The 63's

With several shows on hiatus this week, there wasn't really much to discuss television-wise. Several of my regular shows are on break, and besides Castle and The Good Wife, none of the shows were exceptional this week. For All MAD MEN Fans, I'm sure you are as ecstatic as I am with the return of the series, though I will reserve my review for the new season for now. I feel it hasn't really gotten into its stride, and as such will reserve judgment for the later episodes when the show will most definitely reach its climax!


For Now, 13 episodes in, I figured it was about time to review the much anticipated New Series ALCATRAZ!.

Any TV Fanatic will know that if a show has J. J. Abrams as an executive producer, it is definitely a show worth trying. His genius is responsible for Extra-ordinary shows like LOST and Fringe, which many consider to be among the best television shows ever to be on TV. When I heard he was taking on Alcatraz, an island surrounded with lots of mystery, I only imagined that it would be Epic. Then I remembered, as brilliant as he is, J.J is not flawless, and in fact has been responsible for mediocre shows like "Undercovers" which did not even make it through half-way of it's first season.


Nevertheless, I watched Alcatraz as soon as it came out, and the premiere was rather exciting. The concept behind the new show is shrouded with mystery like its fellow compatriot LOST, and I'm a sucker for suspense/mystery shows which require me to fill in the blanks. However, as the show continues, my interest is slowly waning. The primary reason for this is that after 13 episodes, I have not been able to invest in a single character in the main cast. The acting in this series is not particularly strong except for "Doc" who many will recall played "Hurley" in LOST.  Furthermore, the writing of each episode becomes so focused on the inmate that has "come-back" that in the process the character development is glacier slow. 

Rebecca Madsen played by "Sarah Jones" , in my opinion is not a particularly strong lead. As far as the show goes, all the story-lines lead back to her grandfather, which makes her by association very important to the overall plot, but for some reason, she seems to be quite a bland character. Admittedly, when fringe started, I wasn't very fond of Olivia Dunham played by Anna Torv, however Joshua Jackson and John noble, did superbly as Peter and Walter Bishop so in terms of character involvement, Fringe was covered by the supporting cast. Alcatraz seems to be hanging by a thread really. 

Emerson and Lucy Banerjee have an interesting story-line, but it seems to be the intent of the creator of the show to keep this in the dark for several episodes to come. I just hope by the time they decide to finally do this, they haven't lost majority of the viewership and there is still interest in the show.


I will continue to watch this show because it has tremendous potential to be excellent, should the episodes start being more connected, and the semi-procedural approach is slowly abandoned into a more direct story-line. I hope in the upcoming episodes there is more character involvement so as we can relate to the people more. The idea of putting too many questions without answers truly only worked for LOST. If Alcatraz tries that, the show will fail. But I am optimistic that it will get better. From the 2 episodes that aired last night, the show seems to be slowly heeding my advice.


All in All for now, the show is a 7/ 10. Fingers crossed it will get better!