Anyone else watching Fox's new drama series Alcatraz? I started out with really high hopes for this midseason replacement show, thinking with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot producing, and Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) involved, I'd automatically love it. Not so. At least, not yet.

With new shows, I really try to make an effort to see multiple episodes before I either get on board or pull the plug. I'm trying with Alcatraz, but I'm not sure I'll make it. It's decent, but not outstanding (like Fringe or Lost).I like the concept of Alcatraz: In 1963, 300+ inmates and guards at the infamous Alcatraz prison vanished. The cover story is that they were transferred to other secure facilities, but hey, this is J.J. Abrams - we all know that's not what went down. Decades later, these hardened criminals begin returning. And they haven't aged. (Everybody now: "Ooooooooooh." Thank you.)

Enter San Francisco homicide detective Rebecca Madsen. Madsen believes her grandfather was a guard at Alcatraz, and in the pilot episode, we see her see him - as he looked nearly 40 years ago. Without giving too much away (in case you've got all the episodes on TiVo and haven't watched yet): Rebecca's grandfather kills her partner. This eventually leads her to FBI agent Emerson Hauser and teams her up with Dr. Diego Soto (Garcia), an expert on all things Alcatraz-related.

Now here's the thing: Each week, a different prisoner returns and begins committing crimes. Rebecca and Doc Soto are usually right on their tails, with help from Hauser. We don't know a lot about Hauser. Lots of questions. How are these men not aging? Where were they for 40 years? I don't have a problem at all with unanswered questions (I was a die-hard Lost fan, after all). I do, however, have a problem with the prisoners: They're all horrible, terrible, dastardly, no-good people. I don't care about them. There's nothing there to make me FEEL anything for them, other than total disdain.

If I want to get into this show (and really, we've got 290 or so prisoners left to see), I need to identify with, and like, at least more than one character. I love Jorge Garcia. Period. He's great in Alcatraz - same witty banter that made us love Hurley so much. But I'm not sure about Sarah Jones as Rebecca. Can she carry this show? Because it looks like that's what she's being asked to do. Sam Neill, as the super-secret Agent Hauser, almost seems like a cartoon character.

Bottom line: Approach Alcatraz with caution. I'm going to stick things out a bit longer, but I can't guarantee yet that I'll make it to the end. I'd say this is a "TiVo just in case" kind of series.