TV is the New Reading

‘Prison Break’ off to an incredible fourth season

See, I've known for awhile that the escapist thriller "Prison Break" – FOX's misadventures of jailbirds flown the coop – was returning for a fourth season this fall. But I didn't want to know anything about it before last Monday's two-hour premiere.

I figured that escape artist Michael Scofield and his half-brother Lincoln Burrows would be at the center of a still-larger conspiracy than the one they've been unraveling for the past three seasons involving their father and a dark and twisted coup d'etat supported by a dark and twisted cabal called "The Company," tracing through death row of a prison in Illinois to springing a prisoner from an inmate-run complex in Panama, featuring a lot of the same cast of characters. But I didn't care to know anything else going into it.

So when Scofield's lady-love Dr. Sara Tancredi suddenly appeared after her supposed execution and beheading, that was a surprise. And when Burrows, after so much time on the run, was apprehended by uniformed officers in Panama, that seemed ... unlikely.

And when evil villain Gretchen had to admit her failure to execute the task she was given in controlling Whistler, the guy they sprang from prison in Panama, she was herself marked for execution.

And when ne'er-do-well gadabout T-Bag added cannibalism to his long list of atrocities while making his way back to America with nothing in his possession but half a field bird guide The Company needs for some such or another because it has some sort of code in it, that was just as surprising as it was creepy.

Along with nearly everyone in this wacky cast of characters being called together by a not especially covert-ops looking blond guy – a guy who seems distracted and not nearly so in-charge as he's trying to pretend – for reasons that I'm becoming quite certain will never be made clear ...

... well, that was one heck of a set of surprises.

See, according to the blond guy, The Company is even naughtier than anyone had ever imagined, and the way to bring it down once and for all is to access a magical Palm Pilot on which the secrets of, apparently, the very universe itself are being kept. Whistler – the guy Scofield sprang from prison in Panama – got the key, copied it, and promptly lost both copies, setting off a brand new chase with a brand new set of bad guys and a brand new set of objectives, shaky alliances and odd situations.

And oh yeah – Gretchen is still alive as well.

It's not remotely believeable. But it is pretty exciting. So ... I think I'll probably keep watching it.

"Prison Break" airs at 8 p.m. Mondays on FOX.

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