TV Review: ALCATRAZ - Tommy Madsen 1.13 - Season Finale

Welcome back today for the second part of the Alcatraz two hour Finale “Tommy Madsen”, catch yesterday’s post? No, well here is your chance to catch up on “Garrett Stillman”. Over here we will roll on with what was a very disappointing finale to what has been a hugely disappointing show in my opinion. On watching this episode it was
clear that the first hour was nothing more than a build up to the so called main event, but in that event would we be given answers? After all “Tommy Madsen” is the man all of this would seem to revolve around, what’s the family connection?, how much does Ray really know? Well, I still don’t know to be honest so maybe we’ll have to wait and see if Alcatraz gets a second season.

If you rolled up on the Alcatraz finale expecting answers to any of the questions you had then I imagine you would have been disappointed, I got nothing from it and I was expecting a lot more, maybe to much who knows but in my opinion it was just boring. I thought maybe we would get some sort of 63’ grand finale where they all rolled up in modern day San Francisco along with the warden in toe to wreak a little havoc. Instead what we got was an episode based on Tommy Madsen, a bad guy after all, I mean fancy killing your granddaughter. I’m still confused a little as to what Tommy Madesn’ purpose is, on this it would appear that he was quite willing to walk away from his son (Rebecca’s father) and family and take up the warden on a more lucrative offer rather than build bridges.


Probably the best bit of "Tommy Madsen"


What is the more lucrative offer though? I really thought we may have got to find out, I was at least expecting the warden to show up. Did they forget to send him an invitation? Of course not, they had something more up their sleeve that provided no answers and only succeeded in posing more questions, I really don’t have a problem with that if I thought Alcatraz was going to get a second season, but lets face it J.J. Abrams and his team of writers have got some convincing to do, Terra Nova didn’t get a second season and that averaged a 7.1m audience weekly, I don’t know the figures for Alcatraz but I can’t imagine them being much better.

“Tommy Madsen” focused on the hunt for keys, well the missing key to open the wardens secret door which last time we seen was a room full of dust and oh yeah some gold bars, they’ve gone a little more high-tech now and when Hauser did eventually get in there he found a mad scientist who appeared to have been asleep for the last 50 years along with a grid map of the USA showing where all the 63’ will re-appear. Again, that’s great providing that Alcatraz gets a second season.

I was very surprised by the ending, I knew Rebecca got stabbed or shot as we saw that in the preview on Sunday but to kill off the leading lady of a supposed hit TV show is just a little crazy. On saying that I really didn’t mind that much as this far Rebecca has not really done anything that screams out a great lead to me, I felt no emotional attachment to her character at all, but maybe this is all part of the bigger plot and maybe J.J Abrams has an ace up his sleeve knowing that TV loves him and he already has a second season secured with Fox. If that is the case (I’m pretty sure it’s not), then will they kill Rebecca off? I would say no, just pump her full of silver and bring her back to life. That could be a good plot to start a second season and we could hope that one is a lot better than this debut has been.

There is nothing worth me going into any depth in my opinion, I just didn’t think this was a good finale at all, good if there is a second season yes, but if they are leaving it there then Alcatraz may end up on TV’s trash pile of terrible finale’s like The Event and
FlashForward, shows which I watched and personally wouldn’t have minded seeing a second season of. If Alcatraz gets a second season then I will watch it because I don’t feel anything I wanted answered was, so for that reason I would check out some more but we’ll have to wait and see if it’s commissioned first.

What did you think of Alcatraz? Would you watch a second season? Do you think the finale made things clear? Leave your comments below letting me know what you think.

TV Review: ALCATRAZ - Garrett Stillman 1.12

"Garrett Stillman" was the first part of what was supposed to be Alcatraz's big finale, thing is "big" didn't really come into what was a dull and boring two hours which offered little to no insight as to just what has been going on at Alcatraz. I can't even begin to tell you just how dissapointing I found this, but I'm hoping that I can go some way towards doing it below. I will say to remember this was a two episode finale, with the "Tommy Madsen" season finale following on afterwards, I have the review coming tomorrow.

Let's talk about the man Garret Stillman first off, a very posh English gentleman who just happened to be a genius when it came to pulling off the perfect cash in transit robbery, Alcatraz's answer to Clive Owen I found Stillman one of the more menacing characters to have made a re-appearance in modern day San Francisco. Other than that I really can't think of anything to say in regard to Stillman, at least we got one little answer in that it would seem all the prisoners work for the Warden ultimately but Tommy Madsen would seem to act as his second in command.

