But I chose to watch it anyway, even amid the reputation that the show becomes downright dreadful itself by the end. I'm glad I for some reason decided to watch it, because this show is way better than I expected. This is a thrill-a-minute, episode cliffhangers-galore type of show. Usually those type of shows can't sustain the suspense throughout the show's run. Doesn't matter for me at least because I'm only committing to the first two seasons.
I'm most pleased with the show's ability to create episode after episode of multiple spy missions, drama, and kick-ass fights without losing the audience even once. None of the missions ever really felt like they were just stalling for time (well except for the clip show, but that feels like a network mandate). And a show such as this could have easily coasted on one awesome spy mission an episode that would have gone at the end and it would have been something resembling a procedural. But that's not at all what Alias did. As weird as it sounds, it let the story develop organically and just wrote what they thought would come next, not designed the episode for a spy mission at the end. That they somehow do this while still maintaining cliffhangers at the end of each episode is really impressive.
Jennifer Garner is surprisingly great in this role. My one quibble is whenever she cries - and she cries a whole lot in this season. But otherwise, she displays impressive range when she has to act like she's acting like another person in the show. If that makes sense. It's probably one of the hardest things to do in acting. Anyway, it's easy to underrate her performance given her latter career, but she really does do a good job as Sydney Bristow.
Then there's a pretty damn good supporting cast, better than most shows. Victor Garber, the veteran TV actor, is fantastic as the father who needs to show emotion with how little emotion he shows. He's surpassed only by Ron Rifkin, who steals the show. Watching Rifkin is worth choosing to watch this show by itself. He elevates this show past what it probably deserves to be. He plays the villain of the show and it's easy to be a caricature, but Rifkin makes him much more terrifying as someone who seems like a real person. (Adding on to that is the creepy dad-like role he plays to Sydney.) Then there's Carl Lumbly, who made me wonder why he's not in more things, and Bradley Cooper, who shows why he became famous.
One of the weaknesses to the show - and this may just be inherently a problem for this type of show - is that Sydney's "other life" is rarely interesting. When you're avoiding death and kicking ass, is there even a chance you can make normal life seem just as compelling? Probably not. The writers certainly did us no favors though trying to make us care about whether or not Charlie cheats on Francie. They made Cooper's story interesting because he's a reporter with seemingly everything against him - it's basically Enemy of the State. Plus, it eventually interspersed with Sydney's story.
As far as the love triangle is concerned, bleh. I could do without it. Michael Vartan is decent in this role. I'm not exactly clamoring for him to be with Sydney. And Will's not really even going after Sydney for some reason. Probably because they needed Syndey to have a love triangle and not for any viable reason.
That said, the "Lost" aspects of the show - the parts that made it obvious JJ Abrams was apart of this - I ate up. It still doesn't make sense to me why Rambaldi's prophet-like predictions matter so much to these governmental agencies, but I don't think I care. It's still pretty fascinating even if I am positive I'm never going to get an answer to why Rambaldi matters to these specific agencies. (If you're wondering why, Lost didn't answer a lot and that show has a good reputation. This show has the reputation of crashing and burning.)
Also great: the conflicting and zig-zagging opinion we are supposed to have on Jack Bristow, Sloane needing to kill his wife, Sark manipulating seemingly everybody, and the two-part episode The Box (though Quentin Tarantino isn't terrible, I sort of wish someone else played that part. And I like him.... as a director.)
Not great to me: the out-of-nowhere love square (?) that happened when Noah Hicks came, played by Peter Berg. I will love Berg forever for Friday Night Lights, but I'm glad he retired as an actor. I did not understand why Sydney would go for him, I did not understand the appeal of him, and it was a little irritating when the show tried to make me give a fuck whether or not Sydney would go with him when we all knew she wouldn't.
With the exception of Sydney's "normal life" and her dalliance with Peter Berg, I don't think I have another complaint about this season. I just love being on the ride of what will happen next, and don't really care if the show won't give me any real answers. Wow that sounds a lot like Lost.
Grade - A-
Playlist
1. "Hey Ya" - Outkast
2. "Glory" - Wye Oak
3. "Tears for Uriah" - Cyne
4. "These Chains" - Hot Chip
5. "West Coast" - Lana Del Ray
Playlist
1. "Hey Ya" - Outkast
2. "Glory" - Wye Oak
3. "Tears for Uriah" - Cyne
4. "These Chains" - Hot Chip
5. "West Coast" - Lana Del Ray
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