Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall
Review: FOX's 'Alcatraz' mixes time travel with drab police procedural
J.J. Abrams goes back to an island, but again hedges his bets
Sarah Jones and Jorge Garcia head to "Alcatraz."
Credit: FOX
J.J. Abrams came to the TV critics press tour the other day to promote "Alcatraz," his new sci-fi/crime drama that FOX is debuting tonight at 8. A reporter asked Abrams about how the show - in which 300 inmates who vanished from the famous prison in 1963 begin popping up in the present day to cause mayhem - might try to balance the Prisoner of the Week stories with ongoing storytelling about what exactly caused this bit of time-traveling wackiness.
Abrams responded with a story about watching an episode of his show "Alias" at a friend's house and being confused by all the serialized stuff, and how he's tried since then to make his shows more accessible to viewers who pop in and out...
... which another reporter reminded him was the exact same anecdote, and thesis statement, he made when presenting "Fringe" to us four years ago. That was a series that was also supposed to be easy to jump into, exciting whether dealing with the Monster of the Week or larger questions - only nobody much liked the "accessible" version of the show, and it only found itself creatively after embracing the weirdness of it all.
When I asked him a few press tours ago about that transition, Abrams told me that he and the other "Fringe" producers decided, "If we're going to fail, let's go down having done the most badass, weirdest, interesting, sophisticated version of a series we can possibly do."
That's a lesson that arguably should have been applied to "Alcatraz" from the start. The version that will debut tonight with back-to-back episodes isn't bad, by any means - it's better than, say, "Undercovers," another of Abrams' Keep It Simple, Stupid shows from a couple of seasons ago - but it's much too generic given Abrams' reputation from "Alias," "Lost," the better years of "Fringe" and the "Star Trek" reboot.
"Alcatraz" is, essentially, a formulaic police procedural in very mild sci-fi drag. The time travel creates the problems that San Francisco cop Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) has to solve with the help of comic book author and Alcatraz historian Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia), hostile federal agent Emerson Hauser (Saml Neill) and scientist Lucy Banerjee (Parminder Nagra), but the two episodes I've seen might as well have been episodes of "Criminal Minds" with occasional flashbacks to 1960. The two criminals in these episodes pop up in 2012 (and don't seem to suffer from any real culture shock) and start killing people, and Madsen and Soto have to dig through their files to figure out where they might go next. Simple stuff, and the bad guys aren’t all that compelling even with the show devoting a decent chunk of running time to showing what they were like 50+ years ago.
There are the larger questions of what caused these men's disappearance and reappearance, and what Hauser and Banerjee aren't telling Madsen and Soto, but so much emphasis is placed on the time-traveling fugitives that it's difficult to invest in those ongoing arcs.
Jones is fine, if not much more, in the lead role. (She reminds me of Anna Torv in the early days of "Fringe": believable as a cop, but not overly charismatic.) Garcia, who showed a lot of range over six seasons of "Lost," is in the early going mostly asked to channel the most obvious everyman/fanboy aspects of Hurley. (Uncomfortable with seeing dead bodies, Soto complains to Madsen, "This isn't the comic book world, is it?") This is a grouchier side of Neill than we're used to, but as keepers of the series' secrets, he and Nagra mainly have to swap veiled, ominous-sounding dialogue that could be about anything.
By the time "Fringe" let its freak flag fly, it had already bled most of its initial audience, though there's no way of knowing what the numbers would have been like had it started out dealing with parallel universes and such. (It could be that the tiny handful who watch it now are all that would have watched had it gone this way from the start.) The version of "Alcatraz" on display tonight isn't special enough for me to bother with again. If Abrams and company once again realize they should have gotten weirder, sooner, maybe I'll come back.
But I'd really like to see Abrams turn up at press tour one year with a show that's fully-formed and unapologetic about what it's about, rather than another one that tries to hedge its bets and make itself accessible to everyone while being memorable to almost no one.
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupBalaji K
January 16, 2012 at 10:08AM EST Reply to Comment"She reminds me of Anna Torv in the early days of "Alias": believable as a cop, but not overly charismatic"
You mean Jennifer Garner ?
Balaji K Either that or you mean Fringe.
January 16, 2012 at 10:10AM ESTsepinwall The latter. Torv on Fringe. Thanks. Fixed.
January 16, 2012 at 10:48AM ESTObservations Anna Torv has always been great on Fringe, and as an actress/person she has been and is very charismatic.
January 16, 2012 at 12:17PM ESTSo remove that coment, uncalled for.
What you mean is that Olivia Dunham after the pilot was closed off, introverted and not showing her emotions, after a huge trauma, that is called acting, it is the character, nothing to do with the actress.
No need to have another go at Anna Torv who is the most underrated actress.
