My take inside: -- ABCra XYZee

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Date Posted: 20:56:38 01/06/05 Thu
Author: KatRose
Subject: My take inside:
In reply to: C, the non tv critic 's message, "I tend to wear my rose colored glasses for this show and get excited at every new scene. Inside--I said too much about trains...." on 18:49:53 01/06/05 Thu

1) Sydney, as written

I don't know if you saw the end of last season or not (or the entire season for that matter), so I'm going to pretend you didn't and try to explain, at least from my POV, why she was so hard on Spy-Daddy.

I think that all the crap Syd went thru last season ... between being thought as dead for two years, then thought of as a traitor and killer, to finding out that her best friend and lover had married another woman less than a year after she was "dead". All in all, she had a very rough year. In some of this time, her dad was firmly on her side and others he was kinda not. Granted, he was never off her side, but he did a lot of things that just would have pissed *me* off if I was his daughter.

So when she went to that vault and read the files, which included some paper that seemed to imply that he signed Sydney over to some project when she was young (and not the Christmas things from season 2), in addition to the paper that gave him permission to kill her mother, that's a lot of stuff for anyone to deal with. This on top of finding out that she had a half-sister by Sloane and her mother's sister betrayed and tried to kill her.

To say she'd been thru hell and back, I think is redundant. ;)

As for her treatment of Vaughn, I'm not sure that's all her fault. Both of them had backed up towards the end of last season to give them both space, even after they found out that wifey was bad. After he killed wifey, he had a lot of things to deal with. And while I don't know what happened between that scene and the opening of this season, I'm guessing that Vaughn probably pulled back completely ... partially to deal with his anger management issues (burning down his house?!). Which would then give Syd some time to think "hey, maybe getting involved again right now isn't a good idea. This could be rebound, this could be real, this could be dangerous for our working relationship." So she backs off and lets things cool down because, as evidenced by their lack of space in the opener, they couldn't be just friends any longer.

2) Syd, as acted

The subtly is missing right now. I think they're having JG act a bit hard-nosed about things because she so wound up over her mother's murder, her father's betrayal, her lover's return, her new job and her sister's involvement, that she can't be subtle. I'm hoping that changes as the season progresses.

3) Plots

Every plot worth its salt has been done many times over. The key is to make it interesting in its revamping. It didn't work very well last season, I'm hopeful for the next one. I take no offense when they "steal" scenes or plots from other well-done shows, those shows stole them from somewhere else. :-)

4) New Intro

The show was always JG's show. It wasn't built to be an ensemble show, even though it ends up that way very often. But without JG and Sydney, it wouldn't be called "Alias". At least, that's MHO.

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Replies:

[> [> [> Hmmm...interesting points... -- Canrane, 18:50:59 01/08/05 Sat [1]

I only saw random episodes of last season but heard a whole lot from my dear sister. But she isn't a comprehensive narrator...so I admit that I probably don't fully comprehend Sydney's state of mind. I'll give you that.

But the subtlety thing, I noticed from the first season on. I've watched intermittently from the very beginning.

The main reason I have a problem with it is that it just doesn't compute with her "Undercover agent extraordinaire" persona. She's able to hide her emotions and act cool under pressure and professional when in the field. I don't understand why she can't try the same while in the office.

I think it's just a personal acting preference. I think I expect someone in a spy role to be...well...more spy-like in everything they do.

As for the reuse of storylines, ITA. Pretty much everything we've seen or read is just a variation of something that's been done before. However, it's the *way* they do it that can make it stand out.

There have been instances when I thought Alias did an excellent job of making a not uncommon plot-twist seem like something more. The entire SD-6 thing was executed brilliantly and I thought JG did a great job with that storyline. Same with the Francine thing. But nothing since then has resonated with me. Just MHO.

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[> [> [> [> I think a lot of the subtlety in Syd's spy cover is missing because ... -- KatRose, 19:18:42 01/10/05 Mon [1]

JJ Abrams and Jennifer Garner don't want Syd to appear to be emotionless. If she didn't react to things in her personal life like she does, there's the danger that she could be perceived as nothing more than a killing machine and that could lead to even less viewers than we already have.

But I agree with you. If she can hide her emotions while being tortured, why can't she when her dad or Vaughn does something that pisses her off?

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[> [> [> [> [> Exactly. If she loses her humanity when she's not at the CIA, then Alias is just another crime show. -- C, 07:01:07 01/11/05 Tue [1]

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