Alcatraz continues its first season with tonight’s fifth episode “Guy Hastings,” as Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones), Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) and Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) race against time to find a former Alcatraz prison guard (True Blood's Jim Parrack) with ties to Rebecca's grandfather and her still-living foster father Ray Archer (Robert Forster).

If you didn't get a chance to check it out for yourself, read on for our Alcatraz recap of "Guy Hastings”!

In 2012 Alcatraz, Guy Hastings overlooks the dilapidated state of his former apartment, ripping off a hidden panel to find photos of his family from the past.  When a current Alcatraz guard finds him trespassing, Guy knocks him unconscious, takes a gun from the same compartment, and stops to observe his daughter’s height markings etched into the wall.  Flashing back to the 60’s, he watches his wife awake in the same room, and plays with his daughter before heading off to work in the rain to train new prison guards, one of whom is the man we’ve come to know as Ray Archer.

Back in the present, Ray shares dumplings with Rebecca Madsen, who asks if Ray really thinks her grandfather Tommy killed her grandmother.  Ray confesses that he didn’t at first, but does now, before a call takes Rebecca to the scene of the beaten guard on Alcatraz.  They reason that if Guy Hastings, a guard rather than an inmate could attack someone violently, he must have been put up to it.  Meanwhile, Ray goes back to his bar while Guy looks on across the street.

History records that Guy Hastings died in a chemical spill in 1963, but while investigating the apartment, they find blood on a side that leads them to the hidden wall panel, empty save for a few clips.  They think it’s likely that Guy will reach out to his still-living daughter Annie, so Diego and Madsen visit her under the pretense of writing an Alcatraz book.  She doesn’t offer much beyond fond memories of her father, but does have a box of old memorabilia.  Back in 1960 Guy leads a young Ray Archer on his first tour through the Alcatraz cafeteria when Ray spots Tommy Madsen (David Hoflin), who immediately lashes out and gets in a violent brawl with the new guard, Tommy quietly hissing “you shouldn’t have come here!”  Back in the present, Guy holds a gun to Ray outside his bar before knocking him out.

In the 60’s Alcatraz infirmary Dr. Beauregard tends to Ray’s head wound, when Wardens Tiller and James arrive demanding an explanation for the incident.  Tiller seems suspicious that Tommy immediately attacked Archer, suggesting a connection and possible breakout attempt, but Guy assures him that he’ll vouch for Ray.  In the present Diego finds a photo of Ray with Tommy Madsen, as his employee calls Rebecca to inform her of Ray’s disappearance.  Ray wakes up to find Guy going through his home looking for evidence of Tommy, and demanding to know his location.  Guy remains certain that Tommy must be somewhere in the present as well, and demands Ray take him to Tommy’s son instead.

After learning that Guy had been seen earlier across the street from the bar, Rebecca, Diego and Hauser visit Ray’s apartment to find it trashed, and his prize watch left behind.  They put together that whoever set the Alcatraz inmates on the lose must be disconnected from and searching for Tommy Madsen, though Hauser remains uncertain why.  Back in the past, Ray swears to Guy that he has no relationship to Tommy Madsen, but Guy informs him that if he is to work at Alcatraz, he should prove his loyalty by attacking Tommy in front of the same inmates who saw his head split open by the man earlier.

In the Alcatraz base Hauser meets with his private team to theorize what could be causing these events, while Diego and Rebecca  recognizes a house from an old photo, and enlists Diego and his computer skills to identify the location, believing Ray and Tommy might have grown up near one another.  Across town, Ray takes Guy to the gravesite of Tommy’s son Van, along with his wife.  Guy says that he was instructed to look for Tommy because of “what they told me, what you saw they were doing to him,” but Ray points out he left some weeks before the disappearances to raise the family Tommy Madsen left behind.  When Guy threatens Rebecca, Ray relents and offers to take Guy to Tommy.

The Alcatraz team manages to figure out from old records that Tommy and Ray were in fact brothers, making Ray Rebecca’s biological uncle, while back in the past the guards arrange for Ray to beat up Tommy in a public display.  As Rebecca and Diego race to the scene, Ray and Guy enter the old home of Tommy Madsen, finding him not there at the moment.  Ray asks Guy where he’s been all these years, but Guy only remembers being knocked out one night on duty, being told his family died in a chemical spill, and spending weeks in the infirmary before suddenly “it wasn’t 1963 anymore.”

Rebecca arrives on the scene, but Guy gets the jump on her, holding her hostage while she insists that he was a good man and that his daughter lived on to have a family of her own.  Hauser enters threatening to put a bullet in Guy’s head, but Rebecca manages to turn the tables and cap Guy in the knee before that happens.  Meanwhile in 1960, Ray visits Tommy in the infirmary, and the two seemingly renews their bond, as Guy observes.

Hauser takes Guy to observe Annie and her family from a distance, noting that Hauser can’t ever see or talk to them, but lamenting Guy as a casualty in all this business.  Across town, Rebecca observes Ray tending bar from outside, before heading over to Alcatraz to confront Hauser.  She’s realized that Ray’s all-too-easy acceptance of the situation means Hauser had approached him about the inmates before, and that Hauser needs someone with ties to Madsen working on the team in order to function.

Meanwhile after a late night, Tommy Madsen confronts his now-elder brother Ray in his bar, who greets him coldly and sends him away noting he’ll kill him if he sees him again.

Did you get your fill of time-traveling action?  What did you think about the episode? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of Alcatraz on FOX!

Alcatraz 1.05 "Guy Hastings" Recap - A Guarded Matter

Alcatraz continues its first season with tonight’s fourth episode “Cal Sweeney,” as Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones), Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) and Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) race against time to stop another former Alcatraz inmate known for robbing banks of their safety deposit boxes, rather than vaults.

If you didn't get a chance to check it out for yourself, read on for our Alcatraz recap of "Cal Sweeney”!

In present-day San Francisco, a sharply-dressed, if anachronistic man walks into a bank, and inquires about visiting his safety deposit box.  Flirtatiously, the teller leads him to the vault, where the two get down to dirty business, before the man pulls out a syringe and drugs the woman unconscious.  He opens his briefcase and assembles a captive bolt pistol, which he uses to unlock a number of safety deposit boxes, dumping their contents into his case.  He eyes a particular necklace when another man comes in, finds the teller unconscious, and our villain is forced to put an end to him No Country For Old Men-style.

Back in Alcatraz 1960, the same man, Cal Sweeney (Eric Johnson) shows new recruit Harlan (Steven Grayhm) the business of smuggling contraband through the laundry, marking up another inmate triple the rate for being unable to pay that week.  He mentors Harlan, pointing out that any weakness shown in his enterprise will be seen by those looking to take over his operation.  Just then, a guard drops by to let Cal know that Deputy Warden Tiller (Jason Butler Harner) has tossed his cell.  Sweeney returns to his cell to find an important item missing, and notes how he needs to talk to Tiller.

In the present, Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) and detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) discuss over Japanese food the Gotham City-based criminology model that got Diego barred from being a professor, when Hauser (Sam Neill)  calls them into the bank scene.  Diego immediately recognizes the handiwork as Cal Sweeney’s, as Rebecca interviews the teller to learn that Cal had romanced her over time to get in that position, and that they could likely catch Cal when he attempts to pawn any of the items he stole.  However, at that moment Sweeney arrives at the home of the man whose necklace he stole, claiming to be an insurance agent taking stock of the stolen items.  The man grows suspicious when Cal demands to know the story of how he met the wife the necklace belonged to, and Cal captive-bolds his hand to keep him from calling the police

Back in 1960, Cal confronts Deputy Warden Tiller in the prison barber shop, where Tiller denies knowledge of Cal’s small metal box but demands a piece of his operation.  Sweeney refuses at first, but Tiller reminds him that he best comply lest he be “nicked,” and later Sweeney relays the situation to Harlan.  Harlan suggests he confront Tiller privately, and pulling steward duty at Tiller’s upcoming birthday celebration would provide the opportunity.  Meanwhile back in the present, Diego and Rebecca arrive at the necklace man’s wife and home to find him dead, while Cal walks into another bank and eyes his next teller.

In 1960, the guests slowly arrive for Tiller’s birthday celebration including Warden James (Jonny Coyne), Tiller himself, his mentally disabled sister, Dr. Beauregard, and our favorite time-displaced Dr. Lucy “Sangupta" (Parminder Nagra).  She and Beauregard banter about her research in removing traumatic memories as rehabilitation for convicts, before we flash back to the present observing Diego and Rebecca mining through Cal’s old possessions, solely a burn tin box with nothing inside.  Hauser arrives, and the group notes Cal’s change in behavior from his past crimes, but realizing that the bank robberies have in common Cal’s romancing of a middle-aged teller upon whom he bestows flowers.  They track the flower shop and learn Cal’s likely next target.

Cal pulls the same make-out routine on his next teller, but she manages to evade his syringe and sound the alarm before the prisoner knocks her out.  He empties the safety deposit boxes once more, but finds his exit blocked by security guards and the arrival of the police.  He fires his gun wildly, and creates a hostage situation.  Back in 1960, Warden James leads a toast and bestows the birthday gift of a fine pen upon Tiller, when Harlan spills coffee and creates an opportunity for Cal to confront Tiller in the bathroom.  Once there, Tiller demands 50% of Cal’s smuggling operation, but insists he has no knowledge of the tin box.  Cal turns violent in demanding his stolen property, but Tiller stabs Cal with the pen and threatens 60 days in the hole if Cal speaks of the incident.

In the present, Hauser arrives on the hostage scene noting that Cal has no demands and offering to distract the police while Rebecca sneaks in to lead Cal out discretely.  Rebecca enters through the next building’s vents, but attracts Cal’s attention.  She confesses to being unarmed, but assures him she knows who he is, and will lead him out rather than risk being caught by present-day authorities.  While Hauser continues to distract, gunshots inside draw a SWAT team, and in the confusion of gas canisters and hostage evacuation, Rebecca manages to sneak Cal out wearing a SWAT uniform, and the two drive away in a police car, Hauser riding in Diego’s mustang in pursuit.

Hauser chides Diego’s driving, and when Cal recognizes their following Rebecca calls their pursuit off by turning on their car's siren.  Meanwhile back in 1960 Cal awaits being taken into solitary, when a next-cell Harlan reveals that he was the one to take Cal’s burnt tin box, the only remnant of his childhood life and family, and returns the box before announcing his plans to take over Cal’s operation during his solitary.  Cal destroys the box, as Tiller arrives to take him to his confinement.

While Rebecca continues driving Cal, she questions the significance of the velvet bag he retrieved from the bank, which he cryptically admits he doesn’t know the contents of.  He menacingly instructs her to pull over, when she notices his lack of seat belt and crashes the car to gain the upper hand.  Later, Rebecca and Diego revel in their fourth victory, though Hauser denies them any explanation of the key, taking it to his lab of scientists for research.  They don’t uncover much beyond the keys having been carved by lasers, technology unavailable during the 1960s.

Back in time, Warden James leads Harlan to the downstairs chamber of a “dissident” who requests a meeting, using the mysterious keys to open a strange door that Harlan seems fearful of the contents of, but the warden leads him inside noting  that “your future just got brighter.”

Did you get your fill of time-traveling action?  What did you think about the episode? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of Alcatraz on FOX!

Alcatraz 1.04 "Cal Sweeney" Recap - Just A Little Off The Top

Alcatraz continues its first season with tonight’s third episode “Kit Nelson,” as Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones), Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) and Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) race against time to stop another former Alcatraz inmate known for kidnapping children, and returning them to their homes after their murder.

If you didn't get a chance to check it out for yourself, read on for our Alcatraz recap of "Kit Nelsen”!

In present day Walnut Creek, CA, a man casually opens the gate and enters (with keys) a home while clutching a large white chrysanthemum.  He heads up to the bedroom of several young sleeping boys, casually observing them before clamping down over the elder boy's mouth, and assuring him that if the boy screams, he’ll kill his brother.  Flashing back to Alcatraz 1960, we see the same man chastised as a “child-killer” out in the yard, and savagely beaten by the other inmates while the guards look on.

