10 Best Performances In Prison Break

For as long as it's been around, Prison Break has been a show with animated characters. The high-concept premise of the series promised a cavalcade of characters, and with the multiple layers of stories and relationships taking place inside and out of the infamous Fox River Penitentiary, the show was certainly not going to shy away from extravagant figures.

While some characters stood out for being flamboyant, or leaned into (in today's eyes) questionable stereotypes, there were also the nuances and ticks within characters that made them all the more special. For a lot of the cast, it's clear they had the time of their lives playing such exuberant characters, and whether or not they were the star of the scene, they still made an impact on Prison Break fans.

Unfortunately, they weren't all winners - we all remember Holly Valance's embarrassing attempt at an Eastern European accent, and even second-lead Dominic Purcell as Lincoln Burrows was reduced at the end to a hulking bruiser.

But these were just speed-bumps, and when they're surrounded by genuinely great actors (special shout out to Stacy Keach as the fatherly prison warden) they can blur into the scene and audiences can barely notice.

Sometimes the worst characters can be some of the most memorable, and in the case of Michael Rapaport's addition, as Homeland Security agent Don Self, he was already a questionable addition before the fourth season had even premiered.

If you were able to look past 'The War at Home' persona, you would have seen Rapaport play the role with an earnest sense of dedication - especially as a character who was way out of his depth and clearly making it up as he went along. That deserves acknowledgement at least.

Michael Rapaport earned equal degrees of frustration and sympathy from the audience - his character's sad backstory might have sprung out of nowhere, but if anything, it held up the motivations of the character, and made his back-stabbing motives more understandable.

The casting of Rapaport worked brilliantly - playing Self as a brash government bureaucrat who puffed up his chest whenever the brothers challenged him, only to reveal he'd been constantly spinning plates and was way over his head from jump.

His mid-season turn into a minor antagonist was a surprise, and from then on Rapaport did a tremendous job playing a contemptible a***hole as he tried (and sometimes successfully) one-upped even Michael.