Michael Schofield is an intelligent guy; yet one day something changes. He has been obsessed with blueprints, technical information and chemical formulas. With a fantastic seafront penthouse apartment who could ask for more?

One day Schofield heads into a local bank and commits an ultimately bungled robbery. At the court he is as disrespectful as he can be; and is finally sentenced to one of the highest category prisons in the United States.

Now in Fox River State Penitentiary Schofield goes out of his way to get in touch with soon to be executed Lincoln Burrows. At last the plan is revealed; Schofield has deliberately had himself incarcerated so he can free Lincoln Burrows. Schofield is convinced that he Burrows is innocent; but then, you would believe your own brother wouldn't you?

Prison Break Season 1 Part 1 Features the first 13 episodes a brief summary of each now follows:-

Prison Break

At Fox River Schofield makes his presence known around the prison; he approaches 3 of the leaders (inmates) and dangles the words freedom to them.

Allen

Schofield begins his quest for escape from inside the office of the prison warden. Once he has secured his admittance on a regular basis in the wardens office he approached John Abruzzi a Mafia style gang boss. He offers Abruzzi information in exchange for help in escaping; however all does not go as smoothly as planned.

Cell Test

When Schofield approaches his cell mate Sucre about the possibility of escape; Sucre explains he has to serve his time legally in order to return to the loving arms of his fiancé. Concerned about Schofield's plans Sucre requests a cell transfer leaving Schofield with a deranged psychopath as a new cell mate.

Cute Poison

Sucre discovers that his fiancé has been seeing his old best friend on the side; realising the error of his ways he longs to return to be Schofield's cell mate again. Schofield's new cell mate has insomnia, making plans of escape preparation impossible. Outside Burrow's old girlfriend Veronica now a top lawyer approaches Nick Savrinn another top lawyer to help her get a postponement of Burrows execution.

English, Fitz Or Percy

Two corrupt FBI agents blackmail the Warden of Fox River when they uncover the fact that Schofield and Burrows are brothers. Smelling a rat they decide to try ad get Schofield moved to another prison. Schofield plans a practice run of the escape.

Riots, Drills & The Devil

Schofield strikes an unlikely could be romance with the prison doctor called Sarah. However when he sabotages the prisons air conditioning to get the opportunity to do some much needed preparation work he causes a riot. This riot puts Sarah in terrible danger; Schofield can either save her and keep the escape plan or sacrifice it in order to save her life.

Riots, Drills & The Devil Part 2

While Schofield battles his demons on whether to save Sara; Sucre and Abruzzi make a deadly pact.

The Old Head

Schofield discovers that a storeroom which has become an integral part of his plan of escape is going to be converted into the guard's mess hall. Schofield realises this is the time to bring as many people onboard with his escape plan as he can. Meanwhile Nick and Veronica come face to face with an FBI hit man determined to put a stop to their investigations.

Tweener

Burrows estranged wife and her new lover are executed by the FBI while trying to tack down Burrows son LJ. Abruzzi is demoted in the prison hierarchy when his payments to a corrupt guard cease. T-Bag the prison sex pest finds himself a new toy after his previous "bitch" died in the riot.
T-Bag discovers the escape plan and tells the others that unless he is allowed to join them he'll report them to the guards.

Sleight Of Hand

Abruzzi finally needs to go to Schofield for help to get his position back; but these leads them open to an unseen danger.
The FBI bring in a top cleaner to resolve the situation with Veronica and Nick.

And Then There Were 7

Schofield gets a visit from his wife (Neighbours star and singer Holly Valance) who is an integral part of the escape plan. The FBI cleaner Quinn captures Nick, Veronica and LJ in the woods.
Schofield realises that with T-Bag onboard they have one person too many when it comes to the escape.

Odd Man Out

Abruzzi finds God and uses his help to alleviate the extra man situation. However T-Bag realises that there are too many men and decides to murder one of the crew.

End Of The Tunnel

One of the FBI men fed up with the evil work he is being forced to do, tries to help Veronica get some crucial information. Burrows has to create a diversion in order to prevent the tunnel from being discovered; but in doing so lands himself in solitary confinement.
Schofield tells the others that the escape needs to be delayed until Burrows is released but T-Bag puts the pressure on to ensure the escape goes ahead.

Cast

Dominic Purcell .... Lincoln Burrows
Wentworth Miller .... Michael Scofield
Robin Tunney .... Veronica Donovan
Peter Stormare .... John Abruzzi
Amaury Nolasco .... Fernando Sucre
Marshall Allman .... LJ Burrows
Wade Williams .... Captain Brad Bellick
Paul Adelstein .... Agent Paul Kellerman
Robert Knepper .... Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell
Sarah Wayne Callies .... Dr. Sara Tancredi

In summing up

Prison Break for me is as compelling as Lost; the high calibre writing and thought put into each different chink of the escape plan is exceptional. Simplistic things turn into major parts of the escape; the cleverest of all being Schofield's gothic style tattoo's which in fact turn out to be the blueprints for Fox River.

The acting and structure of the characters is absolutely top drawer; this is not the conventional style you get with TV shows. Some quite intense acting is needed to carry out the sometimes horrific scenes. Wentworth Miller (Schofield) pulls off some amazing scenes and all the time seems a little different to the others; although you know at his heart he is a good guy, it's very clear that nothing will get in his way when it comes to releasing his brother.
Robert Knepper (T-Bag) pulls off a fantastic performance as a loony sexual predator that has no exceptions when it comes to sex, age or vulnerability. This makes him (in my eyes) one of the most menacing TV bad guys ever. When you mention Prison Break to someone that has seen the show they nearly always pick up on the fact that T-bag is pure evil; I'm sure that by the completion of the series his name will be in the annals of TV monsterdom.
The surprise for me is Peter Stormare (Abruzzi) I have always found Stormare to be a pretty unlikeable character especially if you consider his role in the movie Bruiser. Here he starts as being totally unlikeable but he soon becomes one of your favourites. When he loses his privileges you really feel for him and understand quite how vulnerable he is within Fox River; especially when all his crew desert him to back the new boss in town.

The major part of Prison Break is seeing with that inner eye; the slightest thing regardless of how insignificant turns out to be a critical part of the story. Sometimes there are several episodes between the incident or item discovery before you find out its purpose; this keeps you thinking outside of the box for the shows entirety.

Each episode of Prison Break is that little bit better than the last. With many US shows you find they become very "same-ish" and that episodes are just thrown in to spread the series out. Each episode of Prison Break is carefully thought out, there are no filler episodes and the variation in style from episode to episode is amazing.

Prison Break Series 1 Volume 1 comes with no special features, no additional languages or subtitles.

You can purchase Prison Break from Play.com priced £26.99.