O Isovitis

Storyline

Television adaptation of the comic strip "The Lifer" by Arkas. The anonymous main character is the Lifer, a prisoner serving a lifetime sentence in an anonymous prison, and in an unspecified country. He is young, bespectacled, and nerdy man. The Lifer is a physically weak, and socially awkward bookworm, who has never hurt a fly. But he has been framed for a large number of crimes (implied at one point to be serial-killer-type murders), and has no chance of ever being released. The series deals with the Lifer's everyday frustrations, involving abusive guards, contaminated and often poisonous prison food, the lack of any source of heating in his prison cell, and the chronic lack of medical supplies in the prison. He also struggles with loneliness and recurring suicidal thoughts, His only "friend" is the sentient rat Monte Cristo, named by a former prisoner after the novel character. Their friendship is based on the Lifer offering part of his daily rations to Monte Cristo, in exchange for the rat's company and the conversations between them. Monte Cristo is effectively a mercenary. He offers his services to multiple prisoners in exchange for food and (sometimes) money. He also runs a black market operation, smuggling in cigarettes, pornographic magazines, radios, and other items which he sells to prisoners. He thinks that profit and self-interest are the main goals of his life, and day-dreams about someday operating his own sex trafficking operation. The rest of the cast consists of the prison's jaded personnel, fellow prisoners with their own personal dramas and mental problems, and a prisoner's famously promiscuous wife. Everyone's misery is played for laughs.