J.J. Abrams' Alcatraz

[Dukefrukem]

He's not writing it, just producing it. But look at the synopsis. Ha.


J.J. Abrams’ island mystery “Alcatraz.”


The series is about the FBI’s efforts to track down a group of guards and inmates who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago, then mysteriously reappeared in the present day.

Jorge Garcia is the first actor cast in the series.

[number8]

So, like, Prison Break meets The 4400?

[Dukefrukem]

So, like, Prison Break meets The 4400?

meets Lost, except...

we already know Time Travel is involved.

edited to spoiler tag LOST details --Raiders

[Ivan Drago]

Dude.

[Dukefrukem]

sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry. that was dumb.

[Irish]

This sounds like an episode of Fringe.

[[ETM]]

I like how this seems to support the theory that all Abrams' shows are set in the same fictional universe.:lol:

[Morris Schæffer]

Sam Neil, Robert Forster and Parminder Nagra will probably join. Very, very cool.

[Dukefrukem]

Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

J_jAlFqvASU

[Henry Gale]

I like what I see there, and I'm assuming that's only as far as the story goes by the end of the pilot, which makes it even more interesting in a way. I'm just a bit disappointed that they're not starting this until midseason. I'm guessing that Terra Nova's delay (from originally being planned to air right now) had it take the place this would have on the regular schedule in the fall.

I've been watching a lot of the promos and clips for the new shows, and I'm actually pretty surprised at how many things I want to check out in the fall.

[Mara]

Jack? Really? Jack?


I've been watching a lot of the promos and clips for the new shows, and I'm actually pretty surprised at how many things I want to check out in the fall.

Ooh, care to list them in the TV thread? I haven't done any legwork and I always like to know what's out there.

[Henry Gale]

Ooh, care to list them in the TV thread? I haven't done any legwork and I always like to know what's out there.

Well more and more are being released by the day since this is the week the networks are slowly rolling out their schedules as a part of the upfronts, but so far it's mainly been this and a few of the NBC ones that have most caught my eye. Out of all the networks, NBC seems to have done the best job of putting a lot of clips of the new shows on their website, even if that means making four-minute trailer versions of some of the pilots.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Sam Neill! That guarantees I will at least watch the pilot. Here's to hoping this goes better than the last time I did this (Happytown).

[[ETM]]

They better not pull a The Event or The 4400 because those premises went down the toilet pretty damn fast.

[Dukefrukem]

;345485']They better not pull a The Event or The 4400 because those premises went down the toilet pretty damn fast.

I lasted exactly 1 episode into the Event. Where did they eventually take it?

[[ETM]]

I lasted exactly 1 episode into the Event. Where did they eventually take it?

Well, nowhere. Those people are aliens with an unspecified agenda, and at the time when I gave up on it, mid-way through the season, we still didn't know what the hell The Even was, nor did we give a crap about anyone on screen.

[number8]

Presently I am undecided if that was intriguing or just a pile of nonsense cut to look important.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Presently I am undecided if that was intriguing or just a pile of nonsense cut to look important.

Yep. My thoughts exactly. I'll wait until the show generates some buzz before deciding to tune in.

[Acapelli]

;345523']Well, nowhere. Those people are aliens with an unspecified agenda, and at the time when I gave up on it, mid-way through the season, we still didn't know what the hell The Even was, nor did we give a crap about anyone on screen.
i'm still watching

don't judge me

[Morris Schæffer]

Not sure why all the inmates needed to vanish. Would have been slightly more plausible if it had been a select few. Unless DADADUM there are bigger things at work.

As for Jorge Garcia as some kind of Alcatraz specialist, sorry, but ain't buying that...judging by the trailer of coursE.

[number8]

Not sure why all the inmates needed to vanish. Would have been slightly more plausible if it had been a select few. Unless DADADUM there are bigger things at work.

Because if they're going to chase one inmate per episode, and wants to keep the show going for years, they need a lot of inmates to chase.

Standard TV pipe laying.

[Morris Schæffer]

Premieres tonight. Anyone gonna watch?

[Thirdmango]

Premieres tonight. Anyone gonna watch?

I'll watch it sometime this week.

[MadMan]

Really I'll give it a chance, but that's only because of Jose Garcia and Sam Neil.

PS: I lied.

[number8]

15 minutes in and two of the main characters are discussing their daddy issues. I started giggling.

[EyesWideOpen]

Liking it so far. It's like a not as good version of Fringe with some Lost mixed in. I can never get enough Nagra.

[number8]

Found it way too rigid and procedural for my taste. I may give it a few more episodes, but I'm getting the sense that I won't last the whole first season. I got bored and started reading articles instead about half a dozen times throughout the 2-hour premiere.

[Henry Gale]

I'm hoping that it goes the way of Fringe in terms of setting itself up as a procedural with some underlying mystery and offbeat quirks and twists to give it some originality and to keep things interesting, but then eventually evolving into a show almost entirely based around those stranger elements.

I liked the first two episodes, and I think they work much better that way rather than as one big two-hour premiere. Also after just having watched The Descendants and Jackie Brown, I need the show to up its game in its use of Forster.

I expect to watch through the whole season, but I hope it finds ways of mixing up the formula by the end.

[Thirdmango]

I watched the first three episodes this morning. It was fun, nothing too special, lots of LOST 2.0 moments. The music also felt like Lost.

I like that the first scenes of the first episode was Jack leaving the island. I hope they do something interesting with the guards and others that disappeared. The girl being one of them was nice and they said there were around 50 guards so that could have some interesting storylines. They also said what 300 inmates, basically meaning they can do this forever and go until they get cancelled.

