In all vanity...

How time passes and life brings diverse things on the platter. I remember the time when I used to come back from School and used to have 2-3 hours for myself alone, when parents were still at work. Every month Maa used to get Nandan & Champak (Kids Magazines), and I used to indulge myself in the colorful world of beautiful Princesses, chivalrous Princes and savage Demons. After sometime, the reading bug grew so powerful that I used to read these magazines within an hour of their delivery. 

So later, I started to venture out for other areas which could fulfill my reading needs, so to say. And thus after not too much of an effort, I landed in a amazing room filled with books stack after stack to choose from. So from Tintins to Enid Blyton's Noddy series to Famous Fives & Nancy Drews came another world of stories to the platter. On the way met all the Mills & Boon and Harlequin Romances too. And have seen the journey from Harold Robbins to Ayn Rand - all the way. From Action to Love, from History to Sci-Fi, from Comedy to Horror stories to Supernatural, from Religion to scriptures, have read them all. When I look back, it seems I have known so many different people, learnt about their lives and been a part of their queer situations too. And what a fun it is to re-read a book..!! It's like meeting old friends, who you have known from the past and you know what they have went through and how their lives unturned in front of you. Its simply soothing. Bliss.

On the other hand, it has been sometime time now that I have been following different American TV Series also. It started off with the all familiar Friends series which everyone has seen it and loved it... and its oft repeated telecasts of all seasons on all the English General Entertainment channels and the result of watching them all, every time there was a telecast - I not only know the story line of each and every episode but in fact can now lip sync the dialogs too.. Still, the beauty is that I still love the series and can still watch it from any point of any episode from any series at any time. :)

Plus there was this thing to try something new and then as luck would have it, just by chance I got my hands on so many various other TV series - it was like stepping on to a huge pile of dope to someone who is an avid fan of stories... and this was a huge list of series starting from Lost to Prison Break to Alias to 24 to Supernatural at one end and The Big Bang Theory to How I met Your Mother to Two and a Half Men to Mike and Molly to Dharma & Greg to Cybill. This TV watching journey also has been eventful and it is just another way of getting know other people. 

Whether it is a book or a TV series, the most impacting have been the ones with strong characters and that throughout the story the characters have been developed and the writers have hung on to the basic traits of the character. The characters have been strong, dynamic, loose, afraid, queer, honest, whimsical or stupid. But have loved them all. 

The urge to read more is still growing, but with all the work and so many other contraptions of life, there is still lesser time to do so much that has been on the to-read and to-see list. 

So just trying to make some more time, but right now have been utilizing it to write all this stuff down. Recently have not written so much, but this is another bug which is growing by the day or lets say growing by the week or even month, since I last wrote in July sometime. :) 

so till next time...

Cheers...!!

- A

Prison Break - the Series...

Wow !! just finished watching an experience of a superbly written TV Drama Series which encapsulated Crime & Action.. and the credit goes to - Paul Scheuring... after a really long time i found a thriller storyline so enthralling and characters so strongly traced out, packed with all the crime and politics involved, affecting global landscape ultimately... I though nobody can come near the likes of Stephen King and Robert Ludlum...!! Impressive..!!

For those who haven't had the chance to watch the series yet, a one-liner story baseline is - The series revolves around two brothers; one (Lincoln Burrows) has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other (Michael Scofield) devises an elaborate plan to help his brother escape prison.

Best part about the writer is that he has not wavered from the basic storyline and the agenda that the brothers are following and has built upon that only, also not wavering from the traits of the characters till the end... I have read so many novels and seen so many movies/ TV series where the creator forgets what he started off with and what he landed on when he finishes his creation.. and the most ugly and painful part is where the creator forgets the traits of the character and starts modifying as and when needed. I think that the writer surely lacks talent when he is doing this to his own creation.

But this didn't happen in the Prison Break even for a moment. The writer had Serial Killers, Cons, Gangsters, Drug Abusers, Rapists, Thugs, Murderers on his hand to write for and he never missed the intricacies of those. Quite a relief..!!

(Skip this part about the Season Details if you have seen the series... and go to The Characters directly...)


Season 1 - The Original Break: The first season follows the rescue of Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), who is accused of murdering the brother of the Vice President of the United States. Lincoln is sentenced to death and is incarcerated in Fox River State Penitentiary where he awaits his execution. Lincoln's brother, brilliant structural engineer Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller), is convinced of Lincoln's innocence and formulates an escape plan. In order to gain access to Fox River, Michael commits armed robbery. Michael befriends the prison doctor Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies) when he pretends to suffer from Type 1 diabetes, in order to gain daily access to the prison's infirmary. However, they are hindered by covert agents, members of an organization known as The Company. The Company was responsible for framing Lincoln, and they did so because of Lincoln's father, Aldo Burrows, and his former connections to the company. The brothers, along with six other inmates, Fernando Sucre, Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin, David "Tweener" Apolskis, John Abruzzi, and Charles "Haywire" Patoshik, who come to be known as the Fox River Eight, escape in the season finale. 


