SERIES PREMIERE RECAP & REVIEW: The Following “Pilot” S1 E1

I read all the advanced reviews, listened to all the podcasts, saw the “Inside the Following” trailer.  This show was awesome!!!  It was so gripping and thrilling.  I haven’t been on the edge of my seat that much watching a TV show in a very long time.  Many people from the writers, to the actors, to the critics can really blow up a show’s premise, for both the good and the bad, and sometimes it can be to the extreme of what we’re really watching.  I’ve seen interviews where cast members say they are doing a show that’s really groundbreaking and thought-provoking.  Turns out the show is dull and boring.  I’ve seen show runners say shows are intelligent and  cerebral with intense twist and turns.  Then they turn out shows like The Killing, which was none of those things.    But in all the build up to The Following, I can honestly say, not one report was blown out of proportion.  The show was scary, thrilling, mysterious, creepy, gross, edgy, smart, and sadistic.  And I can’t wait until next week.

The show follows Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) who is a former FBI agent responsible for capturing the world’s most notorious serial killer, Joe Carroll (James Purefoy.)  Hardy has left the bureau under, not so clear circumstances, but apparently has perfected his ability to imbibe copious amounts of vodka out of Poland Springs bottles.  It appears, at least today, that due to being stabbed in the heart by Carroll and not playing well with others, that Hardy was out.  It also might have something to do with his relationship with Claire but I’m not 100% sure if that’s accurate.  But Hardy is recruited back once Carroll escapes from prison.  From there, things happen very quickly and what we learn in the 42 minutes of air time is not what we (I should say I) was expecting.

First there is Carroll himself, the former college professor with an obsession over Edgar Allan Poe, turned collegiate serial killer.  I always complain that shows/movies give away too much of what’s going on in previews these days, but with The Following, nothing I saw in the preview really clued me into the bigger picture.   Probably because I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed but I went in expecting to see one thing and now it’s something completely different.  I thought this was going to be about Carroll escaping and starting his rampage all over with Hardy and crew trying to capture him.  I also thought, that’s going to make the series awfully challenging for many seasons to come if they are only ever chasing Carroll.  What we eventually learn is that his escape (and eventual immediate capture) is just the foundation for a much larger, more sinister plot than anyone could have imagined.    We also learn that you can trust no one.  You can’t take one character on this show at face value or else you could get Survivor blind sided.  It makes watching the show so much more enjoyable when you just don’t know who to trust.

Then there is the romantic triangle that is so bizarre when you think about it.  Carroll was married to another college professor, Claire Matthews (Natalie Zea) who eventually falls in love with her husband’s captor, Hardy.  There are SOOO many questions here.  First, when did Claire and Hardy fall in love?  The one time line we were privy to this evening was in 2002 when Carroll comes home and throws his wife on their bed and she tells him the news that she’s pregnant.  They seem quite happy and in love at this point.  Did Claire already know Hardy at this point?  Was she already having an affair with him?  My guess is that she didn’t know about her husband’s extra curricular activities at that time, so when did she learn?  See I think, she and Hardy didn’t get together until later but my husband has a different theory.  He thinks Joey, Claire’s son, is actually Hardy’s and not Carroll’s.  Remember the scene where she hands the letter to Hardy and she says that “he knows” and Hardy tells her that he’s bluffing and he’s just pretending?   My husband thinks that in the letter Carroll tells Claire he knows Joey is Hardy’s kid.  That means one of two things.  One, that Hardy and Claire’s affair was happening back in 2002 and therefore she was pregnant with Hardy’s kid or two, that she was pregnant at that time but something happened and she lost the baby and got pregnant later with Hardy’s kid.  The former is more plausible because if Carroll is captured in 2003 (and not knowing months at this point) that could be a tight timeline for a second pregnancy.

Finally there is the cult angle.   Like I said earlier, I was expecting this show to be about re-capturing Carroll once he escapes prison and starts his murdering ways again.  But that isn’t the case at all.  This isn’t about Carroll anymore.   I mean it is because it’s his plan, but it isn’t JUST about Carroll because there are so many people involved that it’s bigger than we even realize at this point.  It’s Silence of the Lambs meets Charles Manson!!  I’m not a huge “cult” person because I find them amazingly creepy, and not in a fascinating way.  But this I do find incredibly interesting because I want to know how someone like Joe Carroll is able to get so many people to do what he wishes.   Why would they do this?   How does he get in touch with them?  How does he develop these relationships to the point where people would spend years of their lives following his lead?  Does he have a main point of contact on the outside helping him?   It’s unreal!!   And on a side note, I find it a little disturbing that I was more upset and cringing over the scene where we saw all the puppies who had been slaughtered than I was seeing 4 police officers brutally murdered in the prison.  When I saw that video with the cop with the puppy, I had to cover my eyes because if he hurt that dog and I had to see it, I may have been done with the show.   How wrong is that?

Ok I’m going to go out on a crazy wild limb and say that Agent Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) is one of the followers.  I know I know, I’m nuts and it’s only the first episode so why do I want to make a crazy prediction so early.   Because it’s fun!!  This show has already proven that you can’t trust anyone.  Look at Maggie Grace’s adorable gay neighbors who loved her and were there to protect her.  Not so adorable and lovable now are they? Although I said to my husband when the second guy showed up that I didn’t trust him and that I thought he was in on it.  Then there’s Joey’s nanny who’s obviously been with Joey and Claire a long time.   Yep, she’s one of them too.  And Carroll has already gotten one law enforcement officer on his side so I wouldn’t put it past him to reach higher.  He obviously has the intelligence, the charisma, and the arrogance to pull it off.  I wouldn’t put it past him to have a FBI agent in his pocket.  Weston seems the perfect choice at this point.  He’s young, he’s smart, he has a man crush on Hardy and his work, he appears to want to get to know him better and learn from him, he knows the case backwards and forwards, and no one would suspect him.  So I’m all in on Weston being part of the cult.

The big question is why?  Why is Carroll doing this?  Is it because Hardy and his wife had an affair and he wants to get back at both of them?  Is it because he can and he wants to see how far he can take this?  Is it because he’s bored and Angry Birds just isn’t cutting it any more (pardon the pun.)  I have to believe he has a master plan that has levels we haven’t even begun to think of yet.  But I can’t wait to see where this show takes us.

