Prison Break-In (#1.18)

Dear Alcatraz,

Thank you for finally reaching your potential.

Since Alcatraz began its first season back in January, I have wanted it to dive deeper into its mythology.  I quickly grew tired of the criminal-of-the-week story lines and wanted to learn more about the why and the how of the central mystery.  Monday night during the season finale, my wish finally came true.

WARNING: Potential spoilers below.

I was first drawn to Alcatraz because of its trippy premise - in 1963, everyone on the prison island of Alcatraz mysteriously disappeared and they are now showing up, un-aged and committing crimes, in 2012.  Sounds like a good mixture of science fiction, period drama, and procedural (something I can usually do without, but I understand the need to appeal to a more casual kind of viewer).  It also happens to be created by JJ Abrams and stars Jorge Garcia and primarily takes place on an island, a winning combination for me in the past.  Plus, I've been to Alcatraz.  I've taken the tour.  It's a super creepy place already, without adding elements of time travel and medical experiments.

Anyway, Alcatraz started and it was cool.  Nothing super amazing, but I liked the concept and cast and was ready to move forward with the mythology set-up in the pilot.  And then Alcatraz sort of settled into something much closer to a standard procedural where almost nothing was learned about why these inmates were appearing and what role each person played in the situation.  It was a little bit of a snoozer.

Each week a new inmate (or in one case, a guard) would appear, proceed to commit identical crimes to the ones that landed him in Alcatraz in the first place, and then Doc (Garcia) and Rebecca (Sarah Jones) and Hauser (Sam Neill) would chase him around San Francisco until finally catching him right before the end of the episode.  Great.  But it got old pretty quickly and I was frustrated that it wasn't quite living up to its potential.  My hopes for a super cool and weird show were dashed.

Occasionally, something cool would happen.  Holy cow, Dr. Lucy (Parminder Nagra) was on Alcatraz in 1963 and made the jump with all the prisoners!  Rebecca's grandfather wasn't a guard, he was an inmate?!  And he killed her partner?!  What exactly is the Warden (Jonny Coyne) up to, taking so much blood from Tommy Madsen (David Hoflin), anyway?!  But, nothing really happened to help with the big picture of why and how this is happening.  Sure, we found out that weird, old keys were involved, but since when are secrets not locked away somewhere?

On Monday, however, the finale brought it hard and it was awesome.  Of course, we didn't learn everything, but we did get a reason for the medical experiments, some insight into Tommy Madsen's role in the endgame and his commitment to it, and one hell of a shocker to leave us hanging off a cliff, particularly since the show's renewal chances are less than certain.  But can you believe what happens?!?!  I haven't been this shocked by something on TV since... (Family Guy cut-a-way)... Really, though, it has been a while since I was this truly surprised.  And although Charlie's death on Breakout Kings kind of rocked me to the core, I still cannot believe Rebecca died.  I definitely did not see that coming.

In any case, I am now very intrigued by where all this is headed and I hope Fox brings Alcatraz back for another round.  I'd like to find out exactly how this time jump happened and to what end the Warden is working.  I'd love to see how Rebecca's death affects the team and if they'll try to revive her via silver-enhanced inmate blood.  I like where this is headed and I'd like to see it through.

What did you think of Alcatraz and its ramped-up finale?  Are you anxious for a season 2 or ready to let it go off into TV heaven?