The second season of Prison Break, an American serial drama television series, commenced airing in the United States on August 21, 2006, on Mondays at 8:00 pm (EST) on Fox. Prison Break is produced by Adelstein-Parouse Productions, in association with Rat Entertainment, Original Film and 20th Century Fox Television. The season contains 22 episodes, and concluded on April 2, 2007. Series creator Paul Scheuring describes the second season as "The Fugitive times eight," and likens it to the "second half of The Great Escape."
Prison Break revolves around two brothers: one who has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and his younger sibling, a genius who devises an elaborate plan to help him escape prison. The brothers, along with six other prisoners at Fox River State Penitentiary, manage to escape, and the second season follows a massive manhunt chasing the group. Dubbed the Fox River Eight, the group splits and members go their individual way, occasionally meeting up to help each other. They struggle to escape from the police while avoiding a secret group of multinationals called The Company, that wants them all dead.
For the season, three characters are downgraded from series regular to recurring status, and a new character is introduced. Filming took place in Dallas, Texas, due to a close proximity of rural and urban settings. For the final three episodes, scenes were filmed in Pensacola, Florida, to represent Panama. Critical reviews of the season were generally positive, with the addition of William Fichtner to the cast receiving much praise. Fox Home Entertainment released the season in Region 1 on September 4, 2007.
Cast
Main characters
Dominic Purcell as Lincoln Burrows
Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield
Robin Tunney as Veronica Donovan
Amaury Nolasco as Fernando Sucre
Marshall Allman as L.J. Burrows
Wade Williams as Captain Brad Bellick
Paul Adelstein as Secret Service Agent Paul Kellerman
Robert Knepper as Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell
Rockmond Dunbar as Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin
Sarah Wayne Callies as Dr. Sara Tancredi
William Fichtner as FBI Special Agent Alexander Mahone
Recurring characters
Episodes
Production
Filming
Filming began on June 15, 2006, in Dallas, Texas due to a close proximity of rural and urban settings. Executive producer Matt Olmstead stated that the filming location was changed from Chicago in the first season to Dallas in the second season because the characters were on the run. Many locations were needed to represent various American towns, which Dallas provided, whereas locations within Chicago took several hours to travel between. Olmstead noted, "It really came down to a financial thing." Other locations that were considered for filming were New Mexico, Arizona and Louisiana. Dallas was chosen because of its "resourcefulness, cost effectiveness and variety with regard to activities available for the crew", which was considered to be a major component for the final decision. Filming took place in Dallas for nine to ten months, where 20 of the 22 episodes were shot. The series was expected to bring $50 million into the city of Dallas. For the final three episodes of the second season, filming took place in Pensacola, Florida to represent Panama. Filming for each episode took place over eight days, which contributed approximately $1.4 million to the local economy.
Release
Critical reception
Mike Duffy of the Detroit Free Press commended the premiere for delivering "rocking good entertainment," and living up to the standard set by the first season. Duffy praised the "motley crew of cellblock characters" and the "taut, ingenious storytelling of series creator Paul T. Scheuring and his staff." Robert Bianco of USA Today commented on the "harebrained absurdities that have swamped this show", and accused the writers of being "incredibly lazy" for the continuous use of the tattoo as an "all-purpose plot fix". Ahsan Haque and Christopher Monfette of IGN credited the creators for not being afraid to take risks, which they felt "paid off for the most part". The reviewers found the biggest success factors to be "the constant swerves and twists" throughout the season, and "the development of the hero-villain relationship between Scofield and Mahone".