Back in the present, Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Reyes) illustrates a comic book based on his experiences with the Alcatraz task force, when he hears over his police scanner news of a child’s kidnapping with a flower found at the scene.  He panics, finds an old clipping from his files, and rushes out of his shop.  Meanwhile at the hospital, Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) and Rebecca Madsen observe the still-comatose Lucy Banjeree (Parminder Nagra), when Diego rushes up to deliver the news.  He believes the recent kidnapping to be the work of Alcatraz inmate Kit Nelson, who kidnaps boys on a Friday, and returns them to their homes dead 48 hours later.

Noting along the way that Kit Nelson had a brother who died of scarlet fever the same age as his victims, they arrive at the boy’s house to question the mother, who upon seeing a photo of Kit Nelson recognizes him as a man from the local hardware store who stopped by to do some work.  When the youngest boy Liam sees the photo, he reveals that he indeed saw the man in the bedroom the night before, but was too scared to do anything about it.

At a local lake, Kit takes Dylan to rent out a fishing boat, while back in 1960 Kit recovers from the aftermath of his beating.  Dr. Beauregard doesn’t take too kindly to Kit’s recovery given the inmate’s history, when the man behind the divider we saw last week laughs and offers his own insight into why the other inmates attacked Kit.  After drawing blood from the man, the doctors draw the divider revealing Tommy Madsen, Rebecca’s grandfather.

Back in the present, Diego and Rebecca question the hardware store owner, who reveals that someone stole the real “Warren’s” uniform and some fishing supplies, and that that the only local area for fishing is the LaFayette Recreation Area.  Meanwhile, peaceful fishing between Kit and Dylan turns dark when Kit instructs his captive into the water, and soon follows.  He forces Dylan to hold him under as long as he can, and then afterward reveals with a sinister tone that it’s “your turn.”

Having missed them at the lake (from where they’ve since moved on to the movies), Diego reasons that Kit might be taking Dylan to do things the young boy likes, but seems troubled by the thought.  Back in 1960 the Warden brings a wheelchair for Kit and claims responsibility for his beating, informing him that he’ll protect him by isolating him from other prisoners.  Kit also received a letter from his father, and despite the inmate’s hesitation the Warden would like the pair to visit with one another.

In the present, Hauser grows increasingly despondent over Lucy’s absence and cancels the Amber Alert over Dylan.  Meanwhile, Diego and Rebecca interview Dylan’s mother once more, and upon learning that Dylan likes none of the things Kit has taken him to do, Diego rushes off babbling about cherry pie.  He reaches the front yard just in time to see the police leaving due to the cancelled Amber Alert, which Hauser arrives to explain is for the greater good, that they can catch Kit when he brings Dylan back (dead), the boy’s death preferable to releasing images of the 63 Alcatraz inmates to the media.  Diego storms off, and Rebecca reminds Hauser that they all need each other’s expertise to function, and must trust one another.

After checking out multiple nearby diners for their cherry pie, Diego manages to find himself in exactly the right spot where Kit has taken Dylan for a slice.  He calls Rebecca to casually relay the situation, while Kit flashes back to 1960.  In Alcatraz, he finds himself face to glass with his estranged father, who believes that Kit killed his own brother, and upon discovering her son’s horrid actions their mother protected the boy by hiding the evidence and blaming scarlet fever.  He believes that Kit hated his brother for loving life, lakes, miniature golf and cherry pie, but after his brother’s death their mother only ignored him further.  Kit refuses to admit his guilt, but the father leaves happy knowing his evil son will die in prison

Back in 2012, Diego attempts to stall Kit and Dylan from leaving, before Rebecca finally arrives and a standoff ensues.  Kit manages to gain the upper hand and has Rebecca cuff herself with Diego to a dumpster, but after Kit speeds off Rebecca uses her backup weapon to free herself from the cuffs.  Defeated, Diego dejectedly believes the boy’s fate to be his own fault.  Their luck quickly turns around however, as Diego later goes through Kit’s possessions and realizes he had unusually expensive cigarettes in his Alcatraz cell.  Diego traces the influx of cash to some back pay that Kit received from his job at a construction company, which for a time made bomb shelters, one of which was located in Walnut Creek not far from Dylan’s home!

Kit flashes back to 1960 once more, where the Warden has him thrown into a pitch-black solitary cell for a quiet conversation.  Lighting one match for every moment of questioning, the warden demands to know the truth about Kit killing his brother.  Through coercion and intimidation, the warden finally gets Kit to cop to murdering his sibling, unintentionally at first, but giving in to the thrill of it at last.  He put the chrysanthemum on his mother’s bed, as they were both hers and his brother’s favorite.  Back in the present, Dylan manages to distract Kit long enough to slip off his shoe and hurl it at the bomb shelter’s only light, climbing up the ladder and escaping into the forest!

Kit chases Dylan through the forest with Diego and Rebecca in hot pursuit, and Rebecca manages to corner the pair once more.  Despite his lack of a weapon Kit believes that Rebecca won't shoot, when all of a sudden a shot from Hauser hits Kit through the head.  Later, Hauser requests a moment with Diego, intimating that he knows what happened to him at the age of 11, and despite a state of arrested development he needs Diego to be an adult rather than an 11-year old.  Diego agrees, and Rebecca reminds him that he doesn’t have to tell her what really happened to him, as it’s his own origin story.

Diego takes it on himself to visit the now-safe Dylan and beef up his comic collection, when the boy confesses he’s still afraid.  Diego confesses that he himself was kidnapped at that age, but managed to get away.  He assures the boy that “once you know you can do that, it sort of give you a superpower, like [comic superheroes], but real.”

Later, Hauser carries the bodybag of Kit into "New Alcatraz," bringing it to a still-living and un-aged Dr. Beauregard.  Hauser intimates that he may need the physician’s help with “a friend of mine,” and the doctor reports ready.  Hauser takes off, as Dr. Beauregard lights a cigarette, and gleefully switches on the record player in his office.

Did you get your fill of time-traveling action?  What did you think about the episode? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of Alcatraz on FOX!

Alcatraz 1.03 "Kit Nelson" Recap - Sweet Cherry Pie

Alcatraz unlocks its third episode "Kit Nelson" tonight after debuting last week with both the pilot episode and follow-up "Ernest Cobb," as this week the Alcatraz task force races against time to stop a kidnapper from the past (Michael Ecklund) with a nasty habit of returning his victims home after he's killed them.

Finding the target before it's too late becomes something of a personal quest for Alcatraz expert Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia), so will Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) and Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) be able to track down Kit Nelson before it's too late?  Just what interest has Dr. Soto taken in their latest recovered Alcatraz inmate?  Does Emerson Hauser know more than he's letting on? And what was up with Emerson's assistant Lucy (Parminder Nagara) showing up in the past? Be sure to check out tonight's episode for all your answers when it debuts in its regular time slot at 9:00 ET/PT, after an all new episode of House.

For those interested in keeping score of J.J. Abrams' latest mystery series, the two-part series premiere of Alcatraz debuted to an impressive 10 million viewers, scoring a 3.3 demo rating.  The premiere boasted ratings 10% higher than the debut of FOX's fall sci-fi epic Terra Nova, whose renewal has yet to be decided by the network.  Alcatraz also gave the FOX network its best drama series debut since 2009's Lie to Me, so there's a good chance its future will be somewhat less in doubt than other high-profile science fiction series on FOX.  If you want to keep the mystery going, you'll just have to watch every week!

But before you tune into tonight's all-new Alcatraz, be sure to check out FOX's special behind-the-scenes preview from the episode below, and flip through a host of fresh images from "Kit Nelson" by using the arrows above!

Tonight on Alcatraz: A Child Killer Returns from the Past (Sneak Peek)

J.J. Abrams operates in a way that's similar to the deists' perception of God. He simply creates something, winds up the spring, and lets it go how it will. Sometimes, as with Undercovers, the clockwork is wound too tight and it breaks. But Abrams has a tendency, as he did with LOST, to wind things up just right, and then step away. He did the same thing with FOX's Fringe, one of the most creatively brilliant shows on television right now.

In a video released by FOX on Thursday, Abrams chats with Fringe marketing special ops Ari Margolis about why exactly he loves the show that he helped to create, pointing out how the show is a wonderful mix of the scary and the heartfelt, pointing to Walter Bishop (John Noble) as a prime example.

While Abrams realizes that viewership isn't great and that chances of a fifth season aren't great, he certainly sweetens the pot for FOX to renew the series; he's willing to once again wind up the clockwork. "While I don't know what the schedule is, it has been my desire since the pilot to direct an episode," Abrams says. "I would say without question that if Fringe comes back, I would do anything in my power to direct an episode. I would love it."

Fringe will air Friday, January 20 with the episode "Enemy of My Enemy" at 9/8c on FOX. Watch it live.

Check out the video below.

Fringe: J.J. Abrams Wants to Direct an Episode in Season 5

Alcatraz continues its two-part series premiere with tonight’s second episode “Ernest Cobb,” as Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) and Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) settle into their new roles investigating the re-appearing Alcatraz inmates, and a brutal sniper attack points them and Hauser (Sam Neill) toward an eccentric inmate (Joe Egender) known for sniping victims in threes.

If you didn't get a chance to check it out for yourself, read on for our Alcatraz recap of "Ernest Cobb”!

In Alcatraz 1960, Tiller leads prisoner Ernest Cobb through the pirson to meet Warden James, who questions Cobb about his sniper shooting crimes while popping off his own rounds at a makeshift targeting range.  Cobb declines to explain what motivated his original crimes, but does explain that he shot a prison guard to request a transfer to Alcatraz for a private room.

Later, presumably in the present, Cobb sets himself up a pleasant hillside picnic in the park.  After a bite of his sandwhich, he assembles his sniper rifle, and trains his eye on a coung couple strolling through nearby fair grounds.

Elsewhere, Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) trains an assistant to run his comic shop while he works on the top-secret Alcatraz task force, when Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) arrives with breakfast, and a few questions about the limited information about her grandfather in Soto’s books.  Back in the park, Cobb trains his sniper sight on a man, and the young couple he spied earlier.  He guns down the man, the young teen, and his helpless girlfriend, all of whom die instantly.

At the crime scene Diego expresses difficulty being around such gore, but contributes when he and Hauser realize that the dead crows mean another Alcatraz inmate’s MO, that of Cobb’s.  Cobb usually does three shootings in three days, before disappearing underground.  Diego and Rebecca have an epiphany about the type of gun Cobb used, and with some deductive reasoning manage to recover one of the bullet casings the inmate left behind!

Quickly flashing back to 1960, Cobb and his chatty cell neighbor observe the scene from the pilot of Jack Sylvane being dragged away from his divorcing wife, before the action shifts back to 2012, where Lucille (Parminder Nagra) interrogates Jack to see if he recognizes Cobb.  He denies knowing Cobb, and insists he has no idea how he arrived in 2012 or what the key he retrieved last week signifies.  According to their equipment, Sylvane appears to be telling the truth.

Diego observes a few hidden mysteries around their home base, before Cobb’s gun casing leads them to a gun shop Rebecca has investigated before.  There they discover via security footage that not only did Cobb retrieve his rifle using a prepaid cell phone, he also carried a distinct room key they can trace to a hotel.  Cobb sets up his rifle and coldly waits in his room, as Lucille, Diego and Rebecca head to the hotel room, which sits empty.  That is, until Lucille uncovers a window message with a bullseye over it, and Cobb shoots her through the chest from across the way!  An ambulance takes Lucille off as Hauser finally arrives, and ignores Rebecca’s questions to scold her that Ernest Cobb is still out there.

With Lucille alive but in a coma, Hauser retreats to his re-created Alcatraz to question Jack if Lucille was a target, which he denies knowing.  Hauser reminds him that “Dr. Beauregard” might be able to jog his memory.  Meanwhile, Diego and Rebecca manage to reason out that Cobb’s seemingly random MO hides that fact that one of his victims is always a teenage girl.  As Rebecca tries to get into his head from the prison cell, Diego brings an undelivered letter to Cobb from Eloise Monroe, his half-sister looking to strike up a pen-pal relationship after she saw their mother spurn Cobb.

In 1960, Cobb finds a method of passive resistance in Alcatraz that gets him sent to solitary confinement, while Rebecca realizes the man made a scope out of limited means, and liked to stare at the view overlooking San Francisco.  The ‘60s Cobb finds new torment from the warden by placing his chatty neighbor in solitary with him, as 2012 Cobb perches himself, and takes out three new victims by a local mall.

