Sweaty Degradation

Hello everyone reading this, my name is Veronica and I have a slight addiction to YouTube Let's Plays. I felt the need to spice up my intro a little bit and chose to somewhat emulate Markiplier as a way of an homage. Or whatever you would call it. I'll start this post off by discussing this recent obsession, since I don't really have an idea as to what to write about. This hobby of watching other people play video games always festered within me, mostly because I myself cannot play video games well so why not watch other people do it. Play video games, I mean. The YouTube Let's Plays, in addition to showing gameplay, are simply hilarious to watch solely because of the gamer commentary. Two gamers I love to watch are Markiplier and Jacksepticeye. Writing their names in a movie blog may seem irrelevant and even silly, but they are a part of my life so they will be a part of this blog. I'll include links to their channels below so you can perhaps experience for yourself the astounding humor and entertainment behind these videos. All I can say about why I like them so much is that they are charismatic and funny. Markiplier especially because he is very, well, attractive. You know how us ladies are. Let's move on to actual blog content.

In my last post, I was right in the middle of the second season of Prison Break, noting its vastly improved quality from the first season. As I savored the last half of the season, I enjoyed every tense minute of it. The suspense in season two was genuine and not at all staged with the creation of obstacles and delays. The season smoothly ran at its own natural momentum without the need of artificial inconveniences. I realize that, as a television show, everything is artificial but the purpose of creating a good show is to make it feel real. Not reality-TV "real," but realistic as far as you can understand the situation. For example, season two documents the prisoners' life on the run, so of course there are inevitable circumstances that will obstruct the characters' freedom. The suspense in the season is real because they are out in the wide world, targeted by various sources such as the authorities and the ambiguous entity known as The Company. Another great quality about season two was the fact that the characters were not all together at all times like they were in prison in season one. This allowed the writers to branch off in different stories for each of the characters, giving the show much more variety and material to work with. Of course, the branch story I preferred was T-Bag hunting down the woman who turned him in. What happened there was he inserted himself into her household as the father-husband, wanting to make himself an actual family even if they are his captives. The scenes with T-Bag were truly emotional because you could see the trauma he had experienced in the past and how it transitioned into his criminal persona as an adult. In the end, he didn't harm the woman or her children, but rather returned to a life on the run with seething resentment at how his life turned out. Still my favorite character by the way. Note: I decided to start using the word "favorite" because it's hard to tip-toe around it. Plus I use it in everyday speech so might as well type it here. 

You will be missed. On the show.
His departure kind of killed the show itself.
Irony of ironies.

At the end of season two, most of the characters had landed in Panama. Why did the writers choose Panama of all cities, I do not know. Right now, I realize that I did not mention Special Agent Mahone once, which is totally wrong because he is one of my favorite characters. Portrayed by William Fitchner, who is yet another underused talented actor I like, Mahone is dedicated to catching Michael Scofield because he is a highly intelligent criminal who constantly evades him. In other words, Mahone has met his match. To further complicate the character, Mahone has a drug addiction that energizes him yet makes him twitch and falter when he goes through withdrawal. I like Mahone mostly because I like Fitchner's performance. The character himself resembles Kellerman in intelligence and experience, which is very favorable to me. Speaking of Kellerman, this season has made me absolutely love his character. Abandoned by The Company and Madam President, he was a lost soldier who turned rogue out of spite. He helped the Vice President assume the position of President of the United States, yet he was tossed aside solely because he was expendable. Of course, he absolutely was not expendable since he had valuable and dangerous information that could incriminate everyone in The Company, making him a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, fighting an influential force that controls even the government is futile. Knowing his fate, Keller decided to expose the U.S. government and its association with The Company. As these whistleblowing acts end up, Kellerman was killed, making me incredible sad that he was gone from the show. I understand why the writers did it, but it was still a tragic scene to see him know that he was going to die. The martyrs are always the most loved. Sometimes. Almost never actually.