Last week's "Webb Porter" left us all with bated (not really) breath following Lucy opening her eyes, she was back this week but was it with a bang? Not really in my opinion, at least we are finally starting to get to the truth about who she is, being in the coma obviously pricked her conscience a little as she felt indebted to tell Doc and Rebecca just who she was, little did she know they had already figured that bit out. Did she tell them much though? I thought not, she went into a little ditty of what it was like leaving 1963 and returning to 2012 for her, but she didn't tell us how? Or why? And at the end of the day that's really what I want to know, the more I think about it I'm not so interested in the how, although it would be nice to know I'm more inclined to find out why? Why do they want to send themselves forward in time (if that's actually what is happening). Criminals tend to have two agenda's, the first would be that they are just crazy and can't stop themselves when an opportunity arises, the other would be money. "Garret Stillman" wasn't crazy, nor did he want the money (back in the 60's he did), but back in the modern day he was just doing over cash transit vans and seemingly didn't care about the money, why? What is the point of them all, including the Warden (I imagine) coming back unless there is something to be gained by it?

Speaking of the cash in transit robbery's, is it just me looking into things to much or were they the unreal looking security vans that you've ever seen? I know it's a TV show budget but I think maybe they could have done a better job there. What Alcatraz did do well this week was something that I have talked about from the beginning, it wasn't a focus on one returnee, there were about three of them involved and that did help to make things a little more interesting. As much as that was an improvement, Alcatraz still failed to do anything interesting with Doc or Rebecca, when Lucy came out the coma I feel they would have had a lot more pressing questions to put to her about what is going on, in all honesty they really didn't seem to care. Rebecca is a cop, she should know how to ask leading questions, like, how did you get here? What are they doing to the prisoner's etc.

As you've probably guessed I wasn't to crazy about this episode, pretty much like most of the episodes up to now I felt it was just plugging a gap. This far into the season, I shouldn't feel like that. Like I said above I will get the "Tommy Madsen" finale review out for you tomorrow, a quick warning though, I really wasn't any more impressed with that than I was with "Garrett Stillman".

TV Review: ALCATRAZ - Webb Porter 1.11

Well, what is there to say about Alcatraz this week? Not all that much in my opinion, it was one of those run of the mill episodes that we all seemed to be bogged down in mid-season. Alcatraz has certainly had some money thrown at it, and considering the people involved behind the scenes I can only say that I was expecting a lot more than I have got this far. Alcatraz started well I thought it was a pretty decent "Pilot" episode, it dipped from there and didn't really get any better until "Johnny McKee" rocked back up in modern day San Fransisco, it carried on from there and then this week it went back to the same old procedural bore that I have come to expect. No new answers and nothing new in way of ideas as to where we could be going. We can at least say one thing, Rebecca and Doc now know everything about the blood situation and thanks to the video they found they also know that Lucy was a 63, I still feel like Hauser will be hiding something.

As far as this weeks returnee goes, I really wasn't that impressed, drowning girls and then using their long hair to string his bow, or what ever that thing for playing violin is called. Pretty much the only thing that impressed me about "Webb Porter" was the fact that out of eleven episodes, this far he is the only prisoner that it's taken Doc longer than twenty five minutes to figure out. Usually after the first body turns up Doc comes up with a name, not this week, in fact it was Rebecca who discovered the Violin clue and then found his name. On saying that it really didn't go anywhere to make Rebecca more interesting did it?

I know we can't expect to have the answers to our questions every week, and the show has been quite revealing in it's last few offerings, but for something that promised to possibly be the new Lost, I just don't see it. You could guarantee that after every episode of Lost I couldn't wait until the following week to see what was going to happen next. I just don't get that with Alcatraz, it's very much a case of ah-well, let's see where we go next week. Next weeks show will be the two hour season finale and I would like to think that it will be a very revealing two hours, certainly if they want to get another season out of it. There are still plenty of answers to be had for another season and I would probably watch it if it gets the go ahead, but I think some major improvements may be needed.

Like every week in Alcatraz I find the flashbacks to 1960 - 1963 better than the modern day story line, so far that is when we are getting most of our answers and the story lines are a lot better. In "Webb Porter" I don't recall anything remotely interesting about the modern day story, other than Hauser visiting that Masseuse at the beginning, what were those pills for? Who is she? They seemed to know each other pretty well, but if my guessing is right we will probably have to wait until the second season before we find out.

Why is Emerson Hauser so grumpy all the time? For me it's not an emotion that Sam Neil really does all that well on screen, I've never seen an angry man look so un-menacing, cheer up man, unless maybe this is all your fault. Dr Beauregard had very little to do again this week other than save Lucy's life, he did have one interesting thing to say though, did you catch it? When he made reference to the fact that he hasn't been outside for a while, for me that means he is not allowed to leave the new Alcatraz, why? Lucy opening her eyes at the end of the episode, ok I suppose, but it would probably have been a bit more dramatic if she wasn't so pretty. And lets face it we all knew that was going to happen the minute she was injected with Webb Porter's blood.

