How Not To Retool A Show, or, The New Season of Prison Break

I'll fully admit that I was not onboard from Day One with Prison Break. In fact, I had not seen an episode of the show until about two weeks ago, when I rented the first disc of Season One on a lark, and got so drawn in that I watched the remaining 40 episodes in a week. Turns out, it's a pretty entertaining show.

It's also a very well-plotted show, with Michael Scofield getting thrown into the same prison with his unjustly-imprisoned brother, in order to break him out. Scofield had his entire plan laid out in an elaborate tattoo that completely covered his arms and torso. And, at the end of Season One, they broke out.

The Second Season, somewhat obviously, was going to be about three things: 1) finding D.B. Cooper's money (don't ask), 2) clearing Scofield's brother, and 3) staying out of prison, all while being chased by a cunning FBI agent and a disgruntled ex-prison guard. And, that was pretty much what the second season was about.

Toward the end of the season, you could feel things start to wind down; things were starting to come to a conclusion. Then, something odd happened. With about 5-6 episodes left to go, the shadowy government characters began to talk about something called "Sona." Then, in the season finale, the show became less about the brothers escaping, and more about all of the remaining characters getting locked up in a Panamanian prison (aptly) named Sona.

Something funny's going on here. In the first two seasons, Scofield had the entire escape planned out. Every little detail. Now, Scofield and his cronies are in prison, no escape plan, with another apparent escape pending. Something's not right.

Here's what I think happened: Prison Break was created as a two-season show. Somewhere toward the end of production for Season Two, Fox decided to renew the show, as it was fairly well-received. The producers, really having no intention to make more, but having Fox offering to throw millions of dollars at them, came up with another prison break idea that they cooked up in about 15 seconds, and figureed out a way to tie it into the Second Season. "Hell, they were talkin' about that "Sona" bullshit in the Second Season." But, yeah, not until the end. Up until the point they mentioned that, it looked like the show was just going to end. And, suddenly, it went in a whole other direction. Now, we have Prison Break, Season Three. And it stinks of a show that has been tampered with in a big way.

Maybe it will turn out to be good. I don't know; there's only been two episodes. But...remember when Happy Days went from being about Richie Cunningham to being all about The Fonz? Yeah, I didn't think so, but that's where the term "jumping the shark" comes from. I think Prison Break might be strapping on those water skis right about now.