'Prison Break' is everything that 'Firefly' should have been by Blue786

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'Prison Break' is everything that 'Firefly' should have been

POSTED BY: BLUE786
UPDATED: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 04:30
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VIEWED: 2836
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Monday, February 13, 2006 4:43 PM

Today, I read about “Prison Break” coming back for its second season on Fox in March.

For those who don’t know, “Prison Break” centers on Lincoln, a dude who gets sentenced to death row for killing the Vice President’s brother. Lincoln claims he was framed. Lincoln’s brother Domenic is some super smart engineer, who robs a bank to get into prison, in order to break his brother out. The whole first season centered on Domenic’s elaborate scheme to break his brother out of prison. Domenic has to compromise his ideals, and work with some evil criminals to make his escape plan work, all the while there is a corrupt guard who thinks that something is up, and is plotting against Domenic. Meanwhile, if all of this weren’t enough, some of Domenic’s friends on the outside are also trying to establish Lincoln’s innocence, and they are slowly uncovering a vast conspiracy, complete with rouge government agents. It is a “story-arc” kind of show just like Firefly, following several different plot lines over several episodes.

Anyway, the thought occurred to me that “Prison Break” is everything that “Firefly” should have been.

The premises are similar. A band of underdogs fights against the corrupt system. The underdogs aren’t searching for fame and fortune, just some space to live in peace. Intelligent shows that sometimes go to places you didn’t expect you to. There’s heroes, villains, anti-heroes, and innocent bystanders. Key characters can and do get killed.

The differences? Fox promoted the HELL out of Prison Break. Last year, it seemed like you couldn’t watch Fox for more than 15 minutes without seeing at least one commercial for Prison Break. Additionally, Prison Break was on at 8:00 PM, on Sunday, a great slot for a fledgling show to get a good amount of exposure to the casual TV-watching public. Compare this to “Firefly,” which was on at 8:00 PM on Fridays, the “death slot” according to many networks, due to the low amount of people watching TV.

The result? Prison Break was a HUGE success.

I’m a pretty picky consumer of TV, and even I got drawn into it. Even more importantly, it drew from many different demographics. I was into it. My Mom was into it. Friends from school, friends from work, young, old, married, single, etc; all sorts of different people from various demographics were watching the show.

My point? Fox has taken a chance on a ground-breaking new show with “Prison Break,” and it has paid off for them. The show is hugely popular, and will likely draw even larger audiences in its second season. While I’m sure those folks at Fox are patting each other on the back over their successes, (and all the money they have made), they had another show in Firefly that could have been an equally huge success, had they just treated it with the same respect they gave Prison Break.

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Monday, February 13, 2006 4:48 PM

FOLLOWMAL

Gorramn Fox execs....

them to hell!

" You hold. Hold til I get back." Mal

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Monday, February 13, 2006 5:06 PM

3HEADEDMONKEY

Prison Break is alright....

If Jack Bauer were there, he would've broken out on the first day.

Hell, if he were on the island in Lost, he would've gotten off by now.

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Monday, February 13, 2006 5:45 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

See, this is another thing that bugs me. Dominic Purcell has shown he can carry a major drama series. Hell, he did it w/ John Doe. And on that, since SciFi has been re-airing that show, I've had mixed feelings over how good it is to see it again vs how pissed off I am at the a-holes at F*X TV.

I actually did NOT watch PB, primarily for the Doe/Firefly reasons. Why get into a show that they'll likely cancell. No matter how good it is.

Idiots!

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Monday, February 13, 2006 6:10 PM

NDRAGE85

Quote:
Originally posted by 3HeadedMonkey:
Prison Break is alright....

If Jack Bauer were there, he would've broken out on the first day.

Hell, if he were on the island in Lost, he would've gotten off by now.

lol, Jack Bauer does indeed kick ass. but yeah, i've been watching Prison Break. It's not bad, but it doesn't come even close to being as great as Firefly. Not even in the same ballpark. But it's still an enjoyable distraction. i just wonder how they'll continue the show after they actually break out of prison. if they indeed do that. i'm thinking they will get the execution postponed this season, and then next season will still be them in prison dealing with that and continuing to try to prove Lincoln's innocence.

