10 TV Shows Never Better Than Their First Season

You've got to give Prison Break credit; its premise is brilliant. The tale of two brothers incarcerated in the same prison - one for murder, the other choosing to be there to break his brother out - the show had a seriously exciting first season, forever overshadowed by its four sequels.

The kind of long-running series that would've fared better as a miniseries, Prison Break gripped audiences with its thrilling, balmy set-up, but after its successful first year realised it had nowhere else to go.

Spending the next four years (and an ill-advised miniseries revival 12 years later) running around in circles, boring audiences with the same bait-and-switch plot twists, Prison Break never came even remotely close to matching the entertaining silliness and action of its first season.

Airing at a time when audience demand was high for exhilarating, big-budget dramas on the small screen (think Lost), it's easy to see why the series ran for as long as it did, but time has made it clear it would've been better had it not made it past chapter one.