# Escape at Dannemora (2018)

> A married prison worker becomes entangled with two convicts during their 2015 escape from an upstate New York prison.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/62840

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 7
- Episode runtime: 51 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Brett Johnson, Michael Tolkin
- Network: Showtime
- Cast: Benicio del Toro, Paul Dano, Patricia Arquette, Eric Lange, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Gregory Dann, Michael Imperioli
- TMDB rating: 7.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6866266/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, bleak, claustrophobic, gritty

## What critics say

Critics and viewers broadly praised the lead performances and the true-crime tension of the 2015 Clinton Correctional prison break, while finding the seven-episode run somewhat overlong.

## Synopsis

Escape at Dannemora (2018) is a American limited series created by Brett Johnson and Michael Tolkin for Showtime. Set in the summer of 2015 across upstate New York, the seven-episode true crime drama dramatizes the stranger-than-fiction prison break that set off a massive manhunt. Benicio del Toro plays convicted murderer Richard Matt and Paul Dano plays fellow inmate David Sweat, two men planning their escape from a rigid correctional facility. Patricia Arquette plays Joyce Tilly Mitchell, a married prison employee whose entanglement with both men becomes the hidden engine of the plot, while Eric Lange, David Morse and Bonnie Hunt fill out the lives orbiting the breakout. Each episode pulls between the prison walls and the wider search, building a slow, claustrophobic tension through rural roads, tense interrogations and the mounting dread of pursuit. The tone is bleak and character-driven, with sharp performances carrying a grounded, dark portrait of institutional failure and human betrayal. Fans of The Night Of, The Jinx and Mare of Easttown will find resonance in its true crime grounding and morally murky characters.

## Shows like Escape at Dannemora

- [The Kill Point (2007)](https://ember.film/tv/12293)
- [Prison Break (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/2169)
- [The Act (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/70758)
- [The Crowded Room (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/102294)
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- [Sneaky Pete (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/56851)
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- [Bonnie & Clyde (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/55827)

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