STUDIO: Fox
RELEASE DATE: August 12, 2008
STARRING: Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller, William Fichtner, Robert Knepper, and Amaury Nolasco
CREATED BY: Paul Scheuring
FEATURES: Season 3: Orientacion Featurette
Breakout Episode Featurette
Director's Take Featurette
Between Takes Featurette

A few once-great shows have taken pretty significant tumbles in the last few years - the sixth season of 24 and the second season of Heroes were most recent installments that were appropriately panned - but if there's any series that I truly think could turn it back around after a season of thrashing by fans and critics, it's Prison Break. The first two seasons of Prison Break were escapist entertainment at its best, the perfect fit for the brutality of a Monday. You could come home and watch Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows and be pretty sure that they were about to have a much worse day than you just did. With supporting characters that were arguably stronger and more interesting than the leads, Prison Break defied the odds and produced a second season that was nearly as good as the first. Trying to get out in the first season, trying to get away in the second, what would the third season be about? A Panamanian prison? Really? That might not have been the best idea. The problem with the third season of Prison Break was not only that it felt repetitive - another break and another conspiracy - but that a lot of the supporting cast we had grown and loved were not just woefully underused but, in one shocking case, unceremoniously killed off and not even on-screen. Could it have been the strike? With a full-season instead of just 13 episodes, would Prison Break have turned it around? Maybe, for sure, and I'm even tempted to say "probably" but we'll never know. We'll have to find out in season four.

Before then, it's time to catch up with Michael, Lincoln, T-Bag, Mahone and the rest of the gang, most of whom start the season in a Panamian prison known as Sona. Lincoln is on the outside, but his son, L.J., has been kidnapped by the mysterious "The Company" and Burrows has to work with the bad guys to save both his brother and his boy. The Company wants Lincoln to break someone out of Sona, a place where the inmates have taken over the asylum. The set-up was good and, once again, the writer's strike screwed up nearly every show on the air last season, but Prison Break let go of its own strengths in season three. They forgot what made the show work. Michael and Lincoln became pawns and no one likes to root for a pawn. Previews for season four seem to indicate that the two boys are back and out for blood, which is a good thing because everyone involved was stuck in the Panamanian mud in season three.

So, why watch a lackluster season? Well, any TV on Blu-Ray is a good thing. There are still far too many studios not embracing the format and it's ridiculous. Honestly, TV should be in Blu-Ray more than anything else, considering most of us who have a Blu-Ray player are used to watching our favorite shows in HD. Why should a show broadcast in HD go to standard on DVD? It doesn't have to with Prison Break, which looks and sounds amazing on Blu-Ray. Sadly, that's the only real compliment we can pay to season three, as the studio also lets down the fans in the department of special features. Four featurettes in a four-disc Blu-Ray set is unacceptable. Where are the commentaries? Deleted scenes? Maybe everyone wanted to leave season three of Prison Break behind. But before we can bring on season four, you'll have to catch up. Do so on Blu-Ray.