Alcatraz Season 1

I caught an ad for it while at the gym the other day, and it looked all right. Though I am a bit worried about the "Sam Neill" factor -- I feel like he's now firmly deep in the paycheck-phase of his career -- but that might be an unfair assessment.

I really can't see how they're going to stretch this concept out but, then again, I thought Fringe would be just like The X-Files, and yet they somehow managed to surprise me with where the show went, so maybe the same thing will happen again here.

The biggest reason no one will watch tonight -- it's a 2-hour premiere. Don't the network execs realize that two hours on a work night ain't going to happen for most folks? I'm still interested, but I'm sure if I DVR it, I won't get around to watching it until this weekend. Too much good stuff comes out this week, like Justified and Archer.

They actually were showing an extended preview or something of this on a flight I was on, but I didn't want to see anything about it on a 4" screen or whatever. I'll probably watch it tonight but I'm not fully convinced yet.

It's really just two separate episodes being aired on the same night. I only watched the first one, and will probably watch the second at a later time. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't say it was great either.

Two things bothered me most about it, the 'Cliffhanger'-like scene of the original partner, and if they've got two separate high-tech locations (one under Alcatraz, one in the middle of the woods), then why would they leave the records of all the prisoners behind one door with a simple lock?

Edit: Forgot the other annoying thing about the episode which was Jorge Garcia's annoying comic relief. I mean, it felt natural when he did it in Lost as Hurley, but here a lot of it felt forced for the audience.
Edited by Joe_H - 1/16/12 at 7:15pm

True -- I think that the premise, as is, will get pretty dry pretty quickly, but based on Sam Neill's futuristic forest-prison and that L O S T twist at the end, it looks as though there are more layers to this. Could be interesting, although the only thing that's really jumped out at me so far was how willing this show is to slaughter innocent civilians.

Eh, it was good enough to keep watching but it's very similar to Fringe. I didn't know that Robert Forster was on the show so it was a fun surprise seeing him. I liked that the pilot was shot in San Francisco (or at least very convincingly faked for SF) and I hoped that they would continue to film there but like nearly all sci-fi shows, Vancouver is its home.

Yet another series I wont watch because I auditioned for it and didnt land the role.

Just a personal thing with me. I hate seeing someone acting in a role that could have been mine.

(Yes, I am a whiny bitch about not getting roles)

I noticed the Michael Giacchino music in the pilot. I liked seeing Jeffrey Pierce, whom I knew from Charlie Jade.

Over on imdb it says the filming locations were

Alcatraz Prison, Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Filbert Street, San Francisco, California, USA

San Francisco Bay, California, USA

San Francisco, California, USA

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The wikipedia article says that the show is filmed primarily in Vancouver. I guess they probably did a whole bunch of shooting in SF for the pilot and possibly built up some "stock footage" while they were at it for later episodes.

If they are doing one convict a week that's a lot of episodes to cover. I expect that given a chance, it will evolve. I think that Touch will be in the timeslot in mid-March, so I think that is only 10 hours (including the 2 for tonight) for the show until then. In any case, I am intrigued by the show and am looking forward to seeing what we get.

I really enjoyed it. I judge pilots by their concept and their casting, since those are the things the show will be stuck with moving forward. Both were strong. Sam Neill absolutely owns his role as the overseer of the government project who got his start as one of the correctional officers who first discovered the disappearance. His opening narration was absolutely dead on, almost like a Rod Serling introduction to a "Twilight Zone" episode. Sarah Jones is only 28 and looks younger, so she stretches credibility a bit as a top detective, but she's got a playfulness to her performance that's refreshing in a field of female cops that are SO self-serious. You can actually believe Det. Madsen has a sense of humor. Jorge Garcia's role is to feed the audience exposition and create an interesting visual odd couple between the two partners, and he does fine with what's required of him. His character's the most thinly written so far. I always liked Parminder Nagra on "E.R.", and given the closing twist of the second hour, she's by far the most interesting character we've met so far. Robert Forster hasn't been given anything to do yet, but he's Robert Forster so you know he'll be awesome. The futuristic replica of the Alcatraz cell block in the middle of the forest is an interesting structural conceit.

Jorge did ask if she was kind of young for a detective and she did acknowledge that, which I think was a way to address that issue up front.

I have'nt watched it yet, but it sounds like a Scifi version of A&E's Breakout Kings. Interesting thing is that Breakout Kings was given to Fox but they passed on it. Hmm...

Truly enjoyed the set up. Back stories are intriguing. I am looking forward to this. Sam Neill was very enigmatic and determined. "No more shooting!!"

