"Alcatraz" - DVR Record Series Options: ALL NEW EPISODES.

Easy call. If the first two episodes of Fox's new mystery-drama "Alcatraz" (8 p.m. tonight) are any indication, I'm enthusiastically in.

The premise of this captivating new JJ Abrams show is that when the legendary Alcatraz prison shut down in March of 1963 and prisoners and guards were transferred off the island, 302 of them vanished into thin air. Then suddenly, the missing people begin showing up one by one in present day San Francisco. The action of the show flips back and forth in time from 1960 (or 1963) to 2012.

The missing, dubbed The 63s, are being tracked by federal agent Emerson Hauser, played by a scowling Sam Neill. Neill, who can be menacing in the role, has a unique connection to The Rock and to the missing 63s. Sarah Jones plays San Francisco detective Rebecca Madsen, one of those beautiful-but-slightly-damaged TV cops that every crime show apparently needs. Her damage (at least the damage we know about so far): her last partner was killed in front of her in the line of duty and her parents died when she was a child. She was raised by "uncle" Ray (Robert Forster), who was a guard on Alcatraz, as was her long-deceased grandfather.

The last installment of Luci's 3-part "Lost" finale recap (read  part 2):

SPOILER ALERT

A taxi arrives at a church. It's Real Locke in WITPDCAR. He gets into his wheelchair. He sees Ben outside. Ben apologizes for everything. "I was selfish. Jealous. You were special, John. And I wasn't." "Ben, if it helps, I forgive you." Ben chooses to stay outside even though everyone else is inside. (A self-imposed penance perhaps?) Ben tells Locke he doesn't need the wheelchair anymore and Locke walks into the church on his own two legs.

More from Luci Chavez on last night's "Lost" finale (read part 1 of recap here):

Juliet, Claire and David (Dylan Minnette) are walking into he concert in WITPDCAR. Juliet has to go back to the hospital, I presume. Charlie is passed out in the green room until the lovely Charlotte wakes him. "I got shot by a fat man." Daniel Farraday/Widmore (Jeremy Davies) is in the green room, too. He and Charlotte meet.

Outside, David and Claire sit at Table 23 with Desmond and Kate. (The producers think they're so cute.) Dr. Chang is emceeing the event. It is his museum after all. Daniel Widmore is going to jam with Drive Shaft while playing classical piano. Highly unlikely in real life because, in my mind, Drive Shaft is basically Oasis but I don't even care because there is Charlie with his bass looking just shy of sober! Yeah!!!!

Our "Lost" recapper Luci Chavez on last night's finale. Luci will be
hosting a live chat on the finale today at the News & Observer site
at noon. Please join her! 

I have bogarted other people's DVR's to watch Lost. I have stayed up until 3-4 a.m. after late Duke basketball games to watch Lost.

I have vigilantly avoided nearly all internet speculation about Lost for the past three years. I've put friends under radio silence so as to avoid spoiling one second of the best TV show ever.

Consider what a TV show needs to do to inspire that kind of devotion and
emotion every week.

Now multiply it by 150.

The payoff came Sunday night while watching the 2 1/2-hour series
finale.

The series finale of Lost was grand and epic yet achingly intimate and personal. While Lindelcuse stayed true to the show's "what the hell was that" roots with an ending left open to interpretation, it satisfied me emotionally in every way.

Our "Lost" blogger Luci Chavez on last night's episode. If you want to email her and commiserate, go for it.

There is a candidate. And as much as I want to scream and rail, now knowing who it is, I cannot. We knew it all along.

Sunday cannot come soon enough. I am not sure how much more of this my TV heart can take.

SPOILER ALERT

Our "Lost" blogger Luci Chavez was traumatized by this week's episode. Here's her report.

I am undone.

SPOILER ALERT

Los Angeles. Hospital. What If The Plane Didn't Crash Alternate Reality (WITPDCAR). Real Locke (Terry O'Quinn) post surgery with Foxy (Matthew Fox), who tells about his accident. Foxy back to being the hero. He mentions to John that he had a look at Locke's first injury and thinks he can fix it. "You're a candidate." Give him a shot, John. Foxy can do miracles, too, ya know. Locke says no and then the lovely Katey Segal, as Helen, looking so different than she does on Sons of Anarchy, arrives.

"Lost" blogger Luci Chavez weighs in on this week's episode.

Jack is acting strange and there's absolutely NO sexual tension fueling the Jack, Kate and Sawyer luuuv triangle. What the hell is going on?

Someone better dial up the 'shipper angst in these final four + two episodes or I'm going to go off. Kate and Jack. Sawyer and Kate. Jack and Sawyer. I don't care. Someone better start making eyes at someone and with a quickness!!!

An incredible episode. Sides still forming, evolving AND changing plus the reunion I'd been screaming for for months. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. May 24 is a month away. Deep breaths.

SPOILER ALERT

 Our "Lost" blogger Luci Chavez on last night's episode...

Nothing makes me happier than seeing the gang all back together in this Hurley-centric episode. But the Tryon Road Council of One is still deliberating the wisdom of Hugo taking a leadership role in this nasty conundrum we know as Lost.

The big shibiznit is coming and it's going to be bloody. There will come a time when someone needs to straight-up shoot someone or bash someone in the head with a gun or a boot or a tree branch. Hurley, God love him, isn't THAT guy.

This makes me so nervous for the end, and by the end, I mean five episodes from now.

SPOILER ALERT.

The latest from our "Lost" junkie, Luci Chavez...

Emmy-winner Michael Emerson does an exceptional job playing the character of Ben Linus. To the extent, I possess an undying hatred of the character.

Or do I?

Characters continue to choose sides for the final showdown. Nine episodes left before the two-hour series finale.

SPOILER ALERT

  Our "Lost" junkie Luci Chavez reports on this week's episode:

I'm late on this one. So should I warn you not to read it unless you've seen the episode?

Yeah. SPOILER ALERT.

Great episode including real information about how long the "candidates" have been "candidates for island presidency." I appreciate real information. But I appreciate Dr. Feelgood episodes even more.