Prison Break Event Series Premiere, “Ogygia” Plot Summary:
Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) is dead. Or so everyone he knows and loves thinks. On the day of his release from prison T-Bag (Robert Knepper) receives a letter containing a cryptic message, and a blurry photo of Scofield in a prison in Yemen. T-Bag brings the news to Scofield’s brother Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), who starts to realize that maybe his brother isn’t dead. Drawn back into the hunt are longtime Scofield associates Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) – now a freelance sailor, Benjamin Miles “C-Note” Franklin (Rockmond Dunbar) who is now a devout Muslim fighting radicalization, and Michael’s baby mama Sara Tancredi (The Walking Dead’s Sarah Wayne Callies).
To be 100% transparent, I am not a diehard Prison Break fan. I’ve seen a bunch of episodes, mostly from Season One and Season Two, but I wouldn’t call myself an expert in the series.
However, much like when FOX premiered: 24: Live Another Day, and AMC brought back Into the Badlands — you don’t need to have followed every moment of the series to appreciate the current story being told.
The premiere of Prison Break’s “Event Series” picks up years after the series ended — Michael Scofield is dead, and his associates are trying to live without him. Some like his baby mama Sara (Callies) are doing fine (she even married the dude from Royal Pains aka Marc Feuerstein) while others, like his brother Lincoln (Purcell), have fallen back into their old, destructive habits. What’s refreshing here is that there’s literally no ring rust on these characters in regards to their chemistry. Nothing feels forced, nothing feels like they need time to find their groove. The show hits the ground running almost immediately.
What makes this premiere work so well is its ability to change tone, and genre in the blink of an eye. It easily moves from paranoid conspiracy drama to a double-fisted action series, to a head-scratching (in a good way), and intense mystery by episode’s end. Again, nothing feels forced. There’s nothing crowbarred in, no sharp, out of nowhere left turns — it’s all pretty logical. The episode has a really natural, unfettered flow. It unfolds like a good mystery, and even if you weren’t highly emotionally invested in Scofield and Burrows, you can still get hooked.
This episode was so intriguing that I’ll be tuning in next week (or at least DVR-ing). The mystery that this episode scratched the surface of has got me curious. I want to know Scofield’s motivations for disappearing, and possibly turning into the ultimate villain. There’s more to this, and I want to know.
And that’s the unmistakable mark of strong writing.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcvjuIskJZU
