Prison Break

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) Cougar Town. Episode 2. "Into the Great Wide Open" The Closer. Season 5, Episode 8. "Elysian Fields" Cold case. House. Season 6, Episode 3. "The Tyrant" House returns to work. Arrested Development. Season 3, Episode 7. "Prison Break-In" Coming off a classic (and hilarious) episode, the show doesn't miss a beat. It's a fast-paced, deliberately chaotic installment where every character gets major story beats. There are several references to Prison Break and some (rare) nice scenes between the Bluth parents. Castle. Season 2, Episode 3. "Inventing the Girl" Model. Castle worries me. It flirts with mediocrity every week. And - every week - just as they have me worrying, they rein it in and deliver another good episode.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) Cool. Prison Break: The Final Break. "Free" Michael puts his final plan into action. Prison Break leaves the air with an episode as good as any that it produced. The elements of a great PB episode are in place: Michael is cool, Michael and Alex are a united team with a strong bond/mutual trust and the storytelling cleverly misdirects us: We assume things that are not true and the episode uses that against us. Alex gets lots of great screentime in this one, as do Gretchen and T-Bag. This is a fan-pleasing episode. And a good way to end the story. Highlight? Prison Break (as good as any episode that came before it) Yet Another TV Review Podcast Yet Another TV Review Book Yet Another Film Review Blog Follow Me on Twitter One Year Ago   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 30 Rock. Season 3, Episode 21. "Mama Mia" Liz competes with Jenna, while Jack meets his dad. Dexter. Season 3, Episode 10. "Go Your Own Way" Dexter and Miguel have a battle of wits, as each tries to get the upper hand. That aside, this was a special and wonderful episode of FNL. Prison Break: The Final Break. "The Old Ball and Chain" Sara goes to prison. Wow. If this is what they had planned for Season Five then we were in for a great ride, had it gone ahead. This hour of TV is one of the best that Prison Break has offered. The show finds clever ways to include established characters (like Krantz, T-Bag and Gretchen), introduces several great new characters (Daddy, Wheatley and Simms) and - with the new prison - creates a fascinating new milieu.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 07.00 The Big Bang Theory 07.30 Prison Break 08.30 Prison Break 02.00 Parks And Recreation 02.30 The Famous Five The Big Bang Theory. Season 2, Episode 15. "The Maternal Capacitance" Leonard's mother comes to visit. Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 21. "Rate of Exchange" Michael & Alex try to figure out a way to outwit both Christina and The General. Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 22. "Killing Your Number" The end of the story. The final episode of Prison Break is one of the best. It has action, twists, great characters and acting. Plus, being the last episode, it has the final fate of many regular characters. Some get a happy ending. Some don't. Parks And Recreation. Episode 6. "Rock Show" Andy's band plays.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 09.00 House 11.30 Prison Break 12.30 The Office House. Season 5, Episode 19. "Locked In" We get to see things from a patient's point of view. Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 20. "Cowboys and Indians" Linc and Michael are trapped in the hotel (following the assassination) and must find a way to escape. Superb. One of the very best episodes of the show and - in my mind - a microcosm of/tribute to the entire first season of the show. Linc has been framed for a murder and Michael goes in to get him out and they are trapped together and must break out. That's the first season in a nutshell and they did it here in one episode. And I loved it. The Office. Season 5, Episode 25. "Cafe Disco" Michael turn his old office into... Cafe Disco!   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 02.30 In Plain Sight 07.00 Scrubs 07.30 Dexter 08.30 Friday Night Lights 09.30 Prison Break 10.30 The Office Dexter. Season 3, Episode 9. "About Last Night" Dexter realises that Miguel murdered Ellen Wolf, and - worse - has been playing him like a fool from the very start... Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 18. "Versus" Linc blindly chases Scylla into a diabolical trap, while Michael captures Christine (except it turns out that she planned/allowed for all of this). The Office. Season 5, Episode 24. "Casual Friday" Michael has to fire either Pam or Ryan, while Toby deals with several inappropriate outfits on Casual Friday.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 09.00 Scrubs 09.30 Dexter 10.30 Friday Night Lights 11.30 Prison Break Scrubs. Season 7, Episode 10. "My Dumb Luck" Kelso sits on a bench outside the hospital and thinks back on all the (bad) times inside. Dexter. Season 3, Episode 8. "The Damage a Man Can Do" Dexter guides Miguel through his first kill. But not his second... Friday Night Lights. Season 3, Episode 8. "New York, New York" Tim and Jason hit New York, as Jason tries to make his dream come true. Matt finds that Julie is a great asset in his attempts to get through to Coach Taylor. Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 17. "The Mother Lode" Michael and Linc go head to head, after Alec does some cool stuff.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 06.00 Scrubs 06.30 Dexter 08.00 Friday Night Lights 09.30 Prison Break 10.30 Caprica 12.30 The Office Scrubs. Season 7, Episode 9. "My Princess" Cox tells a fairy tale. Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 17. "The Mother Lode" Michael and Sara cross the country, while Linc meets with his mother. The Office. Season 5, Episode 21. "The Michael Scott Paper Company" This story-arc at the end of season has seen some of the freshest and most enjoyable Office episodes ever made. There is great pleasure in seeing Jim constantly come up badly in front of the new boss (even if the "what is a rundown?" gag is stretching things a lot. How dumb is Jim supposed to be?).   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 06.00 Prison Break 07.00 Worst Week 08.00 Worst Week 08.30 Rising Damp 09.00 The Venture Bros. 01.00 NewsRadio Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 16. "The Sunshine State" A mixed bad, but it's still a lot better than last week's mess. For the second week in a row, all of the Michael scenes were duff. But, pretty much everything else was pretty close to the show's usual high standard. Alex was awesome. Sara was awesome. Gretchen was awesome. NewsRadio. Season 2, Episode 10. "Xmas Story" The first episode I ever saw, and still one of my favourites. The Bill storyline is totally crazy, and very funny. The main storyline makes the whole group gather around Matthew for the duration of the episode, and it makes for a fun episode.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 15. "Going Under" The weakest episode of Season Four. While it is always nice to see guest stars like Muse Watson, Titus Welliver and Denise Crosby all of the stuff that takes place inside Michaels' head is boring old guff and the stuff that takes place outside his head is too far-fetched to be believed. Even for Prison Break. NewsRadio. Season 3, Episode 1. Jimmy runs for "President" as the third season kicks off. Lisa sets out to bring him down (by uncovering his skeletons) while Bill gets the episodes biggest laughs by being smarmy every chance he gets. The Matthew-grows-a-moustache storyline gets many more laughs than you would expect. All told: a winner.   [read the full post]

