TV Review: ALCATRAZ - The Ames Brothers 1.8

“The Ames Brothers” the so called two scariest and most dangerous criminals ever to come back from Alcatraz, take that with a pinch of salt, there were a couple of edge of your seat type moments but nothing to memorable. What I remember more than anything is that Rebecca Madsen did not get captured this week, instead it was left for Doc to outwit the two scariest guys of the season.

I would say “The Ames Brothers” was an ok episode, but in my opinion it could have been better, I think they could have kept the younger less psychopathic Ames brother alive a little longer it really could have added more edge. I was enjoying the fact that we had more than one returned prisoner to worry about. Add to that corrupt guard Donovan and the makings were there. The three had returned to Alcatraz in order to find the gold bullion which is buried in the dungeons, the three had come up with a plan back in 1960 which suggests that the Ames brothers knew they would be coming back to 2012. I’m not sure on Donovan though I think he may have been living in San Francisco all this time.

“The Ames Brothers” was a revealing episode, giving us some answers to questions we had already, but it also posed some new ones. It pointed towards the fact that warden James may well be responsible for all these returning prisoners. He ran Alcatraz with an iron fist and seemingly Ray Archer was in the know of just what might be going on at here, and the warden and his deputy don’t get on quite as well as we think.

What was good about “The Ames Brothers was the fact it was based in the prison itself, a lot different from what we have seen this far with the returning prisoners. The prison setting, flashy lights and thunder storm definitely added the edge to this episode and it god under way well with “Pinky” Ames clobbering that guy to death with bolt cutters, I felt the episode had a Shutter Island feel to it, of course not that classy but you get me with the thunder, lightning and the prison.

Is it just me or since 24’s Jack Bauer does every TV cop hold a gun and flashlight in exactly the same way? It does look cool let’s be honest, but none of them do it movie star style holding guns in each hand pointing in different directions, in this episode that could have
proved more useful with all the twists and turns in Alcatraz prison in was clear that “Pinky” would be attacking from behind.

I did think this was a good episode it gave a little more mystery into those keys, what do they open? Clearly not the room with the gold in, the warden seems to keep them close to his chest. We saw that Hauser is maybe not quite as clued up as we thought and is willing to torture people to find out what they know. I just think they should have kept the younger brother alive longer, although that does suggest that maybe more of the guards are in on this than we think. “The Ames Brothers” was the start of two promising episodes for me.