Rebecca reasons that the mall shootings were only Cobb’s second killing, Lucille not having been intentional, which means the man will strike once more.  Comparing Cobb’s prison cell view with the buildings he would have seen at the time, Hauser and Rebecca come to believe Cobb will use either one of two buildings as a vantage point for his final kills, and the team races to stop him.

Hauser takes one building while Rebecca takes the other, but it’s Rebecca that finds the man poised to kill on the rooftop.  She attempts to reason with him and explain how his half-sister tried to contact, but it’s of no use.  Thankfully, Hauser arrives and together he and Rebecca manage to outflank Cobb long enough to get him on the ground, where Hauser shoots Cobb through the hand for revenge.

Later, Hauser keeps watch over Lucille while Rebecca assures Diego that despite his trepidation, he’s doing fine in their mission, and she will need his help to continue.  Hauser leaves the hospital sharing an intense gaze with Rebecca, and heads back to “New Alcatraz” to bring in Cobb, who seems confused to see Jack Sylvane present as well.  Hauser assures Cobb he could have killed him, and Cobb will wish he had.

However, back in 1960, Warden James finally gives up on rehabilitating Cobb, and brings in a new doctor he believes can help, none other than Lucille Sangupta herself, at the very same age!

Did you get your fill of time-traveling action?  What did you think about the premiere? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of Alcatraz on FOX!

Alcatraz 1.02 "Ernest Cobb" Recap - Sniper Hunt

Alcatraz unlocks its first episode series premiere event from the mind of J.J. Abrams with tonight's pilot "Jack Sylvane," as Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) finds herself embroiled in a mind-boggling mystery of how 1960's Alcatraz inmates are re-surfacing in present day San Francisco with murderous intent.  Alcatraz certainly holds promise going forward, but isn't quite the dramatic hook some of Abrams' past TV works have been.

I first saw Alcatraz when they screened the pilot episode at San Diego Comic-Con, though I confess to drifting in and out of attention, owing partly to other assignments of previous Ballroom 20 panels, a lack of anything particularly grabbing within the pilot itself, and just a brutal, brutal hangover from all the socializing the night before.

So while I could have done a better job on focusing on what does, and doesn’t work about Alcatraz the first time around, the eminent prestige of J.J. Abrams and its sci-fi premise would inevitably draw me back in for further viewing.

Then, I found out they re-tooled the pilot a bit from what was shown, and I couldn’t be sure whether what I had watched recently in FOX’s online screening room was the original or the updated version.  Even with that dilemma, re-tooling pilots always bodes ill for a series.  So keep in mind that what you see from Alcatraz’s series premiere tonight wasn’t always present, and serves to highlight a few points FOX obviously found problematic, notably a lack of character for lead Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones).  Near as I can tell, none of the original pilot dealt with the death of her partner, her difficulting in working with others, or her grandfather already resurfacing in present day.

I also did a bit of research into other reactions to the pilot, many of which hit some of the same points, that conceptually Alcatraz seems like a cool idea for series and a smart blend of sci-fi with the procedural, but little else.  Clearly the writers are setting up some kind of larger sci-fi conspiracy to explain where the 302 Alcatraz prisoners and guards have been for 40 years, but beyond that most of the action simply lies in unremarkable characters following somewhat typical cop-show beats.  I’m reminded of specific comments* from J.J. Abrams on how he envisioned Alcatraz as a less serialized, inmate-of-the-week type series that anyone could find accessible by jumping on to random episodes during the season, and that mentality certainly shows.

(*) Others have also pointed out that in discussing the show Abrams drew on the same “Alias as over-serialized” anecdote he used when first describing Fringe, which hit its creative stride by embracing longer story arcs, not avoiding them.

The basic synopsis of Alcatraz unfolds as troubled young detective Rebecca Madsen and Alcatraz expert Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia) find themselves drawn into the murder investigation of a former Alcatraz staff member, apparently by long-dead inmate Jack Sylvane.  Once they uncover too many details of the seemingly impossible murder, secretive FBI agent Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill) recruits them as part of the larger investigation of why Alcatraz inmates are re-appearing un-aged in present day with murderous intent.

With 302 names on the roster to investigate and a host of unanswered questions, Alcatraz’ pilot leaves plenty of room to grow, but could use a little work in developing its characters.  Madsen seems to have a colorful enough past, but we don’t grasp much of a clear hook for why she finds herself so drawn to the Alcatraz cases, or even how impossible they seem.  As I mentioned earlier FOX seems to have beefed up her grandfather’s role in the mystery, but that shoehorning doesn’t illustrate much of a real connection she has to the man other than blood, or her surrogate uncle (Robert Forster).

Diego Soto on the other hand, everyone loves Hurley, but the pilot doesn’t give the good doctor much to do beyond a couple of “gee whiz” reactions and a few dots about Alcatraz to connect.  Sam Neill’s Emerson Hauser emerges as a frontrunner for the most intriguing character thus far, but I wouldn’t trust J.J. Abrams to show his hand so quickly.  By the same token I expect that whatever orders they might have, each inmate (or guard) the team encounters from the past will run the gamut of emotions, as Alcatraz’ pilot seems inconsistent on portraying Jack Sylvane as sympathetic and remorseless.  We feel for him given his plight and unfair treatment in prison, but those sympathies don’t quite gel with his unrepentantly violent nature.  I haven’t seen the second episode FOX will air along with the pilot, so we’ll see if character motivations become any clearer.

I’ll definitely keep up with Alcatraz going forward, but I might dip more into the recap side rather than review, unless the show manages to grow out of its more generic cop show conventions.  Really, must every leading detective be a loose cannon with family issues that no one else works well with?

See?  Not everything needs to draw heavy LOST comparisons.

And Another Thing…

• We'll be back with a recap of the second episode "Ernest Cobb" later, but you can also check out our extensive Alcatraz coverage, including set visits, and interviews with Executive Producer Jack Bender, Jorge Garcia, Sarah Jones and others.

• Should we start a pool of crazy theories to explain the science-fiction?  My money’s on either cloning, or cryogenics given the additional hospital ward experiment scenes added to the pilot.  Time travel seems like it might be a little grand for this show.

• For funsies, take a shot every time someone dramatically reminds another that “THIS IS ALCATRAZ!”

• Unless I'm mistaken, the current version of the pilot also removes a scene in which Sylvane recieves cryptic, almost hypnotizing instructions from a payphone call, something they may have wanted to keep more ambiguous at first.

• Man, the guy they got to play a young Sam Neill looks creepy.

What did YOU think?

Alcatraz 1.01 "Jack Sylvane" Series Premiere Review

Alcatraz is one of the most hotly anticipated new shows of the midseason. After all, it is the new show from J.J. Abrams, the brain behind LOST, Fringe, Alias, and Felicity. The series, which stars Sarah Jones (Big Love) and Jorge Garcia (LOST), centers on the mysterious disappearance of everyone from Alcatraz Prison decades ago... And their sudden, mysterious reappearances in the present. It's a creepy, fun show, with a tone reminiscent of Fringe's first season.

A new poster for the series has been released, featuring an appropriately fog-shrouded Alcatraz and the show's title in massive lettering.

Cast promotional photos have also been released, featuring quite a few familiar faces. In addition to Garcia, who played the lovable Hurley Reyes on LOST, the show stars Robert Forster (Arthur Petrelli from Heroes) and Santiago Cabrera, who is nearly unrecognizable without his long hair from his role as painter Isaac Mendez on Heroes. Sam Neill's also a major part of the cast, his first television role since last year's failed ABC series Happy Town. Then there's Jason Butler Harner, an actor probably most known by Alcatraz's target audience as the first ever Fringe villain, Richard Steig.

Alcatraz, from its cast alone, seems like the perfect fodder for genre television fans. Of course, it also needs to perform really well in order to avoid cancellation, especially in the prime Monday night timeslot where FOX is premiering it.

You can check out all the Alcatraz photos over the next few pages.

Alcatraz will premiere January 16 on FOX.

Alcatraz: New Poster and Promo Photos Released

Bradley Cooper looks to be on the verge of becoming a huge movie star. This Friday sees the release of Limitless, his first major project that boasts his name as the title star and will see if he can sell a film on his own rather than part of an ensemble cast like in He's Just Not That Into You and Valentines Day (it also stars the little known actor Robert De Niro). Speaking to the New York Times this weekend his roots in television were discussed as part of what has helped him become the star that he is today.

Cooper played Will Tippin in Alias for two seasons and became more than Sydney's (Jennifer Garner) reporter best friend, when asked about Cooper show creator and producer JJ Abrams responded

"Originally Will was on the outside of what was going on in Sidney’s life, but it became clear that Bradley’s range went far beyond sidekick. We realized we needed to bring him into the main plot."

The character of Will went from being a nuisance who threatened to expose Sydney's double life in the first season who fans of the show weren't too impressed by to a character that was sorely missed when he left at the end of season two. His guest appearances in the later seasons of the show and particularly in the 100th episode ("There's Only One Sydney Bristow") were received with welcome arms and showed that Will Tippin was a character that became a fan favourite, much of this was down to Cooper's charm and chemistry with Garner. He is obviously not too hard on the eye either and as the New York Times piece points out

A common thread uniting nearly all of Mr. Cooper’s performances is that his characters have been defined by ample smoothness and sex appeal. Even portraying a journalist on Alias he peeled off his shirt in the very first episode, flaunting a physique more Muscle Milk than Murrow.

He is however more than just a pretty face and is rather versatile, going from playing the sweet best friend in Alias to the alpha male douche in The Wedding Crashers, and striking the mid point of these two characteristics in the film that most certainly put him on the big movie star radar; The Hangover. If Limitless doesn't perform particularly well all should not be considered lost for Cooper who is reprising his role of Phil in The Hangover Part II, coming this May and is likely to be a box office smash. It looks like Bradley Cooper will be set to be the headlining movie star it was clear he could be back when Abrams cast him in Alias.

Bradley Cooper from Alias to Limitless and Beyond

Last week, we reported that CBS had picked up the J.J. Abrams (LOST, Alias, Fringe) / Jonah Nolan (co-writer of The Dark Knight and The Prestige, brother of Christopher) pilot Person of Interest.

Last month, we reported that J.J. Abrams' other series, Odd Jobs, starring former LOST castaways Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn, was to be pushed back.

These two stories add up to this new report from TVLine: Abrams has (again) snagged Emerson, who will play a lead in Person of Interest.

This is great news, (Emerson's guest appearance on Parenthood this week reminded us all what a phenomenal actor the Emmy winner is) as anything that gets him back on our screens will be much-anticipated and widely watched. "The project is a crime drama centered on an ex-CIA agent, presumed dead, who teams up with a mysterious billionaire (Emerson) to prevent violent crimes in New York City," says the report. People who are presumed dead? Mysterious billionaire? Oh, how LOSTesque!

The news also comes with an air of mystery and perhaps sadness for us LOST fans who were dying to see Emerson and O'Quinn together again. This news surely puts their on-screen reunion in jeopardy. If Person of Interest takes off, will a different actor will be needed to pair with O'Quinn if Odd Jobs is to be developed next year? Who would you like to see in that role, if not Emerson? If Emerson isn't around, will O'Quinn still want to take the gig?

I'm getting ahead of myself with these questions, but somewhere down the line they will be addressed. Abrams and Emerson are two of the very best in the business, and Nolan has an incredible track record as well. Share your thoughts below!

Michael Emerson and J.J. Abrams Reunite For CBS Pilot

J.J. Abrams is a very busy man lately.  His new movie Super 8 will be released this summer and he's still working on the follow up to Star Trek.  In addition, he's got a few television pilots brewing.  Last year's Undercovers was canceled by NBC, and his new pilot starring LOST alums Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn has been put on hold, but the pilot for Alcatraz is filming (with Sam Neill, Sarah Jones, Jorge Garcia) and CBS has just picked up another pilot called Person of Interest.

The Hollywood Reporter confirms that CBS has put in a pilot order for this new show, which is a crime drama written by Jonah Nolan.  He's the brother of Christopher Nolan and co-wrote the script for The Dark Knight.

In other words, Person of Interest has a pretty decent writer.

The show is being produced by Warner Bros. TV and Abram's production company Bad Robot.  The story follows an ex-CIA hitman and a scientist, who team up to attempt to prevent crimes before they occur.

So the question, of course, whether this story will turn out to be more dark and mysterious like Fringe, or lighter like Undercovers.  Of course, we don't know whether the show itself will end up being picked up, so we'll have to wait for the networks to announce their schedules for the fall in the coming months.