Season 2 - The Bringing Down: The second season begins eight hours after the escape, focusing mainly on the escapees. The fugitives split up and journey to locations across the country with the authorities close behind them as they each pursue their individual goals. Brad Bellick gets fired from the prison where he worked as a guard and chases after the inmates himself for the reward money. Several of the escapees reunite in search of a large cache of money buried long ago by another prisoner. Federal agent Alexander Mahone is assigned to track down and capture the eight fugitives, but is revealed to be working for The Company, which wants all eight men dead. When Sara discovers her dead father, Governor Frank Tancredi, she meets with Michael, remaining with him as the brothers try to bring down the current President, a Company member. To ensure the brothers' safety, Sara allows herself to be arrested and faces trial. During the trial, the testimony of former Secret Service agent Paul Kellerman, who used to work for the Company-controlled President, exonerates Lincoln and Sara. Several of the escapees are killed or recaptured, but the brothers make it to Panama. Michael, T-Bag, Mahone, and Bellick are arrested by the Panamanian authorities and imprisoned at the Penitenciaría Federal de Sona.

Season 3 - Again Breaking Out: The third season follows both Michael inside Sona and Lincoln on the outside in Panama. Sona is a prison that has been run by the inmates and guarded only from the outside since a riot the year before. Burrows is quickly contacted by Gretchen Morgan (a Company operative who was in charge of operations in Panama) who kidnapped his son LJ and Sara Tancredi, the woman Michael loves. He is told that The Company wants Scofield to break James Whistler out of Sona. The season follows Michael and Whistler's trials in formulating an escape plan, as Michael has to deal with extreme tension and as Lincoln deals with the Company's operative Gretchen Morgan. Sucre gets a job at the prison to aid Michael in his escape plan. When Lincoln attempts to rescue Sara and LJ following a clue provided by Sara, Gretchen claims to have beheaded Sara and sends Lincoln a head in a box as a warning. As the season ends, the pair manage to escape along with Mahone, and another inmate McGrady leaving behind several accomplices including T-Bag and Bellick. Sucre's identity is discovered by a prison guard and is thrown into Sona just after the escape. LJ and Sofia (who was captured for a guarantee that Whistler would go with her) are traded for Whistler, and Michael seeks revenge against Gretchen for Sara's death. 


Season 4 - The Breaking In: The major storyline for the fourth season concerns a team recruited by Homeland Security agent Don Self to obtain Scylla. Although the team initially believes it to be the Company's "black book", it is later revealed to contain information on an advanced renewable power cell. Over the course of the first half of the season, the team obtain cards to access Scylla, and break into Company headquarters to steal it. In the first half, Sara is discovered to be alive, Bellick is killed, and Self is revealed to be a double agent and is planning to sell Scylla to the highest bidder. Reluctantly, Lincoln decides to join the Company to get it back, while Michael suffers from a hypothalamic hamartoma. He is treated and operated on by the Company. He later learns that his mother, Christina is still alive and was an agent of the Company, who is revealed to acquire Scylla to sell to the highest bidder. Eventually, the series ends in Miami, where Scylla is recovered by Michael and the team, the General and the Company are taken down, and Christina is killed. 


In Prison Break: The Final Break, a story is told explaining what happened following the events of the last episode (before the four-year flash-forward) and the strange scar on Sara's shoulder. This story involves the incarceration of Sara in Miami-Dade county penitentiary due to budgetary cutbacks; there are cots installed there acting as the county jail. With the General and T-Bag in the adjacent Men's facility, the General wants Sara dead and offers a $100,000 bounty. Largely echoing season one, Sara is involved in common prison fare before Michael hears of the bounty, and plans are devised for her escape.

The Characters:  the Series was interesting coz of these interesting characters.

Michael Scofield: He is "Pretty" as T-Bag called him; worked as a structural engineer before devoting full-time to his brother's escape. A will-do-anything-for-family attitude. But still can't kill people as easily as others are doing around him. Total heart-throb.. yumm...!!

Sara Tancredi: a doctor by profession at the penitentiary; had been a Morf user; trying to figure out who she is.   

Lincoln Burrows: a high school drop out, a convicted felon, hardened coz of the circumstances. 

T-Bag: devilish attitude, truly a primal animal character, gruesome, he will find every way to stab in others' back, if its in his favor.

Fernando Sucre: Really Sugar.. typical Puerto Rican lover. 


Alexander Mahone: an intellectual match to Scofield. though has a handicap for a drug. becomes an ally to Scofield later. 

Some said the first season was the best, maybe because of the intense thrill and the detailed planning that one can see for the escape that Scofield had planned. But I enjoyed the last season most because this one showed the genius of the Scofield as here was an unknown territory and there was no pre-plan in place.

For all the romantics the only sorry part is the ending where Michael dies and there is no happy ending so to say with Sara and the kid on the way.

But then, it's not a show about Romance though Romance still is threaded through it when we speak of Michael & Sara relationship.. but it's about how in between the gun fights and car crashes they still find each other in a way it is still believable and realistic.

Few Links:

Interview - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApTQOKuYaZM&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Prison Break Theme Mix (Ferry) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ztIx_FNvOc

Kudos to Paul Scheuring... and Wentworth Miller for making Michael Scofield believable...!!!