection to the people around him. In season three Michael is again jailed but with characters that neither he, nor the viewer, really care about. In addition, some characters (not those killed off in the second year of the series)are gone due to the actors' contract disputes and/or accepting spots in other series. Finally, the writer's strike left the series with only half a year and although there is some resolution, overall, it felt weak because it was never intended to be the season finale. Will I buy it? Yes, because it builds hopefully to a better fourth season but as a stand-alone year the third season lacks the plotting quality of seasons one and two.

SPOILERS!








Many of the episodes in this season seemed to drag on and on with many foiled plans, rain delays, and other obvious procrastination devices. It made Michael's breakout plan for Sona take a lot longer than it should have.
That said, there are still many suspenseful moments in this season, mostly involving the hostages and of course including the various prisoners and their would-be helpers on the outside. Former guard Bellick had a very rough time of it, while the cunning Teabag found ways to work the system from the inside. Scofield and Link put their collective heads together to formulate constantly-changing maneuvers, while Luchero made things tough for those inside Sona. And then there was the mysterious Whistler, a prisoner who was so valuable to a certain company that they would stop at nothing to get him out alive.
And did Sarah really die? Link thinks so, but what was really in that box? LJ says he heard her die, but he never saw it. This, of course, leaves Michael to go on a mission of his own at the end of the season, trying to get revenge or find out what really happened.

If you like the first two seasons of prison break, you will not be dissapointed with the season 3 dvd. In my opinion, this is one of the best, if not the best television series on tv to date. Like i said earlier, if you like the previous seasons of prison break, BUY THIS ONE. You will not be let down.

This is just a remake of season one with an artifical, badly written and unbelievable plot. There's just so many parts where it's hard to believe the characters' actions. Seems like eveyone but the brothers changes sides from one eposide to another - just to keep the ariticle suspense going.

But it's still worth getting if you saw the previous 2 seasons, but very hard to watch, almost painful.

Even though there's a technical reason (The writer's guild strike) for this season to be shortened, the character's development and the episodes felt half baked and rushed.

Lot of shortcomings and missing opportunities for "good moments" during this season which was an overall major letdown when you compare it to the masterpiece that was season 1.

I don't recommend purchasing this season, I strongly suggest to just rent it.

Back to the prison break theme and away from the cheap Fugitive knock-off. Good, creative writing. Lots of non-obvious plot twists. Entertaining. A few quibbles. They're in what is supposedly a prison for the worst of the worst in Panama. But everybody speaks perfect English - the prisoners and the guards. Maybe they have to take a Rosetta Stone course as part of prison intake. Michael's trademark tatoos are covered up all the time. Since they no longer play a part in the plot, I guess they decided to skip the makeup. So Michael is the only person in this tropical climate wearing a long-sleeved shirt all the time and nothing in the story plot explains why. Lastly, as before, this director has just one technique to signal tension in a scene - he has all the actors suddenly start gasping like they just ran a marathon. This director desperately needs a broader pallete. These are minor gripes. This is pretty good and I would recommend buying.

I must confess. In order to get inside the Fox River Penitentiary I had to steal Season 1 on blu-ray from Amazon.com (at $40+"smuggling" I think it was a steal). The jury was unanimous: I was sentenced to 22 episodes of one of the best TV shows I have ever seen. During most of the sentence I was chained to my TV, deprived of sleep and frantically planned the escape from prison for the crime I didn't commit.

Now, with two more terms behind me, including the equally gripping, "edge-of-my-sofa", Season 2 (rented on DVD) I can reflect on Season 3 as being a tad weaker then the first two. But fear not, the acting and plot is still superb!

The Season 3 is probably the bloodiest of all and you will be greeted with an ample amount of dead bodies. The action revolves around yet another escape from the "con-operated", "you fight or you die" prison SONA. From the onset and up to the very end the viewers are thrown into the cruel and merciless "every man (and woman) for himself" zone, which even creates a few cracks between Michael and Linc.

Unlike Season 1, where more often then not the prisoners had to stick together to complete the mission, in Season 3 all hell breaks loose and it serves the show beautifully, elevating it to another level. Some may not like this change but I found it quite appropriate and fresh. Unfortunately, there are quite a few weak spots in the story (I trust you will discover these by yourself), which make it somewhat less believable than Season 1 and 2.

The Season 3 starts kind of slow (the first 4 episodes or so) but then kicks into another gear and keeps you jumping out of your seat and begging for more. Needless to say, I want my Season 2 and 4 on blu-ray and I want it now!

I think the show exhausted itself by end of season 2. Neither season 3 nor season 4 have brouhgt any new interesting developments in the characters and seem to just be dragging the "thriller" line. This was the best show I've seen and I own season 1 and 2, watched them more times than I can remember, but I'm not buying any more - not to ruin the image it created in my mind.