Monthly Archive for August, 2005

I’ve been waiting to see this one since I first heard about it, I’m a sucker for these type of shows. This past Monday FOX was kind enough to give us the first two episodes of the new series that’s sure to be a hit and from what I’ve read so far has the numbers to back it up.

It’s a serialized drama in the style of FOX’s other hit 24, although I hope this show won’t get as ridiculous as 24 did. The show opens with Michael Scofield, played by Wentworth Miller, standing in a tattoo parlor with his back to the camera. The tattoo artist sees what we can’t and admires her work. “Most guys for the first one, they start with something small … not you.” Within the next three minutes, Scofield tries to stick up a bank and instead gets sentenced for armed robbery to Fox River State Penitentiary in Joliet, Ill., despite the protests of his attorney and old family friend, Veronica Donovan, played by the beautiful Robin Tunney.

It was Scofield’s plan all along. You see, he wants to spring his brother, Lincoln Burrows, played by Dominic Purcell, who’s on death row at Fox River and only three months away from a lethal injection for killing the brother of the Vice-President of the United States. Scofield is a structural engineer and the company he worked for did the rehaul of the jail recently and he knows its ins and outs.

The show doesn’t play coy by hiding the less important cards or fritters away its suspense on false climaxes. Scofield’s plan is in full view of the audience. What keeps us interested is how he will carry it out.

It needs to said that this show is not Oz, it’s boiled down prison life to a few tense, scary dynamics that serve the story. Scofield first must win over both incarcerated mob boss Joe Abruzzi, played by Peter Stormare, and the prison’s Warden Pope, played by Stacy Keach.

Even though there are a some weaknesses in the plot the show does display an inventive playfulness that helps us forgive them. Scofield lets Abruzzi know that he has information regarding the whereabouts of a mob rat named Fibonacci, the man that put him in prison.

A little injoke I read about pertains to an overhead camera shot of a rectangular drain grate and the origami ducks that Scofield employs, swirling downward. A reference to the real-life Fibonacci, the mathematician that devised formulations for the perfect “Golden Mean” rectangle and its accompanying inner spiral.

We’re persuaded that Lincoln Burrows is the innocent victim of a frame-up after Secret Service agents try to change the mind of an influential Catholic bishop opposed to Burrows’ death penalty. When the bishop won’t back down, the shocking results hint at a conspiracy concerning the highest office in the land.

Not everything is gloom and doom though. Scofield’s cell mate Sucre, played by Amaury Nolasco, seeks coaching to conduct a long-distance romance in which he eventually proposes to his girlfriend. Warden Pope needs Scofield’s help to build a scale model of the Taj Mahal for his wife to celebrate their 40th anniversary. And lastly we’re introduced to an oddball that has a pet cat that may or may not be legendary skyjacker D.B. Cooper.

I do have a few of gripes though, the biggest being how quickly Lincoln’s death sentence is to be carried out. In reality there are so many appeals that it takes years for someone to be put to death from when they’re first sentenced, but then again this is tv. Secondly, if the Secret Service is willing to kill a Bishop then what’s taking them so long to kill Veronica? She’s far less imporant in the grand scheme of things. Also, how could the judge that sentenced Michael not know that she was sending him to the same jail as his brother and furthermore how does it pass by the Warden and the guards? Lastly I think the casting of Peter Stormaer as Abruzzi is terrible, he doesn’t come across as an Italian-American very well and looks more like a crack addicted taxi driver than a mob boss.

Other than that I can’t complain too much, I really do like this show. I like it enough that it will bump Las Vegas from my Monday night live viewing schedule. Sure, I’ll tivo Las Vegas, but Prison Break will be what I’m watching at 9pm.

I’m a big fan of the Roman era, I’ve been to the Coliseum, the Forum, Pompeii and all the other “cool” places to go. With that beig said I’ve been waiting for Rome to premier on HBO since I first heard about it. I can’t get enough of the Roman Empire, well except ABC’s Empire, the more I watched it the more I hated it. It was cheesy, historically inaccurate and terribly acted. All of which HBO’s Rome is not.