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J.J. Abrams' Person of Interest Pilot Picked Up by CBS

The Internet exploded with excitement back in September when it was reported that NBC had picked up J.J. Abrams' Odd Jobs, featuring ex-LOST castaways Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn as former black ops agents. That was just about the best news that could come out for us LOST fans who were suffering from withdrawals, with the exception of a Sawyer/Miles buddy cop show, which fans have been imagining since the two worked together in the final season. (Hey, TV execs: if you can get Josh Holloway and Ken Leung attached to the project, there would be an audience. I'm just sayin'.)

Unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. Deadline reported yesterday that the show will be delayed until next season:

"...the commitment to the J.J. Abrams/WBTV-produced drama Odd Jobs starring Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn, whose script came in very late, is being rolled to next season when it will be applied to the same or new Bad Robot project."

Now, things could be much worse so let's take a look on the bright side. Delayed is certainly better than abandoned, right? Right. However, this news begs the question of will Emerson and O'Quinn still be attached to the project a year from now? Unless an announcement is made, we will just have to hope that they are, because the two men are phenomenal together on screen. It would be a shame if they never worked together again, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that the show will go on as planned with the two stars.

Let's look back to the bright side. While we wait for Odd Jobs, we still have Alcatraz to be excited for. It's another trip to a mysterious island with J.J. Abrams and Jorge Garcia, who will be playing a "hippy geek" doctor. With Alcatraz this year and Odd Jobs next year, we've got a lot of good television to look forward to, my friends.

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J.J. Abrams' Michael Emerson/Terry O'Quinn Series 'Odd Jobs' Delayed

J.J. Abrams has so much going on that it'd be difficult to fit the entire list into one 140-character tweet. Collider caught up with the busy Abrams and got his take on the current and future television shows he's involved with as well as the upcoming films Star Trek 2 and Super 8. Check it all out below.

His thoughts on the LOST finale and whether or not he had any input:
J.J. ABRAMS: Oh, my god, I thought those guys just did an incredible job. It was really beautifully done. No. I watched them do an amazing job without me, and I didn’t want to upset the balance. Seriously, they didn’t need my help. They did an amazing job.

How he feels about Fringe's move to Friday night:
ABRAMS: Oh, I’m horrified beyond belief, but as a fan of the genre and the show, I’m hoping that fans will tune in. I certainly can promise that it will be worth their while. The episodes that are coming up are spectacular. I guess you can just be hopeful and say that, if the work is good enough, it will find the audience. I think they’re doing better work now, even in the second half of Season 3, than they’ve ever done on the series. I’m just crossing my fingers that fans of the show, show up. I don’t see an upside because the audience on Friday nights is harder to find. But, that’s not to say that they aren’t there and that we might not be able to make it there. Certainly, I would be lying to you if I said I’m thrilled about the move. But, what I am thrilled about is that the network has been incredibly supportive and, despite its move to Friday, they’ve been nothing but encouraging of the show. It’s still on the air in its third season, and it’s not easy to do that. It’s not easy to get to Season 3 of anything. They’ve allowed the show to become truly great, I think. The question is, will audiences find a great show on Friday nights? I pray that they do.

On what he has in development for network television right now:
ABRAMS: We have a few projects. We have a show for Fox called Alcatraz, that starts shooting on the 19th, which I could not be more excited about. And, we have a show for CBS called Person of Interest, that Jonah Nolan wrote. We have Odd Jobs for NBC. And we have a new script called Pulp, that was written by Alison Schapker and Monica Breen. That’s a spectacular script. We’re about to go out with that.

The status of Odd Jobs, with Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson:
ABRAMS: A script is being written right now. The intent would be to make the pilot for this season.

Is Alcatraz actually about Alcatraz?
ABRAMS: Alcatraz does involve Alcatraz. Some will be [shot in the actual prison], yes. There are sets being built, but there will be some of the pilot shot in San Francisco at Alcatraz. I don’t want to give anything away because no one wants to hear that, but I will say that it’s a beautifully written and surprisingly emotional script, although not surprising when you know that Liz Sarnoff wrote it. She’s amazing. The show is about an incredibly odd and mysterious turn and secret about the prison of Alcatraz, and a modern-day mystery that involves something very odd that happened there 50 years ago. The cast is unbelievable. It’s Sam Neill, Sarah Jones, Jorge Garcia from Lost – who was the first person we cast and is just the greatest with an amazing role – and Johnny Coyne, who’s an amazing English actor. We have a spectacular cast. There are a number of other actors and it is wonderful. I’m really excited about the show.

His thoughts on what happened with Undercovers:
ABRAMS: I’ve got to say, I feel like it was unfortunate. Of course, I completely blame myself for the entire thing. The conceit of the show was to do a much more frivolous, fun show, but ultimately, I think it was just too frivolous and too simple, and we didn’t go deep enough. We were really desperately trying to stay away from mythology and complexity and intensity and too much serious, dark storytelling and, ultimately, that’s not necessarily what I do best. I think audiences felt that it was a little bit lacking. I see that and completely take responsibility for its failing. I especially feel for the actors, who are incredibly talented and wonderful. The directors we got, the editors and the crew was awesome. The idea that I would somehow squander really talented people’s time and take them and us away from our families and other work we have to do, it was a real heartbreaker. Again, I feel completely responsible. I would desperately hope that no one, including network executives, would see the failure of Undercovers as a reflection of the race of the cast. It obviously had absolutely zero to do with that. It was completely my responsibility and not anyone else’s. I don’t think anyone is going to think that. Instead of that, I think they would say, “Series that have a premise that’s too light and too disposable and too frivolous won’t work.” Audiences want more. They want something that is more emotionally true and resonates a little more. I think the true failing of the show was that it didn’t go deep enough and it wasn’t about enough. Everyone, including Josh Reims, with whom I created the show, followed my lead. It was all my doing.

Take a moment to digest all of that information, and when you're ready, here's what he had to say about two of his upcoming films.

When will audiences get to see a trailer for Super 8?
ABRAMS: Probably sometime in March, I think.

Do you have a date by which you have to decide whether you’re going to direct Star Trek 2?
ABRAMS: That’s a good question. I probably do. I don’t know. There’s a script that should be coming in, hopefully by the time there’s a trailer for Super 8, and then we’ll know.

What’s the biggest proponent of that decision for you?
ABRAMS: I guess the idea of not wanting to choose to direct a film, for which I’ve not read a script. It’s a tough decision to make without seeing any pages. That’s not to say that I don’t have all the faith in the world in the spectacular writers. Damon Lindelof, Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman are awesome. My hope is that they’ll write the script, it will be great and we can make a fun, exciting sequel to Star Trek.

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J.J. Abrams Talks LOST Finale, Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest, Odd Jobs and More

J.J. Abrams has been a very busy man these past few months. According to TV Guide, his company, Bad Robot, is developing yet another series - entitled Pulp - with a very Pulp Fiction tone to it. Apparently, this new show will be a crime drama set in a slightly heightened reality, quite like Quentin Tarantino's classic 1994 movie.

Lost, Fringe and Alias' veteran writers, Monica Breen and Alison Schapker, have penned the script for Pulp. If the show is picked up by a network, they would also serve as executive producers.

This is the fourth project of Abrams that can be ordered for the next Fall Season. The others are Alcatraz, with Jorge Garcia, on FOX, Odd Jobs (with Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn) at NBC, and an untitled crime thriller with screenwriter Jonathan Nolan at CBS.

J.J. Abrams brings a Pulp Fiction like project to television

Every time I see or hear about Sam Neill, I can't help but think about "Jurassic Park" and his role as Dr. Alan Grant. Well that's all about to change as Mr. Neill has scored a major gig to go explore another famous island by another creative genius.

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva has announced that Mr. Neill is the latest actor to join 'Alcatraz', J.J. Abrams' new pilot for FOX, which is in contention for a slot on FOX's 2011-2012 Fall Schedule, which we would be surprised if it didn't given the excellent plot and cast being round up.

"Alcatraz" will follow a team of FBI agents and Alcatraz experts who are assembled after a group of prisoners and guards from the infamous prison reappear in present day after disappearing without a trace a long time ago. The special team is then tasked to track each individual down for answers to the phenomenon.

Neill will portray Emerson Hauser, who Deadline labels "the head of a government agency who radiates authority and piercing intelligence." Sounds a bit Widmore/Sark-ish to me... Neill joins Sarah Jones, Jonny Coyne, Jason Butler Hartner, and everyone's favorite LOST alum Jorge Garcia, who will be the Alcatraz expert of the group.

As the cast builds up, "Alactraz" will undoubtedly be one of the most talked about new shows during pilot season. If it makes it to series, then it should serve as a perfect companion show with J.J. Abrams' other FOX sci-fi drama Fringe, which is currently in its third season.

What do you think about this new casting choice? Will  Sam Neill make a perfect J.J. Abrams male lead?

Source: Deadline

Sam Neill Nabs A Lead Role in Abrams' Alcatraz

As you may have heard (and if you're a regular TVOvermind reader, you couldn't help but hear Clarissa's shouting), Supernatural won the TV Guide cover online poll, narrowly besting my personal favorite, Chuck.  My dear counterpart and I had an amusing back and forth during the voting period about the superiority of our respective favorites, and the awesomeness of the fanbases supporting those shows.  It all made for good fun, but as the poll drew to a close, and our "hatred" for the opposing show grew, something dawned on me.  See, I just put "hatred" in quotes because I don't actually hate Supernatural (I cannot speak for Clarissa's feelings towards Chuck, though at Comic-Con, I thought I saw her giving Zachary Levi the stink-eye - Clarissa: This is entirely inaccurate, I was actually admiring Captain Awesome's awesome physique and Levi was standing in the way.), mostly because I've never seen an episode.  To be honest, I've never watched an entire thirty-second commercial for the show.

I was thinking about this yesterday when I saw an Entertainment Weekly article asking what network one can't live without.  My personal answer to this question is, despite its troubles, NBC.  Maybe this is because I grew up in the glory days for the network (The Cosby Show, Cheers, Friends, ER, Frasier, etc.), but for whatever reason, I always find myself giving NBC the benefit of the doubt, and hanging on with shows that I really should have ditched long ago (The Event and Outsourced, I'm looking in your direction).  Most of the shows I currently enjoy watching are on the Peacock Network: Chuck, Community, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, Parenthood, The Biggest Loser; and I know I'll be giving The Cape, Harry's Law, and Perfect Couples a shot.

This isn't to say that I don't watch other networks (my Survivor and Modern Family articles will attest to that), because I do.  But as I was considering the question asked in the EW article, I realized that TheCW wasn't even close to being in the running -- there isn't one show I watch on that network.  Even when I tried keeping up with Nikita, I was watching it on the network's website, not live or on my DVR, and still I only saw the first three episodes before that show fell by the wayside.  Why, I wondered, do I have a blind spot for TheCW?

Now, I'm sure all of you can inundate the Comments section with the awesome shows I've been missing (and you should!), but I wonder why they've never held any interest for me.  At first glance, I figure that, as a 32-yr old guy, I'm not really in the network's target demographic, but as a bit of a nerd, Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries should be up my alley for their fantasy aspects, and who can turn down Maggie Q kicking ass in a bikini?  I tried thinking back to the last show I watched with any regularity on TheCW or its predecessors, The WB and UPN.  I had to go allllllll the way back to Swans Crossing (Yes, that's Sarah Michelle Gellar in the center of the picture below - Clarissa: I am somewhat ashamed to say that I also watched Swans Crossing, then followed SMG to All My Children and then to Buffy).  Yeah, that show debuted eighteen years ago, and it was pretty terrible.  Further, it started the network's trend of airing soapy, not particularly good, teen dramas in which I just really wasn't interested.

I think those formative years with TheCW and its ancestors created an association in my mind of that network with the kind of television I don't want to watch, similar to the opposite feeling I have with NBC.  Further, this bias continues to today, making me not really consider TheCW's programming when deciding what to watch.  Of course, I'm only one man, and I can't watch everything on television, but to totally write off a network seems a bit, I don't know, wrong somehow.

