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When Prison Break first premiered on FOX, it became an instant hit. With a high-stakes story, intense drama, and a unique premise, Season 1 felt like must-watch television. Competing with powerhouse shows like Lost and 24, Prison Break needed to come out swinging — and it did. But after the actual prison break, fans started to wonder: Where does the story go from here? As the series progressed, Prison Break pushed the limits of plausibility and began stretching its core concept in unexpected ways. Leading to a dramatic downfall, most fans could see coming from a mile away.
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Schofield, I don't know what you did, but a brutesy wanted me to give you this P.I. card
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Congratulations, you just joined the ranks of the employed. When the first season of Prison Break burst onto our television screens, it felt like an event
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In a landscape of mysterious dramas like Lost and beat-by-beat procedurals such as 24
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Prison Break stood out. Armed with its catchy premise, the action-packed high series was guided by a simple mission statement
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and what seemed to be, at the time, a predetermined natural conclusion
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You know, a prison break. I'm getting you out of here. It's impossible
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While the debut run certainly met those expectations, it was inevitable that such a simple premise could be dragged out for occasional highs and all too frequent lows
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Because over the course of 12 years, the core concept of prison break
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degenerated into a series of numbing character deaths, ridiculous revivals, and outright boring repeats
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Take your time. We've got 15 minutes to get over that wall
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But before Prison Break jumped the shark one too many times, the Fox network had a massive hit on their hands
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Debuting in 2005, the show was seen by millions of viewers, most likely due to its pilot directed by Hollywood action alum Brett Ratner
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and a truly irresistible title. An instant favorite, Prison Break was the first Fox show
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to dominate Monday night television in nearly a decade. In fact, its early success led the studio to extend the first season by nine episodes
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Gotcha. You're talking out the side of your neck. From the jump, Michael Schofield sits calmly in a tattoo studio
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Played by Wentworth Miller, the man is intense but oddly serene as the artist works
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When she's finished, the tattoo artist admits that their months-long sessions are impressive
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Because rather than a cliched selection from a flash sheet, Michael Schofield's first tattoo is suggested to be something bigger
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You've seen the blueprints. Better than that. I've got them on me
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In one of the most effective scene jumps in TV history, Prison Break quickly jolts us directly into a bank robbery
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As cool and collected as he was under the tattoo needle, Michael instead waits for the approaching sirens
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Upon landing in the jailhouse, an actual Illinois penitentiary which had closed just a few years before production
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Michael gets down to business. After reuniting with his brother Lincoln, played by Dominic Purcell
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it is revealed that the older sibling is indeed on death row for a political assassination
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Convinced of his brother innocence Michael reveals his plan to break him out of Fox River When Lincoln logically states that busting out is impossible Michael offers a chilling reply
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Mind if you design the place it isn't? And here's where we, the audiences, begin to fall into the prison break trance
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As Michael goes through the motions of prison life, we catch glimpses of faces and scenarios
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hearkening back to his elaborate apartment documents. From faking diabetes to make good with the governor's daughter slash prison doc
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to assembling a bona fide heist team, Prison Break's best moments are the planning stages
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In fact, when Michael finally shows off his full-body tattoo to his stunned brother
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the ensuing sequence might just be the pinnacle of the series. Even though Prison Break's pilot tore through the collective conscious
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Fox executives originally didn't think its story was meant for television at all
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Passing on the script a few years before its eventual development, network heads felt that Prison Break's premise was more suited for the silver screen
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You're not going to last a second in this place unless I do something about it. A long-form, twist-filled narrative with a decidedly conclusive outcome
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sounded more like a summer thriller to the suits. But after serialized dramas like Lost Kingdom Prominence
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the show received the green light. Perhaps perceptive to the very nature of Prison Break
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this feels like a studio note that shouldn't have been skipped over. Prison Break ultimately made good on its title in the first season's breakneck finale
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Michael and Lincoln do indeed escape Fox River with several friends and foes in tow
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In a truly satisfying hybrid of heist teams and prison exploitation flicks
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it appeared as if the ragtag gang of innocent victims and legit psychopaths might make it out in style
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But unlike their fallen comrade, D.B. Cooper, the Fox River 8 couldn't catch a sky ride
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and instead fled on foot. As a perfect setup for more action
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fans correctly assumed that they were in for another season. And that is exactly where the trouble starts
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with Prison Break. because when you push a potent concept past its shelf life
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the only possible outcome is for fans to watch their favorite show slowly sink
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I want you to promise me that you're going to keep an eye on Link. As you may have noticed, he has a tendency to get in trouble
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Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened when Prison Break made its semi-triumphant return the following summer
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Another ratings hit for Fox. Season 2 feels both married to the story beats of Season 1
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while also totally separate from its focused beginnings. Now centered on the lives and many, many deaths of its central cast post-Escape, Prison Break
