J.J. Abrams ’ new series Alcatraz , debuting tonight , feels very much like an attempt to recapture the glory of Lost . It have yet another closed book on an island , and the return of Jorge Garcia . The show was created by a Lost writer — who was replace during production . And there are lots of random little mysteries in tonight ’s first two hr . But it all falls a small flat .
It all leave you question — is the Abrams era of television system coming to an close ?
Abrams used to be an unstoppable television hitmaker . Alias was a mega - pip for most of its ravel . lose was water - cooler material right until its concluding episode , and Fringe ’s first season was a huge hitting as well . But in recent year , Abrams ’ television work has feel a lot less watertight . He ’s score vast success as a director , with Super 8 being an impressive bang on the heels of Star Trek . But he ’s go to nock another lose on television .
Fringe has struggle since the starting time of its second time of year . Abrams ’ goofy undercover agent show Undercovers vanished without a trace . Person of Interest has been described as a “ house of cards ” show — although with its ratings going way up recently , that may no longer be true . And now , Alcatraz feels like the speculative stereotype of an Abrams show in some ways : geek humour , bland mysteries , a contrived circle - up , and kinky but unengaging characters .
More to the full point : every show that tried to simulate Lost ’s “ whodunit - ram Georgia home boy adventure ” format has failed , including FlashForward , The Event , and several others before that . There ’s more wreckage from failed befuddled impersonator than a hundred crashed airplane . And the more Fringe has focused on endless closed book ( Who are the First People ? ) the more viewers have tuned out of an otherwise excellent fictitious character - focused show . One grounds Person of Interest has been so fun is that the actual premise is straightforward , and the show has been cut into into it with a clean degree of integrity .
You bed it ’s looking bad for J.J. Abrams when television luminary Maureen Ryanwrites , “ Every year , J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg put their names on a TV project or two . Is it meter to bug out actively avoid those show ? ” And then run on to say more or less the same set of ill about Alcatraz that I was about to lay out .
What ’s Alcatraz about ? No major coddler here , but essentially , in 1963 all the convict and guards vanished from Alcatraz , and it was covered up . Now , 50 days later , they ’re reappear one by one . And all the inmates are committing crimes and settling old scores — and because they ’re presume long bushed , they ’re not in the system . They ’re untracable psychopaths from the past tense ! It ’s up to a team headed by a cop ( Sarah Jones ) , an Alcatraz expert with two PhDs who runs a comic book store ( Jorge Garcia ) , and an untrusty tool ( Sam Neill ) to track these bad guys down . One at a time . Each installment will be another 1960s escaped con roaming around 2011 San Francisco , while the show ’s underlying secret continue to jam up .
Without croak into too much item , those mystery story include : Who ’s sending these creeps forward in clip ? What ’s the schedule of this mysterious meter - manipulator ? What ’s with a mysterious object that ’s inside a safe ? What ’s the deal with the fuzz ’s grandad , who ’s one of the escaped convicts ? Why is Sam Neill such a dick ? What is he doing with the time - lost convict he ’s round up and put in a Modern confidential prison ? What ’s up with Parminder Nagra ’s MD character ? And there are a few others that crop up .
So , first the secure news and then the bad news . The good news is , the pilot had a set of reshoots since everybody realize it last summer — and since the original creator , Elizabeth Sarnoff , departed the show . The reshot version of the pilot is a bit more fun than the original version , and the main character , Rebecca Madsden , is a bit more interesting this time around . The whodunit have been bellyache up a bit . The whole thing felt less plodding than it did the first time around . ( The original pilot was express at Comic - Con and also released to critic last summer . ) It definitely has potential drop , and I was genuinely singular about Parminder Nagra ’s character .
The other full intelligence ? Watching the show again , I ’m really struck by how much it turn over into the brutality and horror of life in America ’s spoilt prison — and the 1960s flashback succession seem like they ’re going to be the heart of the show .
The bad intelligence is , it ’s not enough . There ’s still treasured slight interpersonal chemistry among the chief cast . The idea that every week , we ’re go to be following yet another fly the coop Alcatraz convict , just feels kind of … wearying . Somehow , unlike Person of Interest , where there ’s a “ POI of the week , ” this just does n’t seem like it ’ll be as much fun — peradventure because the characters are less fun , or maybe because the “ convict of the hebdomad ” is always going to be a 1960s sociopath . Also , Jorge Garcia ’s “ nerdy PhD who runs a comic Word computer memory and plays other 1980s video game ” character feel like somebody threw a bunch of dart at a “ dweeb stereotype ” board after assume too many muscle relaxant . I ca n’t really buy into Sarah Jones as a tough cop — she just does n’t root for that off somehow .
And the secret ? They finger a fleck perfunctory , to be honest — the mysterious item inside the mysterious secure feels like another one of Abrams ’ “ rabbit ’s foot ” things . The meter travel is a really intriguing whodunit , but it seems unconvincing we ’ll get much insight into it any fourth dimension soon . I intend , if memory wait on , a fairish flake of the reshoots on the cowcatcher involved layering in more mysteries and make the show less simple — but the end result is to add fuddle .
But the declamatory point is — has J.J. Abrams ’ reign on television receiver terminate ? Should it end ? Or is it more the typeface that TV shows focused around a big mystery ( with lots of short mysteries cop on ) should be a thing of the yesteryear ? We ’d love to see Abrams create something Modern — a show driven by fictitious character rather than eternal questions , like Fringe at its serious . So far , Alcatraz is n’t that show . But perhaps it ’ll grow on us .
Alcatraz debuts tonight on Fox at 8 PM .
AliasJ.J. AbramsSam NeillTelevision
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