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'Alcatraz' brings bad, bad men from the past into the present By Kate O'Hare © Zap2it When people muse upon the idea of meeting people from the past, it's often some- one along the lines of Elvis, Martin Luther King, Babe Ruth, maybe Abraham Lin- coln or even Joan of Arc or Socrates. In the new series "Alca- traz," premiering Monday, Jan. 16, on Fox, a whole bunch of folks pop through from the past into the present, but they aren't singers, sluggers, emancipators or philoso- phers. But if you need a pocket picked, a safe blown up, a throat slit or a bank robbed, they might be the guys for you. Under the creative leader- ship of executive producer J.J. Abrams, "Alcatraz" focus- es on the former prison, set on an island in San Francisco Bay, that was home to some of the most notorious crimi- nals in American history until it was shut down in 1963. According to history, the inmates were evacuated and moved elsewhere. But in the world of the show, that "elsewhere" apparently lay somewhere beyond space and time. When SFPD Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) is assigned to a nasty homicide, a fingerprint leads her to Jack Sylvane (Jeffrey Pierce), a former Alcatraz inmate who supposedly died decades before. Since both her grandfa- ther and surrogate uncle, Ray Archer (Robert Forster), were guards at the prison, "Alcatraz" premieres Monday on Fox. Madsen digs into the case, only to have an enigmatic government agent, Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill), try to get in her way. She turns to Alca- traz expert and comic-book enthusiast Dr. Diego "Doc" Soto (Jorge Garcia, "Lost") to piece together the crime. To her shock, she discov- ers that Sylvane is not only not dead, but he doesn't seem to have aged a day since Alcatraz shut down. And he's not the only for- mer inmate hitting the streets of San Francisco with a new lease on life and an appetite for mayhem. Also starring are Jonny Coyne, Jason Butler Harner, Parminder Nagra and San- tiago Cabrera. Late on a Friday night, fresh from the writers room, where they were busy work- ing on the story - or "breaking the story," as they call it - for Episode 10, show-runners Jennifer Johnson and Dan Pyne find themselves in an interesting balancing act. "We continue," says Pyne, "as you do on any show, you find more of the things you love about it, and the balance of the thriller cop show with the mystical short story of the past, and the way those two things provide counterpoint to each other. I think we're get- ting better and better at it." A task force is formed to get to the bottom of the strange occurrences, and Madsen and Soto form a sort of oddball Starsky and Hutch - although Johnson and Pyne describe it in rather more confectionary terms. "We talk about chocolate O Express Inspection just il Change Plus a FREE Prices vary by model. Plus tax & fees. Coupon must be presented at write up and cannot be combined with other offers. Expires 2/29/12. Plus ask about our free computerized body repair estimate! JUST CALL 574-389-2630 $2995 . and peanut butter here a lot," Johnson says. "The two of them together are able to do what neither of them could do on their own. She's got incredible detective skills, and he's got a vast knowledge of Alcatraz. Both of them are driven to be on the task force for different reasons. "By the end of the first episode, she's chosen this partner. The two of them are kind of underdogs, because Hauser doesn't really want Rebecca there either, be- cause she's too young and impetuous. "A lot of the story is about Rebecca and Doc, these two underdogs, working as partners to do the impos- sible, which is catch ghosts. Because these 63s - as we call the prisoners who died in 1963 - basically don't exist. "Unlike modern criminals, who have credit cards, they don't have any ties to 2012 San Francisco." Meanwhile, Doc - who's a highly educated academic - is having the adventure of his life. "Doc has a unique perspec- tive on this," says Pyne, "be- cause, as a comic-book guy, he's seen a comic-book world come to life. He's got such a weird perspective on it, be- cause it's such an impossible scenario, and yet, here it is." But for those who have seen such complex J.J. Abrams shows as "Alias" and "Lost," which practically required notes, a folding map and an abacus, Johnson and Pyne swear "Alcatraz" will be accessible to folks who just want to watch, and not study, their TV shows. "At the heart of this show is a procedural," says John- son, "and that's the side of the story we break first in the writers room. It's where the viewer can come into every episode and know that at the heart of the story is a proce- dural about an inmate who's returned. Then the mythology will be built in largely for the loyal viewer. "If you haven't seen every episode, you may not even pick up on the details that we're planning, but if you do, you will." "Hopefully, we'll tell such a compelling story," says Pyne, "that you could watch every other week and still completely understand what's going on." 2 The Goshen News • Viewer's Choice • Saturday, January 14 - Friday, January 20, 2012 Catch the Craze & Save! Save on Rentals • Breakfast Get Free Glass Cleaner Save on a Quilt Find these great savings plus more on Coupon Craze! In The Goshen News every Monday, Online everyday! Nobody covers your hometown better 114 S. Main St., Goshen 574-533-2151 www.goshennews.com Employment Ad Today! Over 3,500 resumes are posted on monster.com in The Goshen News readership areas. 574-533-2151 ext. 398 goshennews.com / Place Your Nobody Knows Our Hometown Better!

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