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Michael vs. Mahone - Prison Beak is bipolar?
So, I've been busy addicting a couple of my friends to Prison Break, and something has occurred to me. This are kid of half-formed thoughts, so bear with me.
In first season - let's not fool ourselves, it's the Michael Scofield show. It's the Michael Scofield CAN'T FUCKING WIN show. Every episode, something goes horribly wrong and Michael spends the entire 45 minutes (or 90 minutes, if it's a two-parter) scrambling to fix it in an incredibly brilliant and possibly pre-planned way. The conspiracy is totally second. When I tried to summarize things for my friend, to catch her up, the conspiracy didn't honestly occur to me until I'd already covered everything about what was happening within the prison.
It's good TV, no doubt about it. But Veronica is really fucking annoying sometimes, and Nick is one of the most unexceptional actors I've ever seen. LJ is great, and Kellerman is great, but there's no 'focus' of that plot. It's not "Veronica Can't Fucking Win", it's not "Kellerman Can't Fucking Win", it's "Check Out This Conspiracy Guyz".
However, with second season, that part of the formula changes. The show fractures, into a ton of different plotlines (Abruzzi, Sucre, Franklin, Haywire, Tweener, Michael & Lincoln, T-Bag, Kellerman & Kim, Kellerman & Sara, and Mahone, to name a few). But the biggest focus of the show is still Michael, and in this something changes. I think the show kind of becomes bi-polar, with two main characters, not just one. And I'm not talking about Michael and Lincoln, I'm talking about Michael and Mahone.
Mahone's focus is Michael, there's no doubt about it - so his plot can almost be included under Michael's, except Mahone holds his own as a character. He has action, within the plotline. He's involved in everyone's business - Sara, the Company, Abruzzi, Tweener, Haywire, everyone. He becomes such an active character, in his own right, that he's the anti-Michael. Michael's mirror evil braintwin. And that's a really sweet dynamic to have, but in doing so, the show becomes not just about Michael but about Mahone too. They need to get almost equal treatment to keep the mirror thing going.
What I'm saying is that ever since first season, Michael hasn't been the exclusive main focus. I mean, back then, he clearly was. Every time something happens, it's always his reaction we see. It's his POV we take, more often than not, and if it isn't his POV, it's the POV of someone rather important to him and the view of the events he will inevitably take (such as Abruzzi's POV against the mafia dudes). I think the inclusion of Mahone broke that exclusivity, as far as Prison Break's formula went.
In first season - let's not fool ourselves, it's the Michael Scofield show. It's the Michael Scofield CAN'T FUCKING WIN show. Every episode, something goes horribly wrong and Michael spends the entire 45 minutes (or 90 minutes, if it's a two-parter) scrambling to fix it in an incredibly brilliant and possibly pre-planned way. The conspiracy is totally second. When I tried to summarize things for my friend, to catch her up, the conspiracy didn't honestly occur to me until I'd already covered everything about what was happening within the prison.
It's good TV, no doubt about it. But Veronica is really fucking annoying sometimes, and Nick is one of the most unexceptional actors I've ever seen. LJ is great, and Kellerman is great, but there's no 'focus' of that plot. It's not "Veronica Can't Fucking Win", it's not "Kellerman Can't Fucking Win", it's "Check Out This Conspiracy Guyz".
However, with second season, that part of the formula changes. The show fractures, into a ton of different plotlines (Abruzzi, Sucre, Franklin, Haywire, Tweener, Michael & Lincoln, T-Bag, Kellerman & Kim, Kellerman & Sara, and Mahone, to name a few). But the biggest focus of the show is still Michael, and in this something changes. I think the show kind of becomes bi-polar, with two main characters, not just one. And I'm not talking about Michael and Lincoln, I'm talking about Michael and Mahone.
Mahone's focus is Michael, there's no doubt about it - so his plot can almost be included under Michael's, except Mahone holds his own as a character. He has action, within the plotline. He's involved in everyone's business - Sara, the Company, Abruzzi, Tweener, Haywire, everyone. He becomes such an active character, in his own right, that he's the anti-Michael. Michael's mirror evil braintwin. And that's a really sweet dynamic to have, but in doing so, the show becomes not just about Michael but about Mahone too. They need to get almost equal treatment to keep the mirror thing going.
What I'm saying is that ever since first season, Michael hasn't been the exclusive main focus. I mean, back then, he clearly was. Every time something happens, it's always his reaction we see. It's his POV we take, more often than not, and if it isn't his POV, it's the POV of someone rather important to him and the view of the events he will inevitably take (such as Abruzzi's POV against the mafia dudes). I think the inclusion of Mahone broke that exclusivity, as far as Prison Break's formula went.
no subject
An opinion I've heard that I more or less agree with is that Michael (like Hannibal Lecter) is interesting because he's captive in the first season. When he's not in prison anymore in the second season, Mahone becomes the limiting factor, the new "prison." At first, Michael treats Mahone much like he treated the prison--he gets to know him and figures out quirks and weaknesses, etc. But, unlike the prison in season one, Mahone is actually a person, and has all the trappings of a character. I think he's a great character, and is in direct opposition to Michael in a lot of ways, but I think I view him not as the anti-Michael, but as the thing/person that makes Michael interesting and awesome. And since he has his own character on top of that, one that learns and adapts to Michael, he gets Michael's attention (and a kind of respect) more, and a great dynamic develops.
Then again, I didn't watch most of Season 3, so I don't really know how things changed when the both of them were imprisoned together...
no subject
I do believe that Mahone is introduced as the anti-Michael. He's Michael's counterpart, evil where Michael is good, official where Michael is an outlaw. In early first season, that's who he is, that's why he's there. It's only later on that he becomes a character in his own right, but he's already claimed that equal place, he's already become a character more major than anyone else managed in first season. Hence the bipolar aspect.
When they were both imprisoned together, Michael treated him like shit, and it fell flat. They were still 'supposed' to be enemies, but it worked the best when they worked together.
no subject
I actually think where the show stumbled in season 3 was by trying to make it All About Michael again, with some occasional Lincoln POV thrown in. Linc's storyline in season 3, IMO, never gelled. And now in season 4 I feel like the show is trying to sway more heavily towards Linc than Michael at all (though that could be my bias because Dom Purcell is listed first in the credits).
no subject
S3 was also sorta structured the same as S1, only the outside conspiracy and the inside escape were connected. I mean, half of S1 was Veronica's POV, remember, but it was never the Veronica show, nor was S3 the Lincoln show.
I think Mahone ended up taking over far more than his character originally seemed to intend. Which, awesome? Yes.
no subject
REALLY?! Wow, how did I miss that? That just seems wrong; it's *always* been the WM show to me, too.
I agree with your ultimate conclusion about Mahone. Both that he did more than intended and that that's awesome. *g*