BY TOM GLIATTO
DRAMA
Prison Break has busted out for season 2. The first season was confined mostly within the walls of a penitentiary, with each painstaking baby step in Wentworth Miller's escape plan charted by the coded tattoos covering his body. It all culminated in the breakout, and now the show itself seems dizzy, as if reeling from a sudden, liberating intake of fresh air. The first two episodes are hectic, wild and disorientingly daring, with a couple of real jolts. Fates are shuffled and new plot lines race in—everyone's all hot about $5 million hidden in Utah—as the prisoners run around like infected crazies from a zombie movie. The strongest character, surprisingly, is now escapee "T-Bag" Bagwell (Robert Knepper). Loathsome behind bars, he proves to be expansively evil on the outside, going to sick lengths to reclaim the hand he lost at the end of season 1. A fine villain.
HBO (Aug. 21-22, 9 p.m. ET)
DOCUMENTARY
Spike Lee has subtitled his excellent four-hour film about Hurricane Katrina a "requiem" for New Orleans, and if the word at first suggests artistic overreach, it's ultimately the right one. The film is as powerfully somber as it is thorough, with flashes of anger and despair, yet what may stay with you is the image of jazz musician and New Orleans native Terence Blanchard slowly playing his trumpet as he walks down a ruined, empty street. The third hour, dealing with homeless survivors displaced and flung across the country, is probably the most informative. But the whole thing has a beautifully measured pace, starting with the building chaos of storm and flood, then eddying into political and racial issues that will probably haunt not just New Orleans but the country for years.
FOX (Mondays, 9 p.m. ET)
DRAMA
There's this senator (John Allen Nelson) whose wife (Joanne Kelly) disappears during a banquet. The investigation quickly turns up perverse clues, including a corpse frozen for decades and now left out to thaw in an abandoned house, perhaps as a taunt to the lead FBI agent (Gale Harold). There's supposedly a vast sinister conspiracy generating all of this, but its shadows just aren't felt strongly enough in the premiere. Even with the human popsicle, the case seems more like a good crusade for Nancy Grace than the starting point for a series.
A&E (Mondays, 9 p.m. ET)
REALITY
With Cars and now Talladega Nights, this has been a hot summer for our great American car culture. Once the exhaust clears from those hits, you might be able to make out Driving Force. This modest reality show follows the life of drag racer John Force, his estranged wife, Laurie, and daughters Ashley, Brittany and Courtney. Force is likably irascible and uncouth, not bothering to turn away from the camera while he wipes beer off the seat of his pants. The women, all with long hair in complementing shades, sometimes seem to cluster against him, like defensive horses, but the overall tone is playful. Not great but no drag.
William Fichtner, most recently a human-alien-hybrid lawman on Invasion, is a sharp addition to the show as Alexander Mahone, the FBI agent and Dirty Harry look-alike on the convicts' trail. But Patricia Wettig, so good in season 1 as the evil iguana-lady Vice President, is something of a lame duck: She's busy with a new ABC series, Brothers & Sisters, produced by her husband, Ken Olin.
Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO, Aug. 25, 11 p.m. ET) A new season of satire and commentary from a man who just never seems content with this happy world.
Meerkat Manor (Animal Planet, Aug. 25, 8 p.m. ET) Finale of the epic saga about a colony of mongooses—The Forsyte Saga with light brown fur. A second installment starts in the fall.
Teen Choice 2006 (FOX, Aug. 20, 8 p.m. ET) Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook are the hosts, and Rihanna will sing—ooh, and Jessica's ex, Nick Lachey, is a nominee. Star fight?!
Psych (USA, Aug. 25, 10 p.m. ET) Season finale for the detective series that happens to be one of cable's summer hits. Same night: season finale for Emmy-nominated Monk too.
Treasure Hunters (NBC, Aug. 21, 9 p.m. ET) Wrap-up for the reality adventure show with clues buried in American history.
With two marriages behind her (she divorced Ashley Hamilton in 1994 and had her 2002 union to Rick Salomon annulled) Doherty knows all about breakups. Here she riffs on her new show and some old habits.
ON HER SOFTER SIDE I cried when certain people [on the show] broke up because I felt they didn't deserve to be dumped. I felt their heart break. But I am holding their hands through it and I can look at them and say, "I've been here. I know what you're feeling right now."
ON BAD BOYS I wish I'd grown out of my bad-boy phase much sooner. But every girl has to go through it. A bunch of us on the set were talking about it the other day. If you have an amazing guy or a bad boy, you go for the bad boy. It's just that rawness and that feeling of rebelling.
ON BEING SINGLE Oh my God. I haven't had a date in forever. Three or four guys [on the show] have been like, "Hey, you wanna go grab coffee?" And, I'm like, "Aww, that's cute."
For more talk with Shannen Doherty, go to www.people.com/shannen
William Shatner
Up for three Emmys, the Boston Legal star, 75, graciously allows himself to be roasted on a Comedy Central special Aug. 20.
ON AGREEING TO THIS ORDEAL It seemed like a cool idea at the time. No one can say anything that hasn't been said already. I'm practicing my blank look and daintily dabbing my forehead with an absorbent rag.
ON HIS CHANCES OF WINNING AN EMMY THIS YEAR If I were not to win this Emmy race, the same blank look would apply. And the same dabbing of the forehead.
ON HIS TWO PREVIOUS WINS The trophies are by a waterfall at my house. Actually, it's inside. Doesn't everyone have a waterfall in the house? I have space for more. Acres. With Emmys, space is the final frontier.
ON THE KEY TO HIS LONG-TERM SUCCESS No secrets to it, really, just be extraordinarily handsome and talented. I wish there was a tip. If you find one, let me know.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