I really did find this episode a little boring, I went through the motions watching it but couldn't say that it was particularly memorable, in fact I can't really say that for any episode of Alcatraz. All I can say is that I hope the season finale starts persuading me that Alcatraz really can live up to it's potential and all the hype.

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.

TV Review: ALCATRAZ - Sonny Burnett 1.9

For me “Sonny Burnett” was the better of the two episodes on the night, or maybe they were on a par, your thoughts? Either way I really enjoyed the episode, although it was the usual procedural chase the prisoner around San Francisco catch him and return him to Alcatraz, I thought this one was better than usual. What was better for me was the fact that “Sonny Burnett” posed more of a threat than previous prisoners and a whole lot more answers, or clues were given to the actual main plot as well as opening up some more questions.

Sonny Burnett was a kid when sentenced to his stretch in Alcatraz, he was a kidnapper who held wealthy people for ransom but would always return them unharmed following payment of the money. That money was $100,000 which he hid in a field and told his last victim Helen (14 at the time) where the money was, he went to Alcatraz and she stole the money, although it was technically stolen anyway so could she really steal it? Anyway Sonny returned to exact a bit of revenge on Helen, kidnapping her husband and killing him, before kidnapping her daughter and burring her alive in the same field where his hid his loot.

It wasn’t so much the front running plot of “Sonny Burnett” that was interesting the episode really opened up with stories in relation to Ray Archer, Tommy Madsen, Lucy, Dr Beauregard, Hauser and has given us some fresh questions or maybe ideas as to where the story could go from here. It would seem that like Person of Interest Alcatraz is going to deliver the mystery just at the right point in the season, I just hope to many people haven’t been forced into switching off already.

It was good to see how Sonny Burnett turned from wimpy kid into menacing inmate who was prepared to take on the toughest guy in the prison firstly beating one of his right hand men before going on to gouge out the guys eyes. This earned Sonny not only the respect of fellow prisoners but also Deputy Tiller who it would seem has some what of an agenda with the prisoners, turning them into men if you will. Like I said in “The Ames Brothers” review Tiller and Warden James clearly don’t see eye to eye and it’ll be interesting to see if Tillers ideas in 1963 have something to do with the prisoners coming back, maybe training them to be of more use in the modern day or something like that.

The Ray Archer / Tommy Madsen story line is clearly going to be very central to the plot of Alcatraz along with that of Rebecca Madsen. We have already seen that Hauser has made it his business to have Rebecca in his team even against her uncle Ray’s wishes, we know Hauser tried to recruit Ray years ago and Hauser also has people watching him,
a move which Rebecca really doesn’t seem to mind. She wants to catch Tommy Madsen but not for the reason that he’s her grandfather, she wants justice for her partner who Tommy killed in the “Pilot” episode.

Dr Beauregard gave us a little insight this week that he may not be as up on things as we first thought, he told Hauser that he only took the prisoners blood, he doesn’t know what happened with it following that. He has discovered that some of the prisoners have been injected with colloidal silver which seems to make them heal faster than a normal person would. A little theory of my own, could it be some sort of age preserving drug and that’s why the prisoners have not aged a day since 1963. Beauregard has told Hauser that if a prisoner has the same blood type as Lucy then she could be injected with this to in order to make her heal quicker. Lucy is another character who will seemingly become
a lot more central to the plot.

Nine episodes in and three to go, Alcatraz has certainly heated up in way of backing plot especially in this two hour Ames Brothers, Sonny Burnett special and I’m really looking forward to seeing the next few episodes, weather we will get all the answers we need by then or are left on a cliff hanger for a second season we’ll have to see.

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.

TV Review: ALCATRAZ - Johnny McKee 1.7

Why have we all been complaining about Alcatraz so much? This weeks “Johnny McKee” was actually pretty impressive, certainly at the beginning anyway. Don’t get me wrong it could have been a lot better especially with the story in relation to Johnny but there were things mentioned at various points in the episode which may be throwing little clues our way as to just what is going on with all of these prisoners from 1963 showing up in modern day San Francisco.

If you caught the preview I put out for this on Sunday then you’ll know they were billing Johnny McKee as a psychopath, I suppose he was really he was prepared to do pretty much anything all because he had been bullied at school by some pretty girl. His modern day character seemed a pretty stark comparison from the one we saw in 1963 though. In the modern day he was very happy to kill people and thought very little of it, that didn’t seem to be the case in 1963 although he did kill the prison bully with extreme ease.

