Alcatraz

...not that that's a bad thing.

Besides the fact that Sam Neill really should give up on any hope of mounting a believable American accent, the premise of the show is intriguing enough -- before Alcatraz ended operation as a prison, all of the inmates and staff vanished, kind of like a Philadelphia experiment on an island gone even more than wrong.

The execution (ha! funny pun, not), at least in the pilot, perhaps didn't do as much justice to the plot as I would have liked, but at the end of the pilot I was left wanting more, despite Sam Neill's dodgy accent. The rest of the acting was competent, and the entire program seemed a bit reminiscent of previous time-travel sci-fi shows such as 7 Days. It has good pacing and you're unlikely to be bored by it.

It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Interesting that so many people are comparing this unfavorably to "Lost". I actually hated "Lost"… well, past the third or fourth episode, anyway, when it started collapsing under its own weight and stopped making any kind of sense at all. "Alcatraz", I liked… I already knew it had been canceled and wouldn't have an ending when I started streaming episodes, like with "Carnivale", but it was good enough that I knew I really wanted to see as much of it as was ever going to exist. Generally the supernatural and/or JJ Abrams isn't my cup of tea, but I thought this show was extremely well done. The cast is top-notch and the premise really grips the viewer. I'm sorry they never got a chance to wrap it up.

Before the pilot episode aired, there was a lot of hype generated by the degree of marketing the producers of the show invested in, towards its success. Naturally I was excited too, the show possessed that spark of intrigue and mystery that I so desperately craved. However, upon watching the first few episodes, I was disappointed upon discovery, that the show was merely your stereotypical and unoriginal crime thriller. Despite the paranormal twist, the show incorporates similar elements from other crime dramas like 'NCIS' and 'Criminal Minds', where the protagonists piece together puzzle pieces to find themselves a killer and save the day. I can only hope that the storyline loses that boring and unoriginal linearity as it progresses, but the ugly truth is, I've already given up.

(-) The series started well, but with a very quick and not convincing empathy between Sarah Jones (Rebecca Madsen) and Jorge García (Diego Soto); besides the acting of this two lacks of something that i not quite understand. The music may not make much sense, sometimes adding to much music can be uncomfortable even when we know it is part of the process.

(+) There is a good performance by Jeffrey Pierce (Jack Sylvane) and an acceptable of our Jurassic friend San Neil (Emerson Hauser). The prison looks great, it was about time we get a series of this particular place, although i don't think we're going to see Al Capone.

P: Hurley goes from island to island.

Hey all..

I have read some reviews here on the site for this show. And people are giving this 5 stars and has only seen 17 min or the first 2 episodes. Come on guys make and review when you at least have seen 5 or more episodes. Its a slow start but this show is getting more interesting further it goes! Maybe they could have found a better Female cop for this show but overall the acting is good and the story is getting better and better. I will look forward to see where this series is going!

Sry for the bad grammar but i am from Denmark :-)