One of the reasons why I think this show works so well is the chemistry between Bacon and Purefoy.  Is it Hopkins/Foster worthy?   Not quite, but it’s pretty damn good.  The scene where Carroll has been recaptured and he explains to Hardy his plan is so chilling, Purefoy knocks it out of the park.  Bacon also does a masterful job of showing his intense anger and disgust while keeping his composure.  You can see the wheels spinning in his head as Carroll unloads all this new information onto him.  It should set up a beautiful, sinister dance between the two of them for the rest of the series.  But I will say one thing.  Agent Hardy, the next time you get a hunch, please please please, bring back up with you!  Why you would go to the Lighthouse by yourself, is beyond me.  And while we’re on that, I’m heartbroken Maggie Grace was killed.  To survive an attack by a serial killer only to learn that the people you trusted for three years, worked for him and led you right back to him only so he could finish the job?  And to expose what happened to her to Hardy the way he did?  Just, evil!

I want to take one brief moment to comment on the violence of the show.  There have been many people commenting on it and since I have a forum to put in my two cents, I’m going to.  I think we live in a society today where violence is all too present.  With technology advancing, it’s easier for people to find more ways to be destructive and deadly and it’s incredibly scary.  There was no worse display of that than what happened in Newtown, CT just last month.  It’s raised many topics about gun laws and gun control.  It has also resurfaced the discussion on violence in video games, movies, and TV.   And I can understand it.  Tragedies like this hit everyone hard.  And even when there isn’t a tragedy current in our heads, many people find it unnecessary to show the levels of violence that many games, movies, and TV shows so graphically display.   But I also understand that we live in a society where people have the creative rights to depict and tell stories as they choose.  Storytellers have the right to broadcast and film their stories as they feel is necessary to tell the best story or get their message across.  And just as they have the right to do it, people who don’t agree with it have the right to not support it by not purchasing those video games, not buying tickets to those movies, or simply changing the channel on their TVs.

This show won’t be for everyone.  It’s dark, it’s gruesome.  And while I’m someone who abhors violence, especially against children and animals, I can also put shows like this in their proper context.  Because for me, I find shows like this compelling.   I want to know how the FBI would attack a situation like this.  I want to see how they profile a twisted individual.  I want to see how they learn and adapt to get smarter and better so that they continue to get evil like that off the streets.  I want to see if I can figure this out right along with them.  Now is this a documentary on the BAU of the FBI?  Of course not.  It’s a TV show for entertainment, not a History Channel expose.  But shows like this don’t happen in a vacuum.  They do research and have consultants that aid with adding realism into a fictional show.  Now scenes and situations will be dramatized for effect but there are storytellers who like to have as much realism as possible when telling a story like this.   And what it all comes down to is that this is fiction, not reality.  If people want to watch a show like this (that is brilliant right off the bat), I think it’s absolutely ok.   If other people want to crucify it for its violent nature, that’s absolutely ok too.  The beauty of this age of TV is that there are hundreds of channels for you to pick from on Monday nights at 9pm.  If The Following isn’t your bag, it’s a shame but I get it.  And I respect your right to watch something else.    Just respect my right to want to watch it.

What did you all think?  Did you like The Following?  Are you as hooked as I am?  Or were you just too creeped out by people stabbing themselves in the eye to come back?   Let me know!

 

RECAP & REVIEW: Glee

I haven’t talked about Glee in a while.  Actually, I haven’t talked about anything in a while.

I was so ready to give up on Glee this season.  But the last two episodes of last season, I really enjoyed.  I thought the season finale was well done and executed and I was very curious to see how the show was going to incorporate the college lives with the high school lives.   For me, when shows go down that road, I find myself much more interested in the meat of the show vs. the periphery stories.   That isn’t the case with Glee. I’m SOOOO invested in Rachel and Kurt and their adventures in NYC than what is going on with the crew at McKinley.

I want to back up to last year’s season finale for a minute because I love the way it went down.  They finally won nationals, all the kids were getting what they wanted, kids were going to new opportunities, Mr Schu got the elusive National Championship.  And then when it looked like Rachel and Finn were going to make the horrendous mistake of getting married, Finn pulled a level of maturity out of him that most men twice his age don’t have.  Showing his true love for Rachel, he put her first, he realized what they were doing is ridiculous, and put her on a train to her dreams…NYC and NYADA.  It was such a great scene because you can tell they both want to be together yet both want to branch out and chase down their potential futures.  When she was on that train singing “Roots Before Branches” crying her eyes out with Finn running next the train as it was leaving, I couldn’t help but cry.  I always loved Rachel and Finn and it broke my heart to see them take that leap of faith, apart from each other.

Return to this season and I couldn’t wait to see how this was going to work.  I’m surprised to say that I can’t get enough of Rachel and Kurt in NYC.  When she first was there by herself….alone, scared, out of her element…I wanted to run to NYADA and give her a big bear hug.  And after the rough time at school and just when she thinks she may want to run back to Lima Ohio, she turns around and there is her BFF, Kurt.  I LOVED IT!!!!  I was so happy for both of them.

The thing I like most about the way Rachel and Kurt are being handled is that it’s the most realistic storyline I’ve seen Ryan Murphy tell on this show in a while.  Here’s the big star from Lima realizing she’s just one of many big stars from lots of small towns.  How does she react?  How does it impact her confidence?  Will it shake her?  Motivate her?   How does she handle it?  Then you have Kurt.  Without a real plan until by chance, he stumbles upon an internship at Vogue.com.   Now he’s working with one of the top designers, possibly contemplating a career change.  As Carrie Bradshaw said, many people come to New York with one dream and end up staying with a completely different dream fulfilled.  I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen with Kurt.

I’m sure what people are most upset about is the last episode before the baseball break…aptly titled “The Break Up.”   The four major couples were having problems…Rachel and Finn, Kurt and Blaine, Santana and Brittany, and Will and Emma.  Two of these couples break up by the end of the episode.  Thankfully, it wasn’t Kurt and Blaine because I think their fan group might have torched Ryan Murphy’s house.  And it wasn’t Will and Emma.  It unsurprisingly was Santana and Brittany (yawn) and Rachel and Finn.  It just goes to show you, DON’T GET MARRIED IN HIGH SCHOOL!!!!

While many shippers of Rachel and Finn and Santana and Brittany are heart-broken, I’m glad the story was told.  Why?   Because this happens more times than not.  High school couples promise to stay together and then usually by the fall break, it ends.  Sometimes sadly, sometimes happily, sometimes matter-of-factly.  But 99.9% of the time, it happens.  The scene with Rachel and Finn was fantastic.  Lea Michele really knocked it out of the park.  It was devastating to watch these two have the break up on the stage where their relationship got started.   When Rachel was crying her eyes out telling Finn what a man he was for doing what he did after graduation and what a lack of man he was for ignoring her for months after he left the Army, I couldn’t help but cry with her.  Michele was outstanding.  But college is a time to find yourself and that’s exactly what Rachel needs to do.  And honestly, so does Finn.  Unfortunately by the end of his high school career, he defined himself too much by Rachel.  Finn wasn’t Finn anymore and he needs to find that self direction again.  It looks like he will back at McKinley, which is great for him.  He needs to do what’s in his best interest first.  He needs to create a life for himself before he starts creating one with another person.    So in that sense, I’m glad he and Rachel are going their separate ways…for the time being.  We’ll see what happens.

