Different Perceptions of the Escape TV Show
“Prison Break,” a TV show that aired on the Fox from 2005-2009, seems to be promoting a message of unyielding love between different types of relationships a person has throughout their lives. There are many shows that carry this theme though, so the TV show must be about something else as well. The show is really promoting the escape of realities such as jail, corrupt laws, governments, and companies that, on their face, seem to have twisted ideologies. The show was so successful at promoting this idea to wide audiences, that it went past the two seasons it was intended for with two additional seasons, a full length movie, and finally, within the last week, it was leaked and later confirmed that the show is being rebooted for season five, seven years after the original series finale, and is in the beginning stages of production. It is extremely rare that TV shows make such an impression on a wide audience. In fact, for there to be a movie and then continuation of a series after, has never been done before; it is a show that has made history.
This paper is not intended to be a summary, but some basic background needs to be set up to explain the claim about what the show is really about. Here is a short paragraph with very broad non-spoilers:
The main character or protagonist is a man named Michael Scofield, who goes to Prison by faking a crime, to break out his brother, Lincoln Burrows, who is serving on death row for killing the Vice President of the US. Michael ends up using the prison doctor, Sara Tancredi, to help him escape by leaving a door open, from which his posse can use after they have dug through and underneath the prison. Moving forward, the two brothers escape into a world with some prison friends, to find that the whole world is looking for them. They end up in different locations throughout the seasons, trying to escape “the company” while still being on the lam from the federal government. They are caught by the feds first, who turn out to be really bad people. Just when they think it has all ended, they realize “the company” has been on their side the whole time.
The initial claim that the show is about revealing how relationships can spark unconditional love is a valid one. The show is strongly themed in that. The fact that Michael faked a bank robbery and made sure he went to the same prison as his brother shows such a relationship. Before the fake crime, he spent months reviewing the blueprints of the prison, and had the prison maps along with multiple escape routes tattooed all over his body. Michael risked his life to save his brother, and multiple other people worked to do the same to their own peril. Sucre ends up risking his life multiple times because of the strong bond he has made with the two brothers in prison and after.
What starts out as just part of the plan falling into place for Michael when he met Sara ends up being an epic relationship. In the prison, he faked having diabetes to get her to fall in love with him. Though his plan ultimately worked, it came with the price of falling in love with her. After she leaves her door unlocked for Michael and his crew to escape through, she feels the scorn of knowing she had been used, and ends up relapsing back to morphine use to the extent that she overdoses. She cannot bear the pain of letting down her guard, something she rarely did after getting sober. Michael learns of this before leaving the country, and decides, much to the chagrin of his party, to stay behind and find her, risking all his plans and his life. This theme carried on throughout the show and seasons. Over the years that the show aired, the three characters, Michael, Lincoln, and Sara were often referred to as the Vigilante Three and many other nicknames by the public, in honor of the tight connection the three of them shared.
The show has several other examples of unconditional love. The love that Burrows has for his son, and for his father, who is killed by either “the Company” or the government; it has remained unclear which side some of the characters were playing for. Sucre loves his pregnant girlfriend, even though they did not ever really spend that much time together. Throughout the show, the theme of love floats around the show throughout, and its presence is very passionate. Indeed, a person making this case would not be wrong in asserting that the show is about that. The problem is, it is not what makes this show excellent. It is not what makes it unique, rising above the fray.
Love itself is already a very complex emotion, but throw in several escapes from death from prison and death, a couple conspiracy theories, a few unwanted fellow escapees, and there is a very interesting show that is hard not to get caught up in.
The idea of escaping prison is something that captivates a lot of people, especially if the audience knows that the escapees are innocent. Only we, the viewers, know that Michael is in jail for a basically pretending to commit a crime. To everyone else, at first, he went crazy from his life as a great engineer, got bored and robbed a bank at gunpoint. Even as a viewer, for the first time, it feels as though he is a white collar worker wanting to get back at a company he worked for. Soon his friends and family find out the truth, that he wants to help Lincoln escape. This itself is also not a new idea, though it is hard to pull off and make believable. But it’s not the idea of escape alone that is so fascinating.
