A terrific series on a prison breakout in which truth is stranger than fiction

The Ben Stiller 7-episode miniseries on Showtime, Escape at Dannemora, is a terrific prison breakout movie with exceptionally strong performances not only by the leads - Patricia Arquett,e Benicio del Toro, and Paul Dana - but also from just about all of the secondary players, so many props to Stiller for working so well with cast. Moreover, he really effectively captures the look and feel of a high-security prison (good musical score as well) and the look and feel of life in the far-north Broome County of New York. The series is based closely as a true escape from a few years back - in with 2 prisoners managed to cut out parts of their cell walls, enter a system of ducts, and manage to escape by crawling through an unused steam pipe that connected to a power station outside the walls - all w/ some key assistance from the strange, sex-addicted work supervisor played by Arquette. I honestly think that had this not been based on a true escape or had I not known that I would have stopped watching after a couple of episodes, thinking: This story is ridiculous; it could never happen. Or, to paraphrase Shakespeare: Had I seen this on a stage I would never believe it. But there you go - reality is sometimes stranger than fiction. Once you're in, the series will keep you going right to the end, thanks in part as well to smart and unconventional decisions by the writing team - Brett Johnson and Michael Tolkin - to frame the series with post-escape interviews/investigations and to hold off till the penultimate episode to give us any of the back story on the prisoners and their accomplice.