The two-hour Prison Break finale is just right there--this Friday already?--and there's still a lot of questions raised, especially with the episode that aired last week. Lincoln's shot, Sara's in captivity, and Michael's got to choose between the two. And we all know the finale won't give happy endings to at least two people.
So, what exactly? I fear I don't have answers, but there are some clues as to what might happen. Which means this--the next paragraphs contain spoilers. Consider that a warning.
Okay. Surely you've heard about some details that SpoilerTV leaked out--that Michael will die. Apparently, the flash-forward last scene in the finale will see Linc, Sucre, Mahone, Sara and her kid visiting Michael's grave. Apparently, the events surrounding the death will be expanded in the extra two episodes that will be released on DVD. Apparently, he decided to sacrificehimself to save Sara, because he figured he'll die anyway, with him having a tumor and all.The only thing I can definitely vouch for is that there will be more than one death in the finale. E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos leaked that there'll be two male deaths, and two females will be taken hostage. She also says a female character will bite the dust. (Speculation alert: Christina?) Add to that the character who'll take a bullet to the chest (Linc?), the character who returns to Fox River, and the character who ends up in an electric chair, and we have more questions all of a sudden.
Perhaps the big question, especially for MiSa fans, is this: are they going to have a happy ending? I thought they would, but suddenly everything's up in the air. "We literally cried tears of joy at the present-day ending of Prison Break," Dos Santos spilled in her column. "The future ending of Prison Break, on the other hand, brought a different kind of tears. There's quite some time between the present and future endings, so technically, Michael and Sara do have a happy ending."
And they say that time gap is roughly four years. Hrmmm. If she's referring to a different Michael--will the kid really be called Michael?--then you can imply what I'm thinking here. Ahh, the heck, let's just watch it this Friday.
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Viewers may feel cheated by " Prison Break" finale on Friday
It always seemed like the worst thing that could happen with a television series was for it to end without a proper finale.
There may be something worse.
The two-hour series finale of "Prison Break," to air at 8 p.m. Friday, wraps up events that have unfolded during the show's four-year run on Fox. But the ending is grossly unsatisfying.
"Prison Break's" first season was masterful. It featured a complicated story line about genius brother Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) getting himself tossed in jail to help his brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell). Each week built tension.
That first season of "Prison Break" was television at its finest.
Then the brothers escaped and the quality began to fade until eventually the series ended up in a muddled mess of backstabbing in this fourth and final season.
While this past year has been a chore to watch because of the illogical twists and turns, the promise of a proper finale was appealing.
Fox has asked that no specific details of the two-hour finale be revealed. Fine. It would be unfair to take away the fun that comes with each revelation.
It is safe to say that the battle between the brothers and their psychotic mother (Kathleen Quinlan) is wrapped up. More mercifully, the silly battle over the device known as Scylla comes to an end.
And the fate of all of the supporting cast is revealed. There are even a few surprises. You'll just have to watch to find out the details.
The fact there is a final chapter to "Prison Break" is great. It is the epilogue to that ending that is so infuriating.
Television viewers are asked to invest in characters. We grow to like them. That relationship is important for a show to keep going past a few episodes. This finale makes me wish I had stopped watching "Prison Break" after the first season.
What happens is hard to explain without giving away key plot points. All I can say is it is a slap in the face. It's criminal when a series that started so strong leaves viewers with such an unappealing ending.
There may be something worse.
The two-hour series finale of "Prison Break," to air at 8 p.m. Friday, wraps up events that have unfolded during the show's four-year run on Fox. But the ending is grossly unsatisfying.
"Prison Break's" first season was masterful. It featured a complicated story line about genius brother Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) getting himself tossed in jail to help his brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell). Each week built tension.
That first season of "Prison Break" was television at its finest.
Then the brothers escaped and the quality began to fade until eventually the series ended up in a muddled mess of backstabbing in this fourth and final season.
While this past year has been a chore to watch because of the illogical twists and turns, the promise of a proper finale was appealing.
Fox has asked that no specific details of the two-hour finale be revealed. Fine. It would be unfair to take away the fun that comes with each revelation.
It is safe to say that the battle between the brothers and their psychotic mother (Kathleen Quinlan) is wrapped up. More mercifully, the silly battle over the device known as Scylla comes to an end.
And the fate of all of the supporting cast is revealed. There are even a few surprises. You'll just have to watch to find out the details.
