alcatraz

I finally caught the first 3 episodes of Alcatraz on Fox.  I have to say that it is interesting and written well enough to be a wee bit engaging.  Even with its flaws.

Alcatraz on Fox

TV Review:

Alcatraz comes to us from Elizabeth Sarnoff (Lost, Deadwood), Steven Lilien (Kyle XY), Bryan Wynbrandt (Kyle XY) and is executive produced by J.J. Abrams.

The cast includes Sarah Jones (Sons of Anarchy), Jorge Garcia (Lost), Jonny Coyne, Parminder Nagra (ER) & Sam Neill.

The premise of Alcatraz is that back on March 20th, 1963, everyone on the island disappeared.  Now, here in 2012, the folks who disappeared seem to be returning.  And that’s not good.

The interesting thing is that there’s an organization that has already been set up and expecting the inmates to be returning.  Their advanced office of equipment is set up under the prison and is run by Emerson Hauser (Neill).  Lucy Banerjee (Nagra) is his partner and Jones plays detective Madsen who gets herself recruited to their team.  She tags a comic book writer to help her, who also happens to be an expert on Alcatraz history (Garcia).

So each case of the week has them hunting down the newest perp who has reappeared and doing what they do best, is evil stuff.  We watch the perp do his deed here in the present, but we also get flashbacks to their lives back in the 60′s.  It’s some filler, background material giving us their motivation, if there’s motivation to be understood.

PhotobucketHere’s the gang at Comic-Con 2011, meeting, greeting and signing things fans brought by…

And once they do catch their man, Hauser transports them to a new version of Alcatraz, somewhere off in the woods.  This is where they’re putting all the inmates they reclaim.

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Alcatraz on Fox

I just heard on my local TV news program that Fox’s new hit show, Alcatraz, is starting to cause a stir at the real Alcatraz, here in the Bay Area.

Now even though I have yet to watch the new TV series season premiere of Alcatraz, I’m already writing about it, and I guess, to some degree, I’ve just been spoiled!  Do’h!  The show is from J.J. Abrams, and starring Sam Neill, Sarah Jones and Jorge Garcia, the series is about time-displaced crooks that disappeared way back when, and are now starting to mysteriously reappear today.

And for some reason, folks are thinking the real prison has clues and secret rooms for them to find, in relation to the TV series.

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Comic Con Personalities

When you hit up Comic Con, obviously you can see the panels and the stars from the various TV shows and movies.  But when you cruise the floor of the convention, you come across different scheduled events where the different studios hold autograph and appearance sessions.

"Comic Con" News

My time on the floor was limited throughout the weekend (Yes, despite the several hundred images that might belie otherwise!) but I did come across a few events and even was invited into one of them…

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Manu Bennet and Liam McIntyre from Spartacus

So there was an event being held on the floor for the upcoming Starz program, Spartacus: Vengeance.  I was trying to get pictures of the cast while they were posing with fans but the line seemed to explode into an uncontrolled mass of humanity.  The crowd wrangler got a little flustered when she couldn’t get folks in with the cast and asked me, since I was sort of standing in the right spot, if I wanted a pic with the cast.  Hmm… let me think about that for a moment!

Manu Bennet and Liam McIntyre from Spartacus

Manu Bennet, Liam McIntyre & Bruce Simmons

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"Comic Con" News logo

-Comic Con released their schedule for Saturday, July 23rd for their 2011 Comic-Con event in San Diego.

Saturday seems lite on movies and heavy on TV with a few focused panels on some fan-focused personalities like Robert Kirkman, J. Michael Straczynski, Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon.

Movies making appearances in panels include TWIXT, Immortals, Knights of Badassdom & Snow White and the Huntsmen.  TV shows include Chuck, Terra Nova, The Vampire Diaries, Fringe, Alcatraz, Being Human, Sanctuary and more.

Check out first, Ballroom 20‘s schedule, followed by Hall H‘s schedule and after that, a selective list of events from other rooms and locations.  This is NOT a comprehensive listing of everything… so be sure to check out the Comic Con website for more and updated details.

