Alias - The Complete First Season
by Barnet Kellman, Daniel Attias, Davis Guggenheim, Harry Winer, J.J. Abrams
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Actor: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Merrin Dungey, Michael Vartan, Ron RifkinDirector: Barnet Kellman, Daniel Attias, Davis Guggenheim, Harry Winer, J.J. Abrams
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Spanish (Original Language); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 1007 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Product features:
- Golden Globe Award-winning actress Jennifer Garner (Best Actress In A Television Series, 2002) is Sydney Bristow. Syd's not exactly your average grad student. Her life might appear normal, but she's hiding a secret life working as a spy for the CIA. Sydney's world is turned upside down when she learns she may work for the very enemy she thought she was fighting. Now she's entangled
DVD Reviews of Alias - The Complete First Season
DVD Review: The Crying Spy and her tear-filled adventures
Summary: 4 Stars
If you've ever watched a James Bond movie and said to yourself: "This flick is good an all, but it would REALLY be better if Bond was a girl, if he wore a bunch of wigs, if instead of killing his enemies he'd just beat them up so they could come back after him, and ESPECIALLY if he cried all the time," then Alias is the program for you!
Watching Alias just makes me realize how much I love the series "24," because all the things Alias does wrong, 24 does right. Both series debuted at the same time, with 24 the critical and ratings champ and Alias dubbed "24 for teenagers." I still think that's funny, mostly because it's sort of true. I've found that generally one is a fan of one series more than the other; rarely will you find someone who claims to like both shows equally. It really comes down to a matter of taste in what you look for in your action programming.
Alias is sort of like a better-budgeted, WB-type, teenager-oriented show, i.e. "Smallville" and "Buffy." Because, like those shows, Alias is a series afraid to take risks, one which instead chooses to string viewers along with empty threats and promises, only very occasionally delivering to its full potential. This is why I consider 24 a better program; as any 24 fan well knows, that program is never afraid to take a risk. You see, much like a comic book, death is rarely final in Alias, with characters previously considered dead returning to raise more mischief. Villains are allowed to escape freely while our hero weeps uncontrollably. Romantic tension arises and continues unchecked between what are supposed to be hard-bitten, world-weary spies. Agents are able to go out on perilous missions and survive with nothing more than a wig and a stunt-doubled high-kick. Yep, it's "24 for teenagers," all right.
Season 1 is often considered the best yet of Alias, and I'll agree, though I found the first half of Season 3 to be more entertaining (probably because it was in some ways similar to the grimmer and tougher 24). Melodrama is thick this first time out, but nowhere near the levels it would later reach. The pace is also quicker in most episodes, which basically are constructed like a video game (basic outline for every episode: our hero Sydney receives her mission, gets a countermission from the CIA, goes out, gets in a fight, comes home, cries). There's also more of a sense of fun this first season, something that was lost as the series progressed.
Most know the plot by now, but just for posterity: Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a super-agent for secret agency SD-6, which is controlled by the steely Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin, always a highlight). After revealing her true profession to her fiancée, Syd is horrified to discover that Sloane has him killed, as SD-6 protocol demands the death of any non-agent who discovers the agency's existence. Soon Syd also discovers that SD-6 in fact has nothing to do with the US Government; instead, it's another arm of the evil Alliance organization, Bond's SPECTRE nemeses in everything but name. She's shocked yet again to learn that her father (scene-stealing Victor Garber as Jack Bristow, probably the only character in this series who could survive in the world of 24) is also a member of SD-6, as well as a counter-agent who truly works for the CIA. Syd continues the family tradition of counter-spying and also begins to covertly work for the CIA, where she provides intel to and receives counter-missions from the hawk-nosed and pinch-faced Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan, fresh from "Never Been Kissed"), who soon develops non-espionage-related feelings toward her, and vice versa.
