Reviewed by Phil Wheat
Stars Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller, Robert Knepper, Sarah Wayne Callies,
Amaury Nolasco, Paul Adelstein, William Fichtner, Rockmond Dunbar, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £49.99 | DVD Region 2 | Written & directed by Paul Scheuring
Season 4 of Prison Break sees our intrepid gang of ex-cons working for Homeland Security agent Don Self, trying to stay one step ahead of the company and get their hands on the mysterious Scylla - at least for the first half. Over the course of the first half of the season, the gang obtain key cards to access Scylla, and break into Company headquarters to steal it.
As usual with Prison Break, twists and turns are the norm and by mid-season everything is turned on it's head when Self is revealed to be a double agent who betrays the team and attempts to sell Scylla to the highest bidder. The second half of the season is a convoluted tale with Linc, now working on behalf of the company, trying to track down Scylla whilst Michael and a now alive Sara doing the same for themselves. Meanwhile it is revealed that Michael's mother is in fact the head of the company that has made life hell for the Schofield brothers.
In the first season Prison Break was a thrilling high concept TV show, but with each consecutive season the show became more and more implausible, so by the time it reaches this fourth season it has become a parody of itself, coming across as a combination of The A-Team and Mission: Impossible. The fourth season also suffers from a long mid-season slump, with a meandering plot the episodes begin to lose focus and it feels like the series has lost direction. Whilst the concept has become stale, the character development remains as interesting as ever: the fourth season sees the evil T-Bag come into his own, growth for Purcell's character Linc, a stronger bond between the brothers Michael and Linc, a deepening of the relationship between Michael and Sara and the redemption of Mahone.
Towards the end of the season, the action is amped up and the story kicks into overdrive, plot threads are wound up faster than ever and characters leave or die in quick succession. As the show builds to the huge conclusion a familiar face rejoins the cast supplying a non-sequitur eleventh hour solution to the entire Prison Break saga! The final episode of the fourth season sees the show skip four years into the future, showing what has happened to our cast of characters following the resolution of their four seasons of adventures. The strangest aspect of this final episode is the revelation that the entire four seasons of Prison Break only took place in a 6 month period! The UK boxset, unlike the Region 1 release, also includes the two-part "movie" conclusion to the series that fills in the gap on the missing four years before the last episode - it is basically a re-hash of the first season but featuring an innocent Sara in prison rather than Linc. Sadly Prison Break's fourth season is an ill-advised conclusion to what started out as such a great show, making this boxset for completists only...
EXTRAS *** An audio ommentary from cast and crew (including Dominic Purcell, William Fichtner and screen writer Seth Hoffman), plus three featurettes - Fade to Black: The Final Episode; The Plan, The Execution, and the Bullet; Directors World.