Dr Beauregard came out with something quite interesting during his effort to get Hauser to read to Lucy, “this so called reality we live in” is what he said. What is he referring to? Does he just mean the makeshift identical Alcatraz prison where he never seems to leave, or something else? Any guesses.

Why doesn’t Rebecca Madsen question Jack Sylvane further, I mean she is a detective right? Fair enough Hauser won’t allow her access and there are some pretty heavily armed guards on the doors but they never seem to speak so there is no worries they would shout for anyone. It just seems that for someone who goes the extra mile that Rebecca is currently doing that whilst walking backwards allowing Hauser to drip feed irrelevant info and even trying to stop her from asking anything to pressing when she is allowed access to prisoners. I really do like George Garcia, loved him in Lost but so far he is not really working for me in Alcatraz, he’s frightened of everything which in all honesty he shouldn’t be as he seems to be able to predict everything the prisoners will do on their return. I still feel that we’re not really getting anywhere development wise with these guys just yet. We did get some sort of little clue from Rebecca when she was talking about her grandfather she said that he used to talk about a hole beneath the hole, quite what that means I'm not sure but I think we will be getting to find out.

Alcatraz done really great with the flashbacks again this week, for me these scenes are actually better than the shows main three characters, they also go along way towards making you to want to vote for the bad guys. The reason for that is because of the back story we are delivered, if we got that more with Hauser, Rebecca and Doc then we may cheer a little louder for them week on week. Mind you, who's to say that they are flashbacks? The weekly prisoner Johnny Mckee was always reading a book that was suggesting the future is now. Is there a clue in there somewhere?

Like I said above “Johnny McKee” was a pretty good episode but it could have been so much better and I just wonder if Alcatraz is doing enough to keep the audience interested. Personally, I feel like I’m watching it just to see what happens I really don’t care about the individual story of the weekly prisoner for me Alcatraz fails where
Person of Interest thrives on the weekly story line. If they want to keep up the good mystery then I think they need some characters who can maybe deliver some decent action like the afore mentioned POI,your thoughts?

TV Review: ALCATRAZ Season 1 Episode 6 - Paxton Petty

Now That's straight out the 60's right? "Paxton Petty"? Who thinks of the episode titles? That's not a name that would jump straight to your head, unless this show is based on real Alcatraz inmates, who knows? Alcatraz was better again this week thanks to a little more in the way of answers (sort of) being provided, I still don't think the show is great but at least in the last couple of weeks it has done enough to keep my interest to watch the next week. That's something Lost was very good at, although the episode may not have been great there was still enough of a nail biter at the end to keep you watching. Alcatraz seems like it will follow that similar format.

The return of Paxton Petty was announced by land mines going off in Modern day San Francisco, as always our favourite Detective trio just happened to be on hand to attend with Doc knowing straight away who the culprit was. Again, the story of Paxton, the weekly guest star (James Pizzinato) was not really all that interesting, at least not to me. What was better is that Alcatraz has continued to develop the three characters we know, the ones who probably hold the key to the mystery of the 63's. In "Paxton Petty" they brought more characters into the story, characters from 1963 and it looks like something I mentioned during the "Pilot" review may just be right.

For the first time this week we saw Lucy Banjeree (Parminder Nagra) in action on Alcatraz in 1963, that's the lady who's in a coma in the modern day thanks to sniper Ernest Cobb in episode 2. From what I saw in "Paxton Petty" I would say that she is probably not involved with what has been happening to the prisoners, although she clearly knows that everything happening on Alcatraz at that time is not as it seems. Most notably her colleague, Alcatraz Dr Beauregard (Leon Rippy), his unconventional methods are somewhat called into question by Lucy who seems to share a mutual liking of the young Emerson Hauser, a police officer at the time not an Alcatraz warden. One thing about Lucy for me, has she just aged really well? Or has she not aged a day since 1963?

We got to see some more backing story of Rebecca's grandfather this week which proved a little interesting, maybe pointing towards the fact that he may the first person that was part of the mysterious goings on. He asked Lucy why he, a fit and able man was not put to work on the island but instead made to spend all day in the infirmary giving blood to Dr Beauregard. Lucy, of course had no answer for this but it takes me back to my theory from the "Pilot", could we be looking at some sort of DNA cloning? Or do you think Alcatraz is not that clever and the answer is far more simple?

