Alcatraz (FOX) "Pilot" & "Ernest Cobb" *Spoilers!*

[Guy Gardener]

If we assume (always a mistake) that the person in control of all this is from the future, and they've tagged these guys, it doesn't matter where "the government" has hidden them... But if like in 12 Monkeys, that tagging isn't good enough and they do need an accurate historical fix to "find" their agents... A secret prison that "doesn't exist" is about the only way to go to make sure that these guys ain't going to be recycled and used to wreck chaos here or elsewhen again.

Or...

Maybe it was Lucy's idea?

Is she on a mission from the future or is she bastard enough to have gone rogue after being sent on mission, but then this is like the Dirty Dozen right?

Using convicts for Suicide Missions.

Stick and the carrot.

Have you ever seen someone try to make House do shit?

You know, unless Lucy is one of the bastards form the future running the missions.

Then her setting up the prison is just making it easier for the future to get bizzy.

 

[JD]

Right now, I'm actually thinking it's not time travel. My theory at this point is that they did something to make all of them immortal, and held them somewhere where they got them ready for whatever the master plan is.

 

[sojourner]

Why make them immortal? just put them in stasis.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Immortality?

Nah.

What about stasis or cryogenics or even the after effects of relativistic spaceflight.

Seriously what sane Indian Woman would expect to get a fair cop in America the 60s?

Raped, lynched and murdered on the streets.

But she decides to walk into a nest of rapists, racists and murderers?

I think it was Louis CK who said that Black People shouldn't time travel to anywhere before 1980.

Maybe Lucy was from so far in the future that she didn't know what she was getting into, assuming that the world was civilized after watching lots of Man from Uncle and Get Smart reruns?

Although, I'm guessing she would have made more headway in America than in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh/Sri Lanka. Even today it still feels like the 15th century over there..

Psychic projection?

Clones?.If they aged at regular speed, they would need 30 or so years to "make" copies of these prisoners?

Mirror worlds at different points of their evolution?

The Matrix/Life on Mars? An artificial habitat of some sort?

What if it's really about magic and not futurescience? Zombies or solid ghosts?

 

[Santeria]

It's going to have something to do with the blood from the first episode, as there was no explanation whatsoever for why that was needed.

 

[A beaker full of death]

ugh. Just a dumb friggin show. And could they have loaded one more cliche in there?

 

[Hyperspace05]

Hmmm.... I just watched the first two hours. The first hour was pretty good. The second... Meh. Just average. This inmate was far less interesting, even if there was more "action".

I'll keep watching for a few episodes, but this better lead somewhere soon. Otherwise I just have to drop it - I'm watching a lot of other shows right now, and I can only spend so much time catching up with my TiVo per week.

Misc thoughts....
- I really do like Sam Neill as an actor... But he SERIOUSLY needs to stop with his "ominous glare". You know the one where he leans forward, and gives a death glare with one eye. If I had a drink of every expression he made like that, I would have passed out. And I agree with others that he is waaay to young to have been in 20 in 1963.
- The female lead looks a bit young, like she just graduated junior college. But she's OK.
- Jorge Garcia (? the "lost" guy) was good.
- Most of the smaller cast is good - except for the indian(?) chick. She just seems like she is coming from and acting in a completely different show. She is apparently the only female time traveler? (being the only female staff on site when the event occured, I assume)

Overall not as good of a start as "Fringe". I really hope it picks up. We need some big hints soon.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Maybe they were experimenting with suspended animation to use for space travel? These guys have been "on ice" since they all "disappeared". Now someone is using them for nefarious reasons.

The rooftop chase in the beginning was weird for me since it's the same place they filmed a rooftop chase in the Fringe pilot. I was thinking "I've already seen a hot blonde law enforcement officer chasing a guy on that rooftop before" that I missed the strange look the bad guy gave Rebecca Madsen when she was chasing him.

I was a bit worried about Sarah Jones since of all the cast I was totally unfamiliar with her work. I thought she did a great job. And she's easy on the eyes. Ditto Parminder Nagra.