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tried to up the ante without the confinement of prison walls both physically and narratively Dubbed The Fugitive x 8 by showrunner Paul Schuring the second season of Prison Break is really more like a comic book multiverse where basically everyone dies only to be revived somewhere convenient down the line
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Though the second season mostly takes place outside of prison, the show's desire to repeat itself is unrelenting
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Case in point, series mainstay and central bad guy T-Bag famously lost his hand in a gory badass finale of season one
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In season two, T-Bag gets his hand reattached by a backroom surgeon
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only to cut it off again. When you call a piece of white trash you couldn't pass the cop's exam
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and now makes less than a mailman, a CO. Likewise, previously murderous characters
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like Agent Kellerman seem to become valiant heroes anytime there's a convenient chance
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for a new character arc. Characters like Kellerman are killed offscreen en masse in season two, further reminding viewers
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that they will probably return at some point. While the showrunners claimed executing central characters
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established a gritty reality, it quickly loses all shock value. Attempting to establish bigger stakes, the third outing focuses on a prison where, get this, the prisoners are the guards
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While certainly novel in its approach to the prisoner exploitation genre, Season 3's convoluted plot overshadows interesting sets and fight scenes
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Not content to only copy itself, Prison Break Season 3 cribs from everyone
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In one particularly pointless execution, Lincoln is given a box which potentially contains the head of his brother's lover
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Sound familiar? Unlike the stark brutality of Seven's What's in the Box scene, Prison Break straight up opens the
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box, shows you the head, and asks you to accept that a character actually died for real this time
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She's dead, Michael. By the time Prison Break's fourth and intended final season rolled around
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some were relieved that the troubled series might find suitable closure. But as the episodes wore on
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many realized they were in for another messy year. With more backstabbing and character reversals than
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ever before, Michael and Lincoln are put at odds for the first time when one of them turns cop
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But after crying wolf for the last few years, no one actually believed the brothers had turned
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against each other. Even more implausible are the constant self-sacrifice scenes that had
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continued to mar the series. Once the brothers are safely back in each other's good graces
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the series ends with another time jump to end all time jumps. Now, several years in the future
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Lincoln and the fam are seen visiting Michael's grave. While the show had attempted to set up
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of this scenario with a mid-season brain cancer plot, the ending came out of the blue
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Fortunately for those in need of info dumps, Prison Break provided a made film to cap things off in 2009 Filmed in tandem with season four this under special is technically two episodes tied together Showcasing the events
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leading up to Michael's death, the hilariously named Prison Break The Final Break operates as
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just another retread. While many assumed this was the end for Prison Break, Fox had other plans
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Almost a decade after the series ended, the show was revived for a fifth season. Perhaps a reaction
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to other semi-successful legacy seasons like X-Files and Roswell, or maybe just because stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell
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couldn't seem to duck red carpet questions about more episodes, Prison Break returned in 2017
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You could have left me there, in jail. Could have or should have
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Saddled with an even sadder premise than ever before, the series asked audiences to accept the return of Michael Schofield
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In what amounts to a hybrid of season three and four, this latest entry was a return to form in all the wrong ways
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From T-Bag's newer, crazier prosthetic hand to Michael's ridiculous explanation for why he faked his own death
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the Prison Break revival was as tired as its reappearing characters. Although harsh ratings quickly killed the revamp
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season five was eventually known as one of the most illegally viewed shows of the year
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an almost fitting achievement. I did everything I could. I know you did
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While the sequel seasons and the film are tough pills to swallow, it's hard to imagine any other outcome for a series like Prison Break
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Even though its dynamite cast and cool physical hooks do some heavy lifting, the central premise itself certainly carried all the weight from the beginning
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Rather than bust loose from those shackles, Prison Break instead tried to blow up the past with more death, more redemption, and less returns
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Adding new locations and higher stakes can drown out the fact that simplicity made the show a success
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and expanding an already exciting location does little to justify repeating what audiences have already seen
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Quite honestly, does anyone really need to bust out of jail more than once to tell a solid story
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Why do you want to see Burrow so bad anyhow? Because he's my brother
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However, much like the odds stacked against Michael in the triumphant first season
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Prison Break continues to garner appeals for more episodes. Perhaps the strength of the series' beginnings keep the faithful coming back
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Or maybe those comfortable, cheesy plots and cartoonish character arcs are too good to resist
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Because whether we like it or not, that prison break buzz has been brewing once again
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Although both cast and crew claim there are no plans for more prison break, you never really know when the time might be right for another stay at Fox River State Pen
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