Like an old-timer lag who’s finally managed to file his way through a set of heavy iron bars and make good his escape, Alcatraz is beginning to hit its stride. But there needs to be a great deal more good behaviour displayed yet before it makes parole.

It’s still well-made TV (although the scripts continue to sound like a couple more drafts wouldn’t go amiss), but in this age of so many channels demanding our attention, giving up an hour a week for this show is beginning to frustrate – and not in a good way.

Despite all that, this is probably the strongest episode yet, despite – in fact, because of – the fact that, generally speaking, not a great deal is going on in terms of the over-reaching story arc. Normally, this would be an excuse for an episode to spin its wheels, plot-wise, but in fact this gives us some breathing space to spend some time concentrating on the actual, you know, characters.

Now that Alcatraz is confident enough to dispense with the previously seemingly obligatory scene where a SixtyThree ‘arrives’ in each episode, it frees the story from having to return to an origin backstory each time we meet that week’s Big Bad. Now, once the episode has begun, we can discover that the villain has already escaped some time ago, is already getting up to his old tricks, and, somewhat surprisingly, is already in gainful employment.

Yes, we might be in the middle of a full blown recession, but it’s still possible for a Rockabilly Psychopath from the wrong side of the Sixties to get a whole number of jobs, only moving on when he kills off the clientele. It’s a moot point as to whether, if you’re something of a serial killer, you should spend a lot of time hanging around with people who will treat you like dirt and encourage you to get all Poison-Pill happy, but then, as a serial killer, you’re probably not expecting to have to explain your logic.

Footage of some of the deaths are transmitted to Soto, who appears to be plugged in to a snuff movie version of YouTube, and whose burgeoning affection for Cute Geek who Works With Corpses probably indicates that one of them (not necessarily her) will end up being a Damsel In Distress before this season’s out.

Soto gets Hauser and Madsen onto the case, but the latter is still in very great danger of being irrelevant in her own show. There’s not nearly enough edge, wit, or – crucially – basic police procedural training displayed to identify her as one of the main cast members.

Of course, for a show like this, it’s all very well to play the tease, and not give us any answers too early on (as frustrating as we, the audience) might find that. And it’s also acceptable, if risky, to have the guest stars sketched more interestingly than the regular cast. But the show needs to decide who we’re rooting for.

We don’t see enough of Sarah Jones’ character, or her backstory, and Jorge Garcia as Soto gets to steal all the best lines and looks. At the other end of the room, Sam Neill does abrasive and obstructive well enough, but there doesn’t seem to be really enough texture in his text for us to doubt that he’s anything other than a Good Guy, which makes his cover-ups that we’ve seen so far somewhat nonsensical.

Even for a show all about getting lost in the questions, Alcatraz needs to have more faith in its inmates, and fast. Otherwise we can consider throwing away the key.

Aired at 9pm on Tuesday 24th April 2012 on Watch.

> Order the Season 1 boxset on Amazon.

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