Grade: D+
One glaring flaw of
Alcatraz is probably its marketing. When I say this I do not mean their initial marketing, of which was pretty great, but its continued marketing since the series inception. Each week leading up to a new episode the team behind the trailers & previews decide to drop the little gem they love so well which is declaring that ‘inmate of the week’ as the most dangerous on the rock. There is no doubt that the prisoners that are coming back are dangerous like this weeks Johnny McKee who like to use chemistry to his advantage. The problem that
Alcatraz is putting on itself is that unless we are weekly ranking up in prisoner evilness, which I think we are not as I still see Ernest Cobb as the worst, then they need to either give us a scale or stop the senseless promos altogether. That being said,
”Johnny McKee” has by far brought the most uninteresting story yet & with little reveal it is hard seeing
Alcatraz sticking around for much longer.
The episode starts off in a night club with McKee behind the bar & after some rude customers he decides to give them an extra special drink laced with nightshade. This public poisoning ends up being caught on some cellphones & goes viral. This gives reason to let Emerson flex a bit & show how powerful his division is with one call all the videos go down. As the team learns that it is McKee who is back it becomes a manhunt to try & capture him while looking back at his personal effects while on the island. This even causes Rebecca to bring in Sylvane for questioning which in the end turns into questions about her ‘father’ Tommy Madsen. Of course it is quickly broken up because Emerson doesn’t want her questioning Sylvane about that. This ends up being the only real hint in this episode about what the mystery of the rock & the returns are. Outside of that all we see is escalation by McKee & some backstory about him.
Of course it’s great to see McKee escalate & in the end be captured but that is what the whole episode becomes. Outside of a quick appearance by Sylvane there is no added info. When the ridiculous premise of
Alcatraz was accepted in the first episode there needed to be a goal to reveal or add to the mystery of the rock. The series instead has delved into a ‘villain of the week’ procedural with little context towards anything else. With expectations high on the premise & the attachment of JJ Abrams as an executive producer it is somewhat sad to see a promising series go so stagnant. The fear of having any reverences towards
LOST also seem to be holding it back. If
Alcatraz tried half as hard to add to its mystery & develop & give gravitas to its characters as it did as setting up its dominos there would be no doubt this would be a hit.