The producers want the audience to be provoked by the escape, on the edge of their seats, constantly questioning whether or not it is something that can actually happen. Throughout the series, there are a variety of escapes, following a pattern. At the same time, though, each escape is different, and has a different ending. Sometimes the escape is immediate, other times the group gets caught and has to “wiggle” out of the situations they are in. The show means for us to be enamored with the process of each escape.
What Michael goes through to perform the escape is insane, but still within the area of what could possibly pass for realistic. In fact, to successfully perform an escape in as short a time as he does, with so many people, his actions probably could not have been any less complicated. As a top engineer in the city of Chicago, he has access to the blueprints of the federal prison. In fact, he himself helped design the prison. During this time the audience is also finding out why Lincoln is in prison, and we are starting to see that corruption has occurred from the top of American society, the White House. By the end of the first season, we the audience, are led to believe that the US government and something known as “The Company,” are in cahoots with each other, and framed Lincoln for the VP’s assassination, who is actually not dead. We learn that there is definitely a cover-up involved, as friends start dying while trying to find out the truth.
At this point, we have an appeal on the part of the producers and writer of the show to our sense of injustice; of good and evil and right and wrong. Lincoln should not be in prison. He was not given a fair trial, and the prison guards act out all of their aggression out on the inmates, projecting their own weaknesses onto them. At some point throughout this season, the viewer actually begins to feel like one of the people locked up, and we meet characters who we can easily sympathize with, especially the older man who has been in prison for thirty years, who ultimately helps the guys escape, but dies in the process. The guy was a good man who was unwilling to help at first, but discovered his son was losing his battle with cancer. The scene where he is left behind after passing away, just seconds away from freedom, is one of the more touching moments of the entire series.
Then again, some of the prisoners are just scum. Even the most sympathetic people in the world would have a hard time reconciling their terrible upbringings with the reasons they ended up in jail. One such prisoner is T-bag, who went to prison for raping and killing an entire family, kids included. Throughout the series, there are flashbacks to his past, and are actually taken to his family home, a worn down hut in the backlands. Even with learning how his father molested him, his actions throughout are always malevolent. After he escapes with Michael (much to Michael’s disappointment) he continues on his own way, raping and killing, all with an agenda always waiting in his bad pocket.
Belic, the head security guard, was probably the second crummiest character on the show. In the first season, he treats all of the prisoners like animals, and makes life a living hell for them if he feels as though he has been slighted in even the smallest way. He regularly beats up defenseless prisoners, strips them of their rights, and puts them in solitary for no justifiable reason. Often, the warden himself has to keep Belic in check. Later on in the series, however, Belic gets thrown into a Panamanian prison with Michael, and he is forced to endure arguably more hardship than anyone else in that free-for-all kill or get killed prison, as he is older and less fit than the other prisoners, and does not have any clothes. This does go without being noticed by Scofield, and he is allowed on the team. He goes on to become perhaps one of the most sympathetic figures of the show, as we learn about his personal life, and especially as he knowingly gives up his life to save the rest of the group, even though he is suspect of their plans the entire time. Another solid moment in the show was the team of fugitives getting to see his body in state before his body is sent to have a proper funeral and burial. He is one of only a couple characters throughout the series that shows that a person can really change if they are good at heart.
The show also appealed to our sense of wanting to escape ourselves. We may not literally live behind bars in federal prison, but most of us are trapped with something we do not want to be a part of. “Prison Break” gives us the rush of escaping over and over again, where the escapes are so big they take more than an entire season to carry out, or are done within a couple of episodes. In a way, that is what television based on fiction is meant to do. Some of us have jobs where we do not feel that we are being compensated fairly, or that has poor conditions. Some of us are tired of our routines, feeling trapped in a life that we cannot escape. This show provides that and more.
