10 TV Shows That Should Have Ended After One Season

9. Prison Break

True Detective Matthew McConaughey
20th Century Fox

The charm of Prison Break’s first season was that it was well aware of how goofy its premise was. It just had everything: wrongful incarceration, a guy with a super detailed tattoo of the prison’s blueprints, escape attempts, blackmail, violence, cliffhangers galore.

Unlike the similarly incident-filled 24, which occasionally took itself quite seriously, Prison Break was more than willing to be nothing more than freewheeling fun. The actors were invested and looked like they were having a great time - it had a lot of charm.

Then, at the end of the first season, they broke out of the prison! That was it, the premise of the show was basically over - there was really nowhere else to go. Only, they kept on going for another four seasons, a special, and a spin off series.

At every opportunity they ramped up the ludicrousness, bringing characters back from the dead, throwing in Navy SEALS and shady conspiracies and all sorts to keep things going, but we’d seen what we wanted to see. They broke out of the prison, as promised. We didn’t need another 60 episodes.

Contributor
Contributor

Yorkshire-based writer of screenplays, essays, and fiction. Big fan of having a laugh. Read more of my stuff @ www.twotownsover.com (if you want!)