 

[The Green Mushroom]

I kind of liked it, but am not yet fully sold. I'll give it a try next week, but I'm honestly not sure I will hang around much longer unless something gets riveted up a notch or three.

--If they had changed the backstory and had a busload of criminals escaping from supermax I don't think much in the way of the first two episodes needed to be changed. This show needs more sci-fi than simply having the prisoners reappear one by one.

--Both episodes have the same plot and it seems next week will too. Prisoner appears in the future, we see some of his time in Alcatraz while he decides to go on a murder spree. Is everyone at Alacatraz supposed to be a serial killer--even the guys who are there for tax evasion and bank robbery coupled with a self-defense killing in jail?

--What will the guards do when they come back? And will we see the wardens from the first two episodes again? On a related note, IIRC there was a special cage at alcatraz where armed guards stood watch--will this show have the stones to have an armed guard appear like the guy from the first episode and panic when he sees hoards of tourists roaming beneath him?

--Not only did I see a terminator vibe with the guy in the first episode, I would have sworn that they were ripping off the terminator musical cue everytime they had a shot of him walking.

--Maybe I am in the minority, but if I found out that one of my ancestors was a prisoner at the Rock, I would lean more towards thinking that it was cool. Even if I was lied to and told he was a guard, I probably would more laugh at the coverup than be embarrased. When they said that her grandfather was a prisoner, all I could think was "National Treasure II" and me thinking why would anyone really think their career would be damaged because of something their grandfather did before they were even born?

 

[Roger Wilco]

And for that matter, why are the Alcatraz prisoners so much more dangerous than all the nuts that exist among the population today, that so much effort is going into hunting them and locking them up in a fancy, gleaming prison?

I was wondering about that too. In fact at first I thought they were going the route of "good guy convict, who was unfairly imprisoned and switches sides to help the FBI catch the real criminals" - but was positively surprised that wasn't the case.

It does seem though, the convicts are somehow controlled to commit crimes they don't really want to do; killing the two cops at least seems to have been out of character for the first guy, and going on another killing spree immediately wasn't that "reasonable" for the second one. Even if he's a hopeless psycho, wouldn't he chill for a bit and enjoy his life on the outside? Plus, where did he get the money for the gun from? And where did the first guy get the jacket?

 

[Pingfah]

It was OK. Fairly pedestrian execution for a pretty interesting concept.

 

[stj]

It does seem though, the convicts are somehow controlled to commit crimes they don't really want to do; killing the two cops at least seems to have been out of character for the first guy, and going on another killing spree immediately wasn't that "reasonable" for the second one. Even if he's a hopeless psycho, wouldn't he chill for a bit and enjoy his life on the outside? Plus, where did he get the money for the gun from? And where did the first guy get the jacket?

All too true. These guys would literally have future shock. They couldn't cope very well with the minutiae of daily life and their odd behavior would make them stand out. You go to all that trouble to get a team of assassins who need to be tranquilized?
Madness, I say, madness. And it's only the first episode!

 

[Guy Gardener]

And for that matter, why are the Alcatraz prisoners so much more dangerous than all the nuts that exist among the population today, that so much effort is going into hunting them and locking them up in a fancy, gleaming prison?

I was wondering about that too. In fact at first I thought they were going the route of "good guy convict, who was unfairly imprisoned and switches sides to help the FBI catch the real criminals" - but was positively surprised that wasn't the case.

It does seem though, the convicts are somehow controlled to commit crimes they don't really want to do; killing the two cops at least seems to have been out of character for the first guy, and going on another killing spree immediately wasn't that "reasonable" for the second one. Even if he's a hopeless psycho, wouldn't he chill for a bit and enjoy his life on the outside? Plus, where did he get the money for the gun from? And where did the first guy get the jacket?

These guys are in the system.

Fingerprints and photos.

Alerting conventional law enforcement is alerting the press that the universe is broken and that... Mass panic, 2012 end of days stuff.