So, I ask you, is there a network that you, for some reason, just avoid altogether, despite hearing what great shows are airing on it?  Have you had this type of situation in the past?  Were you able to get over it, and if so, how did you it?  What kinds of associations do you have with particular networks, and what formed them?    Further, what blind spots do you have with writers, producers or stars?  Will you never go near a J.J. Abrams show?  Can you just not understand CBS' love affair with Alex O'Laughlin?  Will you automatically set up a season pass for a Joss Whedon show?  Please leave your comments below, but please don't turn this into a "That show sucks, so you suck!!" type of thread.  This is a fun discussion about our television hang-ups, and not a chance to degrade someone else's taste.  I greatly look forward to your responses.

Clarissa: I'm the exact opposite of Michael. I watch far too many CW shows to the exclusion of many other networks, although I do watch shows on Fox and ABC (but I only watch one show each on CBS and NBC).  I'm smack dab in the middle of TheCW's top demographic (women 18-49).  I like the cheesiness of 90210 and Gossip Girl, I love the mythology of Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries (although the hot boys are a bonus as well) and I'm very into the ass-kicking on Nikita.  But most of the comedies Michael mentioned above on NBC I just don't follow.  Do you think most of this has to do with personal preference?  Or are the shows we watch and the networks we follow a reflection of our age groups and gender?

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What is This 'Supernatural' You Speak Of?: Do You Have a Network 'Blind Spot'?

Anna Torv - a name we'd heard hide nor hair of in the States just three short years ago.  While yet to still become a household name among the broader population, she has made a significant impact in the world of science fiction entertainment.

Plucked from relative obscurity by a team which included J. J. Abrams - a man with an eye for starlets in the making, turning Keri Russell and Jennifer Garner into virtual overnight sensations - Torv was cast to play the now beloved Olivia Dunham on the FOX sci-fi hit Fringe. She didn't have the smoothest of starts, however, with many believing the character too stiff, impenetrable and almost bored by the strange and unexplainable events she was called upon to investigate.

Fast forward to season three, Torv - along with the bulk of the cast - was given the especially trying challenge of portraying two different sides of her character.  Of all the actors on the show, I believe Torv has made the most of this opportunity and set herself apart as the cream of a crop of dominant performers on one of the most inventively written series ever to find a spot on broadcast television - and for this, I believe she deserves a spot among the 2011 Emmy nominees.

Among her counterparts, John Noble - a brilliant actor himself, and an egregious oversight among the 2010 supporting actor nominees - is playing two very different sides of the same character, Walter Bishop.  The same goes for Jasika Nicole's Astrid.  While a challenge for any actor to play dual roles on the same show, at least their characters personalities are diametrically opposed to one another.

Torv's Olivia Dunham, on the other hand, requires a much more delicate touch.  Both Olivia's are very much alike in their personalities, with only subtle differences aside from their hair color.  Torv straddles those variances with judicious skill, essentially having to play a third and even a fourth version of the character.

Third and fourth character, you ask?  In a sense, yes.

The brilliant, tortured and somewhat reserved original Olivia, while captive in the alternate universe, was forcibly given Fauxlivia's memories and gradually adopted that persona, burying original Olivia's memories and personality in the process.  The heartbreaking scene where she came face to face with the alt-world version of her mother, who had died in our world when Olivia was young, had a tremendous impact as the moment when Olivia tragically gives herself over to Fauxlivia's mind completely.  Even still, glimpses of Olivia would come out from time to time, as the story required, ultimately causing her to "awaken" and re-emerge as this world's Olivia.

Fauxlivia, a bolder and more playful version of her this world self, having deceived her way to our universe with Peter and Walter, was now required to evade suspicion by posing as our world's Olivia.  There were moments, such as when she murdered the deaf man in "The Box," where she broke back to her Fauxlivia persona, but had to quickly turn it back on when Peter arrived unexpectedly, or when she failed to remember something that the real Olivia would have never forgotten.

Not only has Torv been required to play both Olivia and Fauxlivia, she has also had to manage Olivia transitioning to and from Fauxlivia, as well as Fauxlivia posing as Olivia.

A lesser actress would be hitting Fox up in advance to foot the bill for her post-season psychological treatment.

If this tedious character balance isn't enough, add to it that she's had to play victim, aggressor, counselor, temptress, murderer, and protector, running the gamut of almost every possible emotion in the process - not to mention spending countless hours filming scenes inside of a water tank. What other lead actress has had all this asked of her - within the span of 8 episodes, much less an entire season - and done so with such aplomb?

Here's hoping that the Academy rises above their snobbery towards sci-fi television and rewards Torv next year for a truly outstanding performance.

Jeff Kirkpatrick also writes reviews for Fringe at his blog "TV On My Terms" and on Twitter: TVOnMyTerms

Why Anna Torv Deserves An Emmy Nomination

J.J. Abrams has found his new TV leading lady.

According to Deadline.com, Sarah Jones will join the ranks of Jennifer Garner, Keri Russell, Evangeline Lily, Anna Torv and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the latest 'Abrams Girl' (our equvilent to being a Bond Girl nowadays) in Abrams' latest pilot Alcatraz, which is in the works for FOX.

The latest creation from the man who brought us Fringe and LOST revolves around the reappearance of a group of Alcatraz prisoners and guards, who mysteriously went missing 30 years ago, and the team of FBI agents picked to solve the mystery. Jones will play Rebecca Madsen, who Deadline describes as being "smart, thoughtful and a little obsessive police officer," which makes her the perfect addition to J.J. Abrams Hall of Kick Ass Women. Jones joins previously cast Jorge Garcia (LOST), who will play Rebecca Madsen's teammate Dr. Diego Soto, a walking Alcatraz encyclopedia whose expertise will be of great use for his teammates.

Jones is not unknown to most TV fans as she is fresh from a stint on the FX shows Sons of Anarchy and Justified, with guest starring stints on Ugly Betty, Big Love, and House.

The project is in contention for a slot on FOX's 2011-2012 Fall TV Schedule, but we're pretty sure that it's a safe bet it will make the cut for next fall. We think it would be a perfect companion to Fringe, don't you agree?

Are you guys ready to welcome J.J. Abrams' latest female hero with open arms?

Source: Deadline

J.J. Abrams Casts New Female Lead For 'Alcatraz'

Two months ago, we reported that Fox had given J.J. Abrams' Alcatraz a pilot commitment. Not much was known at the time, except that it was to be "a show about mysteries, secrets and the most infamous prison of all time: Alcatraz." J.J. Abrams and a mysterious island...where have we heard that before? Abrams was the co-creator and an executive producer of ABC's LOST - which ended it's strong six year run in May - and news broke this afternoon that a former castaway from LOST has been cast in a lead role on Alcatraz.

Dude, it's Hurley! We all loved him as fun-loving lottery winner Hugo "Hurley" Reyes on the LOST island, and now you'll get to know Jorge Garcia as Dr. Diego Soto, a "hippy geek" who is "the world's foremost expert on Alcatraz.” The same report also brings new information about the show, stating that it “centers on a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day. It chronicles the efforts of a team of FBI agents to track them down and unravel the mystery behind their disappearance thirty years prior.”

This new information, plus the casting of Garcia has immediately vaulted this show to the top of my most-anticpated list, along with another Abrams project featuring ex-castaways. In September, we reported that NBC had given another of his projects a pilot commitment. That show will feature Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson in a comedic drama where the two men as former black ops agents.

More from the report:
"Alcatraz was written on spec by Elizabeth Sarnoff, who penned the final version, and Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, who wrote earlier incarnations. The project, from Abrams' Bad Robot Prods. and Warner Bros. TV. Sarnoff serves as showrunner and executive produces with Abrams and Bryan Burk. Lilien and Wynbrandt will co-executive produce and Danny Cannon will direct the pilot, which is slated to begin in January in San Francisco and Vancouver."

Only one question remains: are you excited, or are you excited?

Which Former LOST Castaway Will Star in J.J. Abrams' Alcatraz?

Last night, Undercovers gave us Samantha's "cover" story on why she left the CIA five years prior, but like Steven's explanation last week, I hope that it's more to their stories than what was given.

Lima, Peru

As Peru's President Elect is about to officially be inaugurated as the country's president, a sniper prepares his weapon and is ready to do some damage.

That sniper happens to be Steven Bloom.

Three Days Earlier...

Los Angeles, California

As Steven playfully nags Samantha for getting too involved with the lives of their clients, Lizzy informs them of a potential client waiting in their office. The client, Jennifer Anthony, happens to know Sam personally from their days at Yale. Jennifer brings up a piece of Sam's past in journalism school about how a professor named Schilling thought Sam was a genius. The mention unnerves Sam, who reports that Professor Schilling died in a car accident. Thanks to Carlton Shaw, the Blooms are called off before we learn more.

The mission of the week: Find out who's out to kill the President Elect of Peru Alberto Loya. After capturing the original hit man, who squealed about the hit, the CIA and Shaw needs the Blooms and Leo to find out who hired the hitman's boss, a guy named Ivanov, and to make sure everything is kept under the radar while keeping President Elect Loya safe.

Later that night, Sam marvels over an old bracelet Professor Schilling gave her and reveals how much of an inspirational man he was. He seems to have had a great impact on Sam due to his knack for finding the good in people and made changing the world look possible. She wonders if Schilling would still be proud of her. Steven says absolutely.

Lima, Peru (Two Days Earlier)

As the group infiltrates the press conference event, Sam (under her guise as a news reporter) meets another journalist named Matt Hunt (David Anders), who tells Sam that despite President-Elect Loya's squeaky clean image there are always enemies, but you just have to find them first.

As Sam meets with Loya, she immediately sees the same qualities in him that Professor Schilling had, making her grow fond of him super quick. Meanwhile, Leo causes a diversion to distract Loya's super tight security detail lead by a guy named Cortez. With the bodyguards gone, Sam reveals to Loya someone might be after him, but he doesn't buy it. Sam relates Loya to Schilling as her explanation when he asks why is she trying to save him. Steven warns Sam about getting attached due to her recent nostalgic reaction involving Schilling. He then offers their next step in plans, which involves proving himself to Ivanov to be the new assassin to take out Loya. Smart, I say.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

While at Ivanov's club, Sam, Steve, and Hoyt break into Ivanov's safe and steals a computer drive, which holds the plans of the assassination. Elsewhere, Steven meets up with Ivanov and proposes to take over the hit on Loya due to the previous guy being "dead". Ivanov gives Steven a meeting the next day where Steven's supposed to kill a guy to prove his loyalty to Ivanov. After the team discovers who and why Ivanov wants this particular guy dead, they trail the man and stage a show where Steven "kills" the guy, who is actually Leo in disguise, while Ivanov watches from afar. Pleased with what he sees, Ivanov gives Steven the job. Luckily, Leo is a master of disguises, because I can't see how else they could've pulled that off.

Lima, Peru

Sam plans to go speak with Loya again to see who could be behind the assassination plot. She mentions how Loya wants to just help people, which Steven reminds Sam again of getting too close due to Schilling. Leo enters with news of a lead by snagging a copy of Loya's inauguration speech through some sexpionage of his own. Turns out that Loya plans on severing ties with a foreign oil company named Despina Oil in favor of a Peruvian company. The move could cost Despina millions of dollars and gives plenty of motive for a hit job.

While at the dinner, Sam runs into Matt Hunt again, but before the two can talk, Lizzy calls complaining about Jennifer. While calming Lizzy down, Sam finds out the whereabouts of Loya and goes to meet him, but stops as she witnesses a tender scene between Loya and his daughter. Thinking she's a threat, Loya's men catch her and pushes her into the chapel where Loya was being kept safe. This gives Sam the chance to warn Loya of Despina Oil, but he still wants her to not worry about him. Cortez enters and throws Sam out, but not before she takes a pic of Cortez to give to Hoyt for analysis.

Meanwhile, Ivanov finds out about the ruse Steven put on to get the sniping job. As he explains himself to the mysterious person behind the entire assassination plot, Ivanov is killed for his insolence.

The day of the the assassination, Hoyt finds out that Cortez used to be the head of security for Despina Oil, which sends Sam running to warn Loya against Hoyt's pleas of staying put, because she will not let another man die. Ruh Roh? Steven prepares himself for the takeout, which begs me to ask why risk getting caught for something you weren't planning on doing in the first place? Maybe that's why I'm not a damn spy...

