Alcatraz - Yet Another Lost Clone?

Monday night had the tweaked pilot and 2nd episode of the new JJ Abrams series Alcatraz on Fox.

Like many attempts to capture the mystery of Lost that came before, this series is at least made by Bad Robot and has good ol' Jorge "Hurley" Garcia in it.

Basic premise is that the closure of Alcatraz was a coverup when one night two guards arriving for their night shift found the whole island empty of people, prisoner and guard alike. Now nearly some 50 years later, they are reappearing, unaged, seeking revenge as well as being on missions for whomever took them.

I know two episodes is not enough to judge a "high concept" series but what do you think the chances that a "high concept" serial series would survive on Fox? Or will it be another one season wonder like Flashforward, Journeyman and The Event or will it survive a few seasons like Fringe?

Aw crap. Missed it. It's Fox. I give it a half season, maybe a full. Beyond that? Doubtful. Fringe is the exception, not the rule, when it comes to Fox and science fiction.

I enjoyed it well enough. Good cast. Interesting premise. Multi-layers of mystery. It will definitely be on my DVR list.

I have it recorded to try out in the next few days, so can't have an opinion yet. But what makes it a tweaked pilot?

I tend to avoid reading into the backgrounds of shows. But when something is mentioned, then I get curious

I've already forgotten about most of you

It never even made me think of watching it from the teasers that I've seen.

*shrugs*

I believe that Lost itself, and BSG to a lesser extent, burned people out on the "stretch the mystery out forever, so we never actually have to resolve it" show. I've predicted the rapid failure of every single show since then that seemed to be following that premise. Viewers simply don't want to watch a show that is all build up and no payoff. Flashforward and The Event in particular seemed incapable of adjusting to that, believing that Lost itself proves you can do it. Which is like saying WoW proves you can recreate WoW.

They have to about mid-season to get to the point, or at least a point. If they don't, then Fringe notwithstanding (and its not the same thing) people will get tired of it. The first two episodes suggest they have two ways out: they can make it more X-Files than Lost, and have each episode have its own mystery that is resolved while the larger arc plays out - both Flashforward and the Event didn't really do that well, or at all. This will keep people interested and coming back for more. Or they can make the disappearance itself be just the first mystery that uncovers deeper mysteries.

While NCIS LA is not this sort of show by any means, they did recognize that drawing out the mystery of Callen's attempted assassination forever would make people tired of it, so they actually addressed that mystery by episode seven, but used it to launch a deeper mystery, and then a deeper one that continued its chain all the way to the current (third) season. I think shows like Alcatraz have to be more like that then Lost.

This has nothing to do with the audience not being sophisticated enough either. I don't want to watch a show that is all tease and no payoff. Both Lost and BSG proved to me you can't trust people who say "its all part of the plan." In both cases, they were making it up as they went along, so they *had* no actual payoff intended, ever.

I think if its non stop week by week "monster of the week" the show will grow old. Fringe kind of started off that way. I think the first 4-5 weeks were just stand alone 'weird thing of the weeks' and it wasn't until they broke from that and went into more of an overall arc for the season that it started to work. Hopefully Alcatraz is moving in that direction or it will turn out to be "how can we use 'He comes from 1963!' again." And yeah that will get old. I'm also curious if all of the support people (the non inmates that disappeared) are all back or will we be getting episodes of "good guys" (if the staff are good, the jury's still out on that one) coming into the modern day.

I think the show has potential. Whether or not better than those post Lost shows that didn't make it as Aracana pointed out, it's still too early to tell. I like the leads and the stories so far have been interesting and filled with tension. (This last weeks episode was particularly dark for network TV.....and I like that.) I just hope it doesn't turn into the same "monster of the week" and start showing some diversity in its episodes or it will get old. For now though, I'm watching and enjoying.