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Alcatraz (FOX) and Shameless (Showtime) review and podcast

Posted by The TV Critic on 18 January 2012 | 5 Comments

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Credit FOX

Hey everyone,

Before you read my review, you can hear audio if you prefer. Brando and I recorded a podcast about about both Alcatraz and Shameless which you can download here.

We have begun including a non-spoiler section where we will just be giving our recommendations. You can follow the breakdown below to see where you need to stop listening.

Non-spoiler Alcatraz: 00.00 - 04.46

Alcatraz: 04.47 - 23.55

Non-spoiler Shameless: 23.56 - 27.58

Shameless: 27.59 - 43.32

 

And here is my review of the first two episodes of Alcatraz...

Show: Alcatraz (FOX)
Type: Drama, sci-fi, police procedural
Rating: PG
One line description: Prisoners from 1963 begin appearing in 2012 and a team is assembled to catch them
Tone: Straightforward police show with an ongoing mystery arc
Similar to: Breakout Kings (topic, format), FlashForward (tone, quality)
Starring: Sam Neill, Jorge Garcia, Parminder Nagra, Sarah Jones
Quality: Bad to Average (40-60 range)

Alcatraz - 101 - Pilot and 102 - Ernest Cobb

The story is that in 1963 when Alcatraz was shut down three hundred prisoners just disappeared into thin air. Now in 2012 detective Rebecca Madsen (Jones) and Alcatraz historian Diego Soto (Garcia) begin working with FBI agent Hauser (Neill) to catch these criminals who are reappearing in our midst.

As you know, I don't watch procedural TV shows. I find the dramatic formula too irritating and predictable and this, sadly, falls headlong into that category. The first inmate to appear is Jack Sylvane, a sympathetic figure; he fought in the war and was unfairly harassed by the prison guards. His wife married his brother while he was inside and now that he gets out he goes on a murderous revenge spree. He kills his old guard, some police officers and then tracks down his brother (now an old man). The police are of course hot on his trail and catch him before he can kill anyone else.

The Sylvane character was badly mishandled. He was meant to be a wronged figure who is somehow a pawn in the larger game of the time travelling inmates. Yet he squandered all sympathy by murdering innocent police officers and hanging on to a grudge against his brother that is clearly irrelevant fifty years later. It was more than just what he did though that made Sylvane an un-relatable blank figure. It was what he didn't do.

At no point did he take a moment to wonder at the miracle of his journey to the future. We never saw him confused by an automatic door, a cell phone or a computer. Instead his progress through San Francisco was smooth and emotionless. It was a massive mistake when you realise that Sylvane is going to be a recurring character. If he had just gone to see his brother and wept at the sheer insanity of his situation and grieved for his dead wife I would have been instantly won over. The writers could then have developed a well rounded character whose lack of knowledge of the twenty first century could have been endearing and funny.

And it wasn't just Sylvane who lacked characterisation. Rebecca is the typical precocious detective and we don't really find out any more about her. Soto is Hurley with a bit more knowledge. Hauser is a walking cliché. Look away now if you don't want to be spoiled but he was a prison guard back in 63 and in 2012 has built a replica of the Alcatraz block to put all these men back into the exact same cells they disappeared from. It's a laughable idea and instantly makes Hauser look bitter, stubborn and silly.

Episode two only confirmed that this is a police show with just a hint of science fiction. Sadly the mystery doesn't feel at all interesting or important. Sylvane and Cobb both appear in 2012 and happily head off killing people without any apparent plan or idea of what happened to them. So if they don't care about time travel why should we? By catching both men in their episode I'm also left wondering what the big deal is. If these guys are just going to run around the country committing crimes then they present very little threat to the universe. Soon they will all be locked up again and we can forget the whole silly business.

I'm being facetious of course and I'm sure there will be a few more twists coming to make things seem more epic. But I doubt the show can do anything to make me interested in it. With no focus on characters all that's left is police officers figuring things out far too easily and time travelling criminals who don't seem remotely excited by the future.


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Comments

  • Hey Josh, thanks for writing. I think that's a good point about the prisoners having an idea of what is going on. However I still think the show is missing something by not showing them being at least a bit confused by the modern world. There should be loads of things they just wouldn't know how to operate.