The Paxton Petty story line really did not interest me to much but, there were things said that maybe give a little insight into things. First off was his comment when caught, about the fact he went to sleep a week ago, woke up and it's 2012, what's going on? Would that suggest time travel like I've mentioned previously? Petty was also talking to Doc about his time on Alcatraz and the conversations he had with the female doctor there. Doc, an expert on Alcatraz states that there was never a female doctor on Alcatraz which explains why he doesn't know Lucy. When Hauser finally caught up with Petty why when he asked how do you know me, he replied a friend of mine knew you? Hauser took him to Alcatraz.

So this far in and Alcatraz is starting to give us a little insight about who is responsible for the re-appearance of prisoners from 1963 in the modern day but, is it enough to keep you watching? personally, I still don't think this is a great show but we are starting to see flashes of something that can be made into a good show. I just hope they have a plan for where it's all headed. I will be watching next weeks "Johnny Mckee" and as always I'll be back to let you know what I think. 

TV Review: ALCATRAZ 1.5 - Guy Hastings

Alcatraz has been really disappointing up to this point, "Guy Hastings" wasn't promising to make things much better to start with but I do think it provided an improvement on what we've seen already. I think what worked better this week was the fact they brought a guard from 1963 back rather than a prisoner, also the story of Detective Madsen thickens with her family seemingly more involved in the mystery of Alcatraz than she knows.

Guy Hastings was a guard on Alcatraz, where he lived in staff quarters with his wife and their daughter, a family man who ruled with somewhat of an iron fist during his time as head of the guards. This far we have been lead to believe that Rebecca's uncle Ray (Robert Forster) is not her real uncle, that was blown out the water this week when we were shown that Ray was a guard on Alcatraz (which we knew already) and was trained by Guy Hastings, it also showed us that he only went to Alcatraz for one reason his brother Tommy Madsen (David Hoflin) Rebecca's grandfather imprisoned on Alcatraz for killing his wife and the first "escapee" in the modern day.

I say that Tommy Madsen is the first prisoner to come back in the modern day, at this point we can only assume that's the case but, what if this has happened before. We found out that Hauser tried to recruit Ray Archer when Rebecca was still young suggesting that it's either happened before or that Hauser has known for long enough that this was going to happen. Maybe Ray knows that Tommy has been back for the last 16 years, they clearly don't get along so they would have no reason to speak with each other.

What made the story so much better this week was the fact it was personalised towards the Madsen family, meaning the show could focus more on the main characters rather than some prisoner who has just returned from 1963 and no one has heard about. I felt "Guy Hastings"was better paced than the others have been to, he wasn't just captured and returned to the modern Alcatraz. I can't say that I have particularly cared about any of the people who have come back thus far or the stories (or lack of) they brought with them and that's another reason this was refreshing. I know to reveal things this early on would be a little crazy even for a J.J Abrams show but I think questions will have to be answered sooner rather than later here otherwise people may well loose interest.

I like Doc Soto, George Garcia's character but I struggle to see where his awkwardness fits in here. Don't get me wrong some of the stuff he comes out with is funny but the genius Alcatraz historian is starting to realise that everything he has ever wrote and studied is completely fabricated. I'm still not a fan of Sam Neil, I just don't don't get it. And I'm still not convinced on Sarah Jones who plays Rebecca Madsen just yet.

Although this episode was better that's pretty much all I can come up with right now, I just hope Alcatraz can turn into the show that we were all expecting as right now it's running along the same sort of lines as NCIS and such other shows. Where did guy hastings go? Anyone? I'm presuming that he wasn't returned to Alcatraz. Did they just let him go? Or was it something really obvious and I just wasn't paying enough attention.

Review: ALCATRAZ 1.4 - Cal Sweeney

Four episodes in and Alcatraz is not showing any signs of improvement, last weeks "Kit Nelson" was a slight improvement but could have been a lot better. After watching "Cal Sweeney" I just thought what was the point? Following last week's episode my wife has given up on the show deciding that it will be boring. Me, well I'm going to stick with it a little longer because although this episode was not that great it still left us with that little Lost style mystery in the end which will hopefully be explained in the next, well rest of the season.

Cal Sweeney returned to the modern day, a bank robber who seemed to have a Sawyer edge to him, easy on the eye tricking uglier looking women into opening up safety deposit boxes for him. He seemed to have no qualms about killing anyone who had anything to do with those safety deposit boxes either. That was weird as during the flashback to 1960 Alcatraz he didn't come across and was not a murderer, so what has happened to him in the last 42 years? Ok, he got double crossed by his cell mate but surely that's not enough to turn someone to murder.

