The series "Escape": reviews of the American and Russian versions

They say that the new is the well-forgotten old. In 2017, the American television channel Fox was guided by this principle, releasing a new season of the series “Escape” after a long break. Continued reviews from viewers and critics gathered no less numerous than the first season of this project. Let's find out how the new season of “Escape” met the world, and also get acquainted with what Russian viewers think about its domestic adaptation of the same name.

A little about the plot of the first four seasons of the series "Escape"

Reviews about the new season of the project before considering, it is worth paying attention to the plot of the television series itself. As the name implies, Prison Break is dedicated to prisoners' attempts to escape from prison.

At the center of all events is the brilliant engineer Michael Scofield. His older brother, Lincoln Burroughs, was sent to the Fox River Prison due to a false accusation and must be executed in speed. Realizing that it is impossible to save him legally, Michael comes up with a cunning plan on how to organize his brother's escape. However, for this he himself has to go to jail.

Having encrypted the drawings of the Fox River building and all its communications in tattoos on his body, Scofield manages to escape, but along with him are some very dangerous criminals.

Over the course of four seasons, Michael had to repeatedly fall and escape from prison, meet love, make real friends and no less real enemies.

In the final of season 4, Scofield heroically dies, saving his beloved Sarah. At the same time, thanks to his efforts, Michael's friends and relatives get the opportunity to live peacefully in the wild.

Spectator reviews of the four seasons of the project

Barely released on the screens in 2005, the American TV series “Escape” collected the most enthusiastic reviews. It was compared with such popular films as “Shawshank Redemption”, “The Green Mile”, “Locked Up”, “Escape from Alcatraz” and similar films. At the same time, fans of the project noted not only an interesting intrigue, but also well-written, multifaceted characters of all characters, as well as thoughtful relationships between them.

In the second season, spectator interest in the series “Escape” cooled slightly. Reviews about him still remained enthusiastic, but at the same time he was already compared with the movie "The Fugitive". Gradually, it became not so interesting for fans to observe the attempts of the main characters to find their place outside the prison.

Understanding this, the creators in the third season of Michael Scofield are again sent to jail with the task of organizing an escape to one of the important prisoners. Such a plot twist, on the one hand, caused a lot of laudatory reviews, and on the other, it seemed to some viewers a too crude attempt to raise the series ratings, exploiting the achievements of the first season. That is why true Prison Break fans only consider the first two seasons to be the best.

In the fourth part (which was considered the last for eight years), Michael and Lincoln are both free. At the same time, in order to save her, as well as their life, they have to confront the mysterious Company, which is the cause of most of the misfortunes that fell on the brothers.

Despite the writers' attempts to keep the audience's attention (for this they “revived” Sarah, and also introduced such a controversial character into the story as Michael's mother, beat the situation with Scofield’s illness and the pregnancy of his lover), the ratings of the project continued to fall in the fourth season. Moreover, reviews and reviews about the series “Escape” (USA) became worse with each series. For this reason, the project had to be closed. Moreover, the heroic death of the protagonist, which caused tears even in the male half of the audience, seemed to put a fat point.

New plot twists and turns of the fifth season

For eight years, the series "Escape" was considered complete. Continuation (2017) began to receive reviews a few months before its premiere. As soon as it became known from the official Fox trailer that Michael was alive, excitement rose among the audience. Numerous assumptions were put forward that were supposed to explain how the protagonist managed to save his life, and why he had been hiding from his relatives for so many years.

So, what did the screenwriters of “Escape”, in addition to the resurrection of Michael Scofield, please the fans with new things? Nothing more. The plot of the long-awaited nine episodes is a frank exploitation of spectator love for the project.

Michael, with the help of Lincoln, as in previous seasons, continues to help others escape from prisons. However, this time, the enemies of the protagonist use not only Sarah, but also Scofield's son as a lever of pressure on him.

The main joy for the fans can only be considered as a meeting with other favorite characters, such as Sucre, Paul Kellerman, Sea Note and T-Bag. The latter, by the way, had an adult son, which allowed the creators of the series to reveal the image of a villain from a new perspective.

Positive feedback on the series "Escape" (season 5)

Most of his fans greeted the unexpected appearance of the continuation of his favorite television series with undisguised joy and hidden hope. This is evidenced by numerous laudatory reviews.

The series “Escape” (season 5) fans in their reviews compare with the most successful first part of the project. In addition, he is called the "incredibly cool" revival of the cult television series.

Michael's trick was especially noted with a tattooed face in his hands, with which he tricked the security system. Although many in their comments note the implausibility of this, they do not tire of admiring the unusualness of this plot move.

Also, the death of T-Bag's son in the final caused a lot of regrets.

As for the new enemy of Scofield (a clever criminal, hiding under the pseudonym Poseidon), judging by the reviews, many fans managed to guess who he was, even before this secret was revealed in the series.

Among the many laudatory reviews about the series “Escape” (USA), a lot is dedicated to the happy ending of the season, in which the main character was finally able to reunite with his family, and the villains received a well-deserved punishment. At the same time, attentive viewers noticed references to the potential sixth season.

What negative things do viewers write in their reviews about the sequel to "Escape"

Despite the flurry of praise, among the fans there were those who, despite the general euphoria, managed to notice the shortcomings of the fifth season.

First of all, the “resurrection” of the protagonist was criticized. So, according to the script, Michael agreed to become a special services mercenary and to stage his death in order to ensure freedom and security for Lincoln and Sarah. However, even by the standards of this not always realistic project, this version looked very implausible.

