Here's a quick look at some TV shows I've been watching.
Alcatraz
Alcatraz is the latest TV show from J. J. Abrams’ Bad Robot production company. Their previous shows include Lost, Alias and Fringe. The idea for Alcatraz is fine. Prisoners who were interred in the famous prison have mysteriously been brought forward to the present day. A San Francisco cop works with a comic shop owner/Alcatraz expert and a federal agent to figure out what’s going on. Unfortunately, the first several episodes have been long on boring police procedural formulas and short on moving the ongoing plot forward. We’ve gotten small glimpses of the big picture but the show needs to give a lot more if it wants to avoid cancellation.
Grade: C+
The River
Some of the folks behind the hit movie Paranormal Activity bring their brand of “found footage” horror to the small screen in The River. A world famous explorer has disappeared in the Amazon and his family and crew document their efforts to find him. Things get spooky really fast as the crew encounters ghosts and other unexplained phenomena. The first few episodes have been a mixture of genuine creepiness and unintentional laughs. Horror movies work best when they take their time, building suspense and unease until the truly scary stuff happens. In The River, things get crazy almost from the beginning. I had a hard time believing how quickly everyone accepted the idea of ghosts. Still, the premise is intriguing and I’m curious to see what happens in the remaining episodes.
Grade: B-
Downton Abbey
This incredibly popular show follows the class divisions between the servants and wealthy nobility in an English house in the the early 20th century. This has been done before in the series “Upstairs, Downstairs” (which I have never seen) and the movie Gosford Park (written by the same guy who writes Downton). The whole thing is awfully melodramatic. Plot points are telegraphed a mile away and the characters seem to be limited to a few types (nice person, mean person, sympathetic person, etc.). This would be a major concern if it weren’t for several mitigating factors. First, the show is extremely engaging and watchable. The acting is excellent. Most important of all, everyone speaks in a British accent.
Like Mad Men, Downton is intriguing in the way it presents a time period that seems foreign to us. It’s fascinating to see how people behave in ways that seem strange to us but were completely normal to them. You can’t help but wonder how you would behave if you lived back then. I’ve got two more episodes left in the first season and I’m pretty sure I’ll watch the second.
Grade: B+
