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'Prison Break': Here's how the show is being revived

Fox is reportedly bringing back the show for 10 episodes. 'Prison' stars Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell and centered on a man trying to help his brother escape from jail.

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'Prison Break' stars Wentworth Miller (r.) and Amaury Nolasco (l.).

The network Fox is reportedly planning more episodes of its mid-2000s hit 鈥淧rison Break.鈥澛

鈥淧rison鈥 starred Wentworth Miller and centered on Michael Scofield (Miller), who commits a crime in order to get sent to prison and be close to his wrongfully accused brother, Lincoln (Dominic Purcell). Michael plans to help his brother escape.

The show ran from 2005 to 2009 and ratings had declined by the program鈥檚 final season.

According to , the new installments of 鈥淧rison鈥 will last for 10 episodes. 鈥淭he brothers will be back, and it addresses questions set up at the end of the series,鈥 Fox CEO Dana Walden said.

Miller and Purcell both currently star on the CW series 鈥淭he Flash鈥 as supervillains and are set to star on the CW program 鈥淟egends of Tomorrow,鈥 which is set in the 鈥淔lash鈥 story world and is set to debut in 2016. So any 鈥淧rison鈥 project will have to work around that.聽

鈥淧rison,鈥 the ABC show 鈥淟ost,鈥 and the NBC program 鈥淗eroes鈥 were the kings of mid-2000s television that had ambitious premises and fast-moving plots. All of them also disappointed some of their fans with their long-term plotting. While 鈥淧rison鈥 centered on the brothers Michael and Lincoln, 鈥淟ost鈥 told the story of a plane crashing on a mysterious island and 鈥淗eroes鈥 was about various people with superpowers. While 鈥淧rison鈥 debuted in 2005, 鈥淟ost鈥 came on the air in 2004 and 鈥淗eroes鈥 appeared in 2006.

While 鈥淧rison鈥 was critically well-received for its first two seasons, it declined as it went on and ratings also slipped. 鈥淭he series鈥 slowly sinks and drowns under the weight of its own shoddy and convoluted plotting,鈥 one wrote of 鈥淧rison鈥 as a whole. Meanwhile, while some fans were satisfied with the ending of 鈥淟ost,鈥 others weren鈥檛 happy with the finale and complained that some mysteries weren鈥檛 resolved. 鈥淗eroes鈥 also lost viewers as it went on and reviewers enjoyed the first season but didn鈥檛 like the first season finale; the criticism continued from there. One wrote that the 鈥淗eroes鈥 series finale had 鈥渞esolution via multiple deuxes ex machinas so random, it's almost as if they had no plan at all to begin with鈥 and ideas鈥 [that were] ill-conceived and poorly executed.鈥澛

The recent popularity of anthology TV shows like 鈥淎merican Horror Story鈥 and 鈥淭rue Detective,鈥 which promise some sort of reset at the end of each season, are at least in part a response to this. A program like the TV show 鈥淔argo鈥 won鈥檛 have convoluted plotting and complicated conspiracies that go on for ages; mysteries will be solved by the end.聽

Therefore, a 10-episode order of 鈥淧rison鈥 holds the same promise as another Fox show being revived, 鈥淭he X-Files.鈥 A six-episode version of the show is set to debut in January. While there鈥檚 a fair chance the network will ask for more if either "Prison" or "X-Files" is a hit, having a set number of episodes for the shows at the beginning promises resolution and a plan at the outset. "Heroes" is also being revived for a new series, "Heroes Reborn," which is also currently set for a specific number of episodes: 13.

Expect to see more limited series like this if viewers tune in for shows that are set in worlds they love but have slightly tighter plotting than the first incarnations.

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