Prison Break Returns (and Rocks!)

I was a bit apprehensive going into last night’s second season premiere of PRISON BREAK. Was the show indeed a one trick pony? Would the utter implausibility of the premise finally take its toll? Did the writers have enough creative vision in them to give us an exciting start to season 2? Having just watched the finale, the answer to all of the above questions was a resounding YES.

So where are we now? The surviving gang is back, and on the run from the law. But the law’s face has changed. William Fitchner has left his creepy town in Florida to play an FBI agent assigned assigned to hunt down the cleverly dubbed ‘Fox River 8’ . Last nights premiere set in motion a very interesting cat and mouse game between Fitchner’s lawman (for the life of me, I don’t think he’s been given a name yet) and our hero Michael Scofield. The only thing that was missing was a scene where they confronted each-other on the edge of a waterfall!.

In other news, T-Bag is still alive (albeit a hand lighter) and is in the process of forcing a Veterinarian to surgically re-attach his missing hand. Fans of ER be sure to tune in next week, an incredibly gross surgery will no doubt ensue.

Finally, the big surprise! Last year’s worst story-line/character comes to a really surprising end. I won’t ruin it for those who have yet to watch the episode. But I’ll say this. I’m happy the character is gone, as his/her scenes were completely dead weight on an otherwise fantastic show.

Okay, enough with the gushing, I wouldn’t be a proper TV addict if I didn’t take a moment to rip apart a premiere that hundreds of talented creative people took weeks to concoct. So here it goes.

1) Holy Foreshadowing Batman! William Fitchner’s FBI agent has a secret – he takes pills. It’s not enough for there to be an FBI agent – he has to be an agent with a ‘problem’. No doubt this problem will come into play later on in the season. It will be interesting to see what those pills are actually for. My guess, probably not Viagra.

2) The episode started off with our escapees running for their lives in daylight! I may not have the best memory, but I sort of recall that when we last saw PRISON BREAK, the gang was running from helicopters in the dark on an airstrip. Boy time flies when you’re on the run.

3) Sara survived. No doubt a network mandate – keep the cute girl on the show. But she sure did make an awfully fast recovery from that apparent drug overdose.

That said, I loved the premiere, and I’m way too giddy that new TV has returned (I think Sunday’s TEEN CHOICE AWARDS were the final straw – I was one more K-Fed performance away from giving up TV altogether). As his final message indicated to Sara, count me in as one more viewer who’ll anxiously be watching Michael’s plan unfold as he makes everything ‘right again’.