Critical reception

Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 gave the season a Metascore—a weighted average based on the impressions of a select 32 critical reviews—of 65, signifying generally favorable reviews. Based on its strong opening, The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

dubbed Prison Break "more intriguing than most of the new network series, and ... one of the most original" and a "suspenseful thriller", complimenting its "authentic look". Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

called it an "original drama", noting the show's "edge-of-the-seat action". On the other hand, however, The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

criticized the show for its "somber pretentiousness" and "uniformly overwrought [performances]".

Ratings

The two-hour pilot episode garnered approximately 10.5 million viewers, giving Fox its "best summertime Monday numbers since episodes of Melrose Place and Ally McBeal

Ally McBeal

Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia...

aired there in September 1998." The show's first season attracted an average audience of 10 million viewers each week and led the debuts of television in the 2005 American fall season. Prison Break was originally planned for a 13-episode run, but was extended to include an extra nine episodes due to its popularity.

DVD releases

The first season was released under the title Prison Break: Season One as a widescreen

Widescreen

Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....

 six-disc Region 1

DVD region code

DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

 DVD box set in the United States on August 8, 2006, two weeks before the premiere of the second season. In addition to all 22 episodes that had aired, it included several DVD extras such as episode commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage and making-of features as well as deleted scenes

Deleted Scenes

A deleted scene is a scene removed from or replaced by another scene in the final version of a film or television series.It may also refer to:* "Deleted Scenes", an episode of the Adult Swim animated television series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force...

. The same set was released on September 12, 2006 in Region 4, and on September 18, 2006 in Region 2. The audio commentaries were provided by several executive and co-executive producers, including Paul Scheuring, Brett Ratner, Matt Olmstead, Zack Estrin and Nick Santora. They were also provided by directors Robert Mandel

Robert Mandel

Robert Mandel is a film producer and director and television director from Oakland, California. He is best known for his film School Ties, which launched the careers of Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Cole Hauser and Chris O'Donnell.-Biography:...

, Greg Yaitanes

Greg Yaitanes

Greg Yaitanes is an American television and film director.-Directing career:*Damages **"Jesus, Mary and Joe Cocker" **"A Pretty Girl in a Leotard" *Lost...

 and Bobby Roth, producer Garry Brown, supervising producer Karyn Usher, and editor Mark Helfrich

Mark Helfrich

Mark Helfrich is an ACE -certified film editor. He has edited over thirty films, such as the cult classic Showgirls with Mark Goldblatt...

. Actors Dominic Purcell, Robert Knepper, Sarah Wayne Callies, Amaury Nolasco, Wade Williams, Peter Stormare and Silas Weir Mitchell

Silas Weir Mitchell (actor)

Silas Weir Mitchell is an American character actor known for playing disturbing or unstable characters.-Career:He has had recurring guest roles in the first season of 24 , My Name Is Earl , and Prison Break...

 also offered their opinions in the commentaries.

Episodes

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