Don't be stupid, be a smartie!

I wrote about "Bones" and "House" in today's All TV column and after watching last night's "Prison Break," I've realized that Fox has become The Genius Network. Or, at least, The Drama Genius Network. Homer Simpson already burned up his high school diploma and Peter Griffin is actually dumber than that, but if you want to be the main character on a Fox drama, you've gotta be pretty damn S-M-R-T.

"Bones" can't go five minutes without some character talking about how wicked smart Temperance is, "House" is based on the notion that only a guy that brilliant could get away with being that big an asshole, and now we've learned that Michael Scofield has a psychological disorder that makes him wicked-wicked smart.

But for a show with such a clever hero, "Prison Break" relies on The Idiot Plot an awful lot of the time. Abruzzi gave power of attorney to Mikey Palmice? Abruzzi and/or Linc haven't figured out a way to kill T-Bag that would keep their secret safe? (Off the top of my head, I've got throat-slashing, neck-breaking and a good old-fashioned shove off the second-tier railing.)

Still, a lot of good stuff last night, including the obligatory scene where the guys have to dispose of their tunnel work in the yard (too bad David McCallum's busy on "NCIS," or else they could have done the "Great Escape" tribute up proper), the defense lawyers finally managing to outwit Special Agent Evil Bastard (which, in turn, got me interested in the outside-world scenes for the first time since... ever), and, my personal favorite, Sucre using the chief hack's Employee of the Month plaque to plug their hole.

Gotta go look into night school classes. If I really apply myself, maybe Fox will make a show called "The Critic." Oh, wait...