"Prison" Sentence Extended

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 30, 2005 12:58PM

Several local actors received some good news this week: they’re headed back to prison.

This week Fox Television picked up the locally-filmed series “Prison Break” for a full-season order of 13 22 episodes. It’s a big vote of confidence in the show as it was only one of four new shows to get the nod. It airs here at 8 PM on Monday nights on WFLD Channel 32.

In addition to keeping Stacy Keach off the streets, it also helps Illinois’ economy and offers jobs for local actors as well as Chicago media personalities. The Sun-Times' Robert Feder reports that WTTW's Bob Sirott will appear as a television reporter on this Monday's show.

If you haven’t started watching “Prison Break” yet, Chicagoist thinks it’s worth a look. It’s got a little bit of “24’s” suspense (and shares its ability for stretching the limits of credulity) mixed with some “CSI” flashiness and without all those uncomfortable “Oz”-like moments. As the boys from Tee Vee point out, Prison Break features “the least rapiest prison in all of America.” Perhaps it’ll be a sweeps stunt. Or it’ll be the thing you look for all season. Like the way they used to separate the two sections of the Enterprise on “Star Trek The Next Generation” once a year.

As much as we enjoy it, we here at the Chicagoist office are wondering how much mileage they’re going to be able to get out of the show’s central conceit. Eventually, they have to break out of there, right? Otherwise, it becomes a little like a Pinky and The Brain episode, doesn’t it? But if they do break out, the rest of the show might become a little anti-climactic a la “Moonlighting” after David and Maddy shagged.