Ostensibly a prison break genre piece, the series is more interested in the psychology of the people involved than in either of the two usual routes for such stories triumphant escape or social commentary. And so we have the otherwise excellent Escape at Dannemora, a four or five-hour story elongated to eight hours. Except for one thing - "Netflix bloat" essentially, the phenomenon of TV shows having their stories stretched too thin across too many episodes. So, with that in mind, in an era where long-form narrative has become the norm, I should be in my element. The most egregious example I can think of is the fourth season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) (a serial offender in this respect), " Future Imperfect (1990)", in which one of the main characters adopts an alien, who was never to be seen or heard from again. And for as long as I've admired long-form narrative, I've disliked episodic storytelling, especially shows where the events of a given week seem to have little-to-no bearing beyond that one week. I'm just a few years late to the party.Īs far back as the late 80s/early 90s, long before "long-form narrative" would become the dominant mode of television storytelling, I was a fan of what would then have been called "non-episodic storytelling", the best-known examples of which would have been Michael Mann's Crime Story (1986) and David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks (1990). Just give the cast and crew all the awards right now. I didn't expect this kind of drama and intrigue out of Ben Stiller, the director. I've checked reports about the true story, and so far (I'm 6 episodes in) it seems to be extremely accurate. Benicio Del Toro is super creepy and Paul Dano is all grown up. I was like "oh wait! It's THAT guy?" You totally forget you're watching actors you've seen in other work. Her transformation into Joyce Mitchell rivals Charlize Theron's portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in "Monster." Same with Eric Lange. Clearly all the reporters and national news outlets on the ground knew all the wild details, but it was too complex, and frankly, too raunchy, to report. I just didn't get the non-stop coverage of it UNTIL NOW. the help on the inside was sleeping with one or both of them, which was kind of weird, but whatever. It was national news for weeks, and I didn't understand why. I remember when these guys busted out of prison. If you like true to live retelling I would definitely recommend this This is an incredibly well acted and well told story that is bound to get Patricia Arquette who plays Tilly award nods. The story is also about Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell a prison employee who became their accomplis. Anyone who thinks that is too much time doesn't understand the lengths these two men went and how many hours and how much work they actually did put in to escape. This is a limited series that spans about 7-1/2 hours, 5 of them are focused on what it actually took to escape from a high security prison. This is the story of the 2015 jailbreak from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora New York by two murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat. Ben Stiller is a wonderful director and he made sure to be as true to the material as he could be. This whole project is an example of taking an intriguing and thrilling story and doing it right from the start. There is a certain amount of guess work not to mention acting and actors involved. True stories are hard to fictionalize because they are true but at the same time you aren't writing a documentary. Looking forward to the next episodes and of course a thrilling series finale! My favourite moment so far is Benicio Del Toro's ferocious guttural warning to Patricia Arquette's character in Ep 3 - DON'T TELL ANYBOOOOODDDYYYYYY. Props for giving this an honest treatment, choosing great filmmaking locations (shots of Dannemora, the prison, Malone, Plattsburgh, even the manhole that the prisoners escaped to, are all the actual locations) and the use of music adds a really nice touch to this prison break drama. The real surprise for me and many others would be the directing chops of Ben Stiller. Impressive performances from Patricia Arquette and Paul Dano who have transformed themselves superbly for their roles. Benicio Del Toro has always been an acting tour de force and this might end up being his best work yet. Great camera work, well-thought out storyline and interesting characters. I found myself being sucked into this simmering prison break drama right off the bat and am really looking forward to this 7-hour movie unfold every week.
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