The fact there is a final chapter to "Prison Break" is great. It is the epilogue to that ending that is so infuriating.
Television viewers are asked to invest in characters. We grow to like them. That relationship is important for a show to keep going past a few episodes. This finale makes me wish I had stopped watching "Prison Break" after the first season.
What happens is hard to explain without giving away key plot points. All I can say is it is a slap in the face. It's criminal when a series that started so strong leaves viewers with such an unappealing ending.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Prison Break The Best Michael and Sara Moments
Prison Break is coming to an end and there are only three episodes left. We put together a list of the top thirty Michael (Wentworth Miller) and Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies) moments over the past four seasons. Evidently, some people think that our list is out of order. So, we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to voice their own opinion. Flip through the slideshow below and then at the end, rearrange the slides so that they are to your liking. In a couple weeks, we'll re-release the list with the consensus order as well as any moments you think we forgot and any moments that happen in the next few episodes.
For instance, the moment where Sara tells Michael that she's pregnant could be a winner and might have to be added to the top 5. I guess that'll depend on how he reacts. Also, some people loved our descriptions of the moments but some thought we left some crucial details out. Comment below the slideshow or in this article to give us your own take on MiSa.Cissykabazi2 has already written: "A flower that will never die. That was the love Michael had for Sara despite everything he never gave." Efiloveswent thinks that Michael and Sara didn't sleep together the night they reunited. What do you think? From our Prison Break "VS" recap, some fans expressed some confusion about when Sara could have gotten pregnant.
We know you all love Michael and Sara, so let us hear it. What are you favorite moments? What's your ideal order?
For instance, the moment where Sara tells Michael that she's pregnant could be a winner and might have to be added to the top 5. I guess that'll depend on how he reacts. Also, some people loved our descriptions of the moments but some thought we left some crucial details out. Comment below the slideshow or in this article to give us your own take on MiSa.Cissykabazi2 has already written: "A flower that will never die. That was the love Michael had for Sara despite everything he never gave." Efiloveswent thinks that Michael and Sara didn't sleep together the night they reunited. What do you think? From our Prison Break "VS" recap, some fans expressed some confusion about when Sara could have gotten pregnant.
We know you all love Michael and Sara, so let us hear it. What are you favorite moments? What's your ideal order?
Prison Break S.O.B. Review
With the series winding down, the race for Scylla seems to be kicking into high gear, with all of the major characters in Miami wanting the same thing. The inevitable confrontation between Scofield and his mother leads to a surprising revelation and Lincoln is involved in a very long wild goose chase. While the rest of the episode suffered from a lack of real progressive tension, Michael's kidnapping of Christina Scofield was the dramatic highlight of this episode. It's still hard to figure out her real intentions - it still somehow doesn't seem right that Scofield's mother would only want Scylla for her own financial gain, but I guess this is something that the writers want to hold on to until the very end. The scenes between Michael and Christina were quite powerful - especially after she reveals to him that Lincoln isn't really his brother. Michael's outburst was completely understandable, and the line about Lincoln being more of a brother than she was a mother was delivered with just the right amount of anger and emotion.
Christina, even more so than Mahone was in the second season, comes across as the first person who's Scofield's intellectual equal. She shares Michael's ability to manipulate and the way she handles Sara by knowing exactly what buttons to press is something we haven't seen Michael use in a long time. Setting up Lincoln to take the fall at the end was somewhat predictable, but it was still nice to see Christina manage to pull it even while she was being interrogated by her son. It's pretty clear that she really resents Lincoln and thinks that he's the reason why Michael never lived up to his potential. You can't really argue against that, but it's also pretty clear that Lincoln was there for him while she never was. Michael running to the conference to try and save his brother nicely sets up the next episode, and should do away with this pointless conflict between the two. They both don't really want Scylla to fall back in the hands of the Company, so the basis for their confrontation felt a little far fetched from the start.
T-Bag's backstabbing of his associates rewards him with a job with the General, and the assignment to kill Lincoln should hopefully set up a final confrontation between him and the brothers. With so few episodes remaining, it would be nice to see some of these loose threads and rivalries come to a close shortly.
