Minimum-security thrills. 20th Century-Fox has released Prison Break: Season Three, a wholly ridiculous continuation of the once-edgy, buzz-worthy Fox TV series that, despite its obvious drawbacks, still manages to deliver some mildly diverting adventure. What was once one of the few new TV series I watched with absolute regularity (during its sensational second season), slipped quickly last year into, "Oh...is that still on?" happenstance, catching an episode here or there because the premise now seemed so utterly familiar (as well as ludicrously, at times, executed). Hopefully, the writers have had plenty of time to re-watch the first two seasons of Prison Break in preparation for Season Four, because at this rate, the series is about this close to turning into Stir Crazy (and not even the 1980 movie, but the even worse gawd awful TV version that followed).

I would suspect most people reading this review aren't thinking of jumping in new with the series, so minimal background is needed. If you remember the end of the previous season, escaped con Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) looked like he had it made. His brother, Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) was cleared off charges in connection with the murder of the Vice President's brother. Michael was together again with Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies), and five million bucks were stashed away on a boat bound for Panama. Unfortunately, "The Company," the nefarious covert agency responsible for the whole Lincoln magilla in the first place, doesn't want Michael free and clear. So he's set up for a murder he didn't commit, and he's placed in a hellish nightmare of a prison called Sona in Panama. Worse still, "The Company," through the vicious efforts of operative "Susan B. Anthony" (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe), has kidnapped Sara and Linc's son, L.J. (Marshall Allman) as leverage against Michael. But why does "The Company" want Michael in that particular prison?

SPOILERS ALERT!

Even though I couldn't seem to get into Season Three of Prison Break this past year (I'm sure the interruption of the writers' strike probably played into that), I was actually looking forward to watching it on disc, because...that's the only way to watch serial TV anymore (commercials, months-long commitments - who needs that?). I want to knock out a series in two or three days, and absorb the show as one unified experience. And sometimes, you can find thematic threads and motifs far easier this way, rather than getting lost amid the constant station i.d.s and that feckin' Snuggles bear. However, the opposite can happen, too. With a series like Prison Break, where weekly cliffhangers are the norm, an interval of six days can blunt the edge off plot holes and shady execution. But with DVD, you slam from one episode to the next, and inconsistencies, if present, can be magnified by their proximity.

And there are a whole lot of plot holes in this Third Season - particularly towards the end of the run, where the escape from Sona is put into action. Prior to that, though, I'm not too sure Prison Break didn't go off the rails right from the start of the season, when it returned the cons not back to an American prison (like their old home, Fox River), but to the Panamanian hellhole, Sona. I understand the producers wanting to find a totally different environment for each season (while simultaneously ratcheting up the tension as they move Michael and Linc from one increasingly dangerous situation to another). But Sona is just so...familiar, not only because, as fellow DVDTalk reviewer John Sinnott pointed out in his (as usual) excellent review, the whole set-up is a retread of Season One, but the idea of Sona - the hellish foreign prison where no rules apply (there aren't even any guards) and where life is as cheap as dirt - has been done so many times before. This isn't Prison Break; this is Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meets Escape from New York. And while the framework is familiar, the people found within the walls of Sona are distressingly clichéd (as well as terribly dressed, I might add): the ruthless, but deep-down fair, jungle king Lechero (Robert Wisdom), the innocent, sweet, loves-all-things-American Dondi knock-off McGrady (Carlo Alban), the vicious power-climber racist Sammy (Laurence Mason), and on and on. I've seen these characters before. Many times. I never saw anybody like T-Bag (Robert Knepper) before, and his uniqueness was part of what me made me notice Prison Break in the first place. But this third season road show company of Midnight Express Meets The Shawshank Redemption? I've already done my time with that program.

And while I know the writers' strike severely truncated this particular season, how is it that this shorter number of episodes season seems longer and more drawn out than the previous full outings? With most of the screen time restricted to the largely one-set Sona, we're overloaded with endless two-shots of people talking and talking and discussing escape and revenge and retribution, creating a surprisingly slack tone (equally surprising is the marginal set design this time around: Sona looks like nothing more than a studio backlot set, with equally phony, set-y interiors). And while I don't mind the ridiculousness of all the old gang rounded up in Sona again, do the characters have to act so illogically? Why do they keep showing Michael looking horrified by what he sees in Sona? He hasn't toughened up by now? Why is Lechero so good and kind and noble and interested in equality - and yet everyone cowers in fear of him? And why does he take a shine to slimy T-Bag instantaneously, making him an important part of the gang, apparently, in less than five minutes?

And what about Sucre (Amaury Nolasco)? He's crying one minute, leaving Panama the next, then helping Linc, then nobly sacrificing himself - while all the time he supposedly can't wait to get back to his kid and girl? The devaluing of the Bellick (Wade Williams) character is even more ludicrous. Was Bellick somebody's "punk" in prison, as the last scene of Season Two implied? If so, why is he having trouble surviving in prison - cons always take care of their "bitches." Bellick's dual personality of vicious thug and semi-retarded screw-up is given a new angle this season: blubbering weakling, a character trait that essentially eliminates his reason for being in the series. When Bellick actually asks strung-out junkie Mahone (William Fichtner) if he could adopt him, I had to back up the disc and make sure I heard that right. And he did! What were Third Season writers on, to come up with that scene? Which brings us to Linc. Linc spends the entire season fighting valiantly to get his son back - no matter who might get killed in the process - only to get him back and within two minutes, push L.J. out of the way to get to the wounded Sofia (Danay Garcia), telling the kid to get lost! Goofy character turnabouts like that abound in this sloppy third season of Prison Break.