Olivia Dunham in Fringe has no backstory to speak off, not the big emotional explanatory scenes they keep writing for Noble,and on top of that Noble also need to have phobias or garments to tell me he is another Walter
Anna Torv still has to work with virtually no information at all. And from these few facts she now has created multiple versions of Olivia Dunham, by showing , not by telling like Noble does.
Luckily for Sarah Jones she will never get the horrible treatment that Anna Torv got, and from which she still seems to suffer.
What part of the US critics did then was short of a witchhunt.
So please leave Anna Torv out of your article, there is no reason at all to once again have a go at her.
And please rewatch Fringe so that you will see what a great actreaa Anna Torv is and how charismatic Olivia Dunham is, from the start.
BTW I never liked Garners acting nor her character, but that does not mean I am going to make judgement about her, I do not know her.
But hey I guess free shooting on Anna is still critics favourute pass time? Disgusting.
Col Bat Guano That is a lot to pull out of a single sentence.
January 16, 2012 at 1:11PM EST
January 17, 2012 at 12:18AM ESTRandom Appendage Although I agree with you on the amazing acting of Anna Torv (she really develops into a fantastic actress throughout the series), I have to disagree with you on your Olivia Dunham...
February 7, 2012 at 4:24PM ESTOlivia Dunham has quite the backstory - (spoilers ahead) coming from an abusive household, to being experimented on as a child, to the interactions with her mother and sister. That's quite a lot of backstory which has been thoroughly presented throughout the course of the series. In fact it is these events that shaped her personality and drive. No moreso is this evident in the personality differences in Olivia/Fauxlivia.(/end spoilers)
Saying she has no backstory sounds like you've only watched a few episodes of season 1...
Nicole
January 16, 2012 at 11:04AM EST Reply to CommentAlias lasted 5 seasons, Lost lasted 6 seasons,Fringe will most likely last for four seasons. Undercovers lasted for 11 episodes... I know he wants a high rated show, but you think he would know the show could last longer if it was crazier.
Mike Thomas People always talk about the weird elements of Lost, but I really think what kept most fans coming back was that they cared about the characters (well, some of the characters) so much. People were really invested in the choices and fates of all these characters. I think that should be the biggest priority going forward with all of Abram's shows.
January 16, 2012 at 11:15AM ESTireneinidaho @Mike: "I really think what kept most fans coming back was that they cared about the characters..." I agree. The mysteries were intriguing, but not fully explained at the end. But I don't feel my time was wasted because I really liked some of the characters, especially Sawyer. The scene at the vending machine with him and Juliet still gets me just thinking about it.
January 16, 2012 at 8:00PM ESTAnd when is Josh Holloway ever going to get another TV show???
Ben It's true that the characters made Lost great, but a large part of why those characters were able to be so great is that they were allowed to be themselves within a framework that put them in interesting situations. If they were constrained by a procedural "thing of the week" show, we would never have seen most of the best character moments.
January 16, 2012 at 9:50PM ESTFor my money, non-serialized shows are always worse for character development. If there's no plot to develop, there's no room to develop the characters--having them dramatically evolve would make it much harder to tell the same basic story every week.
Prettok Fringe would have lasted four episodes if it started out with the alternate universe story. Why would anybody care about parallel universe Walter when we've barely met Walter prime? How would you like it if in next weeks The Firm, we were introduced to the characters Earth 2 versions?
January 16, 2012 at 11:20PM ESTCol Bat Guano If the characters in Lost had been set in an LA law firm, we wouldn't have cared for them at all.
January 17, 2012 at 2:49AM ESTbgt
January 16, 2012 at 11:20AM EST Reply to CommentWatched the pilot on a continental/united flight a few months ago. Expected big things from the JJ that gave us the outstanding pilots of Alias and Lost, but it was very, very underwhelming. They've already shit-canned the co-creator, so it will be interesting to see which way the show goes (more to procedural or more to bad-guy-of-the-week).
Kevin "more to procedural or more to bad-guy-of-the-week" Aren't those the same thing?
January 16, 2012 at 11:31AM ESTKnapp Ummm... Procedural is the bad guy of week. Look up the word procedural, BGT. Before you try and sound as Mr Inside TV.
January 16, 2012 at 11:34AM ESTObservations The co-creator has already been dumped, and from what I read they at least give this female lead a family connection to talk to, so she at least has a chance to show a different site of the character, not just the stoic FBI agent.
January 16, 2012 at 12:36PM ESTAnd I guess Abrams is not thinking big 6 seasons - arc anymore, so he will not wait in showing us Olivia Dunham like they set out with Fringe.
Fringe has as one of their premiss, recently repeated by Abrams, that at the end of its run, sesson 6 , we would know Olivia Dunham. So that meant and still means no explanatory scenes, no bonding, no decent backstory for Olivia Dunham, just a few facts. She is the main lead.