Anyway, Steven gets the call from the mysterious person, but notices that Cortez is not the person making the call, meaning the actual person is still on the loose. While Sam is turned away at the door, Matt Hunter offers another way into the inauguration. As all this is going down, Hoyt finds another connection to Despina Oil and it happens to be none other than Matt Hunt, who is an actual family member of the owners of the company. It's too late though, because Matt has Sam hostage and warns Steven that if doesn't take the shot to kill Loya then Sam will die in his place. Womp womp.

With Hoyt's help, Steven finds Matt and Sam's position through a window and shoots Matt just as Leo finds them. Mission complete.

After his inauguration speech, President Loya spots Sam in the crowd and thanks her for everything even though he has no clue of what happened. As a token of his gratitude, Loya gives Sam a lapel pin, which reminds her too much of Schilling giving her the bracelet.

Los Angeles, California

After being debriefed by Shaw, Sam finds Leo and Lizzy having quite the talk and seem to be bonding. This scares Sam...

Later, Sam finally comes clean to Steven about Schilling, who actually was the man who recruited her in the CIA in the first place. Turns out that Schilling died on a mission with Sam five years ago, which Sam declares is the reason she left the CIA. Hmmm... Not what I was expecting, but God I hope there is more behind both of their stories...

So do you guys think there is something else going on with the Blooms' excuses for leaving the CIA? Or do you think the real mystery lies in why they were reinstated back in the field in the first place?

See you guys next week!

Undercovers 1.07 "Assassins" Recap

Italy is this week's spot for some sexpionage via Undercovers as the Blooms deal with an elusive arms dealer and their even more elusive pasts.

The Australian Outback

An Australian tour bus drives along a deserted road with passengers in every seat. In the back of the bus sits a man, who looks shady as hell and ready to do something diabolical. The man suddenly puts on a gas mask and I ask myself how in the hell no one notices this, but let's move on. The guy sets off a chemical bomb that releases a gas that kills everyone. The man exits the bus and makes a phone call to someone to say that the formula worked and where do they want it delivered. Sad, sad world we live in...

Los Angeles, California

Sam gives a dating pep talk to Lizzy about seizing the day and bagging a guy who likes her. Steven drags Sam out of that little meeting and into the one with Carlton Shaw, who gives them their weekly assignment. Target: Xerxes, an elusive international criminal who never leaves a print on their crimes by having other people do them for him. The Blooms must retrieve the formula to the bioweapon used on the bus which will be hidden in a painting that is to be auctioned off in Tuscany, Italy. The person buying the painting is likely going to be Xerxes.

Another signature Bloom adventure? Not quite. There are a few alterations to the standard Blooms assignment this go round, the main one being Sam having to use an old cover. Oh, and there's the whole thing about her having to do this cover married to someone else. This does not sit well with Steven, especially when the person acting as Sam's husband is Calvin Gary, an MI:5 and fellow agent who Steven doesn't care for. Sam is amazed that Steven knows Calvin, but can't believe how much he hates the guy. Another secret dropping agent like Leo Nash? Hopefully.

Tuscany, Italy

Hoyt and Steven's covers are to be waiters and valet attendants at the auctioning. Sam and Calvin Gary show up and Steven makes it clear that he doesn't like the situation of Sam and Calvin together. The Blooms then have to tell Gary their stance on keeping their past assignments a secret to uphold CIA confidentiality. This intrigues Gary, who seems like he will get a kick out of making them squirm.

Meanwhile, the guy from Australia delivers the painting and lets Xerxes know of the drop off. He then leaves.

Later, Steven stops by Sam and Gary's room to lay down the law on keeping their past assignment secret from his wife, but Sam shows up and ruins a possible revealing. Gary mentions that he has the entire room secured from wiretappings and bugs so no on else can listen in on their location. He then reveals that there is another person on their team from MI:5. Hoyt happens to run into the beautiful agent named Tessa, who takes the breath out of Hoyt. He's smitten enough to not care what Steven is up at the moment. The four agents talk about how their going to get the location of the painting and it involves a lot of spy gadgets and a lot of strategic placing. Hoyt and Tessa really hit it off, which isn't lost on the other agents. Awww...

Hoyt and Tessa will serve as the trio's eyes and ears, while Sam and Gary work the crowd placement and Steven operates a device that manipulates the security cameras to the office with all the painting details. Sam notices Gary talking to a tall Dutch guy, but thinks nothing of it when he reports the guy as being boring and harmless. The two then cause a diversion and make their way into the building. After Sam and Gary reach the office, everything goes to plan... until Gary lets slip to Sam that Steven was kicked out of a training program. Say what?!

Steven, getting agitated, demands for Hoyt to patch him into Sam and Gary's channel and when Hoyt does, Steven catches part of the conversation, making everything awkward for everyone. Hoyt tries to sever the connection, but accidently connects the main security channel, which alerts the establishment's security team. Sam and Gary luckily escape exposure, but the damage has been done with Sam and Steven, who argue about the bomb Gary dropped on Sam.

Meanwhile on an old road, the Australian guy reaches a car in the middle of the road. When he gets out and investigates, he is shot and killed by the Dutch hotel guest Gary spoke to earlier! Is this guy Xerxes?

Back at the hotel, Hoyt runs through the files and finds the painting their looking for. He runs to tell Tessa, who is on the phone relaying two seperate numbers belonging to an Ella and Nancy to someone on the other end. When Hoyt gloats about his find, Tessa almost lays a kiss on him but decides against it. Drats! Later as Hoyt copies the painting with Steven, he is glad to get some advice from his mentor on seizing the day... even if the advice really came from Steven overhearing Sam earlier talking to Lizzy. Speaking of which, Sam comes to apologize to Steven and do their weekly ritual of having sex on the job. Of course Hoyt wasn't there to witness this tradition.

After the painting prints the next morning (it took six hours), Hoyt and Steven decide to make the switch on their own. Too bad the Dutch guy and his goon catches them. The Dutch guy orders for both to be killed off premises. Uh oh...

Later in the day, Sam is worried since Steven and Hoyt haven't checked in. Gary thinks its a fuss over nothing, but says he has to go retrieve his phone from the bedroom. Meanwhile, Steven and Hoyt are tied up in the back of a jeep driven by the Dutch man's goon, heading toward their deaths. Steven manages to untie them and they both bumrush the goon and throw him out the truck. Steven calls Sam to warn her that the painting, which is currently up for bid at the moment, hasn't been switched. After Steven describes the guy who attacked them, Sam remembers the Dutch guy and pinpoints him immediately. She also notices the man is receiving instructions via an earpiece, which means he's not Xerxes, but another goon, who wins the painting.

Steven and Hoyt meet up with Sam back at the villa so they can trace the call the guy made during the auction. The source of the call is coming from a secured location in the villa, which Sam deducts is her and Gary's suite! After sending Hoyt and Steven off to trail the Dutch guy, Sam makes her way back to the suite where she finds Gary shot and bleeding profusely, but he's able to give Sam a message: Tessa is Xerxes. What?!

Tessa/Xerxes leaves the villa and Dutch guy behind. When he calls to ask what's the hold up, Tessa explains that she switched the painting the night before and what he's holding is basically a bomb. The Dutch guy doesn't have time to react as he goes up in a million pieces while Steven and Hoyt watch from afar. When they check in with Sam, she informs them of the double cross, which breaks Hoyt's heart into a million pieces. Poor kid...

Florence, Italy

Shaw meets up with the Blooms and Hoyt to let them know the Brits are taking over the case and for the Americans to forget about  it. No deal, says the Blooms. They want to take her down and figure the first place to start is find out if Tessa had any buyers for the formula. Enter Hoyt and his super memory of the numbers he heard Tessa was calling out on the phone. When he recites the numbers, Steven and Sam recognize the numbers and code names "Ella" and "Nancy" as being coordinates. Wow. The Blooms track Tessa to Hong Kong and rush to meet her there.

Hong Kong, China

Steven finds the buyer who's looking over the painting and demands to know where Tessa's located. After the guy gives up the details, Steven takes the painting with him.

On their way to stop Tessa, Hoyt asks to take the lead in this case. As the trio circles in on Tessa, it is Hoyt who stops and apprehends her. It was only fitting.

Los Angeles, California

While burning papers on their latest assignment, Steven reveals to Sam the full story of what Clive Gary was talking about on their assignment. Turns out that in 2003 Steven and Clive were picked to be in some elite classified program where he saw his instructor meeting a girl, who caught Steven's eye to the point where he hacked into the CIA program database to find out her name. Clive found out and told their instructor, which got Steven booted from the program. The girl in question? None other than Sam. Um... I want to call bull crap, but the story seems so far-fetched to the point that it's plausible in this world.

But I doubt that's the main secret he's trying to hide from Sam.

See you guys next week for an episode that I am dying to see... Bloom vs. Bloom. Popcorn, please?

Undercovers 1.06 "Xerxes" Recap

Besides the unoriginal title (and Sally Field inducing images from the movie of the same name), tonight's Undercovers was a solid episode that introduced the Blooms to another spy couple, as well as give us another mystery to worry about.

Los Angeles, California

Instead of giving us the mission of the week prologue, we got the chance to revisit the Blooms first this week as they prepare for an annual "first date" anniversary and Lizzy's 90 sober ceremony. While Lizzy makes sure that Sam and Steven will be in attendance at her ceremony, I'm slick wondering 1) Who was she talking to on the phone in Sam's closet and 2) what will they find out and how soon? Could Lizzy be in some financial trouble? Or is it something grander than that?

North Korea

A thief breaks into a North Korean facility and steals a device. When the guards come running, the thief escapes to the floor below his theft. Turns out that the thief is actually a scientist named Shim Won, who built the device he just stole. After throwing off the guards with a fellow scientist, Won returns to his home and packs to leave town. He leaves his daughter, May, with a friend named Sun. Sun, North Korea, J.J.Abrams. Hmmm.... Anyway, he begs for his daughter to be careful, which makes me predict a kidnapping soon.

San Francisco, California

When there's trouble, Carlton Shaw is never far from the Blooms' location. He fills the two in on their assignment, which is to help facilitate Shin Won's defection from North Korea during the Geneva conferences and successfully extract him from the event. They must also make sure that the device, which is called The Delta, is retrieved as well, because it is a part of the overall defection deal. The thing can turn matter into liquid by the flip of a switch. Small, but deadly.

Later that night, Steven looks over their assignment, while Sam worries about possibly missing Lizzy's ceremony and a dinner party Sam planned... without Steven's consent. They banter a bit, but cap it off with marital relations.

Geneva, France

Once the Blooms get to Geneva and try on their 'covers', they set up plans to remove Won from the North Korean guards and complete their mission. But thanks to Won's fellow scientist snitching on him, the guards yank Won from the event to take him back to North Korea for questioning. Steven luckily catches up with the entourage by joining them in an elevator, which Hoyt takes control of long enough for Steven to subdue the guards. When this is done, the Blooms extract the Won.

Later, Won throws another monkey wrench into the plan by declaring that terms of his defection be altered to help his daughter. Despite initial reluctance, Sam agrees with Won, who tugs at her heartstrings by using the virtues of family as his bow. Unfortunately, hard nosed Shaw is not having it, declaring any entry into North Korean will not be cleared by the U.S., which means Won better change his tune or else. But Sam has made up her mind and drags Steven and Hoyt into lying to Won that they have clearance to enter North Korea.

Pyongyang, North Korea

Once they arrive at Pyongyang, Steven and Sam are stopped by North Korean guards when their cover, Canadian "food inspectors", doesn't sound legit to customs. When Sam challenges the customs guard with "proof" and a possible reprimand by their contact, the customs guard sticks them with an escort.

As Sam distracts the escort, Steven assembles their phones and contacts Hoyt, who is their eyes and ears on this operation again. Meanwhile, the North Korean police have infiltrated Sun's home and takes May from her hiding place. Before she is captured, May leaves a message for someone to find when they found the place ransacked. After the Blooms' ditch the escort, they make their way to Sun's house to find that they're too late. While looking for clues, the Blooms get a surprise when a French spy couple shows up to do the same job Sam and Steven were assigned to. Marcell and Camille Geffard reveals themselves to be French Intelligence agents who were contacted by Won in case the Blooms didn't get clearance. Steven doesn't trust them, but a check-in with Hoyt certifies the Geffards as legit French agents. After Sam and Camille uncover the message left behind by May, which was the name of police captain named "Nahm", the two groups decide to work together.

