J. J. Abrams' New Show: "Alcatraz" New EpisodeTonight

The "Alcatraz" pilot

Stop fooling around and try and save "Fringe" before you do this, you idiot!

 

How much does he have to do with Fringe? Is he actually creatively involved anymore, or just getting a creator/executive producer credit?

Anyway, can't get excited about Abrams TV. Lost had me for a season or two. I keep meaning to watch the rest of it but just can't muster the enthusiasm. Fringe was so bad at the start that I can't bring myself to watch it despite that I hear it's gotten much better. The ads for Undercovers didn't do anything for me. The script for Alcatraz is hardly exciting me either.

 

Lost will always belong to Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, and Jack Bender. J.J. Abrams directed the pilot and the season 3 premiere. These guys wrote and directed this show to perfection. Fringe suffers greatly in comparison to Lost.

 

This. I use to go all nerd-tastic over anything JJ Abrams but the more and more I realized it; the less he really had to do with any one thing in particular's success. LOST was all Lindelof and Cuse; with bits of Bender and a super small (ie. two shows) of Abrams.

Fringe suffers from a few things; 1) a great start now leading downwards a bit 2) people wanting it to be LOST; especially now with no LOST, and 3) Season 2's end and all of Season 3 being so dependent on "the two universes" - I think also a bit of 4) the "CSI/HOUSE/Law and Order" syndrome - where you want a new episode each weak that has to have its own stand-alone story while also progressing the overall arch. Really; watch any CSI or L&O episode - and you'll get the gist of it. You can and can't do that with HOUSE and FRINGE; and this is both a plus and a negative. Its a plus for casual fans and somewhat of a negative for the fandom fans; and this is why LOST S5 was only LOST hardcore fans - and thats where Fringe is because due to the half-and-half it alienated both groups; whereas LOST only alienated one group (those hoping for a casual episode but finding they needed to watch 100 episodes prior to get the gist).

 

I have never watched "Lost" and I think "Fringe" had a very slow start and got progressively better.

 

I highly recommend Lost, you'll need to spend time with it, but watching it on DVD straight through is something special.

 

What TV ...DO you watch?

 

J.J. is churning out as many misses as hits these days. I'm beginning to consider that the factors responsible for the success of his projects are Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

 

It's hockey season. And I watch movies.

 

He's a great idea man, but you're right, a lot of his ideas are just falling flat. Orci and Kurtzman + Abrams is usually a good combination. And I love Lost, but I am still semi-sorta bitter that he lost interest in Alias to make that show, and didn't have a fantastic creative crew to keep Alias going. The last two seasons were not that good, especially Season 5.

 

"Lost"'s ending didn't disappoint you, then? Because it seems to have disappointed everyone else.

 

At least for me, I was maybe a little disappointed, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the show. It was always about the characters, not the mysteries.

 

Then they must not have been smart enough to "get" it, of course.

 

Because remember; that's the go to whenever someone has a different opinion than you.

 

If everyone had been happy with Lost's finale, it wouldn't have been worth it. I find it brilliant, but I appreciate that others don't and am glad that we'll always have that debate.

 

In my opinion, there is nothing to recommend about the Lost finale. In fact, in my opinion, I refuse to believe that others can legitimately find Seasons 4, 5 or 6 as meaningful or satisfying as 1, 2 or 3. In my opinon...

Either way, I'll probably check this out. American Television seems to be coming to the end of its reneissance decade, with little new to offer this year (The Walking Dead is okay, but not great). Let's see if J.J. can strike lucky again. I've never seen Fringe before, but I've started watching from Season 3 and it's surprisingly good. Thought it was going to be awful.

 

Haven't heard more about this.

 

Looks like it's gone the way of the proposed Michael Emerson/Terry O'Quinn retired cops dramedy by JJ.

 

No, it hasn't:

Alcatraz

 

8-10PM | FOX | SERIES DEBUT
Alcatraz

Prisoners who disappeared from Alcatraz in 1963 show up unaged in the present...

 

I watched it last night and generally enjoyed it. I think that the first hour was stronger than the second, but I'll be watching next week.

 

I think that Sackhoff in this role could have been quite good. I want to see some emotional depth from the detective...that was somewhat lacking last night.

 

I checked this out. It's not bad so far, but I worry about the future.

The manhunt-of-the-week formula feels very limited going forward. We not only know from the outset who they're chasing but Dr. Hurley has his bio at the ready. Every bad guy is a convicted murderer from the '60s; it's very possible to make an interesting cast based on that, but 22 of them a season? The scenes of prisoners' friends/family/enemies going "Whaaa you're back and haven't aged!" can easily get old.

A couple hints of mythology per episode isn't enough to keep me invested, which means the characters or manhunt plots have to step up. Or it could take the Fringe route and commit to delving into its own weirdness while crafting compelling ongoing concerns. In its current state, it reminds me a lot of Person of Interest, another sci-fi premise which was used to make a straight-forward procedural - and also stars a Lost character in a supporting role! The parallels continue.