Alcatraz ‘Johnny McKee’ Review + “Clarence Montgomery’ Preview!

Even though the last episode of Alcatraz aired on Monday I haven’t gotten round to writing a review yet, mainly because the episode was kind-off boring. It was so far the worst episode in the series and it was a definite step down from last weeks excellent episode. That said, ‘Johnny McKee’ has its moments. Strangely enough the moments of brilliance are closely related with the moments when I just stopped caring.

I’ll give an example; the main antagonist Johnny McKee is like almost all previous inmates a serious OCD candidate, he is brilliant but flawed, choosing to see the world in a strange black and white that he himself has helped creating. After his character has been established we see him go on a killing spree that not only contradicts with what Doctor Sangupta has tried to do for him but they also disagree with his raison d’etre (reason of existence) and that is to take revenge for a woman who has scorned him. Later on it is revealed that he was the one who had burned the woman with acid and that his revenge spree is thus pointless as he is punishing the wrong people. This contradiction makes this episode rather boring as it feels pointless.

Meanwhile some scenes between Nikki and Soto are great and the scenes set in 1963 are as always just fantastic. That Alcatraz has landed in troubled waters with ratings below 6 million has been on the internet for a few weeks, and it is too late to make alterations to season 1 as they are already filming the last episode so we just have to hope that the rest of the seasons episode are better and at least try to fix some of Alcatraz’s chronic problems.

Chronic Problem #1; how to mix a studio’s desire for a formalistic/procedural mystery show with a story that really requires episodes that are asymmetric (like lost)

Score; 7 / 10.

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Now that we have talked about Johnny McKee we can at least pretend to be optimists and take a look at Clarence Montgomery which will air next Monday.

Here is the trailer…

Here is the press release..

Clarence Montgomery (guest star Mahershala Ali), the only innocent man in Alcatraz, returns to present day, but is now committing crimes. Why? Find out in the all-new “Clarence Montgomery” episode of ALCATRAZ airing Monday, Feb. 27 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (ALC 1.08) (TV-14 L, V).

And here we have some stills…