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Ballroom 20

  • 10:00-10:45 Chuck Screening and Q&A
  • 11:00-12:00 Terra Nova
  • 12:15-1:00 Futurama
  • 1:00-1:45 The Simpsons
  • 2:00-2:35 Family Guy
  • 2:35-3:15 American Dad
  • 3:30-4:15 The Vampire Diaries Screening and Q&A
  • 4:30-5:15 Fringe Screening and Q&A
  • 5:15-6:00 Alcatraz Pilot Screening and Q&A
  • 8:30-11:30 HBO’s True Blood Presents the Comic-Con International Masquerade

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Hall H

  • 11:45-12:45 TWIXT: Francis Ford Coppola and Dan Deacon
  • 1:00-2:00 Relativity Media: Immortals
  • 2:15-3:15 Knights of Badassdom
  • 3:30-4:15 Universal Pictures: Snow White and the Huntsmen
  • 4:30-5:30 Further over the Rainbow: A First Look at Dorothy of Oz
  • 5:45-7:30 An Early Evening with Kevin Smith

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What fireworks are taking place Monday, July 4th, 2011?  I found a quick and great reference for the evening’s event…

We have the Alcatraz show & Pier 39 shows in San Francisco.  The USS Hornet Museum will also be lighting up the sky.

In Santa Clara County, America’s Great America will be having their fireworks show and there will also be shows in Gilroy, Mipitas and San Jose Municipal Stadium.

There will also be a fireworks show in Mountain View at the Shoreline Ampitheatre.

For more shows and events in and around the Bay Area, check out the ABC7News webpage for 2011 Fireworks shows.

Consumer Bits - Consumer news, information and opinion

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Super 8 from J J Abrams

In a predicted outcome that doesn’t surprise me, Super 8 is being estimated for pulling in $37M in movie theaters this weekend, its opening domestic weekend.  Adding its overseas numbers, it’s looking at a $44 million weekend.  I’m not surprised at these numbers.  We’ve seen a huge viral campaign that J.J. Abrams is famous for, that started with a single camera lens image that then became embedded with clue images.  A viral campaign that engaged many fans into discovering subtle origins information.

We’ve seen many new Super 8 videos pile in on the internet to help engage more viewers with more origins or background material.  I’ve been hiding from these “unlocked” videos, but now I can go check them out.

We also can’t discredit how the movie looked from the movie trailers and clips…   obviously there’s something in the train that wrecks.  Obviously there’s a reason that the truck did what it did.  And that there was a familiar feeling with the core set of characters being kids dealing with an adult scenario.  We’ve been teased and we are curious.

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Fox NetworkFox’s 2011 / 2012 fall TV season has some competitive shows in the line-up.  That despite they’re cancelling one of my favorite shows on me, Human Target.  But that’s how the cookie tends to crumble.  Sometimes the crumbs fall in the milk, sometimes the dog gets them off the floor!  Onward.

The 2011 /2012 TV season for Fox has some staples in the line-up like House, Glee, Bones, Fringe, American Idol & their venerable Sunday night fare of animation!  But there are also some new shows coming at us… like Terra Nova, Alcatraz & The Finder.

Check out the list for the upcoming 2011 fall TV season:

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Today it was found out that Fox has put the nail in the coffin of a few shows that folks were interested in, making room for other new pilots and such for the upcoming 2011/2012 TV season!

We’ve already noted that Human Target, Breaking In and The Chicago Code were all cancelled by Fox.  Now we can add Lie To Me to that list of dumped shows, and Traffic Light, if you watched that.

Shows that Fox has picked up to add to its slate of entertainment includes Alcatraz, Finder, New Girl & I Hate My Teenage Daughter.

About Alcatraz

Alcatraz is a Bad Robot (J.J. Abrams) production that will include stars Sam Neill, Jorge Garcia, Nagra Parminder & Stargate alumni Paul McGillion.

The show is about a team of FBI agents as they try to figure out the mystery behind a group of Alcatraz prisoners and guards who suddenly appear in present day, after having gone missing 30 years prior.

Other cast includes Jason Butler Harner, Jonny Coyne, Robert Forster, Santiago Cabrera and Sarah Jones.

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