Season one of Prison Break is great television. Here's the set-up. Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) is framed and wrongfully convicted for assassinating the Vice President's brother. Lincoln's brother Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller), who just happens to have designed Illinois' Fox River Penitentiary where Lincoln is on death row, hatches an elaborate escape plan. Michael's plan involves getting himself incarcerated in Fox River and smuggling the prison's blueprints by having them hidden in tattoos that cover his entire torso. Once inside, Michael must form alliances with a rogue's gallery of felons with their own sometimes unsavory motives. Meanwhile, on the outside, Lincoln's lawyer and one-time girlfriend Veronica Donovan (Robin Tunney), pursued by Secret Service agents, attempts to unravel the conspiracy that sent her man to the slammer.

Prison Break is anchored by tight, suspenseful writing clearly relished by the largely little-known cast. Standouts include Robert Knepper as the murderer/pedophile T-Bag, who somehow makes such a despicable character likeable. Stacey Keach of Mike Hammer fame plays the warden-with-a-heart-of-gold, who clashes with Captain Brad Bellick (Wade Williams) over whether to rehabilitate the inmates or makes their lives more miserable. Peter Stormare, famous for his skills with a wood chipper in Fargo, turns in a deliciously menacing performance as mob boss John Abruzzi, while Amaury Nolasco's winsome Fernando Sucre shares a cell and secrets with Miller's Scofield. Watching the show one gets a sense that this is the opening salvo of Wentworth Miller's career, which will doubtless include roles as assassins, detectives, super heroes, and perhaps the champion of staring contests. Midway through the season it's explained that Scofield is a genius with an heightened sensitivity to other peoples' suffering, which sums up what makes the show so great--the mind-bendingly intricate plot is a framework for moments when people make others suffer and cope with the burden of their own suffering.

The six-disc set includes 22 addictive episodes, audio commentary on selected episodes, three featurettes, and alternate and deleted scenes. As with most TV shows on DVD, the "previously on Prison Break" intros can get tiresome, but that's what the fast forward button is for. --Ryan Boudinot

Prison Break

I am a japanese university student and I watched the American
drama "Prison Break".

This episode shows maincharacter inside of an American prison. He went to help the elder brother who did not do anything. To enter the same prison, the crime is done.

I thought the show was very excellent because he went to help brother who is to break prison. Tatoo was put in oneself. That tatto is prison's every detail.

I would recommend this show excellent because wonderfull brother love story.

Unbelievably prefabbed drama...but it's fun

Prison Break is guilty pleasure TV wrapped in a an intelligent and creative package. But within the first twenty minutes when we find that Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) purposely robs a bank (firing his weapon inside the building to guarantee sentencing at a State Penitentiary) and then conveniently getting incarcerated at the same prison his brother is in, we can pretty much tell this show is going to be full of improbabe scenarios that will become reality.

In getting sent to the prison of his choice, Michael finds out quickly where his brother is and starts laying his groundwork from day one. He makes contacts with those who can help him move once they are on the other side of the wall. Time is short and Michael's brother, Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) is on death row soon to be executed for the murder of the Vice presidents brother. Although Lincoln was petty criminal at times, Michael doesn't believe his brother murdered anyone and has exhausted his resources and considerable intelligence to find a way out of the prison. He even goes so far as to have the plans tattooed on his body (sounds ridiculous, although once you see it, you understand that it's the schematics hidden in a complex design).

Lincoln is being framed and there are people outside the prison trying to exonerate him, including his ex-girlfriend. People are also dying outside the prison as well as the death of the Vice Presidents brother is attached to a conspiracy that goes very high up. As people start looking into the details, they start dropping one by one.

This show if FULL and I do mean `FULL' of manufactured drama. About 12 episodes into the series you'll be throwing your popcorn at the TV screaming, `Oh C'mon! That's ridiculous!' This action will be followed by putting in the next DVD to find out what happens next in this taut drama. By the time you stop buying the plot as anywhere NEAR realistic or relatable, you're caught up in the digital crack-pipe of addition that moves this series along. Another thing that seems out of place in this show is the level of character complexity. This cast of misfits, and I'm talking about the people who are supposed to be normal as well, are endearing and pretty three-dimentional. You have to be in order to like a mobster and a theif. The jury is still out on liking the child killer, but he's a great character.

Prison Break Season 1

Great series except the last two episodes which fall short of expectations.
Definitely worth a watch,