Stephen King: Why I Love 'Prison Break'

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The second season is the best, a Sam Peckinpah shoot-out with the escapees looking for some money buried by — I think — mythic skyjacker D.B. Cooper. They are chased by a badass prison guard named Bellick and a pill-popping FBI lunatic named Alex Mahone. Mahone killed and buried a guy in his backyard, but that's another story. (Oh, and T-Bag lost a hand and had a vet do a transplant, but it didn't work; the hand now looks like something swiped from a department-store dummy.)

Here's the part that kills me: All the survivors except Linc wind up in a Panamanian prison! Yes! It's called Sona (Spanish for ''Fox Mulder''). This is the strike-shortened third season, and it's gotta be the sweatiest 13 episodes of TV ever filmed. As an added taste treat, the swag-bellied Bellick (Wade Williams) stumbles through the first two in a pair of filthy undershorts. Not a yummy picture.

Needless to say, there's another escape. T-Bag gets lost in the desert and is forced to chow down on his running buddy. When The Bag finally catches a ride, the driver sizes up his nausea and inquires, ''What's wrong, man? Eat some bad Mexican?'' Classy! Well, you know what they say: If you can't eat the one you love, eat the one you're with.

Turns out the president's brother was murdered by a shadowy outfit called The Company, and now Linc, Michael, the resurrected Sara, and their cohorts must take the bad guys down, including dragon lady Susan B. Anthony (sometimes known as Gretchen — don't ask).

What makes this so much damned fun are bright exteriors, crisp cutting, outrageous action sequences, and, most of all, the acting ensemble. I especially enjoy William Fichtner as Alex Mahone — Fichtner's probably the best character actor on TV. These guys play it straight, so the audience does the same. There's also a crazy existential subtext: No matter what these hapless escapees do or how fast they run, they always end up...booya!...back in prison.

For season 5, I hope it's a gulag in Siberia.

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