"Escape at Dannemora" is a true crime miniseries that premiered on Showtime in 2018. Starring Patricia Arquette, Benicio del Toro, and Paul Dano, the series was nominated for twelve Emmys (it won nine) and currently enjoys an 89% critics score and a 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The series is based on a real-life escape from the Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015 and follows a female prison employee as she engages in a romantic relationship with two inmates.

Of course, when it comes to TV shows and movies that are "based on a true story," it's important to remember that the writers, actors, directors, and others involved in making them will always take at least a few creative liberties. It's impossible to recreate a real-life event perfectly; changes need to be made to a theatrical adaptation of a real-life crime in order to account for logistical and practical impossibilities. Aside from the more utilitarian reasons for making alterations to a real-life event or series of events, there are also story considerations that need to be made. After all, real-life events don't always progress or get wrapped up the way an onscreen narrative has to in order to keep audiences engaged.

In 2015, two inmates — Richard Matt and David Sweat — managed to escape the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Both men were convicted murderers and were serving life sentences when they escaped with the help of a prison seamstress named Joyce Mitchell and a guard named Gene Palmer.