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

[Temis the Vorta]

You need the general public on a network

No, you don't. (And for broadcast's sake, they better not need them because they're not getting them, and haven't been for a while now.) Even American Idol only gets 16M nowadays, which is 5% of the total population.

That means (except for sports) every show on broadcast is a niche show. The only question remaining is, how big is the niche and can it pay the bills?

Once Upon a Time is showing the way. That's definitely a niche taste - a serialized drama about the tribulations of fairy tale characters? With 9M viewers, it appeals to only 3% of the population, yet is one of the big new hits of the season.

Any of the new sf/f premises could theoretically also appeal to 3% of the population. That's getting pretty specific. I think the best strategy is to untether completely from past ways of doing things. Don't do what Alcatraz did, and try to pass off a cop show as sf/f. You just annoy the people who want sf/f, who are the only audience for the show.

Instead, just fling yourself way out there like OUAT did, and see if there's even a little niche for you to appeal to, because that's all you need. Give them exactly what they want, and they will be loyal. It's a small target, and you have to hit it dead-on. That's how shows will survive going forward.

From that perspective, I'm less sanguine about the mystery-based premises like Revolution and Midnight Sun, and more positive about Beautiful People, which tells the audience what it's really all about, up front: it's a civil rights metaphor using androids. If you like it watch, if you don't, don't. But nobody needs to worry about being strung along waiting to figure out whether they like the damn thing. I think people are getting really sick of the Alcatraz experience (and shows like that are probably contributing to the low ratings that broadcast gets overall.)

there's a reason Grimm is a police procedural wrapped in fairy tales.

And they're lucky they're on Friday because on any other night, it might be cancelled (since it's also on desperate NBC, I can't say it would be for sure). But it's funny that even trying to use an audience-pleasing trope like the cop show format, Grimm is getting substantially less of an audience - 5M - than OAUT, which is flying without a net. The lesson there is that being chickenhearted isn't going to pay off for broadcast like it used to, not unless you're CBS.

 

[Procutus]

Currently watching 'Webb Porter' on the DVR - decent ep thus far. It seems that Sam Neill is finally shaking his wooden performances and showing his chops a wee bit more. I still like Doc the best and Blondie is finally starting to grow on me.

I hope the finale on Monday night is worth the wait, and provides enough momentum to get a second season.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You hope that they can finally convince you to like, love, nay lust for this show as it's canceled and dies?

(Stupid sons of bitches are still writing party of Five fan Fiction. Season 23 or bust!)

That would make Alcatraz a complete asshole.

Rick put Ilsa on that plan for a reason.

 

[Procutus]

Anyone planning on being around for live commentary for the finale tonight?

 

[sojourner]

I DVR all my shows to save time. Hate sitting through commercials.

 

[Procutus]

^

I usually do as well, but since I sat in live for the first two hours, I'm planning on doing the same this evening, at least for most of it. Hopefully, I won't be the only one on board.

 

[Procutus]

OK, just witnessed an armored car hijacking, presumably by a group of '63s. And they seemed to be handling modern tech surprisingly well, considering that there was no GPS in the early 60s.

Oh yeah, Lucy's lookin' smokin' hot!

 

[Procutus]

I think I just had my question answered; only one of those guys was a '63.

Why Doc and Madsen aren't grilling Lucy over the mechanics of how she got there is aggravating. She's got to know more than she's telling.

 

[Procutus]

Guess I'm the only watching tonight. I really like how Doc's progressed from the first two eps; putting his cell in Stillman's car was brilliant.

I hope they really reveal what's under the lighthouse in the Warden's 'mystery-room'.

 

[Samurai8472]

Interesting. That spiral parking garage looked like it could have been in "The Dark Knight"

 

[Procutus]

Hey Sam! Good to see you.

 

[Procutus]

OK, I think I'm going to let the DVR capture the second half and watch it tomorrow. It's been good so far, and I expect the action to pick up from this point.

 

[startrekwatcher]

I thought the season finale was the best episode of the season--granted it wasn't a great episode--but at least it felt in a small way to be setting up some interesting things(different '63 factions) and advancing the story a little bit--I say a little bit because we didn't get a whole lot of answers(hello can you say writer contrivance that Rebecca could ask anything she wanted of Lucy and she asked only about her grandfather)--we still don't know why the 63s came back, we don't know how they came etc which is more than the rest of the season has done though.

But it is probably too little too late--writers anymore these days have to realize a show has to hit the ground firing on all cylinders or they lose. People just aren't going to give a show 20 episodes to get good.

Frankly FOX can cancel it even though I kinda enjoyed tonites 2 parter because I'm afraid much like Fringe we'll get treated to mostly filler episodes then a myth ep here or there and that just doesn't interest me. Plus the track record for these mystery based tv shows is awful when it comes to providing satisfying payoffs. You wait and wait and they build up all this suspense only to let down the audience with some lame answer. Just look at all of the lame limited premise shows that sucked over the years--VANISHED, Surface, Invasion, Happy Town, Harpers Island, Heroes S2-4,, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe(at least what I've seen), The Event, V, Flash Forward, nBSG, LOST S6, The River--so maybe it is best to cancel it..

LOST is probably the single worst thing to happen to television since everyone has attempted to copy its style and always fail at it. Hello writers how about moving away from overly convoluted series spanning arcs where everything is connected and the premise is limited and going back to a modest ensemble, a few independentt season long arcs where you don't have to play games with the audience.

