“Alcatraz” made its premiere on the Fox network Monday night. It promises to be an interesting mix of “Lost” and something in between “X-Files” and the movie “The Philadelphia Experiment.”
It opens in 1963 with two ferry transfer guards discovering Alcatraz is eerily deserted. All 302 inmates and personnel are missing. The prison is closed the next day using the cover story that all inmates were transferred to San Quentin penitentiary.
Pan to modern-day San Francisco, and you find Det. Rebecca Madsen played by Sarah Jones, and her partner in pursuit of a bad guy. Madsen’s partner is killed and the perpetrator escapes.
Some months later, Det. Madsen is investigating a murder when Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill), a federal agent from an undisclosed agency, takes over the crime scene, but not before Det. Madsen obtains a fingerprint. The print belongs to Jack Sylvester, an Alcatraz inmate who allegedly died some thirty years earlier.
Det. Madsen pursues the lead by consulting with Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia), who is an eccentric comic book shop owner and resident expert on Alcatraz. He wrote several novels about Alcatraz.
As the story evolves, Emerson Hauser recruits both Det. Madsen and Dr. Soto to work with him and his assistant, Lucy Banerjee (Parminder Nagra). Hauser turns out to have been one of the two officers who discovered the mysterious disappearances from Alcatraz decades earlier. He has been investigating the case since…secret government division with a secret headquarters complete with an exact replica of an Alcatraz cellblock.
Just as mysterious as the initial disappearance, the prisoners start reappearing, unaged, and committing crimes. The crimes are in some way tied to Alcatraz and the individual stories of the inmates. Emerson believes someone or something is somehow controlling the prisoners. It is his mission to capture the returned inmates alive.
In the second episode aired for the premier, Det. Madsen discovers her grandfather was one of the mysterious inmates and was the perpetrator who killed her partner. She always thought her grandfather was an Alcatraz guard who died before she was born. Not only was he an inmate, but he is also the criminal responsible for her partner’s death.
The episode ends with Lucy Banerjee being wounded, and a pan to 1963 where she is introduced as a prison therapist, and appears to be the first of the missing Alcatraz staff (perhaps one of the mysterious controllers) to reappear.
The new show promises many twists and turns as it bases its storyline on the back-stories of the missing inmates and staff and how they tie in to the modern crimes. For viewers it presents an interesting alternative to the normal police dramas and mysteries.
“Alcatraz” appears to be another success-in-the-making for producer J.J. Abrams, who also produced “Lost.” Alcatraz will be airing on the Fox Network, Monday,