Absorbing, if not squirm-worthy.

Just because a show is mix 'n' match doesn't mean it isn't any good. After four years with "Prison Break," creators Matt Olmstead and Nick Santora know their way around this world, and Breakout Kings starts out with a promising blend of character and plot, action and dialogue, sweet and savory.

Little of this stands up to close scrutiny, but there's a nice twist at the end of the pilot, and it looks as if every episode will begin with a fiendishly clever prison break by someone viewers might actually hope to see caught.

Not a bad concept, but the casting is out of whack. [21 Mar 2011, p.46]

There's nothing particularly striking or compelling here. But at least the escapee of the week will meet his fate at the end of each episode.

Matt Olmstead and Nick Santora are two solid guys who know how to make good TV and Lombardozzi and Alonzo are superior actors. But there are only flashes of promise here.

Breakout Kings is not only dumb and mind-numbingly silly, but what makes it all-the-more terrible is that all this silliness has been stolen from other mind-numbingly-silly shows.

So far I have only watched the first three episodes and they seem, entertaining. They keep me interested during the whole hour and the characters seem okay. Hopefully as the show progresses we get to see more about the characters personalities and maybe that will bring more people to watch because so far they don't actually seem like cons. It still feels like they could just be cops as well that have bad attitudes like other shows and the show hasn't shown what they really bring to the table that cops couldn't. That's just my opinion.

Laz Alonso is solidly cast as the leader of a band of misfit convicts that specialize in catching dangerous escapees, but Jimmi Simpson's portrayal of a narcissistic genius convict really stands out. I've only seen 4 episodes thus far and I am hoping for a lot more character development, especially for Shea. Seem like a keeper so far, with each episode providing good action, good humor, or both.

It's a very likeable show, Enjoyable characters that are entertaining to watch. The acting is good as well. The storying **** so much. Its a rather generic and over used plot to the series "Using criminals to catch other criminals" and the episodes are rather generic as well but its really the acting and the chemistry the actors have with one another that keeps this show afloat. I enjoyed season 1 and I cant wait for season 2.

So much potential wasted here. Despite a decent cast, apparently the writers can't break out of the formula they are using. Whether by design or sheer lack of imagination, every episode follows the exact same pattern. Guy or gal escapes, hurts/kills people in the process, heads immediately to rendezvous with friend, relative, or acquaintance for [insert reason here], marshals arrive only to find out they have narrowly missed the suspect. Repeat a few times. Catch up and capture bad guy. Solve personal problem of one of the cops or cons that was alluded to earlier in the episode. End. I could forgive a lot for a show that casts a veteran of "The Wire", but unfortunately they go a step further and pretty much put paid on this already troubled show with a completely laughable lack of continuity. They don't pretend to be following even "make believe" law enforcement procedures, let alone real ones. (Crazed convicted child molester is going to the office of the social worker who testified against him. "She doesn't answer her phone? Oh, we better get driving." Followed by the inevitable, " Gee, we just missed him...." Why not...I don't know...call the local cops to go babysit her and make sure she's safe. Or something.) I know sacrifices need to be made in order to spin a good yarn, but one can't help thinking that your average high schooler could sign on to the writing staff and turn out more plausible stories. The last thing that bugs me a little bit is that a fair few of the episodes drag discussions about racism into the show for some reason. This typically wouldn't bother me, but in this case it seems a little ironic and meaningless coming from a show about convicts breaking out of prison. ~14% of the U.S. prison population is Caucasian, yet 100% of escapees on the program are **** way you try to come up with a logical reason for that decision stinks to high heaven.

Apparently the default score is a '10', that is a little ridiculous in itself. I'm correcting my scored opinion. Well, looks like I haven't made my 150 character 'minimum character' count yet...