Alcatraz Season 1 - Page 3

Interesting that Ray is actually her grandfather's brother.  Does the grandfather know now that was his granddaughter chasing him?

I also thought it was interesting that the second episode seemed to hint that Hauser's hospitalized Indian partner was part of the conspiracy, but last night's episode pointed the opposite way. Hauser knew her in 1960, had an ongoing relationship with her that was at least professional, and she didn't know what was going on with all of the blood in the infirmary.

Had DVRd all the episodes up to now, finally had a chance to watch them.

Was starting to get a little boring with a new killer of the week seeming to be the only plot, but just enough little hints dropped in here and there to keep me interested.

Looking forward to see where it goes.

I thought they have done a pretty good job with the growing entanglement of the characters.

No Alcatraz tonight due to the Daytona 500 being rained out yesterday and rescheduled for tonight.

Argh! I couldn't care less about cars going around in circles hundreds of times. Tonight's episode has been rescheduled for "sometime in March," whatever that means.

Given the serialized nature of the show, I'm just hoping that this week's episode plays next week. They already had two episodes scheduled for next week so maybe now they'll have two weeks with two episodes so they can get back on schedule.

Funny, I bailed on the show because it wasn't serialized enough.

^ Maybe serialized isn't exactly the right word but the episodes sort of build on themselves. For example, they'll catch a guy one episode and then an episode or two down the road, they'll need to interview him to find out some info about another guy. Not that you need to have seen them catch last week's bad guy to be able to comprehend this week's episode but if you're watching week to week, I think it's a neat touch of continuity.

Yeah, there is definitely a serialized aspect to the show.  I just couldn't tolerate the "case of the week" stuff.  I realize given the premise of the show there's probably not a better way to go about it, but it's just not for me.

How likely is it that Alcatraz will get renewed for a second season? Was really interested in this show, but just a bit concerned by the falling ratings.

This is text from a website called tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com. They tend to be fairly accurate. Not sure how to create links, don't spend a lot of posting. This was from a few days ago.


"Take a week off and many things can become clear. In Fox's case, it's now clear that both Alcatraz and The Finder are more likely to be canceled than renewed at the end of this season as their ratings keep falling. Note that while their most recent ratings have caused the reassessment, their averages above have yet to "catch up".

After this was already written yesterday, Fox stole a bit of my thunder with a press release slating the season finales for both Alcatraz and The Finder. Likely the series finales for both as well."

We can only wait and see.

It seems like no new scripted shows on the major network stations last anymore.  How long before they finally give up and the only options to watch scripted shows will be HBO, Showtime, AMC, FX, Starz, etc?  (Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing.)

Just a head's up: Fox has decided to skip the episode that was preempted last week by the Daytona 500 rather than pushed the entire schedule back one episode. The missing episode's available for sale on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video, and (I believe) streaming for free on the Fox website if you have an authorized cable or satellite account.

EDIT: Actually, Fox will be airing the preempted episode next week, out of order, which confuses things even more. I'm planning on trying to watch it tonight before the new episodes and then I guess just skip next week.
Edited by Adam Lenhardt - 3/5/12 at 10:37am

That's painful, but I presume they had already "edited" the show breaks for airing these two episodes together and didn't want redo that. I just looked at the wikipedia article on the show and they have the new air order as stated by Adam.

Just finished watching tonight's two episodes. It seems that nothing from the Clarence Montgomery episode had an impact on these two episode, though we'll know for sure once we see that one. At least it didn't feel like anything was missing.

I watched all three tonight. The only thing about the Clarence Montgomery episode that tied into the larger series arc is Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Given the second hour that aired tonight, I'm not convinced all of the other episodes have been in order either. At that point, Det. Madsen was surprised to discover that Ray had contact with Tommy. Yet in the Guy Hastings episode, she had definitive proof that they'd been in contact. On the other hand, the casual reveal that they're brothers in this episode wouldn't have made dramatic sense in the same way the full examination of their relationship did a few episodes back.

Combine that with the fact that the flashbacks jump all over the place timeline-wise, with characters killed in one episode and alive and kicking in the next, and it's really hard to keep straight in any specific sense.

I still think they're concentrating on the killer of the week plot. I've missed a few episodes due to DVR issues so might be missing some of the story.

It just might work better if they brought in more of the JJ Abrams "Lost" fantasy ideas, then it might gain more of an audience.

They've dropped hints at time travel, medical experiments done in the past, etc. Why don't they bring more of that into the future so we're a little more interested.

In an odd way I compare it to Grimm, which got right to the point, didn't leave us to conjecture on the past and what it meant.

None of that's going to improve the flagging ratings. If Fox cares so little for this serial show that they casually air episodes out of order, why should we? I actually do like it (haven't watched yesterday's or next week's yet), but that kind of thing will turn even me off.