And it's not just the characters in Prison Break who do silly things; apparently the directors and editors are taking it easy here, too. Continuity errors are everywhere (I particularly like the one where Michael, speaking to Linc on a cell phone, looks out and sees the generator - at night - while they cut to Linc in front of a hotel window - during a daytime thunderstorm). Normally, I hate nit-picking like that, but there are so many implausible scenes like that in Prison Break that it came to the point where I couldn't ignore them anymore. Apparently, every guard in Sona can't see five feet in front of their face. No one sees Sucre running around in broad daylight in front of the dynamo, or spraying the fence with an acid solution? Not one soldier, milling about, noticed all those guys rolling underneath the trucks during the final escape? The two guards who stand less than five feet above T-Bag don't see him shove a big paperback book into his pocket (the book with the all-important "coordinates")? And how far out underwater did those guys swim to get to that buoy, with just those little air tanks? The list is endless.

Still...I must say, that despite all the studied preposterousness of Prison Break: Season Three, it did provide the kind of basic, low-level thrills that one might expect from a lesser, formulaic thriller. I did enjoy the addition of lush lynx Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as the killer assassin, "Susan B. Anthony." Grinning seductively as she describes beheading Dr. Sara, she made quite an impression: a sadist who enjoys her work, 100% guilt-free. Now that's refreshing! But the "loss" of dynamic characters like Bellick and T-Bag, saddled with unmotivated character changes and frankly ridiculous plot devices, made much of Prison Break: Season Three a soppy mess. The final straw was the appearance of T-Bag in the yard, spouting his best jail-bird Marc Antony, and passing out money to eager prisoners' hands. When I saw that (wouldn't those savage cons just jump that 98lb. psycho and take all the money?), I figured someone had been thumbing through their college Cliff Notes for a suitable ending - while forgetting what made the series unique in the first place.

Here are the 13, one-hour episodes of the four-disc Prison Break: Season 2 set, as described on the DVD slimcases:

DISC ONE:

Oreintacion
While Lincoln scrambles to free his brother, Michael, T-Bag, Bellick, and Mahone do their best to adapt to life in Sona, a hellish Panamanian prison where the rules are simple: fight or die.

Fire/Water
As Lincoln tracks down a mysterious lead, Michael and Mahone go underground in search of James Whistler, the most wanted man in Sona and, just maybe, their ticket out of there.

Call Waiting
Michael needs T-Bag's help to contact Sara, and Whistler forges an uneasy alliance with Mahone as Lincoln continues to hunt for Sara and L.J..

Good Fences
Michael makes a power play to set his plan into action. Meanwhile, hiding a horrible secret, Lincoln recruits the help of the prison's gravedigger.

DISC TWO:

Interference
With the escape deadline fast-approaching, Sucre makes a special delivery, and a new inmate name Tyge keeps an eye on Michael and Whistler.

Photo Finish
Michael demands proof that Sara is still alive, and after a murder in the prison yard, Whistler must prove his own innocence or face the wrath of Lechero.

Vamonos
While Lincoln closes in on Susan and L.J., Michael and Whistler come to blows after a glaring problem foils their escape attempt.

Bang & Burn
Susan orders Whistler to kill Michael and acts on orders of her own to carry out a "bag and burn" on Sona. Meanwhile, Lechero's power slips away, but he reveals a hidden secret.

DISC THREE:

Boxed In
With Mahone back in Sona and Michael in solitary confinement, General Zavala will do whatever it takes to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, Belick prepares for a fight to the death.

Dirt Nap
Michael receives a mysterious visitor, and as the escape plan grows, Sammy usurps control of Sona, placing a hefty price on Michael's head.

Under and Out
As heavy rains accelerate the escape plan, alliances are forged among the inmates, but when the lights go out, it's every man for himself.

Hell or High Water
While Sucre faces an identity crisis, the escapees head for the beach and out to sea, but not everyone makes it out of Sona.

DISC FOUR:

The Art of the Deal
With a storm brewing inside the prison, Michael and Lincoln trade Whistler for L.J. and Sofia, but the exchange doesn't go quite as planned.

The DVD:

The Video:
While I'm sure the Blue-Ray edition of Prison Break: Season Three is even sharper, this is one good looking series on SD disc. Picture clarity is remarkable at times (I was able to count the minute paint chips on the chain link fences), although there were some questionable black levels once the boys starting digging a tunnel. I saw no compression issues, but grain was apparent in some of the lower-light level scenes.

The Audio:
The English 5.1 Dolby Surround audio mix for Prison Break: Season Three is quite attractive, as well, with an expansive spread during the action scenes, and some good ambient effects during even the quietest moments. All dialogue is crisp and clean, and well-balanced among the effects and music. Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish are included, as well as close-captions.

The Extras:
No commentaries this season. Hmmmm...... Make your own comment there (mine is: nobody ponied up any dough to make it worth somebody's while). There are several featurettes included, though. Season 3: Orientacion (16:50) has interviews with the various actors involved in this third season. Breakout Episode (13:19) details how actions scenes were staged and executed for the Breakout episode. Director's Takes featurettes (39:44), 13 in all, have the various episode directors and actors discussing sequences from the series. And the Between Takes featurette (10:37) has the actors discussing their down-time between call times. As well, there's a bonus episode of The Unit, Force Majeure, included to entice buyers. Not too terribly exciting puffery.

Final Thoughts:
Excitement on probation. Prison Break: Season Three is a big let-down after the exhilarating first two seasons of the cult Fox hit, but enough cheap-jack thrills common to the most base prison escape thrillers seep through, making it acceptable, if hardly recommended, viewing. Fans will no doubt check it out, but I suggest a rental first, before shelling out the dough.