As for the McKinley crew, I really don’t care.  Brittany, Artie, Unique, Tina…I couldn’t care less.  It’s horrible to say, but it’s true.  When they are back at McKinley, I fast forward all the scenes.  The only somewhat interesting storyline is the new Rachel and the new Puck.  Although it can’t be that interesting if I can’t remember their names!

So sadly enough, I’m on board with Glee for another season.  If only Ryan Murphy can spin-off Rachel and Kurt  into their own show so I could just watch that!  It would make me so happy!!!

 

SERIES PREMIERE REVIEW: The Mob Doctor “Pilot” S1 E1

This will be a short one considering the ratings last night.  In my predictions podcast, I had The Mob Doctor as my 2nd runner-up to Guys with Kids as the First Canceled Show of the season.  Well, looks like that will be my first wrong prediction because I don’t think The Mob Doctor makes it past the 1st week in October.

The premise is great…a great doctor with ties to the mob having to keep her connection secret from her job and her boyfriend.  Because of this connection, she’s constantly having to cross the line of ethics with her work and the safety of her family.     Sounds awesome right?  Well, it’s not.

The biggest issue I had was that the baseline of the story was never really developed well because there was so much going on.  It was a mess.  With a show named The Mob Doctor, the first thing I want to know is how is she connected with the mob?  Now they did explain that her brother got into trouble with the wrong crowd so she agreed to do somethings for them to help pay back his debt.  But in the scenes with James Carpinello and William Forsythe, I got the impression there was a connection long before her brother getting into any trouble.  So what was it?   I would have liked establishing some clear connection in the pilot but that didn’t happen.  Forsythe made the comment when Jordana Spiro’s Dr. Grace Devlin was treating him in his home that she was always like family to him.  He was asking sweetly about her mother, they were quoting poetry together.  So how did that start?  How did they get this “friendship” started?   I don’t know how you don’t clearly lay that out in the pilot or at least give the viewers some insight into their relationship.

Then you have her chaotic work life where she appears to be one of the top doctors in the hospital.  She’s similar to Jada Pinkett’s Smith character, Christina, on Hawthorne, where she’s the best but she doesn’t follow the rules and she always bends them to get what she wants and everyone in the hospital bows down to her as a result, because she’s the best.  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  But worse than that, was everything that went down.  First there was a boy she operated on and for some reason was pulled from that case.  Later the boy died because the attending dismissed her care notes and the following doctor followed the attendings instructions instead.  Oh and by the way, Grace and this other female doctor get along as well as Crystal Carrington and Alexis Colby.  Showing my age with that reference.  Then, she calls out said attending for his bad treatment to the chief of surgery and asks he be brought up to the review board.   She’s really making friends that Grace.  While all that is going on, the daughter of a friend of her mother’s, who’s 14, comes in and she’s pregnant.  Grace wants to terminate her pregnancy so her father doesn’t kill and she can still go to private school on an athletic scholarship.  QB1, her boyfriend, (also a TV reference not deeply entrenched in 80s flashbacks) doesn’t like this idea, especially not after she lies to the father and tells him it’s a ruptured ovarian cyst they need to remove.    Finally, Grace is doing a landmark surgery with the chief on a mob informant.  However, Michael Rapaport wants him dead and wants Grace to do it during the surgery or else he’s going after her brother.   I’m not kidding.  This was ALL happening in the pilot.   Talk about aggressive.  It was too much!  All that didn’t need to happen in the pilot.   I don’t think that much happened in the pilot of Lost.  And that was just her work life.

Cut to her personal life where she seems like she could care less about her mother, who is in remission from cancer.  And her brother is a little asshole who gives her nothing but crap during every scene they are in together.  Hey jerk off, you know your sister is the one who bailed you out after doing…whatever it is you did that the writers didn’t feel was important enough to share with us.  In the 7 minutes we dealt with her family, I hated the brother, and Grace went down a few notches in my eyes for being such a bitch to her mother, who seems a delightful woman.

So what’s wrong with the show?  I can’t tell if I like Grace or not.  All she did was run from her job, to her house, back to her job, to the mob garage, back to her job, back to her house, to a mob boss’ house, and back to her job.   Spiro must have lost 5 pounds just running from place to place in this episode.  At certain points she was very endearing and at others she was very distant.  I think she was trying to play tough but it really came across as confused and scared.  She seemed to be running around the whole time with this “what the hell is going on” look on her face.  It’s probably representative of how the audience felt watching this pilot.  And even thought there weren’t that many characters introduced, I still felt like I didn’t get a chance to really know any of them…except maybe Forsythe’s Constantine (great name for mob boss by the way.)  I think I liked him the most.  What does that say?  I’m rooting for the mob boss.  Yikes!

In all seriousness, the premise of the show is good, but the execution is terrible.  It’s all over the place and the characters have no identity.  It’s a lot like another recent show, The Cape.  And we all know how that turned out.  Sadly, I don’t think this show is going to have a chance to see if it can right itself and be the show it has the potential to be.  Especially not on FOX who is faster to pull shows than Usain Bolt is to running 100M dashes.  See, the references got a lot more recent by the end!

DVRs:  1 DVR

 

SEASON PREMIERE RECAP & REVIEW: Bones “The Future in the Past” S8 E1

Bones is back!  And with REALLY bad hair….poor girl.  When last we saw B&B and our favorites squints, Pelant had set Brennan up for murder, Caroline and Booth for assisting her or covering up what they new, and Brennan went on the run with Christine and her dad until her name was cleared.