[number8]

Hurley's character is a published foremost expert on Alcatraz in the nation, who is also a famous comic book writer, an artist, and a successful comic book store owner? And he has two PhDs in criminology? What the shit?

[[ETM]]

It's Hurley. He can do anything.

[Dukefrukem]

So should i give this a try? What's the word?

[number8]

So should i give this a try? What's the word?

You could read the thread.

[Dukefrukem]

You could read the thread.

All I got was
not as good version of Fringe (and I didn't think Fringe was that good anyway)
too rigid and boring
fun, nothing too special


So I guess no, I shouldn't try it based on those three posts.

[Thirdmango]

I like it and have been recommending it to people. It is very monster of the week however they are doing a lot of reveals, probably in case they get cancelled, but if they don't they have a lot of free room to go anywhere they feel. It does have a similar feel to Lost but with less main characters and a lot of supporting characters.

[EyesWideOpen]

I'm now caught up through the first six episodes and it's gotten really good. The first few episodes I was really just watching it because of the pedigree and the Nagra but it's really picked up in these last three. Like Thirdmango said they are definitely revealing a decent amount as they go along which is a good change of pace from Lost.

[Henry Gale]

Yeah, I'm still watching, but the show's repetitiveness is outweighing his growth right now. The show has gotten into a rhythm of dedicating 45% of each episode to flashback story of the criminal of the week, 45% to the modern day chase of that same criminal, and then the remaining 10% is vague hints at what the overall mystery may be all about. The police procedural elements always seem a tad too convenient and rushed while ultimately doing very little to develop the main characters. There was a telling moment for me when the main girl told someone her name was Rebecca and that felt like new information.

The thing is, some of these episodes have been re-arranged from their production order, which hasn't been too noticable because there's not too much continuity in the modern day stuff outside of "Will Hurley get a date with the girl at the morgue?!" and which questions Sam Neill doesn't answer directly in terms of what he knows.

This week's was bumped by the Daytona 500 but still got posted on iTunes. It's not bad, it gets into the treatment of the black inmates at the prison, but it's still another fairly inconsequential episode that doesn't do a very good job of delving into an idea rich for material that I've been waiting for them to tackle since the beginning of the show. What is one of the 63 was wrongly convicted? The episode tries that storyline, but ultimately decides to create a contrived way around it that still lets it function as a any other episode of the show. That episode airs later this month, but I just wish they'd hurry up with the mythology elements of the show because it's only a 13-episode season and its renewal isn't looking like a sure thing.

[Henry Gale]

I'm now caught up through the first six episodes and it's gotten really good. The first few episodes I was really just watching it because of the pedigree and the Nagra but it's really picked up in these last three. Like Thirdmango said they are definitely revealing a decent amount as they go along which is a good change of pace from Lost.

But at least with Lost there was always a sense of exploration of an interesting world week to week with great characters being showcased to carry the weight that the speed of the storytelling may not have been at any particular time (and when both were in full gear, it was the best thing on network television). Here, Jonny Coyne's Warden is the only person I'm ever excited to see on screen, which may have something to do with him somehow having been the character we as the audience have seen the most so far, despite only being in flashbacks.

Otherwise, Sam Neill is stern and mysterious, Jorge Garcia is extremely likable and knows everything their computer doesn't, the other warden is a dick, Nagra is the poised but assertive one (though now, only in one timeline), Robert Forster is seemingly out of the picture, and the main girl is... super hot. In the end that's all I can say about any of them after eight episodes. And where the overarching mystery is concerned, the teleported inmates / guards know nothing and strange keys are somehow involved. I don't see how much more things can develop within five or six episodes.

[Henry Gale]

Tonight's episode might have been the best so far. The same day it's announced that Jack Bender is no longer directing the new Jack Ryan movie, he turns in easily some of the best work this series has seen. It wasn't even that the inmate storyline was as strong as it was, but that they found a great way of having it progress the modern day story too, something a lot of previous episodes haven't done so well.

With next week being the finale, I'm already starting to prematurely miss the show. I guess I'm hoping that by some miracle that it gets renewed as a midseason replacement to live out its days on Friday or something, but it's looking less and less likely.

[Henry Gale]

So as a season finale, I enjoyed it, but as a series finale, it's just beyond incomplete. The last thirty seconds fail to really inspire much excitement or anticipation of what's left up in the air, instead just giving ambiguous teasing for things that may never come.

Kind of fitting that the final shot is Madsen flatlining. If the show is dead, then she basically is too. And I guess the cartoonish scientist will indefinitely find Hauser's questions hilarious as well.
The problem with the mystery in this show is that it's the mystery. A show like Lost always had tons of interesting threads going, sometimes more than it could even handle. If a finale was about the hatch, it still found the time to deal with a dozen other things. Alcatraz just has its one big floating question regarding the '63s and how they got to 2012, and it looks like it was set on keeping it the primary story engine for however long it lasted.

[Thirdmango]

the end of the first season of Alcatraz was like the end of the first season of Flash Forward, both of them had a giant map and they both basically look at the television executives and say, "See we have a plan! But it's big and expensive so you're gonna have to give us more money!" Flash Forward was cancelled, I'm guessing Alcatraz will be too.

Also that mad scientist was a big let down. Basically he looks at the fans and says, "Ha Ha! I can't believe that worked, oh you've known for 13 episodes? Well it's new to me!"

[Henry Gale]

Cancelled, but they expect to shop it around to other networks, since that's the thing to do nowadays.