That's mostly the gist of Season 1: Syd receiving missions from SD-6 and the CIA, secretly transmitting data back to Vaughn, and maintaining her cover. Soon however a secondary plot emerges, one that is at first engaging, but in later seasons becomes frustrating: the Rimbaldi riddle. Sloane is enamored with this Renaissance-era inventor who created several devices which were centuries ahead of their time, and sends Syd on multiple missions to locate and retrieve many of these contraptions. So even if spy stuff isn't your bag, there are some Indiana Jones-type hijinks as well. Some "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" garbage, too, as Sydney unfortunately (for the intelligent viewer) discovers that she might be connected to a "prophecy" Rimbaldi devised. Don't worry though, as this ridiculous element isn't really brought to the fore until the lame-brained second half of Season 3.
Unlike 24, Alias follows more of a compact structure, with only a few multiple-part episodes. Usually plots are wrapped up in one episode, with minor subplots carrying over. This means that the series has a frustrating knack for recapping what's been going on every few episodes, which is especially irritating when viewing on DVD. There are also several episodes which serve as nothing more than an obvious gambit to gain new viewers, similar to those "flashback episodes" sitcoms like "Family Ties" would throw at you every few seasons. But whereas those shows would resort to this only after having been on the air for a few years, Alias does it a mere handful of episodes in.
Much is made of the pilot episode, and it probably is one of the very best episodes in the show's history. Paying tribute to "Run Lola Run" and the more recent Bond flicks, this extra-long episode looks and feels like a compact, well-done film. The two-parter with Quentin Tarantino as rogue SD-6 agent McKenna Cole, later in the season, is also enjoyable. A "Die Hard" tribute (the terrorists pull up to SD-6 headquarters in a van bearing the name "McTiernan Air Conditioning," referencing that film's director), this story is harmed only by the fact that Syd has nothing to do in it; she spends the majority of the first part just trying to gain access to an elevator shaft. Better yet is another two-parter, toward the end of the season, in which Syd encounters a former boyfriend, who's also an SD-6 agent. However this story is also ruined, as it's totally obvious who the guy really is.
Anyway, Alias is a fun show with a strong cast, good production values, and at least for this season, solid writing. It does drive me crazy how Sydney is able to get along on her missions by just punching out her enemies "Buffy"-style, but if "Charlie's Angels" is your thing, you won't mind. It's just that the occasional melodrama, goofy Rimbaldi junk, and incessant crying drags the show down.
Description of Alias - The Complete First Season
Sydney bristow is a part-time grad student and a full-time spy for the c.I.A.s super-covert sd-6 division. One problem sd-6 isnt really a division of the c.I.A. Once sydney learns this secret her life will be in constant danger as she sets out to bring the terrorist leaders of sd-6 to justice. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 12/26/2008 Starring: Jennifer Garner Michael Vartan Run time: 990 minutes Director: J.j. AbramsSydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a super (and super sexy) spy, fighting nefarious villains and working for the good guys--or so she thinks. Recruited as a college freshman for espionage work, Sydney found her true calling with SD-6, a secret division of the CIA. When her hunky doctor-boyfriend proposes to her, she decides to let him in on the truth she's not supposed to tell anyone: she's not a grad student with a demanding job for an international bank, but a secret agent who constantly puts her life on the line for the free world. But when SD-6 discovers her security breach, her fiancé is brutally assassinated, and Sydney suddenly finds herself face-to-face with the truth: she's been working for the bad guys. Deciding to become a double agent for the CIA and bring down the evildoers, Sydney gets one more surprise--her estranged father (Victor Garber) is also working for SD-6, and the CIA as well. Welcome to the family, Syd!
Confusing? This is all just in the first episode of Alias, the brainchild of Felicity creator J.J. Abrams that plays like a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and James Bond. With its double-edged tension (how long can Syd play double agent?) and one heck of a MacGuffin (the dreaded Rambaldi device, the mythic creation of a Renaissance genius), the show leads its viewers from episode to episode with visceral, compelling action, not to mention the nascent romance between Syd and her CIA handler, Vaughn (Michael Vartan), and her clashes with her heretofore distant father. Sharp, smart, and always suspenseful, Alias' center was held by the gorgeous Garner, a stellar action heroine and an even better actress who could pull off Sydney's exotic undercover missions and conflicted emotions with equal dexterity. By the end of this first season, which concludes with a breathtaking cliffhanger, you'll be seduced into Alias' world with, happily, no desire to escape. --Mark Englehart
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