This show defines epic, everything is sweeping, grand and larger than you can imagine. The attention to detail is amazing, from the clothes, the jewelery to the extras playing the Plebes. It all just fits in perfectly. The first episode was almost too much to take in in one sitting, there is so much going on and they’re trying to introduce us to so many characters, grudges and backstory that it perfectly walks the edge of leaving us wanting for more instead of flooding us with too much.

The introduction and opening music is reminiscent of Carnivale, a series that also aired on HBO and it’s something I’m not too keen on. Anyways, to the story… We’re introduced right off the bat to the two main characters: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey the Great, current co-leader of the Roman republic. He was born of lower class, and at times is reminded of this, and rose through the Senate to become the hero of the nobility. Then there’s the all famous Gaius Julius Caesar, great commanding conquering general of the Roman army, born a nobleman he’s spent years with the common soldier and his way of rewarding the general populace with spoils from the war has made him the plebes, common folk, hero. Caesar has been away from Rome for the past eight years battling the Gauls, now known as the French, and receives word that his daughter, and Pompey’s wife, has just died in child-birth. This is the last true bond between these two old friends and her death will eventually lead to the demise of one of the greatest governments in history.

Back in Rome, the Senate is starting to become wary of the general populace’s love of Caesar, they fear that he may bring his army back and stage a coup. Cato, an elderly senator moves to have Caesar branded an outlaw and removed from his post as general, a movement that splits the Senate pretty much between nobility and common representative, before Pompey interrupts and says that before the motion will go any further he will save everyone the trouble and veto it right away, claiming that Caesar is a good friend and a patriot of Rome and he will not betray him.

Caesar’s niece Attia is played masterfully by Polly Walker, and is the behind the scenes leader of the Caesar family. Walker looks fantastic in this role might I add. Her character has no reservations about using her own children as pawns in the game of power, sending her son Octavian (the man that becomes Augustus Caesar) to Gaul to deliver a beautiful white horse to Uncle Julius and forcing her daughter Octavia to divorce her husband and marry Pompey. But there is also something motherly in the way she does it, she’s rough on her kids but only because she wants the best for them. She wants her son to look good in Caesar’s eyes and wants her daughter to be the “1st lady” in Rome.

On his way to deliver the horse to his great uncle, Octavian and the slaves accompanying him are ambushed by an group of Gallic soldiers. In the Roman camp where Octavian was heading, Caesar’s ornamental Eagle was stolen by a couple of blue ruffians. This eagle has been used by Caesar in a ceremony after every one of his triumphs where the conquered general/king/leader is stripped then they must kiss the eagle. It’s a very symbolic blow to Caesar and his XIII Legion (that’s 13th Legion) and Marc Anthony is put in charge of finding it. Being an office means you get to delgate work given to you and that’s exactly what Marc Anthony does. He puts a Centurion in charge of finding it. The Centurion, Lucius Vorenus, enlists a soldier he had an altercation with on the battlefield, Titus Pullo, to help him track down the eagle. After some mishaps, they run across a band of Gauls that are using Octavian as a slave. After dispatching the Gauls they find the true thief of the eagle, Pompey’s personal advisor. Long story short, they kill him and return to camp with the eagle and Octavian.

The last few minutes of the episode is a whirlwind of revelations and surprises set off by the revelation of the thief. Pompey, rejects Julius’ great niece Octavia in marriage, thus severing all ties between the two families. Titus and Lucius’ status is elevated thanks to their efforts in retreiving the eagle. And most earth-shaking of all, Julius sends word that he’s going to station the army outside of Rome this winter, you know, so they can be closer to home, thus adding fuel to the fire of the Senate’s worst fears: The monster they’ve created is taking over.

All in all, you must watch this show! HBO’s got another hit on their hands.