pliget

Bored to tears by this; thank goodness I only borrowed it from the library. The history is all wrong, The casting of Henry shows the level they were going for. Instead of a credible Henry, tall and well-built, with red hair and a huge presence (like Steven Waddington who actually plays Buckingham) we get a dark-haired, short Irishman. Softporn masquerading as history. I did enjoy the cod-history by Mr Meyers on the extras giving us his "knowledge" of Henry; it made me laugh though I suspect I wasn't supposed to. And as for the scene of Meyers masturbating what was that all about? Lowest common-denominator stuff in all respects.

Really rather plodding fare with some very poor casting. Stacy Keach is good (as always) and Wentworth Miller seems to have something about him. T-Bag is a fun character and well played also but the rest just seem wooden. Peter Stormare who I liked in Fargo was awfully miscast as an Italian gangster; I can't remember a single wise-guy looking quite as shabby as his character.

The basic premise does seem interesting but there seem to be too many implausibilities which we are just expected to take on trust. The cliffhangers flow thick and fast, most of them rather boring and not really resolved very cleverly. They just got a bit tedious as they rolled around every ad break and before the credits. I felt none of the involvement that I had with 24 and even with the first couple of episodes of Alias. There were some interesting moments and about half- way through I recall I did want to see what might happen next but mostly it seemed pretty mindless - the sort of thing one could probably knit to. If I wasn't mildly autistic with a thing about completeness I probably would have given up before the end.

If you like Prison Break you'll probably like Alias too. Me, I think I'll give series 2 a miss. If you want to see a good prison series try Oz.

A quite wonderful story from Series 1 episode 1 to the final series 5 episode. I loved (and hated, in parts) the characters and lived their lives with them. The casting was faultless with some really captivating actors and a thoroughly believable and beguiling script.

Series 3, in my view, started to drag a little but then things picked up in series 4 and 5 and the last episode had me enraptured and not a little tearful as we said goodbye to the characters.

If you like to be entertained emotionally as well as cerebrally you will love the Fishers and their story. Easily up there with The Sopranos and The West Wing as Classic TV that will stand the test of time.