Prison Break is an American crime drama television series about prison escapes. Each episode is around 45 minutes and features tense scenes and violence. The main characters include Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows. Prison Break shows that no one is safe from being targeted by the government and the lengths people will go to for love. It was broadcast from 2005 to 2009 on FOX and is now available on streaming services.

1. Prison Break
Jacob Hollison

2. Purpose
• The purpose of prison break is
to entertain, it does this by
using many tense scenes as
well as some very violent
scenes. The show makes the
audience feel sympathy
towards the character Lincoln
due to the fact he is innocent
but faces the death penalty. It
also gives the viewer an
insight as to what life is like in
American prisons.

3. Form and Style
• Each episode of Prison
Break tends to be around
45 minutes except the
odd episode which can go
on to an hour long. The
main theme in this series
is conflict. Examples of
this is between the
characters T Bag and
Michael, they both hate
each other however in
order to make the escape
they have to work
together.

4. Content
• Key characters include; Michael Scofield,
Lincoln Burrows, Sara Tancredi, Fernando
Sucre, Theodore ‘T Bag’ Bagwell, Alex Mahone
and Paul Kellerman.

5. Content
• It is set in
Washington DC and
two different
prisons, Fox River
State Penitentiary
and Sona prison in
Panama. In terms of
sound Prison Break
uses a lot of fast
paced music due to
a lot of it involving
the characters
having to avoid the
police and
sometimes have to
fight them off.

6. Meaning
• Prison Break shows that no one is safe from being targeted
by the government as it is shown by Lincoln getting
sentenced for a crime he did not commit. It also shows the
effect love has on people due to the fact that a lot of the
decisions made by characters are for another character.

7. Genre
• The genre of Prison Break would go down as a
Crime series however it does include a lot of
action and mystery.

8. Target Audience
• Due to the storyline and setting the target
audience for Prison Break would be people aged
between 18-34. it includes adult content such as
violence, bad language, sexual and drug
references.

9. Frequency
• The show was broadcast by
FOX for 4 seasons from
2005 to 2009. However
now all seasons are
available to watch on
Netflix. In terms of
understanding Prison Break
you would probably need to
watch each episode to
understand what is
happening as things are
changing all the time.

10. Production Process
• Idea - The idea of a man deliberately getting sent
to prison in order to help his brother escape was
suggested by producer Dawn Parouse.
• Development - The screenplays were written by
Paul Scheuring. Prison Break received funding off
Fox Broadcasting Company however it was turned
down at first.
• Pre Production - Casting included: Dominic Purcell,
Wentworth Miller, Amaury Nolasco, Robert
Knepper, William Fitchtner and Sarah Wayne
Callies. Filming locations were all over the USA,
places include Chicago, Texas, Miami and Joliet
Prison Illinois.
• Production - Prison Break began shooting in 2005
and spent a total of $2 million per episode which
works out to be $24 million in 2005. for series 2
each episode took 8 days to film and cost them
around $1.4 million. Series 3 had a budget od $3
million per episode.

11. Production Process
• Post Production - The theme music and the incidental music of each
episode was composed by Ramin Djawadi. Film editing was by Etienne Des
Lauriers and Scott Eilers.
• Distribution - Prison Break was originally shown of Fox and is now
available to watch on DVD and Blu Ray, as well as online streaming sites
such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.