TV Review: ALCATRAZ - Clarence Montgomery 1.10

I gotta get myself some of those ribs, man they looked good. Alcatraz was back to it's normal scheduling this week following last weeks impressive double bill. The impression left from the previous two episodes was definitely carried on into "Clarence Montgomery" it was a solid episode but as always it wasn't without it's flaws. Alcatraz really does have a good concept away from the procedural cop drama side of things, but this far into the season I feel like I should be excited about watching every episode and that is just not the case right now, I find myself not really caring all that much of what goes on in modern day San Francisco and am more compelled to see Alcatraz back it's it's glory days of the 1960's.

Speaking of glory days, is that really a word we should associate with "Clarence Montgomery"? If this episode showed us anything it was the fact that racism was rife during that time with white's even refusing to eat on the same side of the room as black people, I know it's what went on then but I do at times find that difficult to watch given the times we live in. Clarence Montgomery (Mahershala Ali) was sent to Alcatraz prison for the murder of his girlfriend, a crime that he was ultimately convicted of due to the colour of his skin. Clarence re-appears in the modern day as all the prisoners have, only this time he is the killer that was convicted 50 years earlier.

These flashbacks we all love so much, are they really flashbacks? Could we possibly be witness to parallel universes here? After all, Alcatraz has promised all along that it's the new Lost. Clarence is now the second or maybe third prisoner I recall saying that he visited the Alcatraz infirmary in 1963, next thing knew it's 2012. Considering technology was not that advanced in the 60's an alternate universe in which Warden James and E.B Tiller travel to and from could be a possible way, that would explain why all of these returning prisoners who have supposedly been asleep for 50 years are all so capable in the use of modern technology.

Clarence Montgomery is probably the first prisoner who has returned that if captured alive could, and probably would have provided some answers as to just what the mystery behind Alcatraz is. Clarence clearly didn't want to be a killer and hated the person he had become, or rather had been turned into, that turning started in 1960 when in Alcatraz he was being shown a brainwashing movie all but convincing him that he was the callous domestic killer who had been convicted in a court of law. During this sequence I did again suspect that Dr Beauregard is actually more involved than I thought, that was quickly eradicated though when he questioned the Warden on why he took blood and what the Warden done with the blood before it was re-injected into prisoners.

We have gone on this long about "Clarence Montgomery" now and I haven't even mentioned our supposed main characters Rebecca, Doc and Hauser, there is a reason for that. They really were not that interesting during this episode, like I said above right now I find anything happening in the "flashbacks" more of interest to me than these guys, maybe they aren't the main characters, somebody else could come into from the shadows. I still think Hauser is hiding something, he and Dr Beauregard clearly know more than we do right now. They must at least have an inkling as Hauser knew all these people would be coming back.

I do enjoy Alcatraz, but this far it has hardly done anything game changing, better than Terra Nova without doubt but it has a long way to go before it's anywhere near as good as Lost. With three episodes left of the first season and poor ratings this far I wonder if Alcatraz has done enough, or provided enough mystery to be renewed for a second season, if not, then I hope everything is explained and it doesn't finish poorly like FlashForward or The Event.