I am – Hercules!!

We have now a rave review of “Prison Break.” Some may be HUGELY suspicious of it for at least two reasons.

a) It was written by Paul Schuering, whose claim to fame is the presumably quite poor Vin Diesel actioner “A Man Apart.” I’m among the billions who have not seen “A Man Apart,” but those heading over to rottentomaatoes.com will discover that “A Man Apart” received favorable reviews from only 10 percent of the nation’s critics. Only seven percent of the site’s “cream of the crop” reviewers gave it positive notices.

b) “Prison Break” was directed by Brett Ratner. Let’s now begin counting now all the super-shitty movies directed by Brett Ratner. “Money Talks” (1997), “Rush Hour” (1998), “The Family Man” (2000), “Rush Hour 2” (2001), “Red Dragon” (2002) and “After the Sunset” (2004). Now. Let’s list all the decent-to-excellent movies directed by Brett Ratner. Oh. I’m told there are no good, or even decent, movies directed by Brett Ratner. Ever. Who has had eight years to direct at least one.

I pray to my most mighty Lord Baby Jesus on His throne high in Heaven that Ratner is not given the reigns of “X=Men 3.” This third “X-Men” movie is written by Simon Kinberg (“XxX: State of the Union”) and Zak Penn (“Elektra”). “X3.” Needs. A. Better. Director. Or we may never get an “X4.”

But I digress. Here’s “Scream 27” with a five-star review of “Prison Break.”

What's it called? Pilot

Who's it by? Paul Scheuring

Who’s directing it? Brett Ratner

What is it about? An engineer concocts an elaborate plan to free his brother from death row.

Preconceived thoughts? Having read Herc’s list of commissioned shows this coming September, the premise of this show intrigued me. Seeing as one it is on Fox, and secondly that there were rumours it would be in a similar vein to 24, thirteen episodes of some guy trying to break out of a prison. Would there be a clock telling us what hour or day it is. Will there be an ugh plop at the end of each episode? Could this be the new Jack Bauer Power Hour?

The verdict? I will try to make this as spoiler free as possible. Right off the bat this is the best pilot I have every seen, this is right up there and exceeds Lost and Alias as my fave pilot of all time. There is some top notch acting, and dare I say this is a well directed pilot from Ranter; it gives me some light at the end of the tunnel if he is given the X-Men gig.

So we start off with Michael Scofield, robbing a bank, this is his way of getting into prison. As Michael gets five years, with the option of parole in two and a half for good behaviour. We have a few scenes ripped right out of shawshank redemption, first shower, and seeing the harsh reality of being banged up, and being the new kid on the block aka a fish.

As the episode unravels we learn that Michael’s brother LJ is on death row in the same prison for killing the vice presidents brother, and is getting the electric chair in three months time. We then get to meet secondary characters of prison life, the warden, the go to guy for drugs, the prison big fish and lastly the prison Dr. You can see that all of these people will have resources or that can get them for Michael needs to help him get him and hiss brother out of prison. But can he trust his new found friends?

We also get to meet LJ’s two ex-girlfriends and his son, a priest who wants to help him get off death row, and the FBI agents who want to make sure that he gets the midnight lights out special. In a series of flashbacks we learn that LJ feels he has been framed for this murder but some members of the mob, who are also looking for the whereabouts of a certain inmate, for some playback. So just like in 24 we have four or five storylines going on at once, so we can try and get the bigger picture of how this break out could happen.

At the end we are given the first major clue of how Michael thinks he has the upper hand on how he expects to break out. I would put it in invisotext, but that will lessen the ending like if you knew that Bruce Willis was dead in the sixth sense, it’s that big an ending.

After seeing this I can see why there is already a bidding war going on between all five major UK channels for this show. But if I was the BBC I would make sure that I pulled all the stops to get this, it would be an excellent addition to the other US shows that you picked up two weeks ago.

As for US ratings, I would say personally that this could be the highest rated new show this fall, but it is up against Monday night football, so it might have to stay behind those prison gates waiting to be set free.

"Scream27's" rating for Prison Break 1.1?
*****

If anybody out there has a copy of the "Prison Break" pilot or its teleplay, kindly forward it my way at once. TV is a writer's medium. The movies? Not so much. Scheuring's "Man Apart" script might have been great. "A Man Apart" might have been ruined by director F. Gary Gray ("Friday," "The Italian Job," "Be Cool"). But I think I need to see "Prison Break" for myself.

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Material the “24” creators have created in the past:
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Herc says “24” fans (or anyone, really) are likely to enjoy:
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