As a contrast they write all the backstory and big storylines and scenes for Walter and Peter, and off course they were the popular ones, also with Sepp, because hey a femake character that is closed off and introverted,and does not show emotions after trauma, for whom they write not one decent scene to talk about all the abuse and trauma she suffered ( we got those few facts spread over 75 episodes), it cannot be that that character is who she is because of that reason, no dear Sepp has just shown above he still does not know the difference bewteen a character and an actress.
I saw a bit of Sarah Jones at Comic Con, she seems shy in public like Anna Torv is, is that your problem?
FYI Shy people are very charismatic, probably more then those empty smoothtalking babbleboxes.
Like I said above the critics are never going to treat Sarah as bad as they did Anna, and because of the nature of the series, her character will be developed quick, not spread over posible 6 seasons.
Besides that Sam Neill and Jorge Gaecia are very supporting people, where Anna Torv has been stabbed in the back by her own co-star Jackson, who also quickly claimed Noble as his on;y chum in the media, isolating Anna with that.
Anna Torv has shown the critics how wrong they were, they never decently apologized.
Anna Torv creates the most beautiful versions of Olivia from almost nothing, that is truly great acting.
Lets wait where this lead goes to, without judging her based on a character she plays.
Mulderism You know what? If some other actress had played Dunn then you would be saying the same things about her. Just like no one could ever picture anyone playing Dana Scully than Gillian Anderson. Don't chalk all this up to acting.
January 16, 2012 at 1:43PM ESTAnna Torv's Restraining Orderr You and I should be seeing each other soon, Observations.
January 18, 2012 at 11:58AM ESTWylie76
January 16, 2012 at 11:38AM EST Reply to CommentWell, Fringe took most of its first season before it got good. Same thing with Alias so I'm willing to give Alcatraz a lot of leeway
Jen
January 16, 2012 at 12:31PM EST Reply to CommentI don't know why JJ is given so much credit for so many mediocre shows/movies. People talk about the Star Trek "reboot" as if it was a masterpiece when it was, at best, a mediocre a monster movie movie. How exactly does a human being outrun a huge monster from another world? Super 8 had one decent part - the beginning. That movie would have been way better had it stayed a story about kids growing up in a small town.
His press conferences are totally disingenuous. He says he learned from his mistakes and fixed them, not by embracing the life and passion of what makes sci fi work, but by melding elements of many genres. In the hands of a genius this can make gumbo... or slop. Alcatraz looks like the latter.
Mulderism Agreed. Abrams is horribly overrated. He's thoroughly mediocre.
January 16, 2012 at 2:06PM ESTIan Abrams is all concept, no follow through. Now, I love Fringe and kinda, sorta enjoyed Lost and Alias (got tired of them by the end though), but those shows worked because of their showrunners/writers, not because of Abrams.
January 16, 2012 at 2:43PM ESTPrettok If a human being can outrun a cow or a crocodile or a penguin, why can't he outrun a make believe space monster?
January 16, 2012 at 11:09PM ESTJames
January 16, 2012 at 1:09PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, Dan, The River looks far more engaging and scarier than this pilot does. It looks more X Files than Fringe or Alcatraz do. I don't have a problem with dark, scary monster of the week episodes. It's just that JJ Abrams monsters of the week end up boring.
Nick Even worse, these aren't even monsters. So it certainly seems like we're just going to be left with something more similar to Cold Case than anything else. What a shame. Betty White's birthday dinner sounds more enjoyable.
January 16, 2012 at 1:47PM ESTTeklanika
January 16, 2012 at 1:37PM EST Reply to CommentNo need to put "drab" in front of "Police Procedural." They are all drab. Thanks for the heads up, Alan. I think I'll pass on this one.
What's with the trend of these 2 hour premiere's? I'm happy to invest 2 hours in a show I love that has earned my attention, but what's with these new shows doing it like Terra Nova, The Firm, and now Alcatraz?
Greg I think Fox only did that with Alcatraz and Terra Nova so that both shows could end earlier (Alcatraz has to end so that Touch can have its timeslot and Terra Nova had to end before Christmas).
January 16, 2012 at 1:59PM ESTGreg
January 16, 2012 at 1:53PM EST Reply to CommentI think I'll watch the whole season. It's only 10 episodes and there's nothing better on mondays.
And with Fringe getting cancelled, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the writers (if not the whole writing staff) got hired for the second season.
RWGibson13 There's so little on TV that I'm interested in (btw, "Justified" comes back tomorrow night - YAY! :-), that "Alcatraz" is, by far, more intriguing to me than anything but three or four currently running TV shows.
January 17, 2012 at 2:15AM ESTRWG (it's only two episodes in - far too soon to give up on it)
naddy
January 16, 2012 at 2:06PM EST Reply to Comment"accessible to everyone while being memorable to almost no one"
Well, that is network TV in a nut shell.
