Psych! You thought Michael Scofield was dead and buried in the 2009 finale of Prison Break and that was the end of the series.
Wrong.
Prison Break put in four seasons on Fox beginning in 2005. And now Michael (Wentworth Miller) has returned from the dead just in time for Season 5, a special "nine-episode event" that kicks off at 8 p.m. today on Fox.
Hey, it's TV. Resurrection can happen.
Most of the original cast (who didn't really die) will be on hand for the revival. Dominic Purcell is back as Michael's brother, Lincoln Burrows, and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead, Colony) reprises her role as Michael's wife, (now his remarried ex), Sara.
Best of all, Robert Knepper has returned in fine form as the uber-creepy villain Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell.
As a refresher, Prison Break began with the taciturn genius Michael, who had the prison blueprints tattooed all over his body, arranging to get himself locked up with Lincoln in order to break him out.
Lincoln was under a death sentence for a crime he didn't commit.
It took 21 episodes to get the guys beyond the walls. Then began three more increasingly convoluted seasons of being on the run, with Michael in prison in Panama; seeking revenge for the supposed death of Sara; and something with a conspiracy and Homeland Security and Michael, dying from a brain tumor, sacrificing himself to allow the not-dead Sara to escape.
The series got complicated -- perhaps too complicated -- and only 3.32 million loyal viewers stuck around for the finale.
Netflix binge watching gained a gaggle of new viewers and convinced Fox to revive the series for a tryout. It may be only a "limited" series, but if it's successful, you can bet it'll return.
The sequel takes place seven years after the previous events and a semi-logical explanation is provided about Michael's lack of dying.
T-Bag, having been a model prisoner, is released and discovers an envelope with what appears to be a current photo of a very much-alive Michael. T-Bag goes to Lincoln, and Lincoln heads to Yemen with Franklin (Rockmond Dunbar) in tow to find out why Michael is behind bars (again).
Then the ol' Scooby gang reunites, as Fox tells us, "to engineer the biggest escape ever."
I've seen the first four episodes and I'll just hint that there's a foul, foul conspiracy afoot once more, with plenty of action and satisfying twists and turns for old fans and new.
• A different Jesus? It's the Easter season and PBS presents The Last Days of Jesus at 7 p.m. today on AETN. The two-hour special concentrates on Holy Week leading up to Jesus' crucifixion.
PBS says the special "runs contrary to the commonly held belief of Jesus as a local preacher who ran up against the Roman rulers in Jerusalem and paid for it with his life."
Instead, the docudrama claims that "new evidence offers a very different image of Jesus as an astute leader with ties to the most powerful people in Rome."
PBS adds there is "new insight into the iconic Easter events ... that help uncover the explosive Roman power politics that ultimately nailed Jesus to the cross."
• Brockmire, 9 p.m. Wednesday on cable's IFC, home of Portlandia. I've been a fan of 52-year-old Hank Azaria since his days on Herman's Head (1991-1994), and as about half the voices on The Simpsons.
Now, the six-time Emmy winner stars in a new series as Jim Brockmire, a legendary major league baseball announcer who had an epic meltdown after he caught his suddenly sexually liberated wife hosting a bacchanal in their home.
The press box video went viral -- one of the first -- and Brockmire was fired. Now after 10 years, he is trying to reclaim his career by calling minor league games in a small Pennsylvania town.
Fair warning: The series is not for everyone. Do not watch this TV-MA comedy if you are in the least offended by foul language, sexual situations, drug and alcohol abuse, abortion, brief semi-nudity or unflattering depictions of small town hicks and yahoos.
Do check it out if you enjoy smart, witty adult television with clever banter and intriguing characters.
The always solid Amanda Peet co-stars as Jules James, the hard-drinking, baseball-loving owner of the Morristown Frackers who hustled Brockmire into coming to the dying rust belt town. Jules believes that if you save the team, you save the town.
And Disney Lab Rats star Tyrel Jackson Williams is a delight as Charles, an awkward 17-year-old internet geek helping Brockmire with his comeback.
Bottom line: I binged six of the eight half-hour episodes in one sitting and finished up the next day. I never binge, so that's high praise, indeed.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 04/04/2017