Last week, Aaron wasn’t so entranced with the two-episode premiere of Fox’s new supernatural/sci-fi/mystery procedural thriller ‘Alcatraz’. I liked it better than he did. Since Aaron’s off at Sundance this week, and he didn’t express much interest in covering the show further, I figured I’d throw together a quick recap of this week’s episode.
In ‘Kit Nelson’, Rebecca and Doc have to hunt down the latest of “the ’63s” to appear in the present day. This charmer is a child killer who likes to kidnap 11-year-old boys and force them for several days to re-enact the things that he used to like when he was a kid: fishing on a lake, miniature golf, ice cream sundaes and so forth. Then he strangles them to death. This ritual is his attempt to relive his childhood, where he got a taste for the thrill of murder by killing his own brother. Kit (the killer) also has serious daddy issues. But, in this case, his psychosis isn’t the fault of a mean father. His father wants nothing to do with him because Kit is a psycho. He was just born evil.
After he resurfaces, Kit kidnaps a boy named Dylan, which sets Rebecca and Doc on a race against time to rescue the child before Kit kills him. Doc takes this case very personally, and hints about trauma in his own childhood around the same age. (We don’t get the details yet, though.) He gets furious when Emerson (Sam Neill) cancels an Amber Alert for the boy, so as not to draw the public’s attention to their little problem with the ’63s.
On his own, Doc stumbles upon the Kit and Dylan in a diner. He tries to stall until Rebecca can get there. This sets Kit off, and he escapes with the boy. In a heartbroken, terrified moment, Doc asks Rebecca, “I just got that kid killed, didn’t I?”
Eventually, they track Kit to an old bomb shelter in the woods. Kit threatens to kill Dylan. Rebecca is unable to get off a clear shot. Then, from out of nowhere, Emerson sneaks up from behind and shoots Kit in the head. How he got there isn’t explained. He must have been monitoring Rebecca.
This storyline in the present day is intercut with flashbacks to Kit’s time in Alcatraz, where he was savagely beaten by other prisoners. Child killers are the lowest of the low in the prison food chain. The episode has a very creepy scene where the warden locks Kit in solitary, and then confronts him (in the room lit only by a series of dying match strikes) to force him to admit that he killed his brother.
In an epilogue, Emerson hauls Kit’s body to his secret prison. This is the first of the ’63s that has been killed rather than taken alive. He drops the body off to be tended to by a Dr. Beauregard – who we quickly realize is the same prison doctor from the ’60s. What he’s going to do with the body isn’t explained, but I’m left with a sense that Kit may be reanimated somehow.
What I like about ‘Alcatraz’ so far is that the series is surprisingly dark for network television, even Fox. When the two-part premiere last week started, it gave an impression that these ’63s were all abused by a corrupt system and were maybe just misunderstood. But then, as the story progressed, we realized that no, these guys are really pretty evil and dangerous, and must be stopped. The sniper episode in particular was quite bloody and violent for a 9 o’clock show.
Yet we don’t know what Emerson’s intentions are in capturing these bad guys, or what he’s going to do with them. His secret prison (a bright and shiny recreation of the original Alcatraz cell block) is an intriguing mystery. I also like the idea that we’ll continue to see and interact with the prisoners (at least, some of them) after they’re captured. That’s an interesting twist on the usual procedural formula, where the bad guys are never heard from again after they get caught.
So, yeah, I’m hooked. This is the most promising of the new slate of network shows that have premiered so far in 2012.
Super-VHS
You know, I wasn’t really all that impressed with the first week, although I liked “Alcatraz” more than Aaron did.
But I was definitely (at least initially) put off by something, although I don’t exactly know what. Probably the predictable procedural plot of the pilot. Or (as much as I love him) Jorge Garcia’s hulking frame kinda oddly shoved into the background and corners of scenes where he wasn’t really doing anything other than looking awkward (-1000 points for the obvious, dull, geek-pandering-ness of his character). And the fact that the first episode was really two episodes, unrelated to each other, presented as one episode in a two hour time slot. Bad move there FOX (mostly because the second hour was totally rad, at least compared to the plodding nature of the first).
But, as the week went on, I found myself eagerly awaiting episode 3. And after the third episode, I’m now basically hooked. Noticeable improvements in areas I didn’t like–yay, Doc’s a real character now–and we got more of Sam Neill being a badass and loads more creepiness from the warden.
There are still a few things that I don’t like. Mostly the visuals for the flashback effect (cheesy as hell) and I hate that every commercial break has the “Alcatraz” logo. But I hold out hope that this will be my new “LOST”. (“Fringe” just doesn’t fill the void, although it’s probably come closest. everything else–FOX’s stupid dinosaur show, I already forget what it was called… “Terra Nova”, that’s right (its awfulness demanded I repress the memory of its existence)–has been such a horrible disappointment).
Josh Zyber
AuthorHonestly, I don’t disagree with anything you’ve criticized about the show here, though I’m perhaps more willing to brush a lot of them off.
One thing that really annoys me, though, is the opening credit sequence, with the cheesy CGI and Sam Neill’s voiceover explaining the basic concept of the show (sampled directly from his dialogue in the first episode).
That doesn’t work AT ALL, and I dread having to listen to it episode after episode.
Bryan
Josh,
I definitely agree with your complaint about the voice-over in the credit sequence. After the first time they did, it was already getting old – I guess it’s a necessity for anybody who’s watching for the first time, but man, it’s going to get old.
As far as finding the next “Lost” … I don’t think this will be it. In fact, I think it’s already come around …. I was shocked to discover how much I really like “Once Upon A Time” and it’s similarities to “Lost.” The story-telling structure is identical to “Lost”, and while I thought the premise sounded really cheesy, it’s worked surprisingly well. (I will admit, I initially had no interest in watching, but my wife heard good things, so I caught up with downloads/on-demand/etc ….)
Josh Zyber
AuthorI only watched the first episode of Once Upon a Time and hated it. I’ve been told that it got better, but I can’t bring myself to watch again.