I don’t watch many procedural dramas. I don’t often find them compelling to watch. I often feel like they are just mad libs shot on screen. Shows like CSI, NCIS, and Law & Order are a dime a dozen. Opening scene: show the crime. Through the middle: the police go through a series of smoke screens and start figuring out the crime. End of show: Hooray! Mystery solved. Nothing special. So why is it that I enjoy Breakout Kings? I mean, I don’t love it or anything, but it’s not terrible, and I find that strange.
The Premise: A group of convicts are assembled to form a task force with a US Marshall and a convicted con who was once an officer to catch criminals who break out of prison. The criminals all have special and uniques qualities that help catch the escapees. This is more than likely where my interest comes from. All those other shows feature some sort of murder or white collar crime. I was a huge fan of Prison Break, so the idea of people breaking out of prison appeals to me. Each opening scene fits the mad lib formula but it has the chance to be extremely clever and interesting. Each of these convicts gets one month shaved off their sentence for each convict caught. They’re also expert escape artists, so it’s interesting to watch the criminals weigh all their options in each case.
The Cast and Characters: The cast features Laz Alonso, who I know as Zeke from Stomp the Yard, as the leader of the task force and Domenick Lombardozzi, Herc from The Wire, as the second in command ex officer turned con. Their relationship is one of the rockiest parts of the shows. I don’t know if either actor is commanding enough to carry any scenes on their own. The chemistry between the two is a tad bland as well. The success of he show will rest in the hands of the convict team. Perhaps the most interesting character and certainly best performance comes, not surprisingly, from Jimmi Simpson. You’re probably most familiar with his work as one of the McPoyle brothers on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He plays a sort of boy wonder super genius who psycho analyzes each criminal. His flair for creepy and slimy is not lost on this character as well. There’s one character that is being developed very smartly by the show. Brooke Nevin, who you know from probably nothing, plays Julianne the fact finder office worker type person. It’d be really easy for the show to just use her as a convention for getting the case solved in a remarkable fashion, but instead they’ve afflicted her with a social anxiety disorder. I know it’s just a small thing, but a little bit of characterization goes a long way in my book.
The Network: Breakout Kings airs Sunday nights at 9 PM CST on A&E. Sunday nights are packed nights for television. AMC puts most of their dramas on that night. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and now The Killing all air on Sunday nights. Showtime is also airing The Borgias now that Shameless is over. I don’t think there’s a lot of crossover viewers between the shows, as people who like crime procedurals don’t often go for period dramas and heartbreaking teen murder stories, but it’s still noteworthy to say it’s going up against some great shows. Without knowing any numbers, I’d say Intervention is A&E’s most watched show, so I think that through advertising during that show, Breakout Kings can gain an audience. A&E also airs Sopranos reruns, so I do think enough people watch the channel to get the viewership strong.
Final Thoughts: The show is flawed, but fun. Yes, it has some bad dialogue. Yes, a lot of situations are far fetched. But it’s better than most crime procedurals. It’s not going to change your life, but it’s very good filler for those of us caught in the spring doldrums of new TV programming.
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