Hopefully answers will not be Lost forever.

Doug

Really, really enjoyed it. Sam Neill was excellent, and it is good to see him on my screen again. His character has some depth, and definitely knows a lot more than he is letting on. I am on board, let's see where the roller-coaster goes!

Watched the first half of the pilot, I liked it quite a bit but I do wonder how this premise is going to sustain a series.

I liked it, will keep watching until they decide to cancel it.

I just wonder when the dinosaurs will show up. ;-)

The two-hour premiere was up 10 percent over "Terra Nova's" two-hour premiere. It'll be interesting to see the hold come next week.

I really enjoyed the premiere which means it will probably be canceled.

The music and mysteries just kept reminding me of Lost. I am curious how they will handle the return of the guards?

On a side note. When the first prisoner was leaving Alcatrax. He had a ticket and a wad of cash. I assume that was left for him by whomever is bringing them back?

He also had a key to the locker with the gun. When he was first seen in the cell by the girl, he already had the black coat, draped on top of him as he laid there. After he walks out and on the way to the boat, someone bumps into him, and people have speculated that a reverse-pickpocket happened then, but that doesn't seem necessary. If they could leave him the coat, the stuff could already be in the pocket. He is also wearing his prison uniform, which he changes out of at the locker and they find later. (The park ranger did not make note of it, although it was dark.) So there's this mismatch were he's wearing his old stuff but he also has new stuff. But maybe the uniform is a plot contrivance for them to find something. In the second episode, when we first see the guy, he is all settled in (with a picnic basket no less).

The second ep was definitely a step up, IMHO. I'll give it a few weeks and see how it plays out, but I'm having some problems with the show:

 

- Sarah Jones is attractive enough but I'm having a hard time seeing her as a tough detective. Her scene in the bathroom frantically cleaning blood off herself then hitting the paper towel dispenser is an example of something that just didn't work for me.

- Hurley's book (he's forever Hurley to me) is about what, exactly? The show implies that all the mug shots in the book are of the missing inmates. So, the book is only focusing on the inmates who were transferred when Alcatraz closed?

- And, I might have been distracted, but in the show's world, is it believed that the inmates were all transferred to another prison, or is it a known mystery that all the inmates vanished? I mean, to the general public. I seem to recall conversation that inmates were transferred to San Quentin or something so I'm thinking the world at large is unaware.

- And nitpicky things like her pinpointing where the shooter stood on the hilltop while aiming her finger gun (implying she could see his target spots without use of a sight), Hurley being a computer whiz as well as a comic book writer, author, and comic book shop worker...? Her spending the night in the cell and Hurley coming up to her and saying "You spent the night here?" Well, yeah, where were you?  etc

I just saw the premiere, and liked them enough to keep watching, though seeing Sarah Jones with short hair will take some getting used to. I thought she was a lot more attractive with long hair.

 

The show not only feels like Lost, but also like The 4400, with not only the part with prisoners disappearing and reappearing years later without aging a bit, but even calling the prisoners by a number.

 

Side note, I can remember visiting Alcatraz, and actually saw a former inmate, who was there for a book signing and shared his experiences at the prison to the tourists. Seemed like a nice guy, though hard to believe he was a prisoner at the "Rock".

 

 

Maybe, that's the intent so she looks more like a homicide detective than someone being featured for the cover of a magazine.
 

 

I kind of figured that, because of that and she is a regular on a show for a change, in a more serious role. To me, she is known for making guest appearances on other shows, and she was one of the reasons why I tuned into this show.

 

I don't mean to knock her appearance, just that this is the first time seeing her with shorter hair (which I don't normally find attractive on women, in general).

Well, she can arrest me and read me my rights everyday of the week.  She has a very pretty face.

 

 

 

 

 

Crawdaddy

 

And probably should!

Eh...I don't know.  It was okay I guess.  I have a mild interest in the back story, but no interest in the convict of the week stuff.  And Jorge Garcia seems useless.  The best part of the show was the music, which I can only assume is the same person or group that did Lost's music.  Will probably get relegated to workout viewing for me for now.

The music in the pilot was credited to Michael Giacchino (composer of Lost) but the other episode sounded like exactly like the standard Fringe music cues to me. I don't know if Giacchino did both episodes and just had a bad day but I'm guessing that he only did the pilot and the series has a different composer.

He is listed as only the pilot on his wiki page, Chris Tilton
and Andrea Datzman are also listed as composers.

Yeah, on his Twitter, Giacchino mentioned that he only did the pilot.