In June 2011, "Alcatraz" was one of eight honorees in the "Most Exciting New Series" category at the 1st Critics' Choice Television Awards, elected by journalists who had seen the pilots. It has an aggregate score of 63/100 on Metacritic, denoting "generally favorable reviews". "Newsday"s Verne Gay liked the series, but stated "'Traz' shares some of the DNA of "The 4400" (of all shows) with a strand or two stripped from the genetic code of "FlashForward". Love all these aforementioned worthies." Robert Bianco of "USA Today" wrote: ""Alcatraz" is easy enough to follow, with twists and surprises that are enjoyable and not enervating. But you still may leave it wondering how long it will be before there are eight timelines and six universes." "New York"s Matt Zoller Seitz panned the series, saying, "The characters are so TV cute (and in some cases TV pretty) and the storytelling so mechanical, that I couldn't give myself over to it either way."