Let’s get right into with Pelant. I love the episodes revolving around his character and Andrew Leeds is brilliant in the part.  I love psychological killers.  Nothing scares me more than really intelligent people who can think 10 steps ahead of everyone else and are so sinister and take so much pleasure in toying with people’s heads.   That’s Pelant.  Especially since Brennan is as smart as she is and Pelant has been playing her like a fiddle.  Bones and Hart Hanson have done a fantastic job with this arc.  I’m not going to lie, I was slightly upset when they captured him (for a few reasons) because I thought that was the end of Pelant.  But my husband and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.  My fear was it was going to be Pelant somehow killing one of our own. But it turned out, Pelant was not who he said he was and was able to get out and extradited back to Egypt.  Say what now?   Let’s think about this for a moment…

When this first happened, both my husband and I thought “it shouldn’t matter who he says he is because the evidence still point to him.”   The more I thought about it, that’s not exactly true.  When Brennan “solved” the murder of Pelant’s guidance counselor and was able to nail him for it, it left me with an uneasy feeling.  Brennan always needs 100% conclusive forensic evidence before declaring her findings.  But not in this case.  There were no finger prints.  No DNA tying Pelant.  Only the idea that he was once heavy-set because his gait appeared altered as if someone who used to carry around lots of weight on his joints was no longer carrying it around.  Therefore, he would need a lighter weapon (like a sword) to kill the counselor.  Well that’s great, but where’s the proof?  All of Pelant’s high school pictures were forged (foreshadowing.)  So how could they scientifically prove that?  Then there was the part about Max having lunch with Pelant’s father who told him about being either a WWII vet or someone who collects WWII memorabilia (I can’t remember) therefore remembering his father had a sword that could match the murder weapon.  Well wasn’t that convenient.  The “solving” of this case really bothered me and it felt forced and fast and very shoddy for the usually particular Dr. Brennan.  Maybe it was the really bad wig throwing her off.  Seriously couldn’t they find Deschanel a better hair piece than that?   Sweet Jesus.

So as a result of no real forensic evidence, it doesn’t matter if he’s Christopher Pelant or Christopher Reeve, there’s nothing tying him to the murder.  Now, there is all the copious amounts of circumstantial evidence piled up against Pelant.  But guess what, if he isn’t really Pelant, then nothing is tied to HIM.  All the fingerprints on Pelant say he is Bassam El Fayette (I think), and Egyptian national.  Back to Egypt he goes and out of FBI custody and jail.   Uh oh, guess this saga isn’t over just yet.     But the biggest twist of the night came at the very end.  As Pelant was walking out the door, he hands Brennan a Marigold.  Apparently a Marigold represents grief and pain.   Who knew a flower could be so cheery in its message?   She throws it in the trash.  We then see a hand reach down and pluck it out of the trash.   The hand belonged to Special Agent Seeley Booth!!!   Well shit, now that would be a twist!!!!  But no.  It was Special Agent Hayes Flynn (Reed Diamond.)

Now I’ve read some people’s thoughts on this who took that to mean that Flynn is going to go after Pelant in his new role in Domestic Terrorism.  I didn’t take it that way AT ALL.  I think it meant that Flynn and Pelant have been working together.  I also read people who took this as Pelant changed his identity to Fayette while in jail.  Again, I don’t agree with that.  Either one of two things happened.  Pelant didn’t change his identity from jail, Flynn did it for him.  Or, Pelant was never Pelant…that was the false identity…he was Fayette all the time.  That’s the one I’m going with.  I think he had a backup plan in place so that if he ever was arrested, his partner could easily erase his fraudulent life and become who he really is…with no criminal ties to him at all.  Pelant always thinks 10 steps ahead.  And that didn’t change here.  He was prepared for this to possibly happen and when it did, he knew exactly what he needed to do to get out of it.

The big question is, how will this all end?  I don’t think it’s going to be with Booth arresting Pelant for good like we thought happened last night.  I think it will be with one of our tried and true, killing him.  That was made pretty clear when Hodgins had his hands around Pelant’s throat and was squeezing with everything he had.  Hodgins later told Sweets about this and he told Sweets that he could tell in Pelant’s eyes that he wanted him to kill him.  Flash to later in the episode when Sweets was talking to Angela and Brennan about Ethan’s code and told them that Pelant is even scarier now because he wants one of them to kill him.  Max also mentioned to Booth that the only way this is really going to end is if Pelant is dead.   So I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that’s how it’s going to go down.  The question is who will kill Pelant.   And as sinister as this sounds to say, I hope it’s someone significant. It can’t be Brennan or Booth…it will be too easy to get around that.  But I hope it’s Cam or Angela or Sweet…someone we aren’t expecting and I hope it has major consequences.  I’m not saying I want any of those people to leave the show, I just think from a story telling aspect that it would be sooo much more interesting to see that fallout!   But if I had to guess now, I think Brennan’s life will be in danger and Max will be the one to kill him and somehow Max will die as well.  I don’t know how that all plays out, but that’s my guess.

What did you think of the Bones premiere and are you enjoying the Pelant arc as much as I am?

 

2012 FOX Fall Preview

RETURNING SHOWS:

• NFL Football (9/9)
• The X Factor (9/12 & 13)
• Glee (9/13)
• Bones (9/17)
• New Girl (9/25)
• Kitchen Nightmares (9/28)
• Fringe (9/28)
• The Simpsons (9/30)
• Bob’s Burgers (9/30)
• Family Guy (9/30)
• American Dad (9/30)
• The Cleveland Show (10/7)
• Touch (10/26)

NEW SHOWS:

• The Mob Doctor (9/17)
• Ben & Kate (9/25)
• The Mindy Project (9/25)

SHOWS I AM MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO:

• Bones (Bones is on the run from the law.  Will Booth clear her name so she can come back?)
• NFL Football
• New Girl
• Ben & Kate
• The Mob Doctor
• The Mindy Project

SHOWS I AM LOSING INTEREST IN BUT WILL GIVE ONE MORE SEASON TO:

• None

SHOWS I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT:

• Glee
• The X Factor
• Kitchen Nightmares
• The Simpsons
• The Cleveland Show
• Family Guy
• American Dad
• Touch

WHAT TO WATCH FOR:

• Fringe the Final Season: People have been asking me to check out Fringe for a long time.  Now that’s it’s almost over…oh well!  I’m just kidding.  I will check out Fringe…hopefully it will be coming to Netflix sometime soon.  I’m glad they are going the Chuck route with Fringe.   Like Chuck, it was never a ratings darling but it was certainly a media and fan darling.  The people who watched it, loved it and were very loyal to it.  And also like Chuck, Fringe went through the stress every season of wondering whether or not what the fans watched was their last.  In fairness to the fans, we all know this will be Fringe’s last season and the writers will be able to send the show out on their terms…which I always appreciate.
• Glee’s moving to Thursdays: I’m not sure why Glee is on Thursdays at 9pm, but it is now.   My Thursday night is already jam-packed and since this show didn’t deliver in its third season (until the last 3 episodes) I’m done with iTunes, I mean Glee.  The show is terrible and now that the cast is divided, I have even less reason to watch.
• Bones moves to Mondays: Just like Thursday, I already have too much to watch on Monday night.  (Same with Sunday.)  Bones has been all over the schedule the past few years so I hope moving it again doesn’t screw up the ratings.  But I have a feeling, if you’re still watching Bones at this point, you’ll find it no matter what.