 

[tomalak301]

I feel like there were many parts of this episode that should have happened earlier, and it would have made the series as a whole better. Now that it's gotten interesting, it's probably going to be cancelled, which is a shame because they finally advanced the storyline in a big big way. Hopefully the show does get renewed, but man I wonder what could have been had they sprinkled a lot of these two episodes into the overall season as a whole.

 

[spinnerlys]

Ups, didn't realise, there were two episodes today, only watched episode 13. I guess now I know, why I found it odd, that the doctor was back with the team again and no one asked here about her past. Otherwise not much seemed to have been missed I guess from not watching episode 12.

Anyway, it was a nice episode, but it did not really answer anything, just gave us more questions. That is the fault of Alias, Lost and all the other cliffhanger TV series out there, especially the ones with some kind of connection to Abrams or Orci and whatever that third guy's name is.
It is a bit frustrating, not really audience friendly, and I loved Lost, then watched Alias recently (and understood where Lost came from, thus was a bit tired of the cliffhanger after cliffhanger and twist after twist scheme), and now Alcatraz. Fringe is similar of course, but I felt more engaged with it in the first two seasons (now it is just another series where I just want to know, how it ends).
With Alcatraz we probably don't get an end, unless female cop dying is the end. Because we all know, that she will return, if there is a second season.

Can't TV writers think of a less used cliché, than having a main character die at the end of a season or episode and just reviving them in the next episode or season?
With Alias and Vaughn they at least did it in the beginning and brought him back much later.

Ah well, I watch too much TV anyway, and with all this broadcast crap, it is really too much.

 

[Samurai8472]

The highlight was ofcourse the "bullitt" homage with the mustang car chase

Rebecca was even wearing similar clothes to steve mcqueen

I think two scenes were shot for shot from the movie

Rebecca putting the car in reverse and burning rubber

Not to mention real San Francisco and not Vancouver

I couldn't help but chuckle at Rebecca who is really small behind the wheel of the new mustang looking badass

 

[Enterprise is Great]

If there's a season 2 Rebecca will come back to life in a similar way to how Lucy was revived.

No big shocker that the Warden was involved in the disappearence of the '63s as that's been pretty obvious since the beginning of the series. I'm sure if there's a season 2 he'll be seen in the present.

Rebecca's partner being a dirty cop who was spying on her for the inmate turned billionaire was a lame reveal. It would've been more interesting if he was a '63.

If Cal Sweeney knew that the guy who betrayed him became a billionaire he would've gone after him instead of robbing banks.

It appears it's time travel that gets these guys to the future.

 

[Roshi]

Stillmann is "Red Shirt Olsen" from Star Trek (2009).

 

[Guy Gardener]

Fuck you stupid Alcatraz.

I can't even be bothered complaining.

I knew it was awful and going nowhere, and that exactly what it was and how it happened.

"Can't get through a door without magic keys"?

Fuck you.

This was not final episode material.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I haven't watched last week's episode or the finale and now I'm thinking I should just nuke em all off the DVR.

LOST is probably the single worst thing to happen to television since everyone has attempted to copy its style and always fail at it. Hello writers how about moving away from overly convoluted series spanning arcs where everything is connected and the premise is limited and going back to a modest ensemble, a few independentt season long arcs where you don't have to play games with the audience.

How about this: NO more sf/f shows about cops/detectives/FBI agents. NO more sf/f shows where what keeps the audience watching is the chance to uncover some big fat amazing mystery that turns out to be not so amazing in the off chance the show doesn't get cancelled before we even get to that part.

So that basically leaves, uh...not a lot, looking at the shows in development for next season. What we really need are shows like this:

*Shows where there can be some overarching mystery, okay, but every episode is a problem to be solved where the problem anything besides cops investigating a crime, so that we have the chance of a satisfying conclusion every week, but it's not something we've seen a thousand times before.

Example: 99 Stories (AMC) - follows a group of strangers stuck in a 99-story skyscraper, with the building itself deciding who lives and who dies. Each story presents a different kind of challenge for the group. The elevators are in control of destiny, whittling them out by deciding who they deem deserves to go up.

The overarching mystery is how these people got there and how can the building apparently be sentient, but it doesn't matter whether these questions are ever answered, since every episode will presumably be a complete story, and the cop show formula can't intrude on a premise where the law is moot. The audience can relax and have fun, and not need to watch every frakking episode. I'm looking forward to seeing Our Heroes do battle with balky copiers and paper shredders (they are the worst!)

*Shows where the premise is the problem: it can't be "solved," only coped with. This offers open-ended drama where there's no mystery, everyone understands the situation, but you can't count on cops or whoever to swoop in and offer a solution. The drama is just a bunch of people trying to deal with other people. (The danger is, the drama could become unfocused.)

Example: Beautiful People (NBC) - character-driven futuristic “what if” drama where families of mechanical human beings exist to service the human population… that is until some of the mechanicals begin to “awaken.”

This is basically a civil rights metaphor involving robots. There will probably be at least one character who is secretly a robot (I have an idea who that character will be already) but no overarching mystery. There's no "solution" to this dilemma, other than everyone realizing that robots are people, too, but we can count on good old fashioned human bigotry to impede that solution for as long as the series requires.