TV Week: Prison Break, Lost in Austen and Big Brother 9
By Dan Owen
PRISON BREAK (SKY1, TUE 9PM) "In 2004 Lincoln Burrows was sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit. He promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade (with the help of his genius brother Michael), to the Los Angeles underground…"
Yes, there's a definite A-Team vibe to Prison Break -- now, amazingly, in its fourth season. The show revamps itself annually, but this latest metamorphosis is the trickiest to accept. Season 1 was a high-concept prison thriller -- where an architect with the penitentiary's schematics inked on his body had to free his wrongly-imprisoned brother.
Season 2 focused on the manhunt for the resulting escapees. Season 3 flipped the fraternal roles and set the action in a lawless, foreign jail. Season 4? Well, the characters are out for revenge against "The Company" (the secret government cabal responsible for everything.)
Now recruited by Homeland Security, Michael and his dysfunctional team must steal "Scylla" (data-cards containing a list of the Company's agents and operations.) Preposterously reunited with his "dead" girlfriend Dr Sara Tancredi (beheaded, Seven-style last year -- or so we thought), Michael leads the pack on behalf of the US government, to avoid a 15 year jail sentence. Mind you, if he fails and gets thrown in the slammer, season 5 will be much easier to write…
This show has been infectious fun for years now. It lost its mojo after season 1, but its extraordinary ability to entertain and embrace its silly nature has pulled it through. Only, maybe it's gone too far now? With a redundant title and the gang all on the same side, only the hope for a big finale is keeping my attention. Still, at least it's still knowingly dumb: episode 2 featured a one-handed child molester eating a fat Mexican on a camp fire in the desert. You never got that with B.A Baracus!
LOST IN AUSTEN (ITV1, WED 9PM) A middle-class slice of whimsy that does for costume drama what Life On Mars did for '70s cop shows. Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper) is a "Pride & Prejudice" obsessed modern girl, dreaming of bonnets and breeches. Dream becomes reality when Jane Austen's heroine Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arterton) appears in her bathroom, and Amanda finds herself on an "exchange trip" to Austen-land. Cue an enjoyable fish-out-of-water scenario, as her 21st-century feistiness clashes with 19th-century reservation. It's a fun lark for Austen aficionados; a light-hearted "time-travel" adventure for everyone else. But I can't help thinking it would be more entertaining to see the flipside: Elizabeth in modern London, falling into taxi's at four in the morning after a pub crawl. What would Mr. Darcy say?!
BIG BROTHER 9: LIVE FINAL (CHANNEL 4, FRI 8 & 10PM) Who won? You decided! Sad end? Welcome relief? I guess it all depends on your tolerance for TV people-watching. BB9's been a three-month confection of arguing, dancing, laughing, farting, belching, sprout-eating, cake-making and bitching -- melted into 60-minute daily chunks. Surprisingly, good-natured Welsh girl Rachel won – narrowly edging out blind Mikey in the vote. A victory for cloying niceness, but is Rachel a deserving winner? I mean, can you remember one "classic moment" from her time in the house? Worryingly for Channel 4, only 4.7 million tuned in -- the lowest ratings for a BB finale ever. Still, those fireworks almost shamed Beijing's...
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Dan Owen is a self confessed TV "obsessive" and passionate film buff. Check out his blog at danowen.blogspot.com
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