Why Alcatraz Doesn't Work for Me

You know how we often read fiction/watch movies to fall in love with the characters? The same can be said for our villains: though we may not know it, we want to somehow connect with them, too.

Which brings me to my latest show (the one both Grayman and I agree to watch while exercising). Alcatraz has a fun premise: we follow a couple hundred Alcatraz inmates who've been frozen in time and reappear to commit heinous crimes. I was actually stoked to watch this show because Jorge Garcia (the guy who plays "Hurley" in Lost) is a main character and few people are more loveable than him. Also, J.J. Abrams produced this. *love*

But the show falls flat for me, and this is why:

We fail to connect with our antagonist because there are far too many in too little time. Something like two or three hundred inmates escaped, and so far for each episode we follow an inmate commit a crime, then get caught. I've seen four episodes and Wikipedia shows five more that follow the same formula. The show doesn't work because the majority of the time is spent with the bad guys only to be tossed in jail in the end. They're not likeable, and while I think the good guys are likeable, I don't really know because we get to spend so little time with them.

Plus, I kind of have a love/hate relationship with the opening line: "On March 21, 1963, Alcatraz officially closed. All the prisoners were transferred off the island. Only that's not what happened. Not at all."

I love the historical "what if" spin idea of the show, but Sam Neill says the "Only that's not what happened. Not at all" with this weird little Western twang like they're trying to sound like Firefly or something. But they don't . . . Not at all.

Will I keep watching? Hm. I need to find another drama I can talk Grayman into watching with me while we shed our pounds.

He's already lost ten. Gah.

*I know other crime shows like Law and Order are a huge success with the new-bad-guys-every-episode formula, but this is just my take on THIS show. The time spent on the antagonists makes me wish I cared about them.