EARLY THOUGHTS ON NEW SHOWS:

• I liked all three shows when I watched them.  Ben & Kate surprised me the most.  I really didn’t think I was going to like it and I ended up LOVING it.  The Mob Doctor looks fascinating to me.  But FOX doesn’t have much success with dramas and doesn’t have a lot of patience for them.  So I don’t know if a show like that will stick around but I hope it does.  I’m still mad Alcatraz was canceled.  Hell I’m still mad Reunion was canceled!!!!  The Mindy Project was ok. I didn’t laugh out loud but I enjoyed it.  It very much mirrored the romantic comedies Mindy loves and watches in her down time.  And since Iove them too, I didn’t mind that approach to the story.  But if it’s supposed to be a comedy, I need some humor at some point.   But overall, thumbs up on the new FOX shows.

 

2012 Season Finale Tracker

See below for the most up to date list of shows and their season/series finale dates:

Sunday April 29th:
The Good Wife (CBS)

Tuesday May 2nd:
The Biggest Loser (NBC)

Sunday May 6th:
The Amazing Race (CBS)  2 HRS
GCB (ABC)

Monday May 7th:
2 Broke Girls (CBS) 1 HR
Castle (ABC)

Tuesday May 8th:
The Voice (NBC) 2 HRS
Last Man Standing (ABC)
New Girl (FOX)
Unforgettable (CBS)

Wednesday May 9th:
CSI (CBS)

Thursday May 10th:
The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
The Vampire Diaries (The CW)
The Office (NBC)
The Secret Circle (The CW)
Parks and Rec (NBC)

Friday May 11th:
The Finder (FOX)
Undercover Boss (CBS)
CSI: NY (CBS)
Fringe (FOX)
Blue Bloods (CBS)

Sunday May 13th:
Once Upon A Time (ABC)
Survivor: One World (CBS) 2 HRS
Survivor Reunion Show
Desperate Housewives Series Finale (ABC) 2 HRS
American Dad (FOX)

Monday May 14th:
Bones (FOX)
Gossip Girl (The CW)
How I Met Your Mother (CBS) 1 HR
Hart of Dixie (The CW)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Mike & Molly (CBS)
Hawaii 5-0 (CBS)
Smash (NBC)

Tuesday May 15th:
90210 (The CW)
NCIS (CBS)
NCIS: LA (CBS)  2 HRS
Fashion Star (NBC)
Private Practice (ABC)

Wednesday May 16th:
Suburgatory (ABC)
Criminal Minds (CBS)  2 HRS

Thursday May 17th:
Missing (ABC)
30 Rock (NBC)
Rules of Engagement (CBS)
Community (NBC) 1 HR
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
Person of Interest (CBS)
The Mentalist (CBS)
Scandal (ABC)

Friday May 18th:
Nikita (The CW)
Shark Tank (ABC)
Who Do You Think You Are (NBC)
Grimm (NBC)
Supernatural (The CW)

Sunday May 20th:
The Cleveland Show (FOX)
Harry’s Law (NBC)
The Simpsons (FOX)
Bob’s Burgers (FOX)
Celebrity Apprentice (NBC)
Family Guy (FOX)

Monday May 21st:
House Series Finale (FOX)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC) Part 1

Tuesday May 22nd:
American Idol (FOX) Part 1
Dancing with the Stars (ABC) Part 2  2 HRS
Glee (FOX)

Wednesday May 23rd:
American Idol (FOX) Part 2
The Middle (ABC)
Modern Family (ABC)
Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apt 23 (ABC)
Law & Order SVU (NBC)
Revenge (ABC)

Thursday May 24th:
Awake (NBC)

Tuesday May 29th:
Cougar Town (ABC)  1 HR

Wednesday May 30th:
America’s Next Top Model (The CW)

Thursday May 31st:
Touch (FOX)

Wow.  May 14th and 17th are both brutal and wonderful at the same time due to all the shows closing out on those dates.   Hope this helps your TV planning!

 

 

2012 Network Upfront Schedule

This is the time of year where everyone asks that all important question….is my favorite show coming back or getting canceled?   This year, many shows have been renewed very early but there are still plenty of shows that we are all waiting to hear about.  When are you going to know?   That would be during upfront week.  Actually, upfronts have been happening since March but do you really care what shows The Scripps Network is looking to renew, cancel, and premiere in the fall?  I didn’t think so.

Here is the schedule for the major network upfronts and when you will know about the fate of your show:

May 14th: NBC (Morning)
May 14th: FOX (Afternoon)
May 15th: ABC (Afternoon)
May 16th: CBS (Afternoon)
May 17th: The CW (Morning)

For the most part, CBS has announced what is coming back.  But there are about 5-6 shows that the fates have yet to be determined (or at least announced to us.)   All the other networks have certain shows already renewed or canceled (check out my 2011/2012 Renew Cancel Tracker on the Home Page for up to date information) but there are still many out there that can go either way.

Check back here during upfront week (I can’t believe that’s only 2 1/2 weeks away) where we will discuss the good news, the bad news, and what I’m sure will be some surprising news.

 

CANCELED/RENEWED SHOWS: 2012!!!

And the cancel/renew season is officially underway!!!  It started last week with the cancellation of Terra Nova, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.  But coming over the wire from Deadline.com is news that Blue Bloods, will be getting a third season!!!!   Woo hoo.  I love that show.

Also rumored, 2 Broke Girls, Person of Interest, NCIS, NCIS: LA are also getting renewed.  Based on the ratings it’s really no shock but it’s always nice to officially hear that your show is coming back.

Now if I can only hear some news about The Good Wife renewal…..

 

REVIEW: Alcatraz “Paxton Petty” S1 E6

I’m going to try to stay away from doing full-blown recaps.  I want to get into the nitty-gritty of the episode and I’m sure you do as well.  Plus, as each episode progresses, we are getting more and more peeks behind the curtain as to what is going on, who knows what and when, and who’s involved.  I’m not saying I’ve solved the whole mystery of the show, but things are starting to get clearer as more questions are rising.  And if I’m as good predicting Alcatraz as I was predicting Lost, I will have you completely confused because I will be totally wrong.   But at least I’ll have fun trying!

The 63 of Week: Paxton Petty

I have to say, the casting department at Alcatraz has done an AMAZING job casting these criminals.  They are so dastardly creepy and devious.  I love it!!!  I know, how strange does that sound?  I don’t love the criminal acts I just love the actors playing them because they are doing such a good job.

Petty’s a real creep.  His crime is basically that he’s a cry baby.  I’m not kidding.  He’s a cry baby.  He didn’t get the recognition in the war that he thought he deserved so now he is creating land mines and planting them around San Francisco to blow up innocent people.  Talk about sinister.  When people see an explosion, all they want to do is run away from it but in the case of land mines, they usually run right into…you guessed it….another land mine.

