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Why Prison Break Is Better Than Heroes…

By fred | October 13, 2008

There aren’t that many similarities between Prison Break and Heroes, one might think, given that one is about people breaking out of prison - or that’s what it was about, now it would be more about collecting cards to bring down some mysterious “Company” no one knows anything about, really, or something like that - while the other one is about people - heroes or villains depending on which season, or episode, you’re at - developing special abilities.

But those two shows share a lot more than that, which was nothing. Not just because they both happen to air on Monday night at 9.00 - though that’s a pretty big one. Both shows are on tonight on the same time, and so you will have to make a decision : which one to watch (live) ?

If you’re not sure yet what you’ll do on Mondays, here’s something to help you make your decision…

When it comes to things not making any sense and characters acting like retards who haven’t followed events on their own lives, both series are there proudly on top of the list that comes to mind, and in other similarities there’s more than the mysterious “Company”, no I think it would be fair to say that both shows looked - and were - extremely exciting and promising during their first season. Aw, the good old times…

Also, last season (the second one for Heroes, the third one for Prison Break) are seen as huge mistakes by fans of the shows. There’s no question that, though quite shortened, the sophomore season of Heroes was a complete mess (and I do not believe it got better by the end of it, much less was back to what it used to be); while trapping Michael in Sona and beheading Sara made for the most boring season of Prison Beak to date.

Nowadays, things have changed drastically from when those shows first premiered, and most people feel the same about each of them : they used to be great, once upon a time, but somewhere along the way they lost it. And yet, there’s this thing that keeps you in front of your TV screen, you keep coming back week after week, you just can’t help it.

I won’t lie to you, last week I couldn’t take it anymore, the last episode was simply too much and as I explained I am not watching Heroes anymore. I gave my reasons, which basically included that writers don’t seem to have any idea what (they want) to do with the show, nor do they even care! That just can’t make it for good television, or good story telling whatever the media actually.

But here’s the thing, even more important than all of that : Despite it all, watching Prison Break is still fun !! (To be precise, I should say it’s fun again - cause last season it wasn’t.)

It’s like the writers of Heroes, in their constant attempt to make the show look much better than it really is, and so much more complicated than it really is, or should be, keep adding new characters and time lines, they keep changing everyone’s destiny and place on the show, heroes in the morning and villains at night, mortal enemy one day, brothers the next, should be but isn’t dead yesterday, and still should be but is not dead tomorrow — okay, on that one they’re pretty consistent, unfortunately.

The end result, among other things, is that it simply isn’t fun to watch Heroes no more. I’m not saying complicated is bad, Hell no, I love myself some Lost. It is good, or more exactly it can be good to be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be complicated to be good. And giving characters depth is good, but it doesn’t happen by simply adding new abilities one after the other to the same guy.

Watching Heroes should be fun, but it is not. Just see for yourself : When was the last time you really enjoyed watching the show ? When was the last time there was any humor ? When was the last time you laughed, but not at the show’s expense ? When was the last time [insert about any character's name] didn’t annoy you so much you wanted to punch him/her in the face and get ride of him/her ? When was the the last Hiro wasn’t pretentiously ranting abut being a heroes, but yelling “yata!!” because he had fun actually being one ?

With Prison Break on the other hand, once you agree that Sara’s head is back and whatever else you need to be watching this season, it’s another story completely. Because the show hasn’t lost its sense of humor, the characters might be in trouble, there might be death threats, but that doesn’t mean they’re not having fun, that doesn’t mean they’re not joking or laughing every once in a while…

Hell, I still think that the writers themselves are actually having fun, and for instance when in a recent episode Mahone warned Michael that he could be recognized by some security guard, while a few weeks before they were all in the middle of an event with nothing but actual cops and Company employees, this can’t be anything but a “private” joke from them to us. And it worked, it was fun, and I laughed.

That’s why, despite all that happened and all you need to accept to keep watching this fourth season of Prison Break, it’s easier to do than watching Heroes, and why I keep doing it while I’ve given up on Heroes : because (to me) watching Prison Break is still fun, while watching Heroes is just boring.

Where do you stand ? Do you still have fun watching Heroes ? Do you feel Prison Break jumped the shark and can’t be enjoyed anymore ? And of course, what really matters in the end I guess : On Monday at 9.00 where will your eyes be at ? Watching NBC, or Fox ?

Posted in News
Shows: Heroes, Prison Break