While making it to the police station, the foursome come up with a plan to infiltrate. Lizzy texts Sam during the trip, letting Sam know that they missed the ceremony, which bothers Sam immensely.

As the interrogation of May is about to get ugly, the Blooms and the Geffards successfully enter the building. In the chaos that follows, the Geffards take May and run for it, leaving the Blooms behind and royally double-crossed.

Geneva, France

Shin Won gets a call from the Geffards who are holding May hostage for the exchange of The Delta. Won agrees to meet them the next morning. Steven and Sam show up at the hotel room in Geneva and asks Hoyt what the hell happened with the intel on the French. While Hoyt flubbers over his faux pas, they realize that Won is gone and they check surveillance to see where he disappeared to. Sam leaves to prevent the exchange from happening, while Steven and Hoyt tries to locate The Delta. The two men find the secret hideout spot for the machine, which happens to be in the podium at the Geneva convention. Really?! That's the "safe place?" (:sigh:) Moving on...

The Geffards arrive with May to the relief of Shin Won. Keeping his part of the deal, Shin Won tells them the location of the device. Marcell tells Camille in another language to kill Won and May after he successfully retrieves The Delta. Bastards.

Inside the convention, Steven and Hoyt enter the conference while Marcell sits not too far from them. As Steven tries to make his move, Marcell panics and knocks over the presenter to retrieve the device. The Geffards are either amateurs or incredibly stupid. I'm going to go with both.

While a shootout ensues in the kitchen between USA (Steven and Hoyt) and France (Marcell), a catfight is underway between Sam and Camille, who gets her ass handed to her by Sam. USA pulls out the win in both categories, as you know.

Los Angeles, California

Later, Sam witnesses the bond between Won and May, which prepares her to face the music when she gets home and deals with Lizzy.

After being debriefed by Shaw, who reluctantly gives them a "good job" after chewing them out, Sam faced Lizzy, who was not happy. After the two of them talked, though, things are mended... for now. Later, Steven and Sam finally have their "first date" anniversary dinner, where they concede on having a good time without needing any couples or parties to attend. Aww.

Tune in this weekend for my next edition to Undercovers: Declassified!

Undercovers 1.05 "Not Without My Daughter" Recap

Last night's Undercovers gave some more insight into the separate pasts that both Samantha and Steven are trying to keep in the dark. We also get Shaw discussing the state of the Blooms' reinstatement back into the field with the elusive Kevin. Oh, and there was another CIA device to retrieve.

Dublin

A man named Sean walks down the rainy streets of Dublin from the cops. He calls a friend named Brian to inform him to pick up a package that they both need to get to some investors. It is clear that Sean knows he's going to jail.

Los Angeles, California

Steven and Sam are shocked to find Lizzy in the chef kitchen bright and early in the morning. Sam feels that her sister is taking her job seriously. Steven thinks Lizzy just wants some money, or a raise, which he knows for a fact Sam will break down and give her. Meanwhile, Shaw talks with the mysterious Kevin about the Blooms possibly finding out about the real reason behind them being reinstated into the CIA. Kevin balks at Shaw's suggestion to control their discovery and to get them on the agency's side. Kevin gives a firm no, which Shaw obliges. I'm intrigued.

Shaw later meets the Blooms to fill them in on their next assignment, which involves Sean Cullen, the guy from Dublin. Seems that Sean was in fact put in prison, and the Blooms must go interrogate him to find out where he hid an important CIA hard drive. The hard drive contains locations of CIA Black Sites, top secret agency detention centers that hold terrorists, and needs to be retrieved immediately. If only it would be that easy!

Before they leave, Sam gets stopped by Lizzy to ask for some money to take a culinary class. Sam is shocked at how right Steven was, but still loans her sister the $700 dollars on the condition that Steven never finds out. But this is Steven, who can smell the exchange a mile away.

Dublin

While in prison, Sean Cullen takes some narcotic  that was stuffed in a teddy bear to fake a seizure and escapes. The Blooms get there under the disguise of Irish agents. They find Leo there under the same disguise, but as the "Chief Inspector" to the Blooms' "Junior Inspectors." After some wit and banter, the trio discovers the powder Sean used and has Hoyt trace it. The trio finds out that the bear came in the mail and that Sean belongs to a gang called the Black Hand Brigade, which consists of former IRA agents.

While Hoyt paints a fake Black Hand Brigade tattoo on Steven, Sean Cullen gets a new look. Meanwhile Leo takes time out to ask Sam if Steven knew about her real reasoning for quitting the CIA. She says no and would like it to stay that way. These two just have secrets galore it seems!

Leo and Hoyt decide to check out Sean Cullen's ex-wife named Fiona, while Steven and Sam infiltrate a bar housing IRA criminals. While talking with Fiona Leo and Hoyt discover that the bear found in Sean's cell is from Fiona's shop. Leo decides to get more info out of Fiona by wooing her and shooing Hoyt away to get started.

At the bar, Steven and Sam act as a couple of badasses and demands to talk to Sean. The bartender sends Steven to the head of the Black Hand Brigade, who quickly sniffs out that Steven is a fraud. After kicking the Head BHB's goons' asses, Steven demands info on Sean Cullen. The Head reveals that if he knew where Cullen was, the guy would be dead right now since he's made enemies out of just about everyone in the Irish crime underworld. The Head does drop a name: Brian Murphy. Elsewhere, Murphy's wife, Maria, is abducted by Cullen after leaving a tutoring session.

The Blooms have Hoyt check the name Brian Murphy and debate Steven's self-claim of being a "human lie detector" as well as how he still knows Lizzy wants money from Sam. Too bad his ability can't pick up Sam's reaction to the Lizzy situation. Meanwhile, Leo gets info out of Fiona by bedding her. She reveals that her marriage with Cullen didn't last due to her ex-husband's partnership with Brian Murphy, but that little intel isn't worth tracing since she has no ties with Cullen anymore whatsoever.

The Blooms and Hoyt find Brian Murphy's name matches connections with Sean Cullen and the trio trace Murphy's address, which Leo has already beat them to. After some sparring words about Leo's sex as a weapon skill and Steven's human lie detector spiel, Hoyt discovers that Murphy left behind a disposable phone package and uses it to tap his next call and trace his location. When the call is made, Cullen gives a rendezvous point for Murphy to meet him at. The Blooms, Leo, and Hoyt make their way there to intercept them.

When Murphy arrives he comes strapped, which is a good thing since Cullen has a gun pointed at him as well. Cullen ups the stakes when he reveals Maria and threatens to kill her if Murphy doesn't comply in dropping his gun and turning over the safety deposit key to the hard drive. After Murphy hands over the key, Cullen lets Maria go free, but Maria turns on her husband and kills in him in cold blood. Now, that's messed up!

After the Blooms and crew find Murphy dead, they try figure out Cullen's next move. After Leo tells them to run Cullen's alias, George Best, into the systems, they discover that Maria and Cullen are making their way to London. Great, I love London!

London, England

Team Hoyt and Leo make their way to Cullen's hotel, but they bicker over who's going to woo the hotel clerk the best. When Hoyt wins out, not only does he get rejected, but he manages to successfully extract the entire hotel registry through his cell phone. His secret? "Reverse rejection." Ha!

While the Blooms and crew set up shop in the room above Cullen's, Maria is being schooled by Cullen on making the exchange with the buyer of the hard drive. He clearly tells her to text him a blank message when its safe to make the exchange. Meanwhile, Leo and Sam discuss marriage, which prompts Leo to point out that Sam is hiding behind the CIA's policy of not disclosing past cases with other agents. Sam looks perturbed at this. Something is most definitely up.

Steven and Hoyt watch surveillance of Maria receiving a package. Thinking it's the money drop, Leo bolts out the room to intercept the exchange. Sam and Steven follow him to Maria's room where they discover that the package is really an outfit to wear to a symphony later that night. Steven quickly deduces that the symphony is the drop off point. While interrogating Maria, they ask her what was the text supposed to say. She says "Beatrice." Liar. Sam asks Maria her dress size, which means Sam is going in undercover.

Later that night, Hoyt introduces Steven to some spy gadgets: a pen sized tranquilizer gun and a mini concussive grenade. When Sam sits down at the symphony, she is shocked to see Steven enters on the stage as one of the musicians, a timpanist. This man is a jack of all trades!

While Leo holds court on the ground floor, the buyer shows up to make the exchange with Sam, who is posing as Maria. The only problem is that Cullen is nowhere to be found. When Sam sends the text with "Beatrice" in it, Cullen, who is in the parking garage, knows something is up. He sends Sam a text, which says "A-40." Hoyt and Leo think A-4o means a seat in the audience, but it's actually the garage parking number. The buyer has gotten impatient and has pulled out a gun on Sam, forcing her to take him to Cullen. Steven takes out the buyer with his tranq gun, which frees Sam to run after Leo to catch Cullen.

Leo is captured by Cullen and gets in the middle of a standoff between Sam and Cullen. Sam declares that she will not negotiate with terrorists, which is CIA policy, meaning that Leo is toast. Uh-oh...

Steven places the mini concussive grenade in the briefcase with the money. When he gets to the standoff, Steven gives Cullen the briefcase despite Sam's protests. Leo agrees, but Steven assures him that he knows what he's doing. Cullen takes Leo as collateral, but warns the agent that he will kill him once they are in safe distance. Leo begins to notice the briefcase and his mind finally starts to work against his panic. At almost the last minute, Leo lunges from Cullen's car and runs like mad. Steven detonates the bomb, stopping Cullen and possibly blowing one of Leo's eardrums in the process.

Los Angeles. California

Again, Shaw debriefs the Blooms on their accomplished mission, but asks Samantha if she knew Steven had the bomb in the briefcase, or was she covering for husband's breach of protocol. After Samantha lies, Steven boasts about how their communication is "second nature" and that they know everything about each other just by one look. That's the most laughable thing in the entire hour.

In the kitchen, Steven stops Lizzy and 'attempts' to pay her for dog and housesitting. Lizzy declines the money, confirming Steven's suspicions. Later that night when Steven talks to Sam about Lizzy, she admits to loaning the money, but she has something else on her mind: their respective pasts. When Sam tries to reveal hers, Steven declares that he doesn't want her to. Sam asks if this is because Steven has something to hide in his past, he swears that's not the case.

But the look on his face as they hug tells a whole different story. Too bad we probably won't ever get to know what those secrets may be...

I am still holding out hope for this show and in NBC to keep it on. Undercovers has the potential to be something great. I personally think it is great, but I don't decide what stays and goes in the world of television. While a huge part of me is begging for the show to continue, I am (unfortunately) preparing myself for the worst.

Hopefully, I will see you next week. If not, then it's been a great short ride. Let's hope that it's the former...

Undercovers 1.04 "Jailbreak" Recap

Tonight's mission on Undercovers featured a device that could blow all of the CIA operatives covers, and the Blooms are called in to save the day... although Carlton Shaw would rather eat a bowl of razors than let the Blooms in on another case.

Berlin, Germany

Two well suited, German men infiltrate a secluded hospital, killing two personnel in the process. They are looking for a patient, who turns out being a psych patient named Mathias Faber, who has a love for jelly beans. The men extract Mathias with promise to return him after he does what they say,

Los Angeles, California

After some morning lovin', Sam and Steven prepare themselves for a catering job meeting, which they seriously need money for. They discover Carlton Shaw in their living room, chilling like a villain and ready to brief them on their next case.

Shaw tells them of an agency informant named Hans Bauer, who claims to have intel on a device, which, if decoded, can compromise the covers of every CIA agent in the field, including Sam and Steven. Shaw gives them the mission: meet an agent in the field and take a meeting with Hans about the device in Berlin, Germany.

After Shaw leaves, Sam worries about their marriage becoming a problem in the field again, but Steven simply says that they turn off the marriage part of their lives while operating in the field and they should be cool. Good luck with that, folks.

At Blooms' Catering, Steven and Sam lock the deal to cater a funeral for their new client, who Lizzy and Lance, another kitchen worker, swoon over. After relaying some advice on the pros of face to face dating versus online dating to her sister, Sam puts Lizzy in charge of the funeral deal, much to the chagrin of the annoyed Lance. Bottom line is that I doubt Lizzy is up for this challenge...