The big thing that Petty (played by James Pizzinato) confirmed this week is that the inmates don’t know what the hell is going on and that the “jump” the are experiencing is happening instantaneously.  One minute they are in 1963 and the next they are waking up in 2012.  The question that still remains is whether or not The Big Bads (that’s what I am calling them until I think of something better….or someone else does, which is more likely) are dictating when people “wake up” in 2012 or is it happening naturally?

We have seen some inmates that “arrive” in 2012 with a purpose.  Like Jack Sylvane and Cal Sweeney, they were sent to get keys and Sylvane was sent back to kill someone.  In the case of Ernest Cobb, it’s ambiguous whether or not he was sent to kill Lucy/Dr. Sangupta or she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I lean on the side of it being intentional because on shows like this, things don’t happen “accidentally” or “by dumb luck.”  But that is certainly a debatable topic.  As for Kit Nelson, Guy Hastings, and Paxton Petty, the reasons for their presence are unknown at this point.  Which lead us to another question, how/when does this awakening happen?  Did it happen to all the ’63s at once?  Is it happening in stages?  Is there a rhyme or reason to when and where they are waking up?   The only inmates we know where they woke up was Sylvane (on Alcatraz in present day) and Petty (in the bottom of tomb according to him.)  Another question I have is have they had multiple awakenings?  In the case of Sylvane, he “wakes up” in Alcatraz slightly confused by his surroundings.  But he clearly knows what his purpose is…get the key and kill the one guy.  So was he already coached/brainwashed before this Alcatraz moment?  Or was he asleep the whole time and the brainwashing is happening while they are under.  Or did it happen in ’63 before the jump and they don’t remember.   Most of them seem to not remember how they got there or what happened.   In Petty’s case, he is begging Soto for answers.  Ironically, Soto was hoping he would get some answers from Petty.  Both are out of luck but another really big question pops from their conversation…..

“There Were No Female Doctors on Alcatraz”

Dun dun dun dun!!!!  Our Alcatraz “expert” seems to be stumped yet again.  Soto was certain there were no female doctors on Alcatraz.   As Petty knows and we know, that is 100% not true.  Our very own Lucy was on the island in the 60s.  Talk about throwing Soto’s world for a loop.  Here’s a man who clearly believes he knows everything there is to know about the island and its inhabitants.  As he continues to work with Rebecca and Hauser, he is realizing that there is soooo much he didn’t know.   Here we go with another big question…

Is Lucy/Dr. Sangupta from the future?  I’ll let you sit on that one for a minute.

Minute’s up!   Is it possible that while we believed Lucy was from the past, is it possible, she is from either present or the future and time traveled back to the 60s?   I think this is very possible.  She is obviously someone decades ahead of her time when she is in 1960.  She seems to have the Warden’s support and we know he knows what is going on.  The Warden very easily sides with her when you would think in the 60s, he wouldn’t be so quick to side with a woman.   She is integral to what is going on, I just don’t know how yet.  But I think Lucy is someone from outside the normal time line.

It makes you wonder though, what else have we seen that isn’t “normal” on Alcatraz.  By normal I mean, common knowledge.  According to most people who studied the history of Alcatraz, there were no female doctors on the island.  But we know that isn’t the case.  So what else is common knowledge that isn’t true at all?

Mr Emerson Hauser

Ok, I need to address my man Sam Neill’s character.  I love Sam Neill.  He rocks my world!  No not that way.  Get your mind out of the gutter.  But his character is starting to annoy the crap out of me.

Here’s the thing, Hauser is a good character but he has the potential to be a great character.  But I’m not connecting with him.   Right now, he is the biggest jackass to the two people who are most trying to help him.  So why is he being so evasive and crass?  When Rebecca was working with him to try to crack the code to figure out where Petty buried his latest round of land minds, she was trying to get a better understanding of where his mind-set was so she could be of better assistance and all he did was basically tell her to shut up and “Windward.”  Then hangs up on her.  Would it have killed him to take two seconds to explain it’s a code he’s breaking to the location of the land mines?

Now that we are six episodes in, I’m starting to get to the point that with a character like Hauser, I need more back story.  I know we learned in the pilot that he was an SFPD cop who was responsible for transferring the inmates from the mainland to the island.  We also learned that Petty was his case in the 60s and that while bringing him to the Rock, he instantly falls for Dr Sangupta.  But what I want to know is why he has such a bug up his ass?  In particularly towards Rebecca and Soto.   I do have a theory.

I think Hauser and Sangupta eventually fell in love and they tried to stop the Big Bads from whatever they were trying to do.  That’s how Emerson and Lucy got hooked up in 2012 and it’s why Emerson is so invested in finding these missing people.  I think Sangupta found out what was going on (a clue to that was when she started asking Tommy why a perfectly healthy man was always going to the infirmary.)  She was either part of the initial experiment or in cahoots with the Big Bads until it turned in a direction she didn’t like.  Then she wanted to stop it but didn’t know how.  Enter Emerson Hauser who falls for her and would do anything for her (and he’s a cop.) So they try to stop it somehow but fail in 1963.  Sangupta “jumps” to 2011/2012, she tracks down Hauser, and they pick up where they left off.   That’s my theory on how they got together and why they are doing this.  It still doesn’t answer the question of why he’s so nasty to Rebecca and Soto.  The only thing I can think of is that it has to do with Tommy Madsen and he’s projecting his hatred of Tommy onto his granddaughter.  He may need Rebecca’s help, but he doesn’t like it.  And since he already tried to recruit her Uncle Ray years ago, it’s even more proof this has something major to do with Tommy.  I think the bug of his ass may have everything to do with the Madsen family and Rebecca is receiving the brunt of it.

What I haven’t been able to put my finger on yet is Dr Assface, I mean Beauregard.  He is also the same age as he was in ’63 and he’s also working with Hauser in 2012.  Yet, in the ’60s he and Sangupta clearly didn’t get along and didn’t believe in the other’s methods.  So why were they working together now?  Is he another person that was part of the experiment or involved with the Big Bads but jumped shipped for whatever reason?   Because he seems to have a very special ability of “fixing people.”

If you remember in my post about Cal Sweeney, I mentioned how when you looked in the ’63s room at the white boards, you saw that next to Sylvane, Cobb, and Sweeney’s names it said CAPTURED.  But next to Kit Nelson’s name (who was shot and presumably killed by Hauser) there was nothing.  It was blank.  But Hauser brought his body to Beauregard.  Why?  What can he do?  The same question applies to the last scene from this week’s episode.  Hauser steals Lucy’s body from the hospital after the doctor told him there was nothing more they could do for her and brings her body to Beauregard and shouts “FIX HER” to him and he lays her body on his table.  Fix her?  Fix her how?   What the hell can this man do?  Is he like Crowley the Cross-Road Demon that I can make a deal and bring her back?   What the fudge?  I want to know more.  I need to know more!!!!   Damn it FOX you better not cancel this show on me!!!!

