I have recently been watching the 2005 Fox series Prison Break which is available on Netflix. This show was recommended to me by a friend, one of his main selling points being the length of the show’s story. The premise of the show is a man named Michael Scofield crafts an elaborate plan to free his wrongfully imprisoned brother, Lincoln, from death row at Fox River Penitentiary, an infamous max security prison. Scofield’s plan revolves around his own imprisonment in the same jail as his brother where he must scramble to make his escape plans a reality before his brother’s execution.

The plot is further complicated by the existence of an evil clandestine organization, revealed to be pulling the strings in virtually all events of the show. While the first season of the show stayed true to my expectations of a show called Prison Break, the show quickly diverged from its somewhat realistic established structure. Away from Fox River Penitentiary, it seems as though writers struggled to form an engaging plot while staying true to the show’s first season. Multiple characters are presumed dead, before being brought back to the show several episodes later. The show starts to force twists and turns which are initially interesting, before becoming painfully repetitive.

Considering a reboot following the series 5th and final season in 2017, multiple actors from the original show have declined returning. Screen Rant author Tara Salvati writes in her article  “Michael’s whole goal in breaking Lincoln out of prison was to save his life, but when that was no longer the show’s guiding light, it started to fall flat” (Salvati). The lack of a “guiding light” is certainly the later season’s main issue as the show has interesting events and developments which ultimately do very little for developing the show’s plot. Now on the show’s fourth season, I further agree with Salvati “Prison Break might’ve gone down as one of the best series of all time if the show had ended after season 2” (Salvati). Overall Prison Break is a consistently entertaining show that simply lacks major plot development.  While the premise of the show set it up for success, it was this very success that drove the show past its limits.