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Prison Break poster

Shows that feel likePrison Break (2005–2017)

Due to a political conspiracy, an innocent man is sent to death row and his only hope is his brother, who makes it his mission to deliberately get himself sent to the same prison in order to break the both of them out, from the inside out.

If you loved Prison Break, the closest series we have are Reacher (2022), Person of Interest (2011) and The Wire (2002). All three share Prison Break's gritty and paranoid feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Shooter (2016).

★ 8.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗5 seasons · FOXcreated by Paul T. Scheuringkineticepicgrittycontemplativeparanoid
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video
Stream it:Hulu ↗

If Prison Break hit the spot, these will too

Reacher poster
Reacher
2022– · 4 seasons · Prime Video
★ 8action & adventure · crimePrime Video

One very competent man dismantling a conspiracy from the inside

The difference: Self-contained crime cases, and no countdown

Jack Reacher, a veteran military police investigator, has just recently entered civilian life. Reacher is a drifter, carrying no phone and the barest of essentials as he travels the country and explores the nation he once served.

Person of Interest poster
Person of Interest
2011–2016 · 5 seasons · CBS
★ 8.5action & adventure · crime · sci-fi & fantasyPrime VideoPeacock

A man with a plan, a partner, and a conspiracy tightening around them

The difference: Weekly cases and an AI, cooler and much less desperate

John Reese, former CIA paramilitary operative, is presumed dead and teams up with reclusive billionaire Finch to prevent violent crimes in New York City by initiating their own type of justice. With the special training that Reese has had in Covert Operations and Finch's genius software inventing mind, the two are a perfect match for the job that they have to complete. With the help of surveillance equipment, they work "outside the law" and get the right criminal behind bars. 

The Wire poster
The Wire
2002–2008 · 5 seasons · HBO
★ 9.3crime · dramaMax

Institutions that grind up the people who trust them

The difference: Social realism — no genius plan, no countdown

Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

The Night Agent poster
The Night Agent
2023– · 4 seasons · Netflix
★ 7.4action & adventure · drama · mysteryNetflix

Both are built on the same subject: conspiracy

The difference: Trades the grit of Prison Break for an angle of its own

Brought together by a midnight phone call, an FBI agent and a cybersecurity expert must unravel an ever-growing web of political conspiracies.

Shooter poster
Shooter
2016–2018 · 3 seasons · USA Network
★ 7.5action & adventure · war & politics · drama

One wronged man against a conspiracy that owns the institutions

The difference: Sniper-scope action beats — none of the intricate escape puzzles

Bob Lee Swagger is an expert marksman living in exile who is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president.

The X-Files poster
The X-Files
1993–2018 · 11 seasons · FOX
★ 8.6mystery · sci-fi & fantasy · crimeHuluDisney+

The same preoccupation in both: conspiracy

The difference: Takes it somewhere less kinetic than Prison Break does

The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries that debunk Mulder's work and thus return him to mainstream cases.

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Homeland
2011–2020 · 8 seasons · Showtime
★ 8.3drama · war & politics · crimeNetflixHulu

Gritty and contemplative in the same breath

The difference: Leans harder into war & politics than Prison Break does

CIA officer Carrie Mathison is tops in her field despite being bipolar, which makes her volatile and unpredictable. With the help of her long-time mentor Saul Berenson, Carrie fearlessly risks everything, including her personal well-being and even sanity, at every turn.

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Bodyguard
2018 · 1 season · BBC One
★ 8crime · drama · war & politicsNetflix

Paranoid crime in both cases

A troubled war veteran is assigned to protect a controversial politician who may be the target of a terror plot.

Sense8 poster
Sense8
2015–2018 · 2 seasons · Netflix
★ 8.2sci-fi & fantasy · dramaNetflix

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

One gunshot, one death, one moment out of time that irrevocably links eight minds in disparate parts of the world, putting them in each other's lives, each other's secrets, and in terrible danger. Ordinary people suddenly reborn as "Sensates."

The Terminal List poster
The Terminal List
2022– · 2 seasons · Prime Video
★ 7.9action & adventure · dramaPrime Video

Kinetic where it counts, epic underneath

Navy SEAL Commander James Reece turns to vengeance as he investigates the mysterious forces behind the murder of his entire platoon. Free from the military's command structure, Reece applies the lessons he's learned from nearly two decades of warfare to hunt down the people responsible.

American Gods poster
American Gods
2017–2021 · 3 seasons · STARZ
★ 7.6drama · mystery · sci-fi & fantasyPrime Video

An ex-con pulled into something far larger than his own sentence

The difference: Mythic surrealism, with no plan and no plot mechanics

An ex-con becomes the traveling partner of a conman who turns out to be one of the older gods trying to recruit troops to battle the upstart deities. Based on Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel.

Mr. Robot poster
Mr. Robot
2015–2019 · 4 seasons · USA Network
★ 8.5crime · drama

Action & adventure built on grit, twice over

A young programmer, Elliot, suffers from a debilitating anti-social disorder and decides that he can only connect to people by hacking them. He wields his skills as a weapon to protect the people that he cares about. Elliot finds himself in the intersection between a cybersecurity firm he works for and the underworld organizations that are recruiting him to bring down corporate America.

In the mood for more kinetic?

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The best-reviewed series that share Prison Break’s defining feeling.