A&E’s “Breakout Kings” Is Mindless Fun

The new A&E drama that will be premiering on March 5^th centers on the adventures of criminals who are gifted when it comes to escaping incarceration. These criminals have been A-Teamed up with U.S. Marshals to help capture escaped prisoners in turn each of their helpers is given a small reduction on his or her sentence. The whole idea that U.S. Marshals would allow prisoners, who have a penchant for fleeing from the law to leave a prison in order to fight crime only to return to their cells by the end of each case is… ludicrous.  

During the pilot for the series the entire arrangement is explained as a mutually beneficial relationship between law and outlaw. It follows an escaped killer who is on a mission of revenge and how the newly formed team struggles with working with each other. The second episode of the season has to do with a sex offender, who is really not as rapy as everyone thinks.  Both episodes are entertaining in a turn-your-brain-off kind of way. 

Some of the prisoners who are part of this taskforce are familiar. Some of the prisoners who are part of this taskforce are familiar. You may recognize the actress Serinda Swan as the beauty queen turned con artist/murderer Erica. She has a reoccurring role on the CW’s Smallville as the scantly clad Zatanna Zatara whose magical powers pale in comparison to her ability to sport fishnet stockings.

Then there is Domenick Lombardozzi who plays Ray. Lombardozzi played Herc, one of the not so pristine police officers on HBO’s The Wire. In Breakout Kings the only difference between Herc and Ray is that Ray was caught for all of his crimes.

The last familiar face in the cast is Jimmi Simpson, who plays Lloyd the momma’s boy with a degree in psychology, in the show. Simpson also has a reoccurring role on FX’s It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia as one of the milk guzzling, incestuous McPoyle brothers.   

If you didn’t already know Breakout Kings is a spin off of Prison Break, a show which turned absolutely ridiculous by the end of its run. But it was responsible for creating one of the creepiest TV characters of all time, namely T-Bag. T-Bag, the inside out pant pocket cowboy will be making a few appearances on Breakout Kings, so that might be worth a watch. Breakout Kings is however is more direct about where it is going. This show will not have much in terms of a story arc and will rely more on the case by case, episode by episode strategy.

Breakout Kings will premiere Saturday March 5^th on the A&E Channel.