After successfully orchestrating the escape of his brother and fellow inmates from Fox River State Penitentiary, Michael finds himself in Panama. But whilst his brother Lincoln Burrows is exonerated from his alleged crimes, Michael is caught and wrongly incarcerated for murder in the terrifying Sona Federal Penitentiary, along with fellow fugitives Theodore ‘T-Bag’ Bagwell, Brad Bellick and Alexander Mahone. Trapped in the deadliest prison on earth with no guards, no rules and no escape Michael and Lincoln work together to face their most dangerous challenge yet...

Due to the writer's strike in America, Prison Break's third season consists of 13 episodes instead of the usual 22. This season sees Michael inside Sona Federal Penitentiary, while his brother Lincoln is on the outside. When Lincoln's son and Michael's girlfriend are kidnapped by The Company, they agree to let them go if Michael can free an inmate from Sona. Sona is a prison in which the inmates overpowered the guards, who fled, and now the inmates run the prison while the guards patrol the outside of the facility to ensure no one gets out.

Michael has no choice but to agree to their terms and sets about making escape plans in order to ensure that the kidnappers don't kill his girlfriend and nephew.

The 13 episodes really stretch the plot to breaking point. The basic story is just, in a nutshell, Michael trying to get out of prison... and that's it, really. So we have a big build up to the first attempt at breaking out, which goes wrong, and then the build up to the second attempt. Obviously there are plenty of additional twists and turns and to be fair this season is still enjoyable, it's just that I couldn't help thinking that there could have been a whole lot more to it.

We reviewed the Blu-ray edition and to be honest it's a little disappointing. Why anyone would want to spend £50 purchasing the Blu-ray edition is beyond me. I'm not entirely convinced that there is any difference between this and the DVD release - in fact I noticed that several scenes in the earlier episodes were of pretty average picture quality.

Another thing I'd love to know is why on earth is this released across four Blu-ray discs? According to the press release the total content is 543 minutes and Blu-ray (according to www.blu-ray.com) is capable of storing nine hours of HD material (540 mins). So, at a push you're looking at two discs but I'm sure the features are not in HD (if the episodes even are) so the chances are this would all fit onto a single disc.

Extras are a little light too. We get Season 3: Orientation (17 min feature that interviews the main actors); Break Out Episode (13 min, 25 sec behind the scenes look at filming on location); Director's Takes (40 min, 05 sec collection of 3 min featurettes that sees the directors talking about each episode in chronological order); and Between Takes (a collection of mini featurettes (each being approximately 1 min, 30 sec) with cast members).

None of the extras really tell you anything you haven't already learned from the episodes. The majority are features designed to hook in those that haven't seen the show yet.

While the episodes are enjoyable, and this season is nowhere near as bad as it could have been considering the writer's strike, I'd strongly suggest you purchase the DVD release instead. If this had been release properly, instead of Twentieth Century Fox trying to cash in on Blu-ray owners, then this would have received a mark of 7/10. As it stands I'm being overly generous giving it the mark I am.

5

Pete Boomer