Suspenseful 'Prison Break' back on Fox
With his glassy eyes and impenetrable facial expressions, Wentworth Miller of ''Prison Break" is a porcelain hero. His personality seems to be in protective lockdown, which is why he's perfectly cast as Michael Scofield, a smart man who gets himself thrown in jail to bust out his brother. Even when Michael lost a pinky toe to an angry convict with gardening shears last fall, Miller projected an almost preternatural inner resolve.
Miller is slightly less inscrutable when the series returns tonight at 8 on Channel 25 for its last string of first-season episodes. We see winces, we see disappointment, we see sweat. After devoting his life to an elaborately planned escape from Fox River State Penitentiary, part of which hinges on a corroded pipe, Michael is driven to spontaneous expression by a few unexpected obstacles. Most notably, he reacts to having found a new pipe standing between him and his brother, Lincoln (Dominic Purcell), who's a day away from the electric chair for the murder of the vice president's brother. His frustration burns through his dent-resistant exterior.
The return of ''Prison Break" after almost four months is a welcome event, and the next three episodes are good enough, if not great. The hour due on April 3, which flashes back to the pre-prison life of a few of the convicts, is the best of the trio, as it provides a much-needed sense of history and breadth.
The series is now paired with ''24," whose strong fifth season began when ''Prison Break" went on sabbatical. And it's very much the younger brother to Kiefer Sutherland's hit. Both shows follow a single plot across the season, with the clock ticking in the background, but ''Prison Break" is the shyer and more watchful one. Its suspense is quieter. It's about saving one life, not saving the world, andit's set amid the gray oppressiveness ofjail. It gradually crawls toward jolts of action, while ''24" leaps from one jolt to the next.
I won't give away the new developments on ''Prison Break." More than is the case on many shows, its biggest thrills are plot based, with the writers trying to trick us as they pull the characters in and out of impossible situations. Unlike the plot twists, the acting has never been particularly distinguished, with Robert Knepper's T-Bag as threatening as, well, a tea bag, and with Peter Stormare's Abruzzi speaking in possibly the most mysterious accent ever on TV. The cast is, for the most part, just adequate. Aside from Miller and his deep cool, only Marshall Allman as Lincoln's son and Amaury Nolasco as Michael's buddy Sucre stand out.
Do the escapees manage to break through the pipe, grab Lincoln from the infirmary, and leave the big house? Are the ''Prison Break" writers bold enough to kill off Lincoln and leave Michael rotting behind bars? Will the boys return to their cells, downcast and even more desperate to get out? Sorry, you only think you want to know now.
The weak link in the ''Prison Break" story line continues to be the material involving the nefarious vice president (Patricia Wettig). It doesn't invite a willing suspension of disbelief so much as a willing rolling of the eyes. She's too flagrant with her scheming as she does anything in her power to keep Lincoln's execution on track. And Wettig is so tightly wound she's almost unintentionally campy, as if Mommie Dearest were throwing a snit fit. Too much more of her and they'll have to rename the show ''Psychotic Break."
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. 
