Fox's new series, "Prison Break," is a murder mystery, soap opera, action flick, escape drama and Saturday matinee cliffhanger all wrapped up in an outlandish but compulsively watchable package. Like "24" (which this show most closely resembles), it's probably one of the few complete season boxed sets that you're likely to sit through in its entirety more than once, making this 6-disc set well worth owning.

You know you're watching a damn good piece of escapism (no pun intended) when you spend most of the time unaware (or uncaring) how preposterous the whole premise is. Wentworth Miller plays Michael Scofield, a brilliant structural engineer who intentionally gets himself sentenced to prison with an elaborate plan to bust out his older brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), on death row after being framed for the murder of the Vice President's brother. Having helped design the prison, he has blueprints and vital info hidden in tattoos all over his body, and counts on the willing (and sometimes unwilling) help of other inmates and staff to see his plan through, all while trying to survive prison life without making enemies or getting killed. Meanwhile, outside the prison, attorney and ex-fiancee of Burrows Veronica Donovan (Robin Tunney) is compelled to try and grant a stay of execution by further investigating the murder, which leads to a massive conspiracy going all the way up to the White House. Aiding her are Nick Savrinn (Frank Grillo) and Burrow's estranged & troubled teenage son, L.J. (Marshall Allman). The three of them are hounded by the Secret Service, led by sadistic agent Paul Kellerman (Paul Adelstein), who is murdering anyone who could potentially expose the truth behind the murder before Burrows is executed. That's the plot in a nutshell, which contains more outrageous (and occasionally unbelievable) twists than a bag of pretzels, which is part of what makes the show able to sustain its story over an entire season. Sure, a few of the conflicts or obstacles are ludicrously resolved, but not so much that they detract from the plot. Part of that is due to a lot of emphasis on characterization. Considering the size of the ensemble cast, most characters are well-rounded and fleshed out by the writers, and performed by a great group of faces both familiar and unfamiliar, a few of whom engage in some fun scenery-chewing (Storemare's character provides a lot of wicked fun, while Miller is cool-yet-vulnerable as Scofield). "Prison Break" does an especially good job establishing its antagonists, like the lecherous T-Bag (Robert Knepper), prison bull Bellick (Wade Williams) and the aforementioned Kellerman. These are three of the most hateful villains you're likely to see in a modern TV show, and part of what makes "Prison Break" worth watching is waiting to see whether or not they're gonna get what they truly deserve. If reality TV has proven nothing else (aside the fact that some people will watch anything), it has shown that a program, even a fictional one, does not need to consist of self-contained 'episodes' if done right. Like "24," "Prison Break" plays like one long, 20-hour movie, but seldom ever gets boring. When reviewing TV boxed sets, in order to post reviews in a timely manner and still leave time for my job and family, I usually don't sit and watch every single episode. However, with "Prison Break," being that I never caught the show when aired on Fox, the story hooked me, and there were several consecutive nights where I caught about three hours of sleep because I just HAD to find out what was going to happen next.

The series was shot in widescreen, and this disc presents the show in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, which is really cool, considering the overall cinematic feel of it. There were occasions when the image quality seemed kind of weak (usually panoramic overhead shots of the prison), like a deteriorating VHS tape, but that may be due to the screener copy I was given. For the most part, the black tones and colors and accurate & sharp. The sound quality, however, is great, free of distortion or hissing, and offered in 5.1 Dolby Surround.

Six episodes include audio commentaries by cast & crew members, and some deleted scenes from a few episodes are featured on some of the discs. Disc Six contains a few behind-the-scenes features, the longest being a 30 minute making-of, which mostly features cast members discussing their characters. Another short feature covers Scofield's elaborate tattoo, with an interview with the same artist who designed the tattoo for series exec-producer Brett Ratner's film, "Red Dragon." There's also a short featurette about Joliet Prison, where the show was filmed. Another feature, promisingly titled "Season 2 Preview," does NOT show anything from the upcoming second season; it's just a recap of Season 1, along with a narrator who ominously promises 'escape was just the beginning.'

Exciting, fast-moving, occasionally silly, yet compulsively watchable, "Prison Break" is the type of show perfect for DVD, where you can catch one episode after another without waiting an entire week between them. It's loaded with outlandish & fun plot turns, and characters you'll either love or despise. If you haven't caught the show during its broadcast run, this set is well-worth picking up before Season 2 kicks off. Highly recommended. Similar Shows: "24"; "Lost"; "The Shield"