PRISON BREAK (TV SERIES) - Blu-ray review

Joliet Prison, famous for housing such fictional characters as The Blues Brothers and such real-life murderers as John Wayne Gacy, is the site of this popular Fox show, which doesn't exactly have the panache of "24." But it's just as addictive if you give it a chance, and that's because the writers and directors of "Prison Break" offer a textbook study in how to plot a good old-fashioned melodrama with more cliffhangers than a '30s serial.

Just about every scene has some surprise, whether it's a new revelation or an unexpected stumbling block. Then again, at Joliet Prison there are more gangs inside the walls than there are outside of it in nearby Chicago. There are black gangs, white gangs, Hispanics, mobsters, and even guards. Forget the clichéd caution about bending over. You can't even walk through this place without offending someone or stepping on someone else's "turf."

Like "24," and all those HBO dramatic series that paved the way, "Prison Break" employs cinematography and big-budget production values that we normally see on the big screen. It's what makes the rawness and grittiness of the show all the more in-your-face. Though it's network TV, there's an awful lot of graphic violence. There may not be the steady stream of expletives that we get from Tony Soprano's gang, or the sexual content that's become a part of shows like "Desperate Housewives," this show still has a rough edge to it.

Wentworth Miller stars as Michael Scofield, a Chicago-based structural engineer who robs a bank just so he can get tossed into the same maximum-security prison as his brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell). It turns out that both of these guys are "good" guys. Lincoln was framed for the murder of the Vice President's brother, and it's Michael's plan to use blueprints that his firm designed in order to help him break his brother out of Joliet before his execution date. So like "24," there's a sense of urgency here that pervades every episode. Assisting Michael on the outside is their childhood friend and Lincoln's attorney and former girlfriend (Robin Tunney), and in prison Michael soon finds the doctor (Sarah Wayne Callies) to be sympathetic.

The high-concept premise, as fans of the show know, is that Michael has had the blueprints tattooed all over his upper body and hidden in elaborate designs. As he plots his escape, it seems that more and more convicts end up climbing onboard, complicating matters. And the conspiracy that put Lincoln in prison starts to widen as well. Even family members on the outside find that their lives are becoming impossibly tough. A lot is at stake here, and so people will do anything to ensure that they're protected . . . or personally taken care of. People get killed, roughed up, framed, and pushed into hiding.

As you'd expect with a high-concept primetime melodrama, the characters have plenty of recognizable clichés, but a few of the cast members stand out. Miller is a charismatic lead, while Peter Stormare is superb as a prison mob stooge and Robert Knepper brings a creepy realism to the series chief villain, a murderous pedophile. With such a decent cast, even Stacy Keach rises above his usual hammy performances in order to play the warden with believability.

The first 21 episodes lead up to an escape attempt that finally occurs in the season finale, with the spotlight along the way falling mostly on Miller and his circle as they try to hatch his elaborate scheme, but also on conspirators and family members. It's too bad, though, that the decision was made to stretch the series from the 13 episodes originally planned, because the narrative starts to feel drawn out in spots. It's also too bad that brand placement makes it so that when there's breaking news on this show, only Fox News is on the scene, which pulls you out of the illusion of reality. Curiously, while Fox News has been accused of being biased toward Republicans and the current administration, the real bad guys in Prison Break bear a striking resemblance to Bush minions and cronies. There's even a topical reference to prisoner abuses in Iraq that have consequences not for the perpetrators, but for the whistleblower. So much for bias. Did the Fox censors not catch this?

I won't say any more, because this series depends on surprise. Series fans will welcome all 960 uninterrupted minutes, and the show looks great in Blu-ray

Video:
As in, wow. Those prison blue uniforms just pop out at you in HD, and the amount of detail on those hardened faces really adds to the chilling nature of the show. And it wasn't even transferred at the highest bit-rate. The episodes were transferred to six single-sided 50GB discs using AVC technology at 18mbps. The series is presented in 1.78:1, and the colors are nicely saturated, the black levels impressive, and the level of detail such that you can't imagine watching it in standard def ever again. Some scenes have that pristine plasticine look that some of the eye-popping HD transfers offer, while others are a little softer, depending on the lighting. But it's a great-looking disc.

Audio:
The audio is also terrific, with an English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio as the main soundtrack and French and Japanese Dolby 2.0 Surround options, with subtitles in English (CC), Spanish, French, and Japanese. Booming bass, nice distribution across the speakers, and a clear and bright treble make this a joy to listen to as well as watch.

Extras:
Commentary tracks are available for the "Pilot," "Cute Poison," "Riots, Drills and the Devil, Parts 1&2," "Odd Man Out," and "Brother's Keeper." Purcell, Callies, Knepper, Amaury Nolasco, are the actors who participate, along with the directors and writers. Collectively, they're pretty average as commentaries go, but fans of the series will enjoy hearing the actors' "takes" on various plot twists and scenes. The central making-of-feature is average to slightly above average. Better is a featurette on Joliet Correctional Center, "If These Walls Could Speak," which tells you that huge portions of the film were actually made inside Gacy's cell, which creeped out more than a few of the cast members. And it turns out the premise isn't as outlandish as it seems. In 1927, an ex-con posed as a priest in order to get into Joliet so he could spring his partner. He failed.

Bottom Line:
What "Prison Break" has going for it is a strong lead actor and more twists than a 50-foot string of licorice, which Erik Martinez also noted in his review. The characters may be recognizably "stock," and there really should be a few more strong females onboard for broader appeal, but because of all those plot twists, "Prison Break" is an engaging series. Plus, it looks great on Blu-ray