My understanding is that Abrams has little to do with shows bearing his name--even Lost. He probably gives his input on the basic premise, and then he moves on. His name is quickly becoming an unreliable indicator of quality. But, Adam, maybe you can answer this: I've heard Person of Interest called an Abrams production, but it's not Bad Robot and I have not seen his name anywhere on it. Is he involved with that at all?

He's listed as an executive producer on Person Of Interest but I'd guess his actual involvement is limited (nearly non-existant). If it wasn't for his movie career, he'd probably would have worked alot more on all the shows that he gets credit for.

I like it too. The concept is strong, and Sam Neill's presence absolutely sells it for me. When he does his narration: "On March 21, 1963, Alcatraz officially closed. All the prisoners were transferred off the island. Only that’s not what happened…not at all…" I get chills, like I'm settling in to a new "Twilight Zone" episode. The bread crumbs that they dropped as to the larger mythology has kept me interested. The prisoner of the week formula makes the tangled episode order more tolerable, but still irritates. Abrams got his start as a showrunner, heading the writers' room for both "Felicity" and "Alias". He directed the pilot for "Lost" and was involved in the writers' room for the first half dozen or so episodes. He gave his name to "What About Brian" and "Six Degrees." On the other hand, he was very hands on for "Fringe", co-creating the show, composing the theme music and writing four episodes of the first season and one of the second. He had a similarly intensive hands on role for "Undercovers."

As Travis said, he's an executive producer on "Person of Interest". It actually is a Bad Robot co-production, but the primary production company is Kilter Films. I'm not sure if that's a shingle Jonathan Nolan created for this show, or if it's the company of one of the backing (financing) executive producers. My understanding is that Abrams helped Nolan package his pilot script for Warner Bros. and helped him shop the show around to the networks. Beyond that, Jonathan Nolan has been the chief creative force on "Person of Interest" while TV veteran Greg Plageman handles the day-to-day showrunning duties.

His involvement with "Alcatraz" was more significant than just slapping his name on the thing, but strictly a non-writing capacity. He wrote the ominous theme music got the production up and running. But "Lost"/"Deadwood veteran Elizabeth Sarnoff was the creative force behind this show, and Fox let her go after a half-dozen episodes due to "creative differences." She was replaced by "Cold Case"/"Chase" vet Jennifer Johnson and "Miami Vice" writer Daniel Pyne. Considering they both come from procedural backgrounds, my guess -- and it's just a guess -- is that Sarnoff wanted to move away from the prisoner of the week and Fox didn't.

Wouldn't the gang be in deep dodo if the powers behind the 63'ers released 10 or more into the wild at the same time. Also, am I alone in thinking their control room on Alcatraz makes for lengthy response times on the mainland?

Apparently the show still does some filming on location in the Bay Area, because the crew saved a woman's life this week.

That appears to have been special for the season finale.

I just watched the Clarence Montgomery episode and it really did look like it didn't hurt to watch this out of sequence. We do lose some of the momentum of Hauser trying to find a blood match, but otherwise there is just more mysterious things in the tragedy that happened in this episode.

Good eye. Assuming Wikipedia is correct, the production codes show that the fourth episode produced (Johnny McKee) was the seventh aired. And even without rescheduling, tonight's episode (Clarence Montgomery) would have been out of production order because the eighth episode produced (Paxton Petty) was moved up to the sixth episode that aired.

I know for many shows, production order has nothing to do with intended story lines. Many shows specifically shoot out of order to maximize sets/actors/filming locations. I'm not saying that its true for this show, but you can't alway read into things from production order.

David.

Why do cops on TV always say from across the room, "Yo, Clarence! Put your hands up!" Guy runs. How about nonchalantly getting close before he even knows what's up, and maybe covering the exits?

I also notice that cops on TV always use guns and if you notice on "Cops" the real ones pretty much rely on Tasors now. The Tasor is always drawn, not the gun.

Edited by Mark_B - 3/14/12 at 3:09am

Yeah, I'd assume the changes made to the airing order (except the NASCAR one) had to with the network and/or producers feeling that they wanted particular episodes on during sweeps.

This Clarence episode was very important, because it answers why these guys are so ultra-violent even when they weren't before. The bad doctor's Clockwork Orange routine. I wonder why he's kept around, though Alan Grant is apparently in the dark about some of what he did in the past.

I hope it's not too political, but it's weird that Hollywood hates guns, and yet it is almost impossible to avoid them on TV and the movies. I don't think you could find a single daily prime time block where someone didn't have a gun. I like guns, but I rarely encounter them in the real world. Mostly if a cop is in front of me at Chipotle or something.