The rest of the episode felt like a pointless wild goose chase. Lincoln and friends jumping from location to location wasn't particularly entertaining, and some of the characters seem to be becoming increasingly irrelevant. Don Self, for instance, has no business being there anymore. The character's played out, and ever since that mid-season swerve, things have gown downhill for the former Federal agent. I'd much rather see Sucre at Lincoln's side at this point. Mahone's also getting the short end of the stick here as well. He's a fantastic character, and we've always been fans of Willliam Fichtner's work, but there's just not much meat for the character to chew on lately.
With the series winding down it's definitely worth watching to see how things will end for all of these memorable characters, but the plausibility of all that's happening and the muddled storyline and shifting allegiances does make the show harder to recommend for those who haven't been watching regularly. For fans of the series, Michael's confrontation with his mother should be reason enough to watch. http://www.dvdorderonline.com/articles/news-816-Prison-Break-SOB-Review.html
Christina, even more so than Mahone was in the second season, comes across as the first person who's Scofield's intellectual equal. She shares Michael's ability to manipulate and the way she handles Sara by knowing exactly what buttons to press is something we haven't seen Michael use in a long time. Setting up Lincoln to take the fall at the end was somewhat predictable, but it was still nice to see Christina manage to pull it even while she was being interrogated by her son. It's pretty clear that she really resents Lincoln and thinks that he's the reason why Michael never lived up to his potential. You can't really argue against that, but it's also pretty clear that Lincoln was there for him while she never was. Michael running to the conference to try and save his brother nicely sets up the next episode, and should do away with this pointless conflict between the two. They both don't really want Scylla to fall back in the hands of the Company, so the basis for their confrontation felt a little far fetched from the start.
T-Bag's backstabbing of his associates rewards him with a job with the General, and the assignment to kill Lincoln should hopefully set up a final confrontation between him and the brothers. With so few episodes remaining, it would be nice to see some of these loose threads and rivalries come to a close shortly.
The rest of the episode felt like a pointless wild goose chase. Lincoln and friends jumping from location to location wasn't particularly entertaining, and some of the characters seem to be becoming increasingly irrelevant. Don Self, for instance, has no business being there anymore. The character's played out, and ever since that mid-season swerve, things have gown downhill for the former Federal agent. I'd much rather see Sucre at Lincoln's side at this point. Mahone's also getting the short end of the stick here as well. He's a fantastic character, and we've always been fans of Willliam Fichtner's work, but there's just not much meat for the character to chew on lately.
With the series winding down it's definitely worth watching to see how things will end for all of these memorable characters, but the plausibility of all that's happening and the muddled storyline and shifting allegiances does make the show harder to recommend for those who haven't been watching regularly. For fans of the series, Michael's confrontation with his mother should be reason enough to watch. http://www.dvdorderonline.com/articles/news-816-Prison-Break-SOB-Review.html
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Prison Break ends its four-year run next month, and executive producer Matt Olmstead has absolutely zero regrets. Well, maybe just one. That's an atypical attitude from a producer of a cancelled show with a rabid fan base, but Olmstead isn't sweating it.
"At the wrap party, there was a real sense of accomplishment," Olmstead said on a conference call this morning. "There was no feeling of 'we got cut short' or 'we could have gone more years.' It feels as though the story got [told in its entirety]."
Most of that feeling comes from the way Olmstead and his team set up the final season, which returns this Friday for its final episodes. Because the producers "kind of knew all along" that this would be the final season of Prison Break, they were able to set up storylines from the very beginning of the cycle. In fact, Olmstead sees the early signs of the show's end (cancellation doesn't seem like the right word here) as a "benefit," because he was able to get the big ending he wanted.
The show's fans probably won't see it that way, but Olmstead feels that the show ended at the right time, partly because he doesn't know where it could have gone.
"The ideas that were tossed around in terms of what could be season five were pretty thin," he explains. "Even if it went that way, it would've limped out. … [No ideas for season five] really took hold in terms of inspiring anybody."
Olmstead promises some shocking moments and plenty of loose ends tied up in the upcoming episodes. There will be several familiar faces, but Olmstead chooses to highlight one, who he says will come into the mix "when the wheels are coming off for everybody, and [he/she] is there to either save the day, or hijack the entire thing for his/her own benefit."
Even the Michael and Sarah storyline isn't immune to some major bait-and-switching. "For a while there, it felt like they were kind of Bonnie & Clyde, and it worked for one episode," he says of the two. But once they were together, the producers had to decide what to do with them. "What seems like two people joined at the hip who want the same thing" will be thrown for a loop in the finale.
