It's built on a very simple concept. Michael Scofield gets himself arrested and thrown into Fox River prison. It's a deliberate ploy, for not only was he involved in the prison's structural design, but his brother also happens to be on death row, for a crime that he believes he didn't commit. In short, the idea is to break in so that he can break them both out.

From this simple premise, Prison Break then builds. With game nods of the hat to the staple prison movie clichés you'd expect, it nonetheless pulls a few trump cards. Firstly, it takes time to built up interesting characters. Next, it wisely keeps a parallel storyline running outside the prison walls. And thirdly, it's casting is quite superb.

Its final ace is the intricately plotted escape plan itself, and the numerous twists and turns along the way. This initial boxset gets you just past the halfway point of the first season, and at times it's likely to leave you flat-out breathless. At worst, you're likely to be relentlessly entertained, and pulling out that credit card to order the concluding boxset. For Prison Break is that rare thing--a show that accepts it's riddled with clichés, but is clever enough to work that to its advantage. Gripping viewing.--Simon Brew