What.

Prison Break is back, unfortunately.  The only reason I knew it was back is because I have three new episodes staring me in the face on my Hulu queue.  Further research reveals that after the FOX network canceled the show, they agreed to let the current season wrap up.  This will extend season 4 to 22 episodes.  Apparently, there is a 2 hour ‘special’ to be aired at some point after the season ends, extending the season to 24 episodes.

My question is – Why can’t we just let it go, already?

Prison Break was GREAT.  For one season.  It then became pretty good again somewhere in the middle, but completely derailed rather quickly.  It really was a shame to see a great idea executed so poorly, and lose any resemblance of good story-telling.  I stuck with it for quite a while, mostly because I was such a big fan of the first season, and I kept hoping against all odds that they would somehow rein it in.  But, after watching about 5 minutes of its return with episode 17, I just can’t do it anymore.  I’m done.  I won’t be crossing the finish line with the rest of you.  At least, not until someone can convince me that I’m missing out.

Here’s a short list of what I think Prison Break did wrong:

• They made a second season.  This isn’t that complicated, really.  I don’t think the storyline was meant for a network TV series.  If anything, I see it as a mini-series a la Band of Brothers.  In my opinion, it’s a story that was made for an HBO venue.  It would have allowed the story to be grittier, and would have saved the audience from 3 seasons of fluff.
• That being said, since this was a network series, they never should have rushed the actual prison break.  There was no reason why they had to break out before the first season was even over.  The story went downhill almost immediately after they broke out of prison.  But they kept making that same mistake over and over again.  They rushed to get out of prison, they rushed to end the manhunt, they rushed to break out of Sona.  They couldn’t just let a good storyline be.  They had to end them, and move onto crap.
• Bringing back dead people.  They never should have killed off Sara Tancredi, and after they did, she should have remained dead.  I can suspend disbelief when it’s needed, but don’t make me feel like a tool for doing it.  And, now their mother is alive (again) too?
• Wentworth Miller needs a new emotion.  He’s used up angst.  And he needs to stop talking like Batman.

I could go on.  There are a lot of things that bugged me about where they took the show.  So, why did I stick with it for so long?  Because Season 1 was genius.  It really was.  It’s too bad the others couldn’t follow suit.