Technically it could be considered 4 episodes of Alcatraz since the 2 hour pilot episode was really only two back-to-back episodes. For those of you who haven’t been watching along, Alcatraz is the newest J.J. Abrams procedural with weird stuff in the background series. This series, as you can tell by the title, focuses on the ex-prison (and now tourist attraction) Alcatraz. They imported Jorge Garcia from Lost and setup the long term storyline which is moved along by the weekly procedural storyline. So, let’s see what the show’s about.
J.J Abrams has made his name on 3 successful TV shows (Felicity, Alias and Lost). Fringe is in its fourth season, but is by no means a success (although it does have a small but very loyal following. And all his other shows only lasted a single season (with the exception of What About Brian which was surprisingly renewed for a second season (which was then reduced from 22 to 19 episodes and canceled). Abrams other new show Person of Interest is having a very successful first season and is pretty much a lock to be renewed (since it is routinely in the top 20 weekly shows). So Abrams producing a show is not a sure sign of quality. And after getting excited about last year’s Undercovers (and being bored by the pilot) I was cautiously optimistic about Alcatraz.
The basic premise is that in 1963 about 300 prisoners mysteriously disappeared and have started popping up in present day San Francisco (fortunately only one at a time so far). Rebecca Madsen(Sarah Jones) is a San Francisco detective who gets mixed up in a case with one of the returnees and ends up deciding to work for Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) a mysterious government agent who is tasked with finding and capturing all the missing prisoners. Aiding Rebecca is Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) a Alcatraz expert who has two PhD’s but lives as a comic book artist. Helping Emerson is Lucy Banerjee (Parmindar Nagaraj) who is a bit of a mystery (especially since she gets shot halfway through episode 2 and is still in a coma as of episode 4).
Each episode has a prisoner showing up and our heroes going on a search to find and capture them. This part is a bit clunky as there really is no convincing explanation to show the group why this particular crime is related to an Alcatraz prisoner. And, considering that these prisoners have jumped 40 years into the future, there doesn’t seem to be much culture shock for them. At the same time, we see a little of what that prisoner was doing in 1963 Alcatraz and how it ties into the procedural and possibly the long term story line.
As for the long term plan, it’s still a mystery. So far we’ve found out that Lucy and the prison doctor also came forward in time. Also Rebecca’s grandfather was in Alcatraz as a prisoner (although she thought he was a guard) and Emerson really was a guard. We also know the mystery is related somehow to the isolation cells in Alcatraz and that Emerson has a new secret prison that he takes all the captured prisoners to.
Overall, it’s pretty mediocre right now. The procedural part is fairly boring and the long term mystery is still just that, a mystery. But there are some decent elements. Sarah Jones is decent as the police detective and has good chemistry with Jorge Garcia and the man-boy Alcatraz savant. Sam Neill hasn’t really been called to do much besides glower and be mysterious, while Parminder Nagra has done little but lay in a hospital bed for the last two episodes. The mystery and the pieces are interesting and I like the scenes set in 1963, especially because the Warden (Jonny Coyne) does a great job. I’m interested enough to watch, especially since there is only 10 episodes this season, but I’m not sure what will get me to continue watching if it gets renewed for another season. Mildly recommended.