By 1960, someone in their late 30s, older, could have been in World War two.

Fighting a war "before" television is different.

There's no shame. They do what they have to do and don't consider that any one is watching or that there will be any consequences no matter how dark things have to get.

Have you spent time with your grandparents?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Why can't Hauser tell Diego and Rebecca everything he knows, or at least enough to do their jobs sensibly?

If he gives the appearance of knowing everything that's going on, he retains the power in the group. But while he knows a little more than they do, it's obvious he's not privy to the full breadth of events.

For instance, if he knew his partner Lucy had been alive and worked as a doctor on Alcatraz in the 60s, he wouldn't have confused as to why Cobb targeted her. He would have anticipated this action.

Lucy is much more involved, knowledgeable, and possibly complicit in the conspiracy. Or she had a change of heart and is working against her former group but keeps the bulk of the information to herself.

Why doesn't it occur to Diego or Rebecca that the public deserves to know the truth, despite its implausibility, just so they can take steps to defend themselves from time-travelling psychos?

You're wondering why two people can't unilaterally decide policy for an entire nation about the release of classified information that either a rogue part of their government or a private organization or enemy nation has developed either stasis or time travel technology and is using prisoners to assassinate certain key figures whilst also continuing their normal range of crimes? Seriously?

And for that matter, why are the Alcatraz prisoners so much more dangerous than all the nuts that exist among the population today, that so much effort is going into hunting them and locking them up in a fancy, gleaming prison? Given the state of California's prison system, I'd prefer for that money to go towards keeping the non-time-travelling psycho population locked up in non-fancy, non-gleaming, non-underground, regular old cells. You could built twenty regular prisons for what they spent on their little Batman Gitmo.

Hello, possible time travel or stasis from the 60s? Possibly mind-controlled anachronistic assassins who also happen to be dangerous and unpredictable criminals with more down to earth crimes and motivations in mind? Are you seriously comparing this situation to normal prisoners on the run or incarcerated at San Quentin?

Also distracting: the music, which is too reminiscent of Lost. Or perhaps it's a warning?

Well, it's the same composers (Michael Giacchino is scoring the pilot and main theme, while his long time coordinator Andrea Datzman is scoring the series itself), but I didn't notice much of Lost in the music at all. The music was a little overbearing and kind of leading events at times, but I thought it was pretty good overall.


Anyway, I thought both episodes were fantastic. It had just the right combination of mystery and five or six really good surprises and "holy crap!" scenes to keep me entertained if they can keep this up. Good cast, good drama, and the possibility for an intriguing storyline if they have things planned out well instead of winging it like some arc-based shows have done. I'll definitely be back next week.

 

[davejames]

It was OK. Fairly pedestrian execution for a pretty interesting concept.

Agreed. There was a fairly cool idea there, but it was written in the most obvious and generic way possible.

The second episode was a slight improvement over the first, but not enough to get me to come back. As interesting as the larger mystery might be, it's just not worth sitting through these tedious, inmate-of-the-week storylines to learn more about it.

 

[Xerxus]

--Not only did I see a terminator vibe with the guy in the first episode, I would have sworn that they were ripping off the terminator musical cue everytime they had a shot of him walking.

Intentional or not.
The actor actually played a Terminator in TSCC near the end of season 2.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Terminator the Musical.

Sweet.

 

[Borgminister]

Late to the party, but voted good for each. The female lead is cute, and more importantly, has a nice rack.

 

[24thcenstfan]

I thought the first two episodes were average. I was underwhelmed by most of the key characters. I did like Sam Neill's character "Hauser". He is a man of many secrets. The criminals are pretty interesting too. I thought "Detective Madsen" was a bit boring and "Diego Soto" just kind of stood around looking lost most of the time.

I'll keep watching for now though.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Late to the party, but voted good for each. The female lead is cute, and more importantly, has a nice rack.

There were a bunch of nice shots of her bending over, weren't there? Certainly caught my eye.