FOX

J.J. Abrams brings us his latest sci-fisland mystery. The premise is that when Alcatraz closed in 1963 the remaining prisoners were not transported to other prisons, but instead they vanished into thin air. Now, inexplicably, they are reappearing. They haven’t aged and can’t remember much of anything except how to murder. Recidivism is a real B word.

.S.F. based Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) stumbled on a murder committed by the first prisoner to reappear. Her clues at the crime scene lead her to the name of the old Alcatraz inmate. She hunts down Alcatraz history buff Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) to aid her in the case. The two get in over their heads when government agents Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) and his partner Lucy (Parminder Nagra) take them into their investigation. The four start working together to hunt down the reappearing inmates. When captured and questioned it’s clear that this story is going to take the long haul to unravel as the inmates are on a mission orchestrated by unknown people or forces.
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FOX

The show throws you for lots of loops in the first two hours. At times it feels like we are supposed to just accept one too many things that may or may not be explained later. For example, we are just supposed to accept is that their headquarters for solving these crimes is on Alcatraz, when the shootings are happening in San Francisco. I think we can all agree that logistically that’s a nightmare. Also notable is that Emerson Hauser is really rude for no good reason. Dr. Diego Soto is the only character that offers any sort of relief, albeit it not that comedic. Which brings us to the cliché police procedural dialogue: borderline laughable.
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While many people have high hopes for all things J.J. Abrams, I’d have to think this would need to get a lot better to fill some big ‘Lost’ shoes.
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Strength of Episode: B-

You get a sense of who your main characters are while trying to digest a really complicated plot. We are seamlessly taken through the story it moves back and forth between present day and the 1960’s. And lastly, the show looks really cool and the San Francisco story line shows us lots of great cityscape scenes.
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Likelihood To Be Loved By Lost Fans: C+

It feels like a bunch of people sat in a room and decided to make a J.J. Abrams show (sci-fi, supernatural with copious twists and turns) but in the form of a palatable police procedural where you can tune in whenever and be entertained. Somehow the two don’t really seem to work together. At least not yet.
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Potential Strength of Season to Come: B

Any complicated story deserves a couple episodes to get into a groove. I’m hoping it will do just that.
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Overall Grade: B-