I'm not convinced that Sam Neil's Emerson Hauser is quite convincing enough as what looks like the bad guy role, that's not to say that he is a bad guy he may well be a good guy but he clearly knows what is going on, that has been pretty clear from the start. In this episode we were offered a little more insight into his team, a bunch of computer techs who sit behind a door just off the main office from where Rebecca and Doc sit, how has he managed to keep them secret from them up to now? Do they just live in there or something? Doc and Rebecca are going to be pretty pissed when they realise there are a bunch of guys who don't really seem to do much and never put their life in danger, yet they know more about what's going on than they do.

We are still no further on with Rebecca or Doc's characters, I'm yet to be convinced that she is a hero in any sort of way, brave yes but you think that after Hauser and his goons gassed her and Doc, and the fact he blatantly refuses to tell them anything that she would be a little more pushing on the subject, would you have given him that package as quick? No, of course you wouldn't it clearly meant something to him and the secret guys behind the door, I would have held onto it until he told me at least a little and that I was convinced that what he was telling me was the truth.

So, is it cloning or time travelling then? Hauser told his tech guys that Sweeney "jumped" that would suggest that he travelled through time, at least in any other show or movie that I have seen, he certainly wasn't referring to Sweeney jumping off a roof. I'm not so sure that "Cal Sweeney" would have convinced anyone on the fence about Alcatraz that it is worth an hour of their time every Monday night, or would the last five to ten minutes have been enough to save those few viewers and have them tune in again next week?

Sweeney was on the look out for a Key, that was his mission with looking through the safety deposit boxes, I'm presuming he was looking for the box of the guy who double crossed him in Alcatraz all those years earlier. If the people who sent him to the modern day are clever enough to do that, why didn't they just send him to the right bank in the first place? Anyway Sweeney got the key he or maybe Hauser has been after, they just need to know now what door on Alcatraz it opens, now although the laser technology used to cut the keys wasn't available in 1960 the key was still in use then, it opened a secretive door deep within the prison, kind of like the hatch in Lost. Is that enough to make you watch on Monday?

So far Alcatraz has failed to set the screen alight with any sort of suggestion that it could be the new Lost, it's certainly not as good as Person of Interest and up to know I really can not see audiences being so engrossed, the problem they have is trying to live up to Lost and that will be no easy task for J.J Abrams and Co.

Review: ALCATRAZ 1.3 - Kit Nelson

So, how many prisoners escaped from Alcatraz in 1963? 302 I believe the number was, right? If that’s the case and this show continues in its current form then we may be waiting a while on the conclusion. I raved about Alcatraz following its pilot episode, I thought it looked really great. Then came “Ernest Cobb” to follow, there I was unimpressed and now “Kit Nelson” an episode where I can only say that I was bored but, I do feel that it could have been handled a lot better if they got the kidnap story right.

This episode featured the return of Kit Nelson (Michael Eklund), a loner child killer who killed his brother when he was younger, got a kick out of that and went on to kill again when he was an adult. Nelson leaves a chrysanthemum by the bed of his victims, he has been posing as a worker from a local DIY store doing work on a house stalking his next victim. He took the boy, and Doc was the first person to hear the info after the Amber warning came over the radio, he connected the dots thanks to the flower left behind at the scene.

Although the episode didn’t blow me away in any way shape or form, I did find this the most interesting story yet. Thanks largely to the performance of Michael Eklund who was both chilling and convincing, if I had one gripe in relation to the story I would say that it could have been drawn out longer, instead we got a fast paced one episode resolve to something like AMC’s The Killing. I think the show may get pretty predictable if this is all that happens every week, here for instance you could probably have guessed that Kit Nelson was not going to kill the kid but, if all we get every week is a new returning
prisoner from 1963 who seems to fit in perfectly fine in the modern day, who is then returned to prison by the obvious liar Emerson Hauser then Alcatraz could loose peoples interest and quick.

What worked best for me this week other than the Kit Nelson present day story line was the flashbacks to 1960, in particular two scenes the first where the guards turned a blind eye to the fact that Kit was about to be beaten to an inch of his life, the best though, the scene between Kit and Warden Edwin James (Jonny Coyne) where they locked him in the dark room and the Warden gave him the time of four matches to admit to killing his brother, very good, more of this please.

We need to know more about the people playing the main characters, don’t we? We did learn a little about Doc during this episode, finding out that he was kidnapped as an 11 year old kid, explaining why he felt so emotionally attached to this weeks story. The story of Detective Madsen (Sarah Jones) or Emerson Hauser is yet to be explained along with Lucy (Parminder Nagra), Is it obvious what those stories will be though? Detective Madsen is no doubt going to see the story with her grandfather expand, so far he is the only former Alcatraz inmate who has not been caught, Emerson Hauser is clearly well in on what ever is going on and then you have Lucy, we already know that she was at Alcatraz in 1963, she was the nurse. In the present day she hasn’t aged a bit.

