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"There&amp;#039;s more than a bit of buzz surrounding Fox&amp;#039;s upcoming sci-fi series Alcatraz - perhaps not surprising given the pedigree of those involved. JJ Abrams serves as producer, while the cast boasts such cult favourites as Jurassic Park legend Sam Neill and Lost&amp;#039;s Jorge Garcia.  But anyone expecting the next Lost might be disappointed by Alcatraz - with its eccentric scientists, government agents and icy blonde female lead, the show more closely resembles that previous Fox/Abrams collaboration Fringe. Tube Talk recently got a sneak preview of the Alcatraz pilot, so here&amp;#039;s our thoughts on what we saw... WHAT WORKS... The Premise - Alcatraz has a strong premise that is effectively set-up in the pilot episode: the entirety of the island prison&amp;#039;s inmate population vanished decades ago without explanation, but now, one by one, the prisoners are coming back, without having aged a day. It&amp;#039;s a simple idea but one that allows for both a &amp;#039;villain of the week&amp;#039; procedural element and a developing series mythology. The Prisoner - The Nine star Jeffrey Piece plays the first ageless Alcatraz inmate, Jack Sylvane, and succeeds in engendering audience sympathy as his small-time criminal struggles to cope with the modern world and the losses he&amp;#039;s suffered in his time &amp;#039;away&amp;#039;. Going down the &amp;#039;crook with a heart&amp;#039; route works well in this pilot, though it&amp;#039;s probably not a path that the show should take every week - we&amp;#039;d love to see our heroes come up against a real nasty piece of work next time!  The Scientist and the Spy - Jorge Garcia is very much on form in the Alcatraz pilot, and provides some much-needed humour. OK, so his character Dr Diego Soto is basically just Lost&amp;#039;s Hurley in a lab coat, but Garcia is nevertheless a charismatic presence. Sam Neill is also fun in the somewhat limited role of shady government agent Emerson Hauser. He doesn&amp;#039;t get a lot to do in the pilot, but there&amp;#039;s a twist at the end of this opening instalment that suggests there&amp;#039;s more in store for this character. Plus, Sam Neill gets to head-butt someone, and if that doesn&amp;#039;t get you excited, we don&amp;#039;t know what will. WHAT DOESN&amp;#039;T... The Villain - It seems that the intention in this pilot is to set up Alcatraz prison warden EB Tiller as the show&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;big bad&amp;#039; - a tyrannical authority figure who may be even worse than the criminals he mistreats. However, if that&amp;#039;s the case, then the character is nowhere near sinister or menacing enough. It&amp;#039;s not the fault of actor Jason Butler Harner, who&amp;#039;s perfectly fine, but a flaw in the script - Tiller is never quite detestable enough. He&amp;#039;s certainly a far cry from The Shawshank Redemption&amp;#039;s Captain Hadley (Clancy Brown) - still the king of terrifying prison guards.  The Hero -  Unfortunately, of the three lead performances, it&amp;#039;s Sarah Jones as cop Rebecca Madsen who&amp;#039;s the weakest. It&amp;#039;s possible that Sons of Anarchy actress Jones is simply struggling with a flatly-written role. To draw that Fringe comparison once again, let&amp;#039;s not forget how viewers judged Anna Torv early on, only to marvel at her talent and range once she was actually given something interesting to do. We hope that the same is true of Jones, but as it stands, Madsen comes across as a rather dreary character. FINAL THOUGHTS So should you give Alcatraz a chance? Overall, yes, the show gets our vote. Going on the evidence of the pilot, the series is slick, silly fun. Our chief criticism of this first episode though is that it&amp;#039;s a little too formulaic and predictable. It remains to be seen whether Alcatraz will break out and develop an ongoing mythology strong enough to draw in viewers, or if the show will fall back on the reliable procedural format. Personally, we&amp;#039;re hoping for the former - Alcatraz may not be the next Lost, but with a few tweaks, it could easily become as compelling. Alcatraz debuts on Fox in early 2012. Watch a trailer for the series below:      Are you hyped for Alcatraz? Let us know below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/alcatraz/news/a334322/alcatraz-first-look-at-foxs-new-sci-fi-drama/>