10 TV Shows That SUCKED After The First Season
9. Prison Break
It's very easy for not only us as an audience but also filmmakers to go “well, the studio messed with my vision and that’s why it didn’t turn out perfect” because studios can largely be looked at as just faceless corporations. However in this case, Fox probably had the right idea to suggest Prison Break showrunner Paul Scheuring turn his concept into a miniseries rather than a full-on serialised show.
Prison Break starred Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell as brothers in prison; one incarcerated for a murder they didn’t commit and the other choosing to join them behind bars expressly to use their talents to bust them both out. It was a brilliant concept for a show: one that had a very defined endpoint that it breezed right past.
With the show’s cast having escaped prison by the end of the first season, where on Earth would Prison Break go next? On the run, sure, but for how long…? Oh, a season apparently. Then back to prison they go. And then out again… and then in…? Is this a TV show or the hokey-cokey?
Season 2 wasn’t altogether that bad but the ending, with the brothers being arrested and taken to separate prisons, just felt a bit like numbing inevitability. We were essentially back to where we started.
Over time, not only did the writing suffer but the concept completely lost its way and Prison Break suddenly became a very dull government conspiracy show rather than bow out gracefully.