Five Questions I Have About Alcatraz: Cal Sweeney

Alcatraz is an engaging show that I've been enjoying so far. However, I'm just not sure that I'll be able to come up with interesting things to say about the show every week. So I decided that in lieu of an actual opinion (Though those still may happen from time to time), I'm going to list all the questions I have following the episode (and sometimes, I'll list answers. When that happens.) So let's kick this off with some questions I have about last night's episode Cal Sweeney!

1. Who's Running The Show?: Let's start with the last scene. The warden leads Sweeney's cell mate (By the way, the twist that his cell mate was behind the stealing of his box was a great one) to a mysterious room in the prison that takes three special keys (more on that in a second) to open. He tells him that his future is about to get a whole lot better before sending him in to meet a mysterious figure. Hmm... Of course, we don't know that this figure is connected to the return of the 63's, but even if he (She? It?) isn't, something is going on in the past and it's interesting. And that last scene raises another question.

2. How Involved Is The Warden?: From what we know about the warden, he can be a very cruel man. He's also rather corrupt and E.B Tiller mentioned last night that the warden lets a lot of things get past him in the prison, like Sweeney's trading operation. And if the mystery person (?) running things is in league with the warden, does the warden know the full extent of what's going on? Of course, we know the warden died years ago (right?) but he could still be involved. Again, it should be interesting to see.

3. What's with the Laser Cut Keys?: This is a curious one. So far, two of the Alcatraz prisoners have been found with laser-cut keys. However, as Hauser's think tank has pointed out, keys weren't cut that way until long after Alcatraz was closed. So is this just a strange anomaly? Or is there a higher reason? Mysteries, mysteries.

4. What Does Hauser Really Know?: I liked the way that Hauser tells Rebecca he'll tell her what the key opens, only to just tell her "some other time" after he got the key. I also liked the way it was revealed that Hauser has no clue what the key opens or why it's significant. Which raises the question: what does Hauser actually know? Is he aware that Lucy and Dr. Beauregard are from the past? Obviously he knows a few things, but maybe the head of the operation is only a couple steps ahead of our characters. Maybe, there's a lot he doesn't know. Or maybe I'm just over-analyzing this whole thing. Either way, colour me intrigued.

5. Memory Experiments?: At the dinner party, Lucy talks about her plans to remove memories from inmates to see what effect it would have on their behaviour (On an unrelated note, I am liking that her character is still comatose from that serious injury she suffered in episode 2. It's realistic.). I don't think that those experiments are connected to what's going on, but I can't help but feel that we'll hear more about this down the road. It seems too curious to just be a throwaway line used to anger the eavesdropping inmates.

And that's it for now. Next week should be interesting as the person returning is one of the guards. We'll talk about it then.

Alcatraz: Pilot/Ernest Cobb

Last night, Fox debuted J.J Abram's new show Alcatraz. I never wound up watching J.J Abram's Person of Interest show like I had intended, but I was psyched for Alcatraz. And I still AM psyched for Alcatraz after last night's series premiere. Since it was the series debut and two distinct episodes, I'm going to break format a little to talk about it.

Alcatraz has a high concept premise. In 1963, 302 prisoners and guards mysteriously vanished from island prison Alcatraz. Now in present day, they're popping up again having not aged at all somehow. Detective Rebecca Madsen discovers this while investigating a case and gets drafted onto a secret Government task force along with Alcatraz expert Dr. Diego Soto, which is charged with tracking down and recapturing these criminals. The task force is headed up by the mysterious Emerson Hauser, who knows more about what's happening then what he's saying. In addition, Rebecca learns she has a personal connection to what's going on: her grandfather was one of the prisoners who disappeared and he's responsible for the death of her partner. Interesting stuff.


The pilot episode sets up everything I've mentioned above and a couple other things (Emerson has an assistant, Lucy, and Rebecca has a surrogate uncle who was a former guard at Alcatraz. Oh, and Emerson was one of the two prison guards who discovered that the prisoners had gone missing.) and does it rather well. It gives us a basic formula for episodes going forward: the task force takes on a prisoner of the week, flashbacks reveal background about the prisoner and their time in Alcatraz, and we get some smatterings of mythology and character development on the side. It's a good formula, for now at least, and it gives plenty of opportunity for some interesting stories. So that's the basics of Alcatraz. But how were the episodes that aired last night?

Well, for starters, I'm glad Fox aired two episodes instead of one, because Ernest Cobb got me a lot more excited for the show than the pilot did. Don't get me wrong. The pilot was a nice, solid episode of television. It set-up everything, and got me invested in what was happening, but it just seemed to be missing a spark. There was no real 'wow' factor to the proceedings. No big twists to really get me hooked. (Well, the twist that Rebecca's grandfather was the criminal who caused her partner's death came pretty close to doing the job, but not quite.). It was still good and still made me want to see the next episode but wasn't enough to make me want to commit to watching the whole season.

But Ernest Cobb was enough to make me want to tune in for sure. It offered plenty of character development as Doc Soto began to grasp the reality of the situation he was now in (with some great acting from Jorge Garcia, who was one of the reasons I was excited for this show). It had a more compelling villain (And the prisoner from the pilot was pretty compelling to begin with) with Ernest Cobb, the psychotic sniper with a serious desire to be alone and some also serious abandonment issues. It also put one of our characters (Lucy) in life-threatening danger, which helps remind us that they're not dealing with your average run-of-the-mill criminals. Putting Lucy in danger also allowed us to see a different side of Emerson Hauser, and showing that there is more to him than just the mysterious government agent who used to be a prison guard. And of course, the episode provided a huge twist at the end that the pilot lacked: Lucy was apparently alive in Alcatraz times, looking exactly the same as she was now!

Overall, I quite enjoyed the Alcatraz premiere event. I find Rebecca and Doc to be good characters and I'm interested in their journey. Plus the sci-fi serial elements should help make this show more than just your typical procedural drama. The pilot was good, though lacking, and episode 2 was a lot better. Anyhow, I'm now super excited for next weeks episode and can't wait to watch this show all season (and hopefully talk about it on this blog all season.)

Pilot Grade: I was going to go with Enjoyable Enough (Pretty Good), but on second thought, it was just plain Awesome! (Good)

Ernest Cobb Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)