J.J. Abrams' 'Alcatraz' axed

[Red-Mile-DJ]

http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2012/05/10/19740556-wenn-story.html

What a piss-off! I was really getting into this show. I have officially given up on TV. I'm so tired of shows I enjoy getting canceled. I'll just stick to my on-demand and NetFlix stuff.

[HotHotHeat]

The only reason things get to Netflix is because theyve been a success on TV networks.

[TurnedTheCorner]

It was an interesting show and I enjoyed it. It's too bad it never found an audience. I think the reveals and mythology could have been very cool.

[OilKiller]

Watched two episodes and then took it off the PVR series' list. I imagine many people did and that's why it's gone. Just never really liked it.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

I watched a couple of episodes and it didn't really develop anything other than old criminals come back and do bad stuff until fat guy and hot girl arrest them. There wasn't anything of interest about the characters or the overall story arch. Plus mid-season replacements never really do that great anyway.

[getbak]

It was an interesting show and I enjoyed it. It's too bad it never found an audience. I think the reveals and mythology could have been very cool.
It had an audience and lost it. Almost 10 million people watched its premiere, but less than half of that number watched the finale.

[Parallex]

Meh, It's own fault really. It had enough star power and advance buzz to succeed but there was to much show and not enough tell. I dunno, I watched the show but something always felt "off" about it... I think it was that the returnee's always seemed stiff and artificial to me. I never bought that these were guys from thrust into the present from the past. They never seemed to display any culture shock or other features that made them different from you or I.

I'm more bummed that The River is getting axed.

[Red-Mile-DJ]

Meh, It's own fault really. It had enough star power and advance buzz to succeed but there was to much show and not enough tell. I dunno, I watched the show but something always felt "off" about it... I think it was that the returnee's always seemed stiff and artificial to me. I never bought that these were guys from thrust into the present from the past. They never seemed to display any culture shock or other features that made them different from you or I.

I'm more bummed that The River is getting axed.

I was hoping the show would expand on that.

I had a lot of questions I was hoping would be answered:

1. Why where they taking all that blood?
2. Are they clones of actually coming back from a time-shift?
3. Why doesn't the chick have more scenes where she's running? :w00t:
4. What's with the gold?
5. Will the big guy ever lose some weight?

...stuff like that.

[Yamer]

The only reason things get to Netflix is because theyve been a success on TV networks.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/05/Tick_poster.jpg/200px-Tick_poster.jpg

[GGG]

I think the big problem with alcatraz is that it still bogged itself down in having a singular plot in each episode rather than just focus on the over arching plot.

I really liked the over arching plot but the episodes were just police procederals. This year you had

Person of Interest
Alcatraz
Awake

Really the episode to episode plots are just catch the criminal but its the over arching plots that hook me. Cable is allowed to do true season long plots without the episode crap holding it back. Im glad at least person of interest was kept going.

[Stillman16]

I was hoping the show would expand on that.

I had a lot of questions I was hoping would be answered:

1. Why where they taking all that blood?
2. Are they clones of actually coming back from a time-shift?
3. Why doesn't the chick have more scenes where she's running? :w00t:
4. What's with the gold?
5. Will the big guy ever lose some weight?

...stuff like that.

The blood they were testing to see if it had the silver in it (healing properties-according to the show), and then if it was a match to the doctor (to heal her)

[Red-Mile-DJ]

The blood they were testing to see if it had the silver in it (healing properties-according to the show), and then if it was a match to the doctor (to heal her)

No, no, no. I'm talking about in the past. They took a lot of blood from Madison's grandfather, when he was an in-mate in Alcatraz.

But whatever...we'll never know now. :confused:

[Azure]

Show was dumb to begin with. Seemed like they just put together a bunch of ridiculous story lines and tried to make something out of it.

I watched half of the 1st episode and never bothered with the rest.

[TurnedTheCorner]

I think the big problem with alcatraz is that it still bogged itself down in having a singular plot in each episode rather than just focus on the over arching plot.

I really liked the over arching plot but the episodes were just police procederals. This year you had

Person of Interest
Alcatraz
Awake

Really the episode to episode plots are just catch the criminal but its the over arching plots that hook me. Cable is allowed to do true season long plots without the episode crap holding it back. Im glad at least person of interest was kept going.
Agreed about the lack of progress/urgency in moving the over arching plot forward. The entire show seemed like it was cooked up as an exercise to devise a finite, multi-season story (one episode per inmate, genius!) without actually *having* a multi-season story. I think the writing was already on the wall for the show before things started moving on the overall story in the last couple of episodes.

[getbak]

The best part of the show was the virtual shot-for-shot remake of the car chase from Bullitt in the finale (including the repeated appearance of the same green VW Beetle).

hh4dyerK9Wo

[To Be Quite Honest]

I didn't enjoy the show at all. After watching 3 episodes I knew it would get canned. While I usually wait a few more to judge I didn't think this one would right itself. It had good elements for mystery and storytelling but it was missing the hook. After so many great shows on TV this one was falling short.

I wonder how much the networks changed the original story-arch in this. Joss Whedon vowed never to work with network TV anymore because they ruined his last two shows... Networks love the episodic style series... :poo:

[GGG]

I wonder how much the networks changed the original story-arch in this. Joss Whedon vowed never to work with network TV anymore because they ruined his last two shows... Networks love the episodic style series... :poo:

I think that networks are missing the boat here as with the advent of PVR's, VOD, and internet downloads the penalty for missing an episode isn't there anymore. Back in the VCR day if it failed to tape because you forgot to turn the power off (Stupidest design ever) there was no way you could ever watch that episode before the next one. So if it was a continuous plot you would have to just miss the episode and try to catch up.

Now that you have options to catch up even if you miss the first 6 episodes so it should make these shows more attactive to networks. Instead after the 'Lost' boom of these type of shows they have focused on going back to more episodic versions.

[llama64]

Ahh Alcatraz, yet another TV cop drama in which a female officer REQUIRES the help of a man to actually do her job.

And this one doesn't even have the charm and awesomeness of Nathan Fillion to make up for it. Not surprised this show was cancelled, it was terrible.