Also, the jailbreak itself directly caused complaints. In their reviews of the series “Escape”, viewers have repeatedly expressed disappointment. Indeed, in the fifth season, Scofield did not develop any cunning plan, but simply took advantage of the unstable situation in Yemen, because of which the guards left their posts, leaving the prison to the mercy of fate. Some of the fans even expressed the opinion that the scriptwriters were simply "too lazy" to come up with a new complex escape plan.

The criticism in the reviews of the series “Escape” was subjected to new tattoos by Michael. So, according to experts, such small elements, as shown in the tape, to apply to the skin without deviations is simply physically impossible.

As for the main characters, in addition to Michael, Lincoln and Sarah, everyone really liked the character of T-Bag. But the characters of Sucre and Sea Nout were somewhat flat (compared to previous seasons).

In addition to all of the above, the series “Escape” (2017) earned negative reviews for the lack of explanation of the actions of the protagonist, as was done in the early seasons. The project was also oversaturated with action, which, according to fans, tried to compensate for the lack of good intrigue.

Russian adaptation of "Escape"

Considering the reviews of the Prison Break project, one cannot fail to mention that in 2010 the Russian television holding Red Square acquired the rights to the adaptation of Escape from Fox. Thus, in Russia, its own version of the world famous television project was shot.

At the same time, unlike the original, the adaptation was poorly received by the audience and barely lasted only two seasons on the air, after which the project was closed.

Differences from the original

Before considering reviews of the series “Escape” (Russian version), it is worth paying attention to its differences from the original project.

As is often the case with adaptations, the characters' characters and plot outline are almost completely preserved, but they are “adapted” to Russian realities. So the main characters were renamed into Russian style. For example, the former boss of the Chicago mafia, John Abruzzi, turned into a thief in law Archil "Kobu" Kobakhidze (by the way, this name is Joseph Stalin's early pseudonym), and the audience's favorite, Puerto Rican Fernando Sucre, became Alim "Nalim" Kurtoglu, etc.

Since the death penalty has been abolished in the Russian Federation (unlike the United States), we had to come up with a plot move with the introduction of a new law on the deprivation of life of especially dangerous criminals.

Among other things, the creators of the television series had to come up with their own tattoo design of the protagonist.

Also, unlike the original, in the plot a lot of attention is paid to the visit of the heroes of the church (of course, the Orthodox).

Reviews of the audience about the Russian "Escape"

Sadly, despite the huge funds spent by the creators of the project, the audience smashed it to the smithereens. Considering the numerous reviews about the series “Escape” (Russia), one of the main reasons for his failure can be called the fact that the writers very little made their own original ideas in the project, which made it look like a cheap copy of Prison Break. It should be noted that many home-grown critics did not even bother to watch the television series itself.

Also, a lot of negativity among the audience was caused by plot holes, of which there were quite a lot in the project. And it was not only about adopting a law of a state scale, but only in order to “eliminate” only one prisoner (it would be easier to pay other prisoners for his murder).

Also, the storyline with attempts by an unknown international criminal organization to promote his person to the post of head of the Russian Federation turned out to be very ill-conceived. This move was recognized by most viewers as very confusing and implausible.

Despite the majority of negative reviews, the Russian series “Escape” has earned praise. As a rule, they were expressed by those who either did not see the original, or simply tried to support the domestic manufacturer.

Reviews on the selection of leading actors

Among the many complaints about the Russian remake, there were many complaints about the very unsuccessful ensemble of the project. So, viewers often spoke negatively about the game of Yuri Chursin (Russian Scofield - Alexei Chernov) and Vladimir Epifantsev (Barrows - Kirill Panin). Despite the very good game of Chursin, some noted that he has too weak physique for such extensive tattoos.

A lot of negative went to the Russian T-Bag - renamed Speech therapist. Vitaliy Kishchenko, who played this role, absolutely did not correspond to the charismatic character in the American version and from this the series was pretty much lost in the eyes of the audience.

It was also negatively accepted how Paul Kellerman (special services officer Konstantin Galdaev) “chopped” it. Although the performer of this role, Yuri Tarasov, is an excellent actor, for this role he was sorely unsuitable.

The star of the movie "On the Game" - Nodar Siradze, who played Nalima (Sucre) in "Escape", despite all his charm, looked faded against the background of his American colleague, who had a perfectly pumped body.

As for female roles, the most successful choice was to approve actress Ekaterina Klimova for the role of lawyer Svetlana Dunaeva (Veronika Donovan).

But the Russian Sarah Tancredi (performed by Dana Agisheva) was met with hostility, and for all two seasons she could not fall in love with the audience.

Among other things, the selection of extras for the prison extras was also criticized. The fact is that most of these roles were taken by artists who were already "lit up" in other films about prisons or the work of the police. Because of this, many viewers have the impression of "Escape", as a clone of countless gangster series.

TV series Prison Break vs. "Escape": which is better, according to domestic viewers

The Russian adaptation of Prison Break is not only inferior to the original, but, unfortunately, has become a real failure, according to the overwhelming majority of viewers.

In their opinion, the reason for this lies in the features of access to information in modern society. So, 10-15 years ago, the overwhelming majority did not have free access to the Internet (some lacked even cable television). In this regard, viewers were not able to see the originals of such popular Russian adaptations as “My Fair Nanny”, “Do Not Be Born Beautiful”, etc. Thus, Russian television production was perceived as something new and original.

However, today, when most of the television series in the world can be watched without leaving home without interruptions in advertising, it is very difficult to surprise someone with a domestic adaptation of a project. Especially when it comes to one of the most rated series in history, which, moreover, was previously shown on Russian channels.

It is precisely this, by all accounts, that the reason that the series “Escape” (the American version) collected excellent reviews, and its Russian adaptation was a failure.