Monday TV in Review: Alcatraz, Lost Girl, Being Human and much more

Anna Silk Something under an excellent escape, Fox's intriguing but formulaic Alcatraz (8/7c), from people of Lost's brain trust, proves a reasonably tough "Rock" to hack. Essentially a procedural having a 4400-style fantasy gimmick, this twists the America's Popular concept by getting its parade of criminals leave the shadowy past: 250-odd inmates from the well known California prison who disappeared in 1963 and therefore are now all of a sudden coming back, without getting aged each day, on missions of mayhem."No a person's likely to have the ability to locate them because they do not exist," growls hard-boiled Mike Neill because the enigmatic agent responsible for a secret task pressure, a walking scowl you never know a lot more than he's letting on. A positive thing, since the mysteries from the mythology - Where were they during the last half-century? Who's tugging their violent strings? - tend to be more compelling compared to plodding mechanics from the weekly manhunt, brought by Sarah Johnson like a generically spunky detective designated towards the team, possibly due to her very own family link with the Large Mystery.Character is initially subsumed through the show's high concept, regardless of the engaging presence of Lost's Jorge Garcia like a wiser-than-he-looks Alcatraz scholar who arrives for that ride, though he's worries once he becomes conscious of the risk they are all in. "This is not a comic book-book world, could it be?Inch he miracles in tonight's second hour of back-to-back chases. (Might have misled me.) Earlier, because the premise starts to show itself, he marvels, "Is anybody else's mind overflowing at this time?Inch If only.Want more fall TV news? Sign up for TV Guide Magazine now!It is the libido that's overflowing on Syfy's provocative Lost Girl (10/9c), a saucy Canadian import that owes a large debt to Buffy the Vampire Slayer within the sexually billed misadventures of the soul-drawing succubus named Bo (Anna Silk, an action-figure version of Mary Louise Parker). Bo knows she's special - her literal hug of dying is really a giveaway - but she needs to discover the painfully costly way that's she area of the "Fae" race and should decide to follow either the sunshine or Dark subculture. "I wasn't expecting Thunderdome," she wisecracks when offer a violent survival test.With the aid of a punk partner (scene stealer Ksenia Solo), Bo forges her very own path, attempting to keep her lethal desires in check, and also the action and whimsy help make amends for a general flatness within the relaxation from the ensemble casting and low-budget production. I am still waiting to become lured - but Lost Girl has already been well into its second season in Canada, so there's sufficient time for this to locate its way.Lost Girl has been scheduled like a companion piece towards the second season of Syfy's underwhelming adaptation from the British Being Human (9/8c), where casting is much more of the problem. (The far superior original is coming back to BBC America for any 4th season on February. 25, but minus some key cast people, therefore it remains to appear how good which will endure.)In Syfy's version from the three-wizards-discussing-a-house premise, occur a really unconvincingly photoshopped (in Montreal) Boston, dark-and-handsome Mike Witwer costs the very best at offerring the timeless angst of reluctant vampire leader Aidan, and the may be the most powerful story, evoking the metaphor (familiar from Twilight, True Bloodstream and also the Vampire Journals, to title only a couple of) of feeding as addiction. Abstaining from live kills though sorely enticed, Aidan finds themself playing babysitter and consultant towards the Vampire Queen's daughter Suren, a pouty "errant princess" he or she must groom to seize control from the Boston pack. As performed by Dollhouse's exotic Dichen Lachman (who does not appear until next Monday's episode), Suren brings some much-needed attitude for this largely toothless enterprise.Aidan's roomies, serious werewolf Josh (Mike Huntington, mugging as though he were inside a sitcom) and shrill ghost Sally (the intolerable Meaghan Rath), are less palatable company, also it does not help that Huntington has zero chemistry with Kristen Hager because the nurse/girlfriend he might have switched wolf throughout the final full moon. (Tough to imagine, but MTV's Teen Wolf is telling this kind of story with a lot more verve, wit and elegance.)Because the show's title indicates, what these figures desire most importantly is normalcy, the feeling of being human. (Sally's best moment, in episode 2, comes when she takes having a partygoer's body and it is completely in a position to go through the various senses again, if perhaps briefly.) I'd be satisfied with them just being interesting.A couple of more highlights on which is turning to be considered a very busy holiday weekend:STILL Whitened HOT: Who does not love Betty Whitened? (That's not really a leading or rhetorical question cynics do not need to respond.) The revered performer is formally turning 90 Tuesday, but NBC is honoring her still-vibrant career and existence tonight using the prime-time special Betty White's 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America's Golden Girl (8/7c). Among individuals turning up: her co-stars in the legendary The Mary Tyler Moore Show - sadly, Whitened may be the only making it through person in The Golden Women - and her current cohorts on Hot in Cleveland, plus comedy best Carl Reiner and Carol Burnett. (Like a bonus, Hallmark Funnel is airing an 11-hour "Rose's Finest Hits" marathon of Golden Women classics, beginning at 3 pm/2c.)And lest you believe Whitened is slowing down lower, NBC is following a all-star party having a sneak take a look at her latest venture, the hidden-camera comedy-reality show Betty White's Off Their Rockers (9:30/8:30c), a Punk'd gone AARP by which seniors engineer pranks on naive whippersnappers. In some way I believe spreading the word among involved to develop up wouldn't do much good.THEIR ROOTS ARE SHOWING: More stories been told by, as The famous host oprah Winfrey opens her California the place to find cast people of 1 of TV's most famous and popular miniseries within the OWN special The famous host oprah and also the Legendary Cast of Roots 35 Years Later (8/7c). Once the sprawling dramatization of Alex Haley's family history and genealogical best-seller first broadcast in 1977, it had been a genuine phenom, drawing a typical audience of nearly 80 million. From her family room in Montecito, symbolic for a lot of of methods far African-People in america came because the era of slavery, The famous host oprah interviews Cicely Tyson, LeVar Burton, John Amos, Leslie Uggams, Louis Gossett Junior. and Ben Vereen regarding their participation within this legendary broadcast.Bits And Pieces: Have you spot the clean-shaven, shorter-haired version of Ashton Kutcher showing in the Golden Globes Sunday evening? On tonight's 2 . 5 Males (9/8c, CBS), discover how that found pass. ... One half-hour earlier, funny lady Jennifer Coolidge visitors on 2 Broke Women (8:30/7:30c) because the girls' new upstairs neighbor. ... Scams threaten longtime associations, when NY's mayor and Castle's patron (Derek Webster) is involved inside a murder analysis on ABC's Castle (10:01/9:01c), as well as on CBS' Hawaii Five- (10/9c), McGarrett confronts Joe Whitened (Terry O'Quinn) as he discovers some shocking news from Face Ho, while Danny's ex-wife adopts early labor. ... First lady Michelle Obama seems on Nickelodeon's iCarly (7:30/6:30c) within an episode praising military families like Carly's.Sign up for TV Guide Magazine now!