Berlin, Germany

In the middle of a wild, wide courtyard, Hans Bauer waits for Steven to arrive. Sam holds watch from a distance as Steven makes his way to their target. Once so-called pleasantries are exchanged, Hans begins to relay the info he knows on the device. Unbeknownst to the trio, the same two men who kidnapped Mathias Faber are prepping to snipe Hans from afar. Sam spots them and warns Steven, who tries to save Hans, but fails and almost gets killed in the process.

When they make it back to the hotel, Sam scolds Steven for not moving fast enough, which clearly upsets Sam as she thinks about how close to death Steven got. Their bickering is stopped by Hoyt, who looks like a mini-Hugh Hefner in his gold silk pajamas and a complete idiot. After roasting Hoyt, the trio gets to work tracing the car that drove away from the scene of the shooting.

They trace a crest on the car to a club where Steven enters and runs into Leo, who was the actual agent Shaw had for the Blooms to meet. Not Hoyt. After Leo annoys Steven, the two go to work when Steven spots a guy who looks familiar to him, sitting with one of the killers from the hospital. After having Leo follow his lead, Steven plays on the fact that he remembers the guy, who is Ernesto Santos, to get his fingerprints and confirm his name. After Hoyt's search, Sam surmises that with Santos's background, he must be the buyer of the info and the killer being the seller. After they retain the German guy's prints, Hoyt comes up empty with a hit.

The group follows Santos and the German guy to a building. Inside said building, Mathias Faber is told to crack the code in the device. He asks for jelly beans for his troubles. Outside, Sam detects that the only way in is to scale the building, which Steven laughs at until both Leo and Hoyt agree with Sam. This pains Hoyt to go against his fearless leader, but I digress. Once they get up the building, Steven takes out a guard with some nifty high tech laser gun with sight glasses, while Leo takes out a guard on the ground. Sam takes out the security panel and gives access to Hoyt who fills them in about Santos's associate arriving with money to complete the deal. At that moment, Santos's money man arrives with a briefcase.

Meanwhile, the second German guy relieves Mathias from cracking the code, telling him to leave the device. As the exchange happens, the German guys kill Santos and his associate once the money is handed over and counted. They retract Mathias and try to escape the building, but run into the Blooms. A shoot out ensues, but the Germans escape, surprisingly leaving behind the device. Mission completed?

Nope.

Los Angeles, California

At the caterer's kitchen, Lizzy shows off just how ready she is to lead the funeral job, making Sam confident in her choice of doing something right. That confidence is stripped from her as she and Steven have their spines handed to them by Shaw, who is livid that they botched the mission.

Turns out that the device they retrieved was just a decoy and the silver haired German guy behind it all is Karl Becker, once known to be an unreachable arms dealer. As Shaw spews his disgust and extreme disgruntlement to the Blooms' about their failure, he takes them off the case.

Berlin, Germany

Becker and his assistant have Mathias work on the actual code, which Becker demands to be cracked by the morning or else. He even takes Mathias's jelly beans to show that he means business.

Los Angeles, California

While looking at the surveillance footage, the Blooms discover that Mathias is the key to the whole project by looking up the kid's file, which shows how smart Mathias is in math. In short, Mathias IS the code breaking "device." The Blooms take this information to Shaw, who reluctantly allows them back on the case. Hell, in fact he basically didn't have a choice since the Blooms pretty much took the case back. Those Blooms are pretty badass, I tell ya...

Berlin, Germany

The Blooms, Hoyt, and Leo return to Berlin where they infiltrate the mansion where Mathias is being held. Sam and Hoyt pose as electricians, while Leo and Steven wait in the truck as back up where they discuss Steven's flawless skin and moisturizing and exfoliating. This is all from Leo mostly, who I immediately dub a straight version of Jeff Lewis from Bravo's Flipping Out. Anyway...

Mathias cracks the CIA database... and asks for his jelly beans. Becker's associate is marveled. Outside, a guard finds out that the mansion has been compromised, which forces Steven, on instinct, to inform Sam. Leo suggests that Sam can take care of herself, but Steven isn't trying to hear that. What happened to turning off the husband and wife moniker, Steven? Inside the mansion, Sam encounters Becker's associate and gets in a sparing match with him until Becker gets the upper hand and captures her.

Steven enters the mansion kicking ass left and right until he makes it to the room Sam is being held in. After taking out Becker and his associate, Steven has to talk Mathias, who has gotten ahold of Becker's gun, to lowering the weapon. Once the crew is outside, Sam berates Steven for his brash actions, despite Steven's counterclaims of rescuing her. In the end, he sternly tells Sam that he did what he had to do to save his partner. Uh - huh...

Oh, and Hoyt supplies Mathias with more jelly beans.

Los Angeles, California

Shaw debriefs the Blooms on the aftermath of their case: Becker's behind bars and his crime syndicate will fall, while Mathias will be kept in the states under the CIA's care.

After Shaw leaves, Lizzy debriefs them on the funeral catering job, which fell through due to Lizzy hooking up with the client, whose mother didn't approve. The Blooms didn't get paid. Wow.

Later in bed, Steven relents to his earlier sentiment about switching hats in the field, which he admits is impossible. The two kiss and make up. Awww... damn, there goes the cutesie again...

I enjoyed tonight's little soiree with the Blooms and a little birdy has told me that we should find out next week why the Blooms were really reinstated back in the CIA. Translation: I hope you watched tonight so there will actually BE a next week. Please don't let us down, fans!

Undercovers 1.03 "Devices" Recap

'Undercovers': Declassified #2 - "This Is Weird! Let's Just Embrace It..."

Undercovers ramped its game up this week, building upon the mistakes from the pilot and giving us more mystery as to the backgrounds of our two leads, who clearly don't know each other the way they think they do.

Pakistan

A trio of armed men escort a group of business men to a science lab in the middle of the desert. One of the men makes calls an unknown person about making someone do something for them. Once the men escort their employers to the lab, the lead man John opens fire on them, shocking one of his partners named Bruce. After Bruce demands to know why John didn't fill him in on killing people, John says that he knew Bruce wouldn't handle it. Clearly, there is something deeper than partners here. The third man, Hollis Krueger, leaves to cover the front, while Bruce and John (mostly John) take out the lab technicians before claiming their prize, Dr. Nassir. The woman refuses to cooperate until John shows her that they have her husband. Dr. Nassir's attitude quickly changes at this revelation...

California

At Blooms Catering, Sam and Steven bicker over an expensive coffee pot that Steven broke by not reading the instructions on how to operate it. Lizzy interrupts by announcing Carlton Shaw's arrival.

Shaw informs them of Dr. Nassir's kidnapping and that she has the talent to make micro-explosives on top of other technological advances. He gives them their suspects (John, Bruce, and Krueger) and announces that the trio worked on their own. Shaw then whines about the Blooms even being assigned to the case, which he declares "pains him deeply in the groin" since they are still rusty in their espionage... and can't even fix a coffee maker. HA!

Sam informs Lizzy that she's leaving again, which freaks the girl out. Lizzy feels that the Blooms are about to sell the business to the "hotel guy", which could leave her without a job, forcing her back to alcoholism. Sam promises her sister that's not the case, but worries about Lizzy's stability. What's going on with that?

Later that night, Sam and Steven pack and discuss the fact that this will be their first mission together. I guess last week's mission doesn't count? They decide to corner Hollis Krueger first in Turks and Caicos, with Sam as lead and Steven as back up.

Turks & Caicos

Sam approaches Hollis Krueger and puts the charm on. He buys the seduction hook, line, and sinker. Hoyt enters the sting as a cabana boy and immediately grates both of the Blooms' nerves as he is a bit too weird in his role. Gotta love the guy, though. He later gives Steven the tools needed to break into Krueger's room and snoop around, which include a safe cracker and a tracking device. Steven leaves for the room while Sam keeps Hollis preoccupied. Meanwhile in Stockholm, Dr. Nassir is hassled by guards who rush her to finish the job. She informs them she will be ready by the end of the day.

Once in the room, Steven cracks the safe and finds an envelope with documents written in Arabic. Steven can't read Arabic, although Sam does, and instructs her to lure Krueger back to his room. While he waits, Steven plants a tracking device in Krueger's watch, which Hoyt tries to instruct Steven on activating it, but gets brushed off. I smell trouble down the line because of this.

When Sam and Krueger reaches the room, Krueger plants a kiss on Sam, which is where she draws the line. She knocks him silly, straight into the barrel of Steven's gun, who is behind him.

The trio of spies interrogate Krueger, who plays dumb and blames everything on John Sidel. He claims that John sent him to deliver the Arabic papers to someone else tonight at a bar. After searching for the address on the envelop, Sam discovers that the papers are from John Sidel's residence, which is in Caracas. Steven suggests Sam and Hoyt go to Caracas, while he stays behind and monitors the exchange. After Steven requests for Sam to not kiss anyone else while she is gone, the two enter their trademark banter, which is fueled by Hoyt wanting to stay with Steven instead of going with Sam. I bet this guy has more than a man crush on Steven.

Caracas

After doing recon on the Sidel residence, Sam and Hoyt enter the home and encounter Bruce Sidel, who gives them a chase. Hoyt stops him with their car and the two interrogate him on what's going on. Turns out that John is dead by Krueger's hand, which also tried to take down Bruce as well. In short, Krueger is their real target. The sad part about this is Steven just lost Krueger in the bar. Uh oh...

California

Shaw is livid about Krueger's escape, especially since Steven didn't even activate the tracking device rght. Why didn't he do that? Because he didn't read the instructions. All together now: "D'oh!" Shaw has run out of patience and has decided to bring in Leo Nash to help activate the tracker and snatch Krueger. Steven is not thrilled about this, while Sam is indifferent. Leo is all smiles, because come on, he's Leo!

After Shaw leaves, Leo tries to take command, but Steven reminds him that he is only there for tech and tech only. Lizzy enters the room with a quiche she made, which Leo uses as a tool for flirting. Steven drags him away, while Lizzy fawns over Leo's charm. Sam declares Leo off limits due to him being an alcoholic and Lizzie being a recovery alcoholic, which won't mesh. I smell a potential storyline with this scenario.

At the Blooms' home, Steven tries to fix the coffee maker while Leo attempts to activate the track, which he says is in sleep mode, but it will take some time to activate it. Leo also notices that Steven has a some pent up anger towards him, deducting that it has something with him "doing sex with Sam." He said it, not I. The two men then argue/bicker over who slept with who when until Leo brings up if Sam knows what was going on with Steven when the two quit the service. Steven sternly says it was because he and Sam wanted a normal life. Leo knows this is bull, but the tracking device activates, telling the two that Krueger is in Stockholm. Hmm...

Stockholm

Kruegar's goons try out the first bomb, which packs a hell of a punch. Later, Dr. Nassir begs Krueger if she can see her husband, but he pretty much ignores her.

As Leo gloats about being on a mission with both Blooms for the first time, he mentions incidents from both of their pasts. They ask him to stop. After they pick up Hoyt, the group heads to the location, which is a ship at dock. After entering they find a wounded Dr. Nassir, who says Krueger shot her, but left no whereabouts of her husband. She does tell them Krueger went to a business summit which is not far from their location.

As Hoyt stays with Dr. Nassir, Steven, Sam, and Leo arrive at the summit and get news from Hoyt that Krueger has the bomb planted in his cell phone. Security has been collecting all phones at the metal detector entranceway. Sam sends Leo and Steven to find Kruegar, while she finds the phone, but boy she has crap load of phones to sift through.

As Sam finds the cell phone, Steven spots Krueger and proceeds to chase him. Sam takes the phone and run.  Hoyt informs her of two red wires in the phone from Dr. Nassir before the woman passes out. Steven catches up to Krueger and the two have a brawl in the front of the building. Sam figures out that the correct wire isn't a red one, but the sole black wire, which she cuts to deactivate the bomb. Phew! Leo shows up late as hell. Ass.

Debriefing

Shaw informs the Blooms and Leo of the aftermath of Krueger's operation and that Leo will now be a part of their team on a semi-permanent basis based on his expertise, which Leo says is unlimited. I'm sure. Leo the flirts with Sam, which leaves Steven uncomfortable.

Later that night, Steven voices his concern about Leo, who he thinks still loves Sam in some way. Mrs. Bloom convinces her husband that despite Leo's knowledge of her past, that is simply what it is: her past. If only it were that simple, Sam...

So what did you guys think of tonight's episode? Better than the pilot? (I loved it.) Sound off in our forums!

Undercovers 1.02 "Instructions" Recap