Prison Break!

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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angloconvoy
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Prison Break!

Post by angloconvoy »

I finally finished watching season 4 (well, I kind of fast forwarded through the last 2 episodes).
Did anyone else watch it? Its like the writers were in a competition to one up each other on crap plot threads. I swear, by the end it was on the aaron spelling daytime soap level of sheer awful but still trying to take itself seriously.
Shame really, cos seasons one and two are still a good bit of telly which would have benefitted greatly from keeping what was clearly meant to be the original ending of them escaping.
Season 3 was bland and poorly thought out, and season 4 was just non-stop bollocks. I think it was morbid curiousity at how much worse the could make it tha kept me watching til almost the end.
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Halfshell
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Post by Halfshell »

I watched the last season earlier in the year... didn't bother with the mini-movie last two eps. Mostly due to the weird non-sequitur "oh, is that it then?" ending.

Oddly compelling, though a damp squib in comparison to the bonkers tension twistiness of the first two seasons.

Blatantly obvious surprise return bloke got fat though. To the degree that the only reason I really recognised him was because it was who I was expecting.
SPOILER! (select to read)
Sara's "death" in season 3 was just mind-numbingly awful. And she obviously wasn't dead... it was one of those weird ones where either they've just offed one of the central characters off-screen without even bringing her in for a cameo or she's not really dead.

Which means that you're looking at either a godawful blatant fake-death which means none of the vengeance kick has any dramatic impact... or one of the worst character-write-outs in tv history. Not good.
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horizon
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Post by horizon »

My wife and I watched all of it except the mini-end-movie (which I never intend to watch).

Season 1: nerve wracking tension awesomely good
Should've ended here, alas many viewers = milking story for the money

Season 2: okay-ish, if it ended here okay, but alas, another end rigged to get another season.

Season 3: oh noes. Except some noodles it was below mediocre.

Season 4: hmpf. At least we got an end... It had far fetched tension, Mahone having most of character development.


The thing is that this show started out really good with a good storyline. Even believable to an extend. But then all this company crap and conspiracy layers got added. All of it not needed to make a good show in my opinion. It killed the flow and character development.
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CounterPunch
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Post by CounterPunch »

Halfshell wrote:I watched the last season earlier in the year... didn't bother with the mini-movie last two eps. Mostly due to the weird non-sequitur "oh, is that it then?" ending.

Oddly compelling, though a damp squib in comparison to the bonkers tension twistiness of the first two seasons.

Blatantly obvious surprise return bloke got fat though. To the degree that the only reason I really recognised him was because it was who I was expecting.
SPOILER! (select to read)
Sara's "death" in season 3 was just mind-numbingly awful. And she obviously wasn't dead... it was one of those weird ones where either they've just offed one of the central characters off-screen without even bringing her in for a cameo or she's not really dead.

Which means that you're looking at either a godawful blatant fake-death which means none of the vengeance kick has any dramatic impact... or one of the worst character-write-outs in tv history. Not good.
Who is the fat bloke youre referring to?

Also, the only saving grace for s4 in my mind was the awesome acting by the guy who played T-Bag, and I loved some of the questions that went through his mind, I dunno if these can be considered spoilers but will stick them in there just incase.
SPOILER! (select to read)
him talking about identity, and how when he was pretending he was that guy he had a different identity, he was a different man, was IMO the best part of the season, all the rest of it reeked of a show that had jus gone on too long

Also, while the spoiler tags are here, afaik, the woman that played Sara had a dispute over something and left the show, at which point the wrote her out, and then whatever dispute was sorted between her and whoever produced (was it fox?) and she was written back in the show.
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angloconvoy
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Post by angloconvoy »

Your bloke who plays Michael piled on the pounds by season 4 too. To the point where he was constantly wearing big jumpers, angel style.

Oh, and all of the surprises were really not surprising at all, well, except the
SPOILER! (select to read)
Sarah resurrection, cos she was really supposed to stay dead and was only brought back because killing her off alienated a lot of the female fanbase, according to fox
. Also,
SPOILER! (select to read)
making their mum the main villain and them not being brothers by blood was hilarious. As was the unnecessary brain tumour nonsense, like they thought any of that aced suspense.
I disagree about ending it after season one though, because the second season made sense to me. Phase one; get out of prison, phase two; get out of the country. End there. Perfect.

Agree about mahone and teabag carrying the show. They were also the only two actors to put in a consistently solid performance. The others either showed they really can't act, or just phoned it in. I honestly think the guy who plays Michael had had enough and was taking the piss with his line delivery right from the first episode of season 4.
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Halfshell
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Post by Halfshell »

Counterpunch wrote:Who is the fat bloke youre referring to?
Paul Thingy. He was a lot chunkier than I remembered.
angloconvoy wrote:Oh, and all of the surprises were really not surprising at all, well, except the
SPOILER! (select to read)
Sarah resurrection, cos she was really supposed to stay dead and was only brought back because killing her off alienated a lot of the female fanbase, according to fox
.
Really? I didn't buy into it for a second. Partly because, as said before, if it were permanent then it was a ****ing godawful way to do it. And I don't mean in the "horrific" sense... I mean in the ****ing shit sense.
SPOILER! (select to read)
My sister had already seen to the end of season 4 when I started season 3... my reaction to Sara's death was to basically text my sis going "there's no way she's actually dead, is there?" which got the reply of "nah, off having a kid but play along". I mean seriously, if you're going to bring an actor back for the beginning of the season just to kill her off, do it for more than one line of phoned in dialogue with a blatant body double... then just a prop head as she's axed off-screen. If they'd killed her at the end of season 1 with that OD, I'd have bought it. That death? Not a chance.
Also,
SPOILER! (select to read)
making their mum the main villain and them not being brothers by blood was hilarious. As was the unnecessary brain tumour nonsense, like they thought any of that aced suspense.
Agreed entirely. It was just getting ridiculous. A bit like Alias but without the self-awareness.
I disagree about ending it after season one though, because the second season made sense to me. Phase one; get out of prison, phase two; get out of the country. End there. Perfect.
Aye aye. I rocketed through the first two seasons and then stopped, as whilst there were still plot threads dangling, season 2 at least had an element of closure to it. Always intended to watch the rest but was in no rush at all. Eventually got round to it after my aforementioned sister told me it was still just as compelling and good. Must try and remember in future that she also watches Charmed.
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