    Similarly it seems odd that they just go right back to killing people without seeming like they have taken time to move well away from San Francisco and maybe learn a bit about how the modern police will operate.

    It always irritated me on "Lost" that more of the survivors didn't ask obvious questions or get more depressed about their predicament.

    Posted by The TV Critic, 30/01/2012 11:20am (24 days ago)

  • Just wanted to make a couple comments about Alcatraz.

    I think the fact that these men are not in awe of this future world is a huge clue that there is something else going on here. They didn't just randomly jump forward in time, there was clearly a plan.

    Also, I think the mystery about who Hauser is and who he answers to will continue to build. I'm glad all these questions were not answered in the first two episodes. As a huge fan of Lost, I appreciate when a show asks questions and leaves them hanging for a long while.

    The last thing I wanted to mention was that I definitely think there will be more of an overall arc coming. It may be more like Fringe where that didn't really start until the end of season one. I am willing to give it time. I trust the people behind the show.

    Love the podcast.

    Posted by Joshua Spivack, 30/01/2012 7:35am (24 days ago)

  • ***EPISODE THREE SPOILER ALERT*** SKIP THIS COMMENT IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT YET***

    Good point. I enjoyed ep 3 more than either of the other two. They made the criminal more interesting and the chase more intense. The standout for me though was Jorge Garcia who really brought the emotion. He was excellent.

    Posted by The TV Critic, 26/01/2012 10:16am (28 days ago)

  • ***EPISODE TWO SPOILER ALERT*** SKIP THIS COMMENT IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT YET***



    Since there's not a show page yet I wanted to give that little spoiler warning. Not that too much spoilery can happen in two episodes, but I suppose this is one of the bigger surprise moments so far.

    I just wanted to comment on how unrealistic I felt it was that Lucy survived a sniper rifle shot to the left side of her chest. Every other person shot in the episode by the sniper dies, and this was the closest ranged shot he took the whole time! Center mass! How in the world did she live?! At least have her get shot in the arm, or shoulder, or hip or...something...if you're going to have her live.

    Posted by Brando, 25/01/2012 2:37pm (29 days ago)

  • Well I was a bit disappointed with these first two episodes of Alcatraz. I didn't feel hooked in by what was happening and that is not good in a pilot.

    I felt more interested by the flashbacks, perhaps because I understood what the characters were supposed to be feeling. My biggest problem with the present day scenes was that I didn't feel emotionally engaged by any of the characters. In particular, Jack Sylvane gave us nothing. Does he know where he's been? Why is he not more freaked out by time travelling 50 years? Having seen the full 2 episodes, it appears he doesn't have a big role for the moment, so the lack of emotion and information we got from him makes more sense. But the way the show opened with the focus on him (and knowing writers' propensity for calling the hero Jack), it seemed like he would be a big character and I found it confusing and unnerving that he seemed so blank.

    I think [Hurley] is by far the most believable character, and I was glad to see him react to seeing dead bodies as you'd expect a civilian to, and glad to see someone finally saying that this is mind blowing stuff. No one else has reacted to the impossibility of the whole thing with any conviction, not even Jack's now-elderly brother. They could have done so much more with that scene.

    I'm not very fussed about pretty cop lady so far. I guess we'll see how she shapes up. Admittedly I don't know Hurley's name either, but her insistence on calling him 'doc' is grating on me already. Somehow it doesn't feel realistic.

    The show seems more procedural than I expected. I won't mind that too much if we do start getting some answers soon. At the moment I am a bit frustrated that clearly we have Sam Neill's character knowing potentially quite a lot but we've been given nothing. I won't be impressed if we spend 2 months seeing them catch a prisoner every week to put in their over-lit shiny white replica Alcatraz, but get little story development.

    I expected a better start to Alcatraz but I will be staying with it. I did feel more drawn in during the 2nd episode and I am quite intrigued by the revelation that the female doctor is another one who is 'back'. I hope they will expand on that next week.

    Posted by Kay, 20/01/2012 1:20pm (1 month ago)

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