By RikerDonegal(podcast@mail2tv.com) Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 14. "Just Business" Many episodes of Prison Break are full of twists and turns, particularly in the last few weeks. But few are as upsetting as these ones. Every thing that could go wrong... goes wrong. Our heroes are battered and bruised. Surrounded and captured, in various ways by various foes. I have no idea for how they are going to get out of this... NewsRadio. Season 2, Episode 22. "Injury" Matthew takes centre-stage for this moderately amusing episode. He injures himself goofing off at work. Dave tries to get him to lie that it was an on-the-job injury. While Mr. James (who thinks that it was an on-the-job injury) tries to get him to lie and say that he was goofing off at work.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 11.00 Prison Break 12.00 NewsRadio Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 13. "Deal Or No Deal" This is a great episode. And a perfect example of three things at Prison Break does really, really well. Create bad guys that we love. Gretchen and T-Bag have followed the same route as Bellick and Kellerman. I like them both, particularly Gretchen (now that the show has told us her backstory). All in all this was a flawless hour of TV. And the final seconds were thrilling. Michael is still the smartest one there is. Highlight? Prison Break (twists) Yet Another TV Review Podcast Yet Another TV Review Book Yet Another Film Review Blog One Year Ago   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 05.30 The Sarah Connor Chronicles 06.30 Prison Break 07.30 Slings And Arrows 02.30 The Twilight Zone 03.00 Big Wolf On Campus Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 12. "Selfless" A thrill ride from start to finish. One of the wonderful things about Prison Break has always been it's skillful storytelling. They always manage to keep back crucial details, and mislead you about what you are seeing. You see something and you think you know what it means. You think you know why the information has been given to you. Misdirection. The stuff of good comedy, good magic and great storytelling. Highlight? Prison Break (satisfying) Yet Another TV Review Podcast Yet Another TV Review Book Yet Another Film Review Blog   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 05.30 Prison Break 04.30 NewsRadio As well as the fact that this is one of the most tension-filled hours of Prison Break ever filmed this episode illustrates once again why this series deserves to be listed as one of the best shows of all time. Two weeks ago we were witness to one man's very dark journey as Alex Mahone tortured and executed the man who killed his son. This week we have a tour de force of silent action as the four heroes try to steal their goal. There's nothing even remotely alike about these two episodes. Proving that PB can tell any sort of story that it wants to. This, more than anything, separates PB from similar shows like Mission Impossible or 24.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 05.30 Prison Break Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 10. "The Legend" is one of the strongest episodes that the show has ever delivered. All of the best moments in this episode are connected to Brad Bellick (the character who died last week) as we watch each of the regulars mourn his passing in one way or another. The Michael-is-sick storyline comes to a head much faster than I expected, and in a great way. The show is still underusing Stacy Haiduk (shame on you, Prison Break!), but this episode features two of my all-time favourite performers Jennifer Hetrick and Keith Szarabajka so I'm a forgiving mood. For now. I want to see Haiduk doing some major scene-stealing and I want it now!   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 9. "Greatness Achieved" A dark and satisfying episode of Prison Break. Alex kills the man who killed his son. He tortures him first, makes him phone Pam to apologise and then (casually) pushes the man to his death. Dark, dark stuff. But we love Alex and we wanted to see this happen. We loved Brad Bellick, too, and we did not want him to die. But die he does and, unlike the "death" of Sara last season, this is not a betrayal of fans affection for (and investment in) the character. It was tad rushed, yes, and it probably came about because Bellick has no real place in this 'new' Prison Break but it was still a ending of redemption for a character who started out as one of the bad guys.   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) Prison Break. Season 4, Episode 8. "The Price" is one of the most satisfying episodes of Prison Break. Sara and Gretchen have their first face-to-face meeting since Sara escaped capture and the results are informative and dramatic. Roland Glenn meets his final demise in this outing, too, having turned traitor to the whole team. Glenn was a minor character, little more than a plot device. He existed to be the person who created that magical device we have seen in almost every episode this season. Now that the story no longer needs that device, it no longer needs him and he (having formed no bonds with anyone) turns on them and is killed for his trouble. It's an unsatisfying character arc, but it's of no great consequence when everything that is happe...   [read the full post]

By podcast@mail2tv.com (RikerDonegal) 05.30 Prison Break Speaking of heroes: Alex Mahone continues to be the absolute best thing about this show. Fun though it may have been for William Fichtner to play a drugged-out Mahone during Season Three it was no real fun for us in watching a guy we loved suffering. Plus he wasn't 'cool' anymore like he was back in Season Two. Well those days are gone and Alex Mahone is frakkin' cool again. His escape from T-Bag's trap was worthy of Jack Bauer and his later appearance (to rescue Michael) was bad-ass cool. I love the bond that exists between Alex and Michael: two very, very smart men capable of communicating is very clever ways. A lethal team, in their own way...   [read the full post]