Moving on to the next season, that is season three, we begin in a Panamanian prison called Sona. Why are we back in prison? Well, irony behold, the escapee prisoners are back in prison. Plot twist, but not really. The implicated party includes Michael Scofield, Teddy Bagwell, former Special Agent Mahone, and former prison guard Brad Bellick. Another plot twist? Scofield's brother, Lincoln Burrows, is now a free man who must help his brother escape. It's like the first season but reversed! Neat. At this point, I hope the sarcasm is obvious. I did not like this third season. At all. For starters, the show's setting in the South American prison is utterly disgusting. Take my word for it, the characters look rough in this season. And always so sweaty. Fortunately, this unbearable season was only thirteen episodes due to the writers' strike way back when. Even this reduced amount of episodes could not make it go by any slower. I need to emphasize just how slow and terrible this season was. There was no significant plot point that interested me. Even T-Bag was not as attractive and indelible as usual. The characters, overall, degenerated in how interesting and likable they are, particularly Michael who has become an irritable juvenile. Once brilliant and calm and collected, Scofield now reacts in an exaggerated way to any little frustration. Malone was another huge let-down. Because of his withdrawal, he had mentally and physically degraded into a fidgety junkie who no longer possessed that menacing intelligence. By that, I mean he was no longer intimidating or smart. I just wanted to combine the two characteristics into one sentence. What is somewhat amusing about this season is Bellick, who is now at the bottom of the food chain inside Sona and constantly found himself in embarrassing troubles. That's a laugh. Oh, and this season provides the reintroduction of obstacles.

The central plot, aside from Lincoln helping his brother escape, was helping another prisoner named James Whistler escape. Why you ask? Apparently, he's a special interest for The Company, who "hired" Michael Scofield to help him escape since Scofield is now the go-to savant in prison escape. How did The Company arrange for Scofield to be in prison again? Exactly. Unlike the previous seasons, The Company in season three and on is now a ridiculous circus operation, recruiting so-called tough agents who continuously intimidate those they encounter with threats that they can do "something bad" to them. And they can, we assume. Replacing Kellerman is "Special Agent" Gretchen Morgan, who conferences with Lincoln Burrows in aiding Scofield and Whistler's escape. Played by Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Miss Morgan is a caricature of an agent, relying on her supposed sexy good looks and cold stare to get the job done. This is B-movie level acting at its worst. If I sound vague when I describe the Company's tactics, it is on purpose because they are so cheesy. That's the ideal word to describe them, in addition to incompetent and buffoonish. Before they were a realistic evil that (most likely) hovers over society and covertly controls the country. Now, they are like a poorly-made action movie villain focused solely on one seemingly inconsequential task that involves bullying and "slick" one-liners. It's horrible how this show has degraded.

Inside Sona, the prisoners from Fox River are experiencing a primal environment where there is one group that rules the fortress and absolutely no prison guards. The leader is a man by the name Lechero who has a big ego and a even bigger booty. Booty means ass. T-Bag inserts himself into his posse as a shoe-polisher-type of confidante, which is disappointing considering what a calculating villain he was before. The entire "operation" Lechero is running in the prison is laughable, resembling pre-revolutionary France in the eighteenth century. It's a prison. They should not be presenting it like a republic regime, not because it is inaccurate, but because it is just silly and moronic. I really don't want to get into specific plot points because writing them down would be like reliving the season, and I really don't want to put myself through that agony again. All I will say is that the characters and interest-factor of the show have seriously rotted to its very core. This statement is further supported by the fourth season. I only watched the first episode of the fourth season so far, but it was enough to assess what the remainder of the show would succumb to. Again, it is a true shame that a show that was so genuinely engrossing had lowered itself to such B-movie filth. Filth not in the vulgar sense but in the pure shit-garbage sense.

Well I'm going to leave this post here. I wouldn't want to write too much because my writing is already eccentric enough as is. Excess writing the way I do would positively annihilate your brains, causing extreme exhaustion and possibly hallucinations. I will say that I've put season four of Prison Break on hold because I really cannot endure another season three. To fill the void of television show needs, I started watching Breaking Bad from the beginning with my dear 'ol dad, who has never seen the show. To my delight, he is really enjoying it! Stay tuned for more on that in the next post. Farewell.

And, as promised, here are the hilarious YouTube channels that I highly recommend you enjoy for yourselves, even if you don't like video games.
Markiplier's Channel
Jacksepticeye's Channel