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Monday, February 13, 2006 6:20 PM

NOSADSEVEN

Quote:
Originally posted by Blue786:
...Lincoln’s brother Domenic is some super smart engineer, who robs a bank to get into prison, in order to break his brother out...

Just to be picky, the brother's name is Michael. Domenic (Purcell) is the actor who plays Lincoln.

But as for the point of your post...I agree, but you also have to keep in mind that Prison Break has a concept that can be summed up in two words: prison break. The only thing the hype had to accomplish was convince folks that it'd be done well. The marketers for Firefly had a much more daunting task before them, and when you add to that the network's lack of faith in the series, their hesitance to gamble precious advertising time and money on such a risky venture - while self fulfilling - makes sense.

I think Firefly was a bit ahead of its time. It broke during the super-economical reality tv binge. These days people (and subsequently, networks) are more receptive to "high concept" programming, and I do think Firefly helped break the groundwork for that. But then, I am a little biased.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't. We. Just.

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Monday, February 13, 2006 7:19 PM

BLUE786

nosadseven,

Good catch on the error. I think faster than I type sometimes, and my proofreading skiils aren't the greatest.

Agree, and agree on your points though.

As Joss said himself, he kind of dances around a couple of different genres, so it makes it more diffucult to market his product. Wheras the title "Prison Break," like you said, pretty much sums up that whole show.

On the other hand though, Fox is a network for gosh's sakes. Firefly may have been a little tough to market, but geez, I remember the original commericals from 2002, and now that I have seen the show, I can't help but think they had some intern spend about 1/2 hour coming up with the commercials. Firefly may be difficult to market, but isn't that why folks working for the networks make the big bucks?

And yeah, when I think back to late 2002, when Firefly originally aired, Survivor had already been a huge hit, and everyone seemed to be tripping over themsleves to put on the next big reality hit.

Of course now, things seem to be coming full circle. Shows with many charahcters and story-lines extending over mulitple episodes are popular. See Desperate Housewives, Gray's Anatomy, Lost, etc.

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Monday, February 13, 2006 8:03 PM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

Prison Break promotes the Prison Industrial Complex and slave plantation grid. Just bend over and volunteer for your Police State. Same with 24, et al. Those crappy shows will always get the CAFR pension "investments" and Fed Reserve Bank counterfeiting, and CIA narco money laundering. They lure the sheeple into accepting their fate-worse-than-death, while slurpin beer on duh couch.

FF & Serenity promotes Libertarian FREEDOM and Old American Values ("American Independents/Independence" vs Commie China/British Evil-Empire Alliance). This, unfortunately, is reality, that USA is DOA RIP. This fact cannot be revealed to the sheeple, or they might actually awaken from their stupor long enough to do something about it - like arrest 2-time-convicted drunk driving serial killer Dick Cheney for shootin a man in duh head, then hidin out from the deputies for 12 hours until he sobered up.

It's like TV zombies are victims of CIA's MKULTRA Project Monarch slave program, not just River.

Firefly is motivating, in an odd-but-satisfying way. Is it more than a TeeVee show? Is it DEpregramming?

"'They're hurting us. Get me out!' The Government was playing with her brain."
-Dr. T, censored Serenity pilot

"That's sounds like the Alliance. Unite all the planets under one rule, so that everybody can be interfered with or ignored equally."
-Mal

FIREFLY SERENITY PILOT MUSIC VIDEO:
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/8310.php
(try again later if server is crashed)

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Monday, February 13, 2006 8:52 PM

RCAT

I completely agree, Nosadseven, the timing was off. If firefly was a new show on now it would undoubtedly be more successful (provided f*x didn't muck it up).

And to Piratenews, I don't disagree on any particular point but next time, try to tell us how you really feel :) .

"A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned."
-Book

"But she was all naked, and...articulate."
-Mal

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006 4:30 AM

MILFORD

Don't foget that all the head honchos that were there for the Firefly debacle aren't there any more. Looks like those losers learned their lesson.

Remember, that but for one trifling exception, the entire universe is made up of others.- Oliver Wendall Holmes

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