Skip to footer

'Alcatraz' is off to a promising start

'Alcatraz' will have to maintain a balance between case-of-the-week storytelling and enough backstory to keep viewers involved.

|
Danny Moloshok/FRE/AP
'Alcatraz' star Jorge Garcia (l.) and executive producer J.J. Abrams (r.) discuss the show during the Fox Broadcasting Company Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in California.

The Plot: From executive producer J.J. Abrams comes ALCATRAZ, a thrilling new series that follows Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones), Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) and Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) as they attempt to investigate the mystifying reappearance of 302 of Alcatraz’s most notorious prisoners and guards, 50 years after they vanished.

The First Impression: Do you really have to ask? After all, where J.J. Abrams leads (See: ALIAS, LOST, FRINGE, among others) this TV Addict follows. A decision that quite frankly has been made all the easier thanks to ALCATRAZ’s ridiculously enticing concept, immensely likeable ensemble and two-hour series premiere filled with just about the requisite number of plot twists one might expect from a series that’s being billed as “From Executive Producer J.J. Abrams.” Also adding to our overall enthusiasm for this addictive new series is the escapee-of-the-week premise that should, if handled correctly, allow for viewers suffering from mythology-fatigue (See: FLASHFORWARD, THE EVENT, among others) to easily follow what’s going on in stark contrast to some of Abrams previous offerings. That said…

The Concern: Has us reminiscing back to the troubled first season of FRINGE and wondering whether the showrunner that has taken serialization to an entirely new level is even capable of crafting a show around standalone episodes. In otherwords, despite Abrams assertion during the recent Television Critics Association Press Tour that had him, alongside co-executive producer Jennifer Johnson, promise that ALCATRAZ is procedural television done right, it remains to be seen whether or not the series will be able to deliver a case-of-the-week compelling enough to attract your typical NCIS/CSI viewer while still managing to sprinkle in enough mythology for viewers who prefer the LOST-style of storytelling. Either way…

The Verdict: Has us itching to find out.

The TV Addict staff blogs at The TV Addict.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Alcatraz' is off to a promising start
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2012/0123/Alcatraz-is-off-to-a-promising-start
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe