Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical:
Blu-ray: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Disc:
Region: A
Runtime: 568 min
Chapters:
Size: 50 GB
Case: 1 Expanded Amaray box set, complete on 4 discs
Release date: August 12, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: AVC @ 26 MBPS
Audio:
English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio, French &
Spanish 5.1 Dolby Surround
Subtitles:
Feature: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Danish,
Finnish, Swedish & Norwegian
Extras:
• Featurette: Season 3: Orientación (17:00)
• Featurette: Breakout (13:25)
• Featurette: Director's Takes - with Kevin Hooks, Bobby
Roth and Milan Chevlov (40:05)
• Featurettes: Between Takes - with seven cast members (appr.
10:45)
The Series (Season 3) : 5
By now it should be well known that Fox has decided to
release Prison Break Season 3 with "no plans to release
Season 2 on Blu-ray at this time." Perhaps sales of the
SD were not as brisk as hoped. Perhaps the Bonus
Features never came to together as planned. Perhaps.
Perhaps. At this writing, all that is known for sure is
that we have Season One and will have Season 3 by the
time you read this . . . which leads me to a quandary of
sorts: How much, if anything, to divulge of the set-up
for Season 3?
I'm sure that most fans of the series follow it on
broadcast, so there's no problem there. Few people (I
happen to be one of them) don't watch broadcast TV and
simply wait for the blu-ray or DVD. But there's
something disconcerting about a phantom year's worth of
plot development. Prison Break isn't House after all. I
figure that those who already watch the series don't
need the reprise, and those who haven't yet come aboard
are better off knowing as little as possible.
Perhaps I can compromise by simply entertaining the
question of how might the developer of a series titled
"Prison Break" continue once the prisoners are over the
walls – as they were at the end of the first season. It
would be easy just to have them all caught and brought
back – but more possibilities open up if only some are
caught and placed in different prisons. In the case of
Season 3, that prison for Michael Scofield happens to be
in Panama, and it's not a place for sissies. Beyond that
I shall content myself with a critique of image, sound,
and extra features as compared to season one.
Image:
8/9
The first number indicates a relative level of
excellence compared to other Blu-ray DVDs on a ten-point
scale. The second number places this image along the
full range of DVDs, including SD 480i.
Season Three offers little comfort for poor Michael
Scofield. In place of Season One's cool blue's, Michael,
his fellow inmates and I endure blazing hot colors and
the inevitable overexposure – in more ways than one.
Given the parameters of the show, it's about as good
looking as Season One in the scenes where comparisons
could be made. However, there are a few scenes
representing near total darkness that are seriously
noisy instead of merely near black. For the most part,
however, contrast holds up very well, with deep
noise-free blacks. Sharpness is excellent where it needs
to be, even in fleeting moments in the prison. Outside
the prison, things get a little dicey with what I found
was more overexposure and less sharpness than was needed
to make the point – but this, no doubt, is intentional,
and not a fault with the transfer.
Audio & Music:
9/7
Even more dynamic, more crunching than Season One is
Fox's DTS HD 5.1 audio mix. It really places the action
front and center, with plenty of surrounding clamoring
inmates where there is no escaping the menace of the
other Alpha males who take their stand in Panama's Sona
prison. It's an ugly place where the inmates are in
charge, but somebody's got to record it.
Operations:
7
Fox gets right to the business at hand without promos or
previews. Each episode begins with a look back at the
highlights of the previous episode – kind of redundant
if you watch the series in a matter of days, rather than
weeks, as most did last year on broadcast. But I don't
regret the inclusion. I liked that the Director's Takes
and Between Takes featurettes had sensible chapter stops
for each of its segments – and not also pointlessly
along the way. As with the first season, the box employs
a cheaply hinged page for discs two and three that can
fall off its moorings easily. No damage, just annoying.
Extras:
6
The Extra Features for Season 3 are not nearly as
extensive nor as interesting as those for the opening
season. In a way, this is to be expected, especially
since the first Blu-ray set did such a good job in
exploring the concept and development of the series, as
far as it went. The featurette: Season 3: Orientación is
guided by the actors' experiences working in the new
environment. Breakout looks at one of the episodes from
the point of view of the director and crew. We've seen
all this sort of thing before and, though the material
was well organized, it wasn't particularly engaging or
interesting. On the other hand, Director's Takes, which
follows Kevin Hooks (who doubles as the season's
executive producer), Bobby Roth and Milan Chevlov as
they guide us through their creative thinking and
production choices on three episodes, is worth the
forty-minute viewing. Between Takes consists of
90-second intermezzos with each of seven cast members as
they reflect on the act of reflection and kicking back
on the set. These last two featurettes are in very good
quality 480i.
Bottom line:
5
Prison Break - Season Three comes, for me at least, the
liability of having no Season Two in HD. So, with no
Season Two in sight, Season Three becomes problematic as
a purchase. To make matters worse, Season Three is not
nearly as exciting as either of the first two because it
relies more on bloody action for its own sake and less
on compelling characters. (Some will find this
sufficient.) And while there will be those who complain
that Season Three shortchanges us in episodes (13 as
compared to 22), more would not likely have made the
season any better.
Leonard Norwitz
August 9th, 2008
