'Alcatraz,' a Mystery TV Show About Another Island, Premieres

"Alcatraz," which premiered Monday night with two back to back episodes, has got to be one of the stranger television series on the air. That is befitting for its creator, J.J. Abrams, who brought us "Lo,st" among other things.

Spoilers may follow.

Two episodes of "Alcatraz" were run, the Pilot episode and the second episode entitled "Ernest Cobb."

The premise is that the night before the federal prison at Alcatraz was closed in 1963, everyone within the facility suddenly vanished, including the hardened criminals who had been locked away there. Fast forward to 2012 and all of a sudden, apparently one by one, the prisoners are coming back.

Demonstrating that this is not a natural occurrence, the prisoners in question do not seem disoriented at suddenly finding themselves in 21st century San Francisco. Indeed there seems to be a purpose to their showing up almost 50 years later. That purpose so far seems to involve murder and mayhem.

Sam Neill plays Emerson Hauser, the head of a secret government task force that is investigating the phenomenon and is working to catch the prisoners as they emerge into the present and lock them up in his own secret prison. He knows more than he is saying.

Sarah Jones plays Detective Rebecca Madsen, who stumbled onto the conspiracy, and finds herself assigned to the task force.

Jorge Garcia (Hurley from "Lost") is Diego Soto, an Alcatraz historian who also seems to have some computer skills.

Parminder Nagra is Lucy Banerjee, but also Lucille Sangupta. She is also part of the task force but also seems to have been involved in the events leading up to the 1963 event.

Like "Lost" it seems that "Alcatraz" proposes to unwrap the mystery over a long series of episodes. This is a device to make people watch the series and pay attention. It can also be a little irritating, with big reveals thrown in for the purposes of making one gasp, and hints at things going on behind the scenes. The ploy is going to work for me, at least for the time being. But one hopes that the whole thing is not yet another done-to-death secret government conspiracy. That got old around Season Five of "The X Files."

Source: Alcatraz, TV.Rage

Alcatraz, Pilot, TV.Rage

Alcatraz, Ernest Cobb, TV.Rage