BigTed
January 16, 2012 at 3:22PM EST Reply to CommentI really like "Fringe," and I'm happy to accept the various alternate realities and different versions of each character. (Even though they'd be virtually impossible to understand if you just started watching the show now.)
But with "Alias," the changes in perspective -- with different mythologies, and various agents and entire agencies switching back and forth from good to bad, trusted comrades to moles -- just seemed annoyingly random. It was the same problem people had with "Lost," but worse -- the writers and producers seemed to be making it up as they went along, rather than having an overall, long-term vision for the show.
So with "Alcatraz," they should go ahead and give us a slowly revealed mythology -- but only if there's a coherent vision for it from the start, and they aren't just throwing out random weirdness in the hopes that they can figure out explanations for it later.
Don Wool
January 16, 2012 at 7:34PM EST Reply to CommentOT : I missed EP3 of The Firm.. the channel it is on has no VOD. Am I hosed? BTW I liked EP1 and EP2.
Prettok
January 16, 2012 at 10:49PM EST Reply to CommentJeez, touchy? I understand how such a huge fan of serialized television might be upset this weekend - what with the cancellation of "One Life to Live" - but that's no reason to take it out on Abrams. This show sounds like a fully-formed, unapologetic procedural manhunt show with a sci-fi twist. If you don't like it, stick with Downton Abbey. That's a real 'mythology' show.
January 17, 2012 at 12:27AM ESTPrettok They shouldn't presume the show is anything other than what the creator intended it to be. Abrams doesn't like soaps. And ever since 'Alias' he has avoided pilots that require tutorials. Even 'Lost' was simplicity itself. Plane crashes on mysterious island. That's all a viewer needs to know. Complexity comes later.
January 17, 2012 at 12:44AM ESTRunflash
January 17, 2012 at 1:33AM EST Reply to Commentexplain why Jorge Garcia did not know right away that Madsen's grandfather was an inmate rather than a guard. Since he ended up causing the death of Madsens partner why are they not already going after catching him knowing he is out there.
Tony He knew in the bar when the name came up. He shot a look at the bartender/uncle and lied badly to Madsen.
January 18, 2012 at 1:13AM ESTRWGibson13
January 17, 2012 at 2:03AM EST Reply to CommentCaught a bit of the first two episodes tonight and...well, I like the lead character here from the outset more than I liked the gal from "Fringe." Dunno exactly why, though.
But that second episode... "The Warden" was absolutely the best thing about it. If nothing else, I might stick around to sample future episodes just because of that character, the actor, and visions of what they might eventually do with him. The combination of character and actor bring back fond memories of the early appearances of "The Cigarette-Smoking Man" and John Locke.
RWG (a thoroughly creepy - in the best sort of way - individual)
fresser28
January 17, 2012 at 5:17AM EST Reply to CommentTorv is still boring, which is why I lost interest in Fringe to begin with, and Jones is even blander and less charismatic (she's also very "I just did this in acting class" obvious). I kept thinking how much more interesting the episodes would have been had they cast someone like Katee Sackhoff or even the UK's Hattie Morahan. I don't think Abrams is overly concerned about the acting abilities of his female leads, though.
As it is, Alcatraz isn't in the least compelling - it just seems like yet another X-Files rip-off.
Susan
January 17, 2012 at 9:16AM EST Reply to CommentWell, that was painful to watch. No thanks JJ, gonna skip this one
Hwat
January 17, 2012 at 7:24PM EST Reply to CommentBland and boring. And that female lead is so bland she looks like a man. Oh well.
January 18, 2012 at 4:01PM ESTAlex
January 18, 2012 at 6:11AM EST Reply to CommentA lot of illogical Fringe comparisons here, but...
Here's something to keep in mind: It can often take a little while for shows to find their voice, and decide what they want to be about. It was kind of that way with Fringe, but it works now. Person of Interest, despite the high expectations, started off kind of bland but has really picked up steam, creatively and ratings wise. Shows often change after the pilot, or even a few episodes later than that.
January 18, 2012 at 4:01PM ESTSure, and I'm totally on the same page as Alan that 'Cougar Town' was unimpressive as a Courtney Cox vehicle but as a quirky ensemble piece it's one of the more solidly enjoyable comedies out there. Hell, on 'The West Wing' President Bartlett was originally intended to be a recurring cameo appearing no more than half a dozen times a season. Obviously, Sheen's performance convinced Sorkin and John Wells to go in another direction.
But much as I love 'Fringe', I don't think you can really say the first season was a case of a tweak here, a refinement there. Abrams has been pretty upfront that Fox and the producers weren't really on the same page about what the show was - and it showed. (And while Fox-bashing the about the only politically correct blood sport left, they deserve credit - as Alan's said - for letting a textbook 'bubble' show do what it does best instead of just cancelling it.) I think there are legitimate questions about whether the same thing in happening here.