As for future Prison Break possibilities, Olmstead isn't holding his breath. The previously announced spinoff featuring a female prison isn't looking good, because they couldn't get the actress they wanted, the writers strike derailed the momentum on the project, and another show with a strong female lead (Terminator) wasn't doing well in the ratings. "It's on the ground, legs twitching, but there's still a heartbeat perhaps," Olmstead says of the spinoff's chances.
But there will be one last chapter in the Prison Break saga before it goes completely dark. The standalone feature Prison Break--The Final Break was originally planned as part of this season's storyline, but as production went on, it got bumped back and back in the process until there was no room for it. But because Olmstead liked the idea so much, he pitched it to Fox, who loved it.
The series finale features a jump forward in time as its last act, and The Final Break will be set before that jump but after the rest of the events of the finale. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, The Final Break will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 21.
Prison Break has had its share of questionable moments, but ask Olmstead the one Prison Break moment he maybe regrets and could have done without, and he doesn't hesitate--Michael getting all his tattoos removed overnight. Actor Wentworth Miller's skin was getting irritated by the tattoo application, and they couldn't simply shoot the rest of Prison Break with the actor in a long-sleeve shirt. So instead they sent him to a magical top-secret tattoo removal place.
"It was a bit of a wank," Olmstead says.
Prison Break returns this Friday with an all-new episode at 9 p.m. on Fox, and a replay of the mid-season finale at 8 p.m.
"At the wrap party, there was a real sense of accomplishment," Olmstead said on a conference call this morning. "There was no feeling of 'we got cut short' or 'we could have gone more years.' It feels as though the story got [told in its entirety]."
Most of that feeling comes from the way Olmstead and his team set up the final season, which returns this Friday for its final episodes. Because the producers "kind of knew all along" that this would be the final season of Prison Break, they were able to set up storylines from the very beginning of the cycle. In fact, Olmstead sees the early signs of the show's end (cancellation doesn't seem like the right word here) as a "benefit," because he was able to get the big ending he wanted.
The show's fans probably won't see it that way, but Olmstead feels that the show ended at the right time, partly because he doesn't know where it could have gone.
"The ideas that were tossed around in terms of what could be season five were pretty thin," he explains. "Even if it went that way, it would've limped out. … [No ideas for season five] really took hold in terms of inspiring anybody."
Olmstead promises some shocking moments and plenty of loose ends tied up in the upcoming episodes. There will be several familiar faces, but Olmstead chooses to highlight one, who he says will come into the mix "when the wheels are coming off for everybody, and [he/she] is there to either save the day, or hijack the entire thing for his/her own benefit."
Even the Michael and Sarah storyline isn't immune to some major bait-and-switching. "For a while there, it felt like they were kind of Bonnie & Clyde, and it worked for one episode," he says of the two. But once they were together, the producers had to decide what to do with them. "What seems like two people joined at the hip who want the same thing" will be thrown for a loop in the finale.
As for future Prison Break possibilities, Olmstead isn't holding his breath. The previously announced spinoff featuring a female prison isn't looking good, because they couldn't get the actress they wanted, the writers strike derailed the momentum on the project, and another show with a strong female lead (Terminator) wasn't doing well in the ratings. "It's on the ground, legs twitching, but there's still a heartbeat perhaps," Olmstead says of the spinoff's chances.
But there will be one last chapter in the Prison Break saga before it goes completely dark. The standalone feature Prison Break--The Final Break was originally planned as part of this season's storyline, but as production went on, it got bumped back and back in the process until there was no room for it. But because Olmstead liked the idea so much, he pitched it to Fox, who loved it.
The series finale features a jump forward in time as its last act, and The Final Break will be set before that jump but after the rest of the events of the finale. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, The Final Break will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 21.
Prison Break has had its share of questionable moments, but ask Olmstead the one Prison Break moment he maybe regrets and could have done without, and he doesn't hesitate--Michael getting all his tattoos removed overnight. Actor Wentworth Miller's skin was getting irritated by the tattoo application, and they couldn't simply shoot the rest of Prison Break with the actor in a long-sleeve shirt. So instead they sent him to a magical top-secret tattoo removal place.
"It was a bit of a wank," Olmstead says.
Prison Break returns this Friday with an all-new episode at 9 p.m. on Fox, and a replay of the mid-season finale at 8 p.m.
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