There are classic narratives throughout television history of being in prison, and then escaping. This show just succeeds at doing it in a different way each time. The most epic escape of the show is the first, and this probably is due, in large part, to the fact they did not expect the TV project to be as successful as it was. The amount of planning on Scofield’s part was phenomenal — in large part because unlike how most escapes, where the prisoners do not have anything planned out once they’ve made the run, Scofield has the whole thing planned out, including backup plans in case one way does not work, and afterwards, there are several plans to not only depart from the rest of the prisoners, but to go end up in South America, including flight plans, a private yacht, and other family members.
Lincoln and Scofield escape from custody on multiple occasions. On two of these occasions, Scofield’s life is in the hands of a wayward officer for “The Company,” who nearly gets his shot off, when he is stopped by the President of the United States herself. She is blackmailed into a corner where she either exonerates the two brothers, or it will be exposed that it was actually her that faked the Vice President’s murder. She is compelled to grant Scofield his wish, and he is let go. The same bloodthirsty officer then follows the brothers to South America, where he believes he has the two trapped on a boat, only to find out that Sara has her gun locked on him. He dies, the three escape.
The second massive escape was from Panama. No one is green anymore They all know what it is like to be treated like vermin, and they find their way in the prison, except for Belic. They end up having to dig another hole, but this time it works, at least for Scofield and Whistler, a person who “the Company” entices him to rescue in order to escape from being followed further. Unfortunately, the deal was a hoax, and “The Company” keeps playing around with them, even after they are caught by the FBI.
This all culminates and works together to form the real reason for this show, showing the corruption that can exist within companies, the government and people. It shows how powerful ideologies can be even in the face of a completely pragmatic world. In fact, the ideologies that exist with everybody, including Scofield, are persistently in competition with each other, much like the American government today. Because people in the US are so used to seeing ideologies thrown about between members of the same party, and members of opposing parties, it gives this show a lot of credibility. There are probably many Americans who feel that the government and special interests play cat and mouse with us citizens too much. Without getting overly political, a large number of people are voting for “anti-establishment” or what they perceive to be anti-establishment candidates because of this reason.
Yet again, there have been other shows and movies with conspiracy theories. Most notably, The Manchurian Candidate comes to mind. Everything leading up to the fourth season goes down the same road, leading the viewers to believe that both the FBI and “The Company” are bad. They are both responsible for multiple inexplicable murders and both have ruined the lives of the two brothers. Yet, in the fourth season, a new narrative launches, one in which the FBI becomes a lot more questionable than “The Company.” This is not to say that this company isn’t still doing terrible things, but we learn that they are in charge of a project named Scylla. As more about this project is revealed, it becomes obvious why “The Company” is so protective of it.
The company does not trust the federal government with the information contained in Scylla, and they have every right to feel that way. The only FBI agent to hold Scylla sells it to a buyer just for the money, without knowing a single thing about what is inside of it. So what’s inside the project — plans for environmental, economic and political overhaul. Plans to unite the entire world as one global society. Or at least, that is what we are lead to believe throughout the show. The plot twist is perhaps one of the best in Primetime television history. Which is why people are still craving more. All three of the main actors have had a ton of success after the show, all of them lead characters on other shows. This has kept the story down to a silver screen sequel, up until a week ago, when it was leaked that the show is officially slated for at least another season, with everybody taking original roles.
Yes, there is a strong case for love in this show, but it pales in comparison to showing injustice and corruption that take place in today’s society. The love stories contained throughout are executed beautifully and add humanity to the story. But the stories are very nuanced. Though the familial relationships would have existed to some extent, this brought the brothers and son closer together. The relationship between the team members never would have existed, and Michael and Sara never would have fallen in love with each other. This only happened because of all the horrible things that happened all around them, the injustice and corruption having one saving grace — the people we meet along the way.
Work Cited
Twentieth Century Fox and Rat Television. “Prison Break.” Twentieth Century Fox. Seasons 1-4.
2005-2009. Available on Netflix and Amazon. 2005-2009.