Final Miscellaneous Thoughts

Why oh why do people continue to bring the awesome and gorgeous Mechad Brooks on my TV screen only to kill him off?  As soon as I saw Eggs from True Blood on my screen I knew he was going to die.  I though it was going to be at Windward Elementary school when he finished the sweep of the area announcing “there are no mines here” only to walk away and BOOM.  Well, right location, wrong time.  It happened later as he disarmed the bomb and announced “it’s all good everyone.”  Then, BOOM.

I hate to say this but they really need to start doing something with Soto soon.  Each week it’s the same thing. At the beginning of the show he announces who the inmate is after he hears the details of the crime.  He then relays the information about the criminal to Rebecca and then he basically falls of the radar screen for the rest of the episode.   That is until we get the obligatory shot of Soto grossed out at yet another crime scene.  Jorge Garcia deserves better than this.  They need to find a way to make him more useful to what is going on.  Right now, other than the initial intel he gives Rebecca at the start of the case (and magically knowing the air vent locations off the top of his head in the buildings of San Francisco) I’m not sure what other value he brings to the table.  One thing I would suggest (because I know the writers of the show are waiting with bated breath for my suggestions) is that Soto be in charge of interrogating the inmates and guards as they are captured.  No one knows Alcatraz better than Soto.  So who better to interview and cross-reference their stories, than an Alcatraz expert!  And I think we’re at the point that we need to start revisiting some of the captured inmates (which I think happens next week.)  But this should be Soto’s area.  With the show going a more procedural route…which I don’t think is wrong…Soto needs to change it up a bit.  Otherwise, it looks as if you cast Jorge Garcia as a ratings draw.  And again, he deserves better than that because he’s awesome!

I’m not going to lie, the ratings are starting to scare me.  Each week the show is losing copious viewers.  Here’s the problem.  One of the knocks on Lost was that it was so mythology based that if people came to watch Lost half way through the first season or started in season two, they were so out of loop and confused as to what was going on, they stopped watching.  Therefore, viewership was light, if not steady.  So with Alcatraz, JJ decided to make it more approachable by going a bit more procedural with the mythology thrown in.  That way, he can attract more everyday viewers without them feeling lost.  And as I’ve said, I like that the show clearly and simply states each week in the opening credits what the show is about.  So any new viewer will know what is going on (kind of…LOL!)  But by going this route, people hate it because it’s “boring” or “too procedural.”  I see on Twitter each week.  I guess you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.  But I wish people wouldn’t give up on this show or if they haven’t watched it yet, start to check it out because it gets stronger each week!

I think I’m going to wrap it up there for today.  I’m sure I missed a ton of stuff because I only got to watch the episode once and I’m on the road in Long Island for work so I won’t get to watch it again.  But these are my initial thoughts.

What did you think of Paxton Petty?  And are you happy with the direction of Alcatraz and it’s characters.  let me know!

 

RECAP & REVIEW: Alcatraz “Cal Sweeney” S1 E4

I’m sorry but I have to be a high school girl for a minute.   DAMN!!!   Those Alcatraz boys are HOT!!!  I may have to commit a crime to land in jail with those cuties.  Wow.  They may be heinous people committing awful crimes but they sure look incredible doing it!

Ok, now that the giddy16-year-old inside of me is out of my system, let’s break down the episode shall we?

Cal Sweeney is another terrific installment of Alcatraz.  And I think we got a peek behind the curtain (pardon the pun) at some of what may possibly be happening and who is involved.  I haven’t had a chance to re-watch the episode yet so I’m sure there are lots of things I missed but I’ll do the best I can.  As I mentioned to my boys at The Alcatraz Podcast last night on Twitter, it’s hard to live tweet and catch everything on the show.  You are bound to miss stuff!  But that’s ok, that’s why we are all on e big happy TV community and we can clue each other into the things we missed.

Recap

Cal Sweeney is hot.  Sorry.  I slipped.  Won’t happen again.  Cal Sweeney (played by Eric Johnson) is a bank robber.  He goes after tellers in their late 30′s, early 40s who are, as Detective Rebecca Madsen calls them, “average looks” and he seduces them to get into the Safe Deposit Box area of the bank.  He then drugs them, goes through the boxes to take what he needs, and leaves.  However, things will take a violent turn if he gets interrupted (or pissed off enough) and he will kill people with this nasty looking weapon that can not only opening gaping holes in your head and hands, but open safe deposit boxes as well!

Sweeney has patterns that make it pretty simple to track him down.  He always pawns his items and he always romances the tellers ahead of time and sends them flowers….giving Madsen and Soto lots of way to find him…which they do.   Sweeney, unfortunately for him, picks a teller who fights back and is able to sound the alarm before he knocks her out.  He gets trapped and he takes the entire bank hostage.   This worries Hauser significantly because he doesn’t want people finding out who Sweeney is and blowing their investigation (more on this later.)  Madsen breaks into the bank so she can break Sweeney out.  While fleeing the scene, with Soto and Hauser following them, Sweeney is not very grateful to Madsen and threatens to kill her if she doesn’t do what he says.  He realizes he isn’t wearing a seat belt, crashes the car and handcuffs him to the steering wheel.

Back in 1960, Sweeney is in charge of the laundry room as well all the contraband that is smuggled in.  In that sense, he has some power and makes some money.  He brings in a protegé named Harlan (played by Steven Grayhm) and starts explaining to him how his little business works and how you can never show any weakness for fear of someone taking over his little enterprise.

At one point, Tiller tosses Sweeney’s cell and Sweeney notices a small tin box is missing.  We eventually learn it’s the only remnant from his childhood and he wants it back…at any cost.  Tiller says he wants a piece of Sweeney’s business in order to get the tin back.  Sweeney declines.  He sets up a way to meet Tiller one on one, by being a waiter at his birthday dinner.   When Sweeney goes to confront Tiller, Tiller stabs him with a pen and tells him he now wants 50% of his business.  If he doesn’t give it to him, 60 days in the hole.  Sweeney is backed into a corner.  Back in his cell, he starts talking to his little protegé who is more like a little weasel.  Turns out Harlan was the one who stole his box and wanted him to think Tiller took it so he would get tossed in the hole and he would take over his business while Sweeney’s in solitary.  Unfortunately, Sweeney taught his new buddy a little too well.

