Gimme a Break

Remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop. For the TV show Prison Break, though, it's hard to tell just when that was. There was the series finale that aired just a few months ago. Or you could reckon by when the show seriously dipped in quality (your opinion may vary, but I'd say it was after season two).

But for the creative team responsible for the show, there was one last chapter to be told, the direct-to-DVD release, The Final Break. Shot as two more episodes and presented as a whole "movie," this is 90 more minutes in the lives of Michael Scofield, Lincoln Burrows, and company. I wasn't really sure I wanted to watch this, given how bad the quality of the show slid in those last half dozen episodes or so. But neither could I commit to avoiding it. Having come this far, I just had to know, you know?

Well, The Final Break is neither fantastic, nor terrible. It does require more acceptance and suspension of disbelief than just about any tale the Prison Break writers have told -- and any fan of the show will know that's saying a lot. Skip over the next two paragraphs if you don't want any SPOILERS about the plot of this story.

It's a few weeks after the exoneration of our heroes. (And long before the "epilogue" presented in the series finale.) Sara Tancredi is arrested in Miami for the murder of Christina, Michael's mom, in the season finale. "Buy #1": It seems there was a security camera in the abandoned building where it happened, and Sara was caught on tape pulling the trigger. So poor Sara is thrown into prison. Yes, prison and not jail. "Buy #2": Due to overcrowding in Florida jails, the prison is taking the overflow from jail, so while Sara is awaiting trial, she's just tossed into the general population with convicted murderers, in a female version of Fox River.

"Buy #3": This women-only prison is just on the other side of a complex where a mens' prison is, and it happens this is the prison where General Kranz and T-Bag are being held following their arrest in the finale. Kranz gets word that Sara's in prsion, and decides that he'll feel better accepting his own fate as long as he can just get some revenge and have Sara killed in prison. Fortunately, he has someone to reach out to... "Buy #4": Gretchen, after her capture near the end of season four, is incarcerated in the prison with Sara. So Michael must figure out a way to break Sara out before she's killed.

If you can somehow swallow all that set-up, this double-length episode does manage to be entertaining at times. There are moments where it touches back on some of the things that made season one so great -- trying to craft an elaborate plan, struggling to keep it a secret from prying eyes, trying to deal with unexpected wrinkles, fighting to survive in an impossible situation, and so on.

Well, it touches on them, at least. The trouble is, we're used to material like this having most or all of a season to breathe on this show, so the compression here into what would amount to just two episodes doesn't always work. Due to the constaints of time, the plans can't get that elaborate, the prying eyes can't pry too closely, there can't be that many wrinkles, and the situations can't become too impossible. I mean, not that I'm really asking for another season of Prison Break... no, no, no, not at this point. I'm only saying that the writers are used to another medium besides the "film-like" format they're using here, and it shows.

But there are some elements of The Final Break that give better closure to the actual finale. A few gaps are painted in and a few characters given better resolution. But at the same time, this is by no means a "can't miss" experience. If you washed your hands of Prison Break after that final season (or even before it), I can't really tell you that there's enough here to bring you back.

Yet if you, like me, "just gotta know?" Well, this isn't terrible. Just make sure your "just go with us on this one" meter is set to "high." (Or "off?" I'm not sure which way that meter works.)