J.J. Abrams seems to be in 100 places at once these days. And one of them at least involves a new Fox pilot that takes place at the infamous Alcatraz prison: "A show about mysteries, secrets and the most infamous prison of all time: Alcatraz."
Details are pretty sketchy beyond that, though Lost executive producer Elizabeth Sarnoff will be involved with the project, and Abrams' Bad Robot (the logo of which I'll always associate with a massive Alias marathon that I happily endured some years back) will produce along with Warner Bros.
Reading into the show description, it sounds like some of the puzzles and riddles of Lost are going to be brought into a prison environment.
Shows and even films about jail can be challenging because it's easy to go into super grim and unredeemingly brutal territory, or on the flipside over-the-top cliché. Prison Break managed to walk the line remarkably well through most of its run by keeping the intensity level high while making sure to give us a nod and wink every few minutes that it was okay to roll with this over-the-top but largely enjoyable adventure. Meanwhile Oz explored the far reaches of the dark side of prison life but held a remarkably high standard as its acting and writing was consistently strong, no easy to feat to repeat at that.
With Abrams on board here, I could see a fun show with a Prison Break meets Lost vibe, with perhaps a sprinkle of Warehouse 13 thrown in on the sci fi side.