I wouldn’t say that I didn’t enjoy Alcatraz this week, nor have I disliked any other week but there is definitely room for it to get more Interesting, I will still be watching next weeks (This weeks, I am week behind Remember?) “Cal Sweeney” and probably the rest of the season, how about you guys, what are your thoughts on Alcatraz so far?

Review: ALCATRAZ 1.2 - Ernest Cobb

Apologies first off, I didn't realise that Alcatraz had a two part opener so last week all you got was a review of the first episode, now the third episode has already aired and I'm only onto the second so I have some catching up to do.

I made a lot of Alcatraz and it's pilot episode last week and after watching this second episode I'm beginning to wonder why. I watched last week attempting to second guess everything that was going on, a move which did give me quite a few ideas or theories of where the story would go or may well be headed. This week I decided I should stop second guessing so much and just watch it for the story and see what I made of it.

I have to say I wasn't all that impressed by anything in this episode, it came across a little cheesy at times, so far I'm still more interested in Jack Sylvane, the prisoner from the first episode he played a mysterious creepy guy in "Ernest Cobb", a story which was not really about him but did suggest a little, especially at the end that maybe he does know a little of what is going on. New prisoner Ernest didn't really interest me all that much, even when they did reveal his reason for all his killings.

Speaking of Jack Sylvane, would he really know what CCTV camera's are if he didn't know where he had been since 1963? Just a little one I thought I would throw in.

Clearly Emerson Hauser is going to have a bigger part to play in all of this, we already know that he returns the prisoners to his modern updated version of Alcatraz, I did like the little twist at the end of this episode with Hauser's partner Lucy Banerjee (Parminder Nagra) being revealed as the doctor from Alcatraz prison in 1960. She was shot by Ernest Cobb during this episode in the modern day, maybe she is going to play a big part in what is going on, or what happened to all of the prisoners who were in Alcatraz at the time, this was probably the only positive thing in the episode for me.

I like the way that Doc and Detective Madsen just know how to work the computers that Hauser seems to have allowed them full access to awfully quick, would you, really? I feel at the moment that this is a cheaper version of Person of Interest, a cheaper version which is nowhere near as good. For me Alcatraz has some work to do if it is hoping to become the new Lost. Saying that Person of Interest started quite slowly to, let's not forget that it's only in the last few episodes that we have started to find out a little more about the lead characters, maybe Alcatraz has something similar up it's sleeve, maybe not, we'll see I suppose.

This is not the longest review I have ever posted I know that but I honestly can't really think of that much to say on this episode, I feel like what I have covered has been done in enough detail. I will still be watching the show next week as I really do hope that it will improve into the show we all expected it would be, but for "Ernest Cobb", at times I felt like I could have been watching a day time cop show on Hallmark.

Review: ALCATRAZ 1.1 - Pilot

We have known about Alcatraz for some time now and unless you have been hiding under a rock then your excitement for this show will surely have been growing, not only does it look like a great concept but it's also brought to us by J.J Abrams the creator of Lost, who in turn has decided to bring along the writers from his hit TV show to help him pen this one.

The plot of Alcatraz would seem relatively simple, it is set in modern day San Francisco where Detective Rebecca Marsden becomes involved in a mysterious murder case, the man killed is the former governor of Alcatraz prison and one single fingerprint at the crime scene is the only lead to a suspect.  The fingerprint belongs to Jack Sylvane, wanting to know more Marsden seeks the help of a local Alcatraz historian Dr Diego "Doc" Soto (Lost's Jorge Garcia), he tells her the information at her crime scene can not be right as former Alcatraz inmate Jack Sylvane died over 30 years ago.  They continue to search for answers as more and more people connected to Alcatraz are killed by Sylvane before they finally meet Emmerson Hauser (Sam Neil, Jurassic Park), a man who works in secret from the rock and knows way more than he is letting on.

The show has been billed as the new Lost so we are always going to be making comparisons, first one which was most obvious was the backing track, all the music here seemed to be taken straight from lost, it brought all those jungle scene rushing back.  I wouldn't only compare this to Lost, it also takes a lot of comparisons from J.J Abrams Person of Interest, I think for the first time in a long time I watched this show already trying to second guess what was actually going on, what does this mean? What does that mean?  I have come up with a few little ideas, all of which will probably be wrong but it at least gets a conversation flowing for now (leave your comments remember).

Let's start with the comparison to Lost, a show which was very much about the numbers, it would seem that up to now that's what Alcatraz will focus a little of it's attention on.  Did you catch it?  The prisoner numbers I'm referring to 2024, Jack Sylvane, the man he spoke to in the Alcatraz hospital, prisoner 2002. Rebecca Marsdsen's grandfather who knew something terrible was going to happen.  Numbers are all even up to now, are we going to see all even numbers? Is that how the prisoners where selected?  It is worth thinking about as Lost focused really heavily on the numbers once the hatch was discovered and they played a major part with the rest of the show.

