There are a few shows on television these days that strain the boundaries of believability to the breaking point. One of my favorites is “Lost” which just keeps getting stranger and stranger and there isn’t any end in sight. But for me, these shows hold a kind of an appeal. I get caught up in them. I was a huge fan of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “The X-Files.” There is a show on right now, however, that I can’t stop watching even though it is, without a doubt, the most ridiculous show on television. I am talking, of course, of “Prison Break.”

There isn’t a single thing about this show that could actually happen in the real world. The sheer plot outline is so ridiculous it cannot possibly be described a way that would really make any sense. For the main character to have accomplished as much as he has he would have had to plan for about four hundred thousand years and he still probably would have left out a few things.

Michael Scofield is our main character. His brother, Lincoln, is on Death Row for supposedly shooting and killing the Vice President’s brother. Instead of using the system to get his brother out, Michael hatches a plan. First, it turns out, his brother happens to be housed in the prison Michael knows inside and out because he helped redesign the place, or something. So he conceives of a way to get into the prison and then get out and in order to find his way around the prison and make all of his plans he plots out a tattoo.

Yeah, I know, it really doesn’t make any sense. Even the tattoo is so elaborate it would take dozens of years to complete. It covers Michael from his neck down to his waist and all across his back. It turns out the designs are actually an elaborate map of the entire prison. There are combinations he will need to open things tattooed in there. There are actual roads tattooed on him that will help him get around when he gets out.

Before you know it Michael has robbed a bank and somehow gets a judge that offers him a choice as to which prison he would like to spend his time. I didn’t know judges offered choices like that to prisoners, but what can you do? Of course he ends up in the same prison where his brother is holed up. He begins to set about planning the escape.

In the meantime we meet some interesting characters. There’s the guy who may or may not be D.B. Cooper, the guy who once robbed people on an airplane and then bailed out and was never seen again. There’s Teabag the pedophile murderer who also happens to be a racist. There was the mob connected by. The black guy who has convinced his loved ones he is actually on a tour of duty in Iraq and not in prison. There’s the young kid thief who talks like a rapper. There’s the Latino who wants to get out to marry his girlfriend.

Somehow Stacy Keach is also involved and the prison doctor and several prison guards. It is an endless line of characters. Then there’s Lincoln’s ex-girlfriend who is also some kind of lawyer trying to prove him innocent. Then there’s the Vice President who happens to be a woman and who is plotting a coup to take over the country. Then there’s the Vice President’s brother who, of course, isn’t really dead but locked up in a house in the middle of nowhere that he literally can’t leave.

Before you know it Michael is leaving his cell via secret tunnels. At one point he has to flood a tunnel and then swim up to the top of this well-like area. He has to find the right kind of screw that exactly matches a portion of his tattoo. He has to steal guard uniforms. He has to get a specific watch from a guard who stole the watch out of his stuff when he first checked into prison (do you actually “check” in to prison?). Then he burns himself and has to get a psycho from the psycho ward to remember what was drawn there.

It is, without a doubt, the most insane show on television. None of it is really played for laughs and everyone involved completely throws themselves into their roles. Despite the actual ridiculousness of the plot and all of the times you just want to throw something at the screen or reach through and strangle one of the characters the show is compulsively watchable television show.

I have to admit to being very hooked on this show. The damn inmates finally managed to actually escape at the end of last season. Now, this season, they are actually out on the run. Somehow, however, they always end up back together and causing more trouble.

The interesting thing about the show is that they are not afraid to kill off main characters. This is a trend I believe was started by “24.” That was the show that had an entire season about Jack Bauer trying to rescue his family only to have the character’s wife die in the last episode. So, when the lawyer character was shot between the eyes in the first episode of this season it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise.

So, I must tell you that you should watch this show. I know, it would be very difficult to catch up at this late date, but I think it would be worth the time. I am pretty sure you can find the first season available on DVD or something by now. It’s worth watching. I promise you that this show manages to make you completely forget the fact that it’s ridiculous and ends up being totally riveting.

In a recent episode most of the cast ended up in Utah looking for DB Cooper’s hidden treasure. When they got there they found that a development had been built over it and somehow others in the show who had all initially gone different directions ended up in the same place to dig up some poor woman’s garage. I mean, come on, how can you not find that interesting?

I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the Vice President may have helped assassinate the President to become President herself. Plus she has a whole army of assassins at her disposal to off people she doesn’t like.

I didn’t mention it because that seemed to be stretching things just a little too far. Don’t you think? Anyway, the show is on Monday nights on Fox.

Bryan W. Alaspa’s new novel Dust is now available at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.