At the end of the episode, we see the warden leading Harlan down a dark hallway to a huge door.  He unlocks the door and forces Harlan, who is quite frightened, inside telling him that his future looks very bright.

Review

Now comes the fun part!!!!  So what clues did we see last night and what happenings are making our eyebrows raise up ever so slightly.  Let’s break it down:

1. Soto’s Conversation with Madsen at the “Diner”
   Seriously, what the hell were they eating for breakfast?  Yuck.  While this may have seemed a very innocuous conversation, I’m wondering if it was.  Madsen asked him how a professor with two doctorates suddenly owns a comic book shop.  Soto tells her he only got the degrees to make his parents happy (he has a tricky relationship with them.)  However, he was blacklisted due to the fact that he published a major breakthrough in crime prevention theory for a national criminology publication.  He says he was blacklisted because it was about Gotham City.  But I think it’s more than that.  Was Soto on to something that could have unraveled what is going on behind the scenes at Alcatraz and not even know it?  I have to wonder why this specific conversation was brought to light.  Now could I be reading into this too much?  Sure.  But on shows like this, I have learned not to take any interaction at face value.  So for now, I have to think this was something more than just history on Soto.
2. Dr. Sangupta/Lucy’s Dinner Conversation with The Warden and Dr. Beauregard
   This was probably the most revealing of all the scenes last night.  Lucy was talking to condescending, ass-face Beauregard about dealing with the inmates and she suggested that she is formulating a study that revolves around the memories of the prisoners.  She believes that they becoming criminals due to traumatic memories from their past.  If she can remove those memories (“rewire” them so to speak), they would become less violent or not become criminals at all.That is quite interesting.  In the “previously on Alcatraz” segment of the show, we see Lucy in present day interviewing Sylvane (before Cobb shot her up) and asking him “Where have you been for the past 50 years?”  To which he responds “I have no idea.”  And when Madsen and Sweeney are in the car talking about the leather pouch he was after, he seemed very confused about why he was going after the leather pouch and who he was doing it for.So is that why Lucy was involved in this from the beginning?  Because she was working with the inmates on her experiment to remove certain memories?  If that’s true then one of two things may have happened…1. Her experiments were working and this unknown group of people behind all this had asked her to spin her experiment in a whole new direction or 2. Her experiments only partially worked but something went wrong or is missing and this is the result we have today.The inmates we have seen don’t seem to know what is going on or where they have been.  Are they frozen somewhere with Ted Williams’ head only being released when whomever is in charge needs them to do something for them..like kill people or steal keys?  And I can’t imagine these people are happy when their cronies fail.  Sylvane didn’t technically fail but he did get captured.  Sweeney failed because the key ended up in the hands of Hauser and his team and he got captured.  Unless, Hauser IS the group in question and we just don’t know it yet!  I don’t believe this to be the case.  I think there is another faction out there.   There is just so much going on, it’s hard to know who’s on the good side and the bad side.

   The other thing I noticed is that it seems these “memory methods” are having the opposite effect of what Lucy/Sangupta intended.  The criminals seem to be becoming more violent.  Sylvane was not a killer yet he turned into one.  Same with Sweeney.  He only robbed banks.  Now he’s using some nasty weapon and killing people left and right.  So what is happening?

3. “How the Prisoner’s Jumped”
   Jumped?  What the hell does that mean?  Hauser made this comment when they were looking at the keys secured by Sylvane and Sweeney.     If he’s talking about the prisoners “jumping” doesn’t that say time travel to you guys?  I also think time travel could be involved because of the keys.  Since we’re talking about the keys..
4. The Keys that were found by Sylvane and Sweeney
   Both Sylvane and Sweeney were tasked to find these funky looking keys for the mystery group.  I really need to figure out something to call them.  Turns out, Hauser has a whole tech team on stand by waiting for his direction and he instructs them to investigate these keys.  Upon further review, it seems these keys were cut using a laser that wasn’t available in the 1960s.  So if they weren’t available in the ’60s, when were they available and when were they made?This is another reason why I think time travel could be an element of the show.  When you look at the last scene where the Warden leads Hayden to what certainly looks like a door to hell, he uses the two keys to open a hidden compartment that had a third lock for another key.  So it appears the keys were USED in 1960 even though they may not have been MADE in 1960.
5. Kit Nelson’s name on the wall in the room of 63s
   This wasn’t a huge revelation as much as a “isn’t that interesting” kind of revelation.  Although who knows, maybe it will become a big deal.  Did you notice the two walls in the 63s room?  One wall had all the inmates yet to be discovered and captured and the other had the four men we have already encountered.Under Sylvane, Cobb, and Sweeney’s mug shots and next to their names, the same word appeared…CAPTURED.  Do you know what was under Kit Nelson’s mug shot and next to his name?  Come on, take a guess?  I won’t laugh.  Well maybe a little.  You give up?  It said…..nothing.  Shouldn’t it have said DECEASED or KILLED next to his name?   I found it interesting that there was nothing.Now as I said, this could mean absolutely nothing.   But shows like this usually don’t have oversights like that…unless it’s on purpose.   So are we to assume that Mr Nelson isn’t dead but refrozen with next year’s Thanksgiving turkey?  I’m not sure.  But I will certainly keep it in the back of my mind.
6. Rebecca needs to be more forceful with Hauser
   Remember how I said last week that I was so happy Sarah Jones took major steps forward in her character?  Yeah well, I’m disappointed with her again.  Here’s what is driving me crazy.  She is way too blaze about what is happening.  When she had the key and wouldn’t give it to Hauser, he threatened her.  She said she would give it back if he told her what it was for.  Then stupid Madsen gave him the key before she got the explanation.  Rebecca!!!  You have the upper hand.  You have something he wants.  Don’t give it to him until you get what you want!!!   Are you kidding me?   And then when he walks away and tells her “some other day” she should have jumped out of her skin.  Instead she just shrugged her shoulders at Soto.   WHAT!!!!  I would have followed Hauser and had a little come to Jesus talk with him (but first I would have never given him the key without giving me the information I wanted.)In all seriousness, it’s going to be very hard to buy Madsen as one of the best detectives in San Fran if she keeps acting this way.  She has to start pushing back.  She has to tell him that she is risking her life each time she gets involved and if he wants her help, he needs to include her more in what’s going on or he’s on his own.  I know she has her own reasons for doing this, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of her pride.   So she needs to toughen up and fast!

So that wraps up this week’s episode of Alcatraz.  As you can see, there is A LOT that came out.  What did you think?  Did you like “Cal Sweeney”?  What are your thoughts on the issues I raised and was there anything you saw that missed?  Let me know!