Person of Interest now, like this show it would seem that Alcatraz is going to focus on a different person every week, in this case the Person of Interest will be another prisoner from 1963 Alcatraz back in modern day San Fran to wreak a little havoc and right a few wrongs.  Again, like POI this will form the major part of the story week in week out, but there will also be the lingering back story which has only started to come to a head in POI, in Alcatraz's case that will be where have these people been? And what does Emmerson Hauser know about it already that he is not sharing.

Jack Sylvane came out of solitary after almost a month and was given a blood transfusion, could we be looking at some sort of crazy doc thing here who has created replicas of all the prisoners from back in 1963? DNA cloning? Given that this is a J.J. Abrams show I would think things will turn out a little more complex than that, not that you could get more complex than that, I think maybe it would just be a little far fetched, or would it?

Sam Neil's character Emerson Hauser, extremely large room to grow here, Alcatraz's Ben Linus.  Maybe he knows what's going on, maybe he knows a little of whats going on, either way he knows more than any of us and we are left at the end of the pilot with him returning Jack Sylvane to Alcatraz, is it Alcatraz though? We saw him driving through a forest to get there I don't recall seeing any wooded areas on Alcatraz. Maybe this could turn out something like Fringe, another Abrams show where alternate realities are used, any thoughts?

Jack Sylvane would appear to be the second prisoner to return to the modern day, take yourself to the beginning of this episode when the cop got killed, the person involved was prisoner 2002, Rebecca's grand father, she knows he is responsible for the death of her partner and he is yet to be caught, this works well as it's going to leave the question does he know who she is? And if so, how?  That's Rebecca's character set to grow no doubt, and there is her creepy uncle who owns the bar, he wanted her to leave this case alone so maybe he knows more of what is going on here. Then you have Doc Soto, It would seem he is going to be very similar to Hurly that we all got to know in Lost, you know? Quirky little one liners whilst having the brains to work everything out, he's a funny guy I like it.

I thought Alcatraz enjoyed a pretty impressive pilot episode, it certainly didn't disappoint, there was plenty of action, whilst at the same time plenty of mystery has been built up along with us getting to know who all the main characters are. Weather Alcatraz is the new Lost remains to be seen but it certainly has good grounding and looks as if the story, or stories may movie along a little quicker than they did in Lost.  I'm a fan and I will be back for more next week without doubt.

Alcatraz, Is J.J Abrams New Hit TV Show The Next Lost

I ran across this show this morning whilst doing my rounds on the net.  is this the new Lost?  I think it may well be.  The show produced by Abrams, who created TV hits Lost and Fringe and is also responsible for hit movie Super 8 as well as the upcoming Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. 

As yet I have not heard of any UK network picking this show up but based on the trailer I have seen and posted below it won't be to long before Sky some calling at the doors of Fox once again.

Alcatraz of course needs no introduction from me, it's the most infamous prison in America and as far as I know, no one ever escaped and if they did then the currents around the island were so strong they would never have made it back to San Fransisco.  Now I know what you are thinking is this just a TV show re hashed from that movie "The Rock" starring Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage?  No it's not.  the premise of this show is a lot classier than that and it seems like man of the moment J.J Abrams has pulled it out the bag once again, take a look at the trailer below and then let me know what you think.

Set in present day San Fransisco Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones "Sons Of Anarchy") is assigned to a grisly homicide case, there are no leads except one fingerprint lifted from the scene.  The fingerprint however, belongs to Jack Sylvane (Jeffrey Pierce "The Nine") a former inmate at Alcatraz prison who seemingly died decades before.  Que government agent Emerson Hauser (Sam Neil "Jurassic Park") who is trying every way he can to scupper Rebecca's investigation into the crime.  Trusting no one she turns to Alcatraz expert Dr Diego "Doc" Soto (Jorge Garcia "Lost"), a little young to be an Alcatraz expert maybe?  but one all the same.  The two begin to piece together a sequence of events and discover that Sylvane is not only alive but he is roaming the streets of San Fransisco and has not aged a day since he was in prison.

The pair eventually team up with Hauser and his technicians in order to stop Sylvane and his vengeful killing spree whilst uncovering a web of government cover ups along the way.  It soon becomes clear that Sylvane won't be the only dangerous former Alcatraz inmate to make a re appearance in San Fransisco.

The trailer for this show looks great and I really think Lost addicts, myself included are going to love it.