ALCATRAZ - "Only That's Not What Happened" (2012)

 "Alcatraz" was a TV show from 2012 that lasted for thirteen episodes. I've watched five or six so far, and I still haven't figured out whether I like it or not. And that's the reason it's this week's Weird Wednesday feature.

We went to Alcatraz a few years ago. This is what it looks like on this show.

 

It doesn't look near as ominous when the sun is out. 

It's really a remarkable place, and well worth visiting if you're ever in "the city by the bay," and the bonus is, there's no homeless people on the rock.

Supposedly when they closed the prison in 1963, they transferred all the prisoners someplace else, but that's not what really happened!

 

Now they are all showing up in the present day hellbent on death and destruction, with no knowledge of where they've been or why they're acting the way they are.

The main characters are a strange amalgamation that include Sarah (Sons Of Anarchy) Jones as Detective Rebecca Madsen.

Detective Madsen picks comic book store owner Dr. Diego Soto as her partner, not because he has any crime fighting experience, but because he is an authority on Alcatraz. Jorge (Lost) Garcia has the role of the good Doctor.

And then there's Sam (Jurassic Park) Neil as Emerson Hauser, a fellow who you don't know whether you can trust or not. Six episodes in, and I'm still not sure of his alliances.

That's the main crew, but there are a bunch of peripheral characters who flesh out the cast, like Johnny (Nightcrawler) Coyne, as The Warden Edwin James, who is a cross between Ed Asner, Al Bundy, and Benito Mussolini.

I'm pretty sure Doctor Milton Beauregard as played by Leon (Eight Legged Freaks) Rippy is the one responsible for most of the nonsense that's going on.

Paraminder (Intergalactic) Nagra is Dr. Lucy Banerjee, and is in every episode, but in the last four I watched, she was in a coma.

 

Robert (Twin Peaks) Forster is Ray Archer and is about as natural actor as you can find. He just looks like somebody you know, maybe his 189 credits have something to do with it. Robert just passed away in 2019 at the age of 78

 

To complicate things even more, Detective Madsen finds out that her Grandfather Tommy Madsen was one of the convicts who has returned, and is also the man she's hunting for killing her partner in the first episode. David (Crossbones) Hoflin plays Tommy Madsen.

Just for the record, in between the joking around, this is a very violent show, and all the prisoners are very mean spirited!

This is why Lucy is in a coma! 

 It's not real smart to stand in front of a window when you're on the trail of a sniper with a high powered rifle.

Without a doubt, Detective Madsen has got her work cut out for her!

Here's a couple more pictures I took in 2009.

This is one of the views the prisoners would have had!