Alias - The Complete First Season

Alias - The Complete First Season
by Barnet Kellman, Daniel Attias, Davis Guggenheim, Harry Winer, J.J. Abrams

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• 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

Movie Reviews of Alias - The Complete First Season

Movie Review: Best show now on American TV
Summary: 5 Stars

The ABC network has helped the series considerably with liberal deviation from the accepted hour show format. This began with an uninterrupted showing of the pilot when the series debuted: 66 minutes without commercial or other interruption, a nearly unheard-of occurrence in American TV. The following 21 episodes fit the standard 45 minutes of content for an "hour" show, but many ran for 15 or more minutes before the credits and first commercial break (in sharp contrast to the 2-3 minute convention before first ad break).

The star and special effects crew of "Alias" are constantly pushing the envelope. Jennifer Garner had minimal action show work under her belt when she started on the series. Garner could run and dance, but was keen to learn more. It soon became apparent to the writers and stunt crew that she was adept at memorizing: not just scripts, but also stunt choreography and foreign language phonetics. The foreign languages in "Alias" are much more compelling than the usual cheat of English with some phony foreign accent. Garner has since studied kickboxing and wire stunts, and actually looks forward to jumping off 100' buildings as a regular part of her job.

"Alias" is in many ways a very flawed show. The flaws do not keep it from being remarkably entertaining. There's lots of impossible spy gadgetry, but the Bond movies have made us come to expect that. No real spy agency would keep on an agent as prone to emotional collapse as Sydney Bristow, yet both SD-6 and the CIA consider her a valuable asset. The whole prophetic 15th century Milo Rambaldi technology schtick is WAY out there. And many of the effects over-reach. One particularly egregious example is the oft-shown exploding car sequence. The hood pops off and the car pitches up while fire lights it from below/behind. Since you can see through the engine compartment it's glaringly apparent that this stunt car did not, in fact, actually have an engine in it as it rolled down the road.

"Alias" show honchos have hedged their bets by going with known quantities where possible. Series creator J.J. Abrams worked with star Garner on "Felicity", and has known Greg Grunberg (a "Felicity" regular) since childhood. Kevin Weisman played a recurring role on "Felicity". (Amanda Foreman, another "Felicity" regular, shows up in seasons two and three.) Executive producer Ken Olin appears in a small recurring role, and his wife and "thirtysomething" costar Patricia Wettig also plays a recurring character on "Alias".

In the first season notable guest stars include Gina Torres, Quentin Tarantino, Angus Scrimm, Amy Irving, Lindsay Crouse, Terry O'Quinn, and Peter Berg.

"Alias" is written as a continuous story arc and few episodes end without leaving the viewer eager to see what comes next. The first season has plot threads involving Sydney's graduate school studies, her secret agent work for SD-6, her double agent work for the CIA, clueless best friends Will and Francie, the thaw in her relationship with her distant father, the mysterious Alliance, the prophetic works of Milo Rambaldi, and the growing question of what happened to her mother.

As Sydney's view of her mother changes, so does the casting. The character is played in the first season by Arabella Holzbog (in old photos), Natasha Pavlovich (in grainy surveillance footage), and April Webster in a quick backlit scene. The character gains major importance in the second season when played by Lena Olin.

It's not surprising that the show's producers and writers spend considerable time worrying about ways to bring viewers up to speed if they've missed or forgotten plot points. There's a lot going on in "Alias", and you don't want to blink sometimes for fear of being thrown off the roller-coaster.

The DVD first season collection of "Alias" is unremarkable for its packaging and extra content. This is mostly a good thing. The effort went into excellent video and audio transfer, and the menus are less annoying than most. Extra content is largely what they had lying around in the editing room: a few deleted scenes, and the ABC promo spots for a few episodes. Audio commentary was added in three of the 22 episodes, including the first and last.

Summary of Alias - The Complete First Season

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