ALIAS IS ON TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- ABCra XYZee

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[> I know! I'm so excited that I now have Tivo so I can record off the East Coast feed and watch it when I get home at 7. I can NOT wait to see how this season goes. Daily Variety actually gave it a decent review, which is saying loads about how good this is. I can't wait! -- KatRose, 15:12:09 01/05/05 Wed [1]

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[> YIPPEE! I am also thrilled! Pete (my sister) got TiVo this week, so she was determined to get it set up in time. I think she's suceeded, but is still using the VCR as backup! I was reading reviews this morning---looks good! -- C, 16:54:19 01/05/05 Wed [1]

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[> And I actually *forgot*!! Sigh...what a day -- AmandaW, 20:22:15 01/05/05 Wed [1]

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[> Yay! I just got home from work so I'm going to take a nap before I watch my tape - I may be just a little excited about this ;-) -- Wilma, 09:20:27 01/06/05 Thu [1]

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[> 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.... -- C, the non tv critic, 18:49:53 01/06/05 Thu [1]

I enjoyed last season, even while seeing the flaws. I thought last night was outstanding. I hope new viewers were hooked, even though a non viewer friend of mine said it was "disjointed."

At times I felt like it was moving slowly. I didn't care so much about the plot as I did the characters--which to me is the best part of the show, so I didn't really care. I have no expectations for Nadia, and don't really expect much. I wasn't that glad that Syd had a mysterious sister.

The thing about Irina's death has been out for a long time now, so that wasn't surprising, but I was surprised when I realized that she had contracted a hit on Syd.

Can I just say "yuummmmmm" to the men on this show?

Marshall was at his classic best in this episode, and I was glad to not have him in an exposition scene--he's much funnier.

I am also very excited about the set being near rapid transit (don't know the name of the LA system). I like subway/metro/bart/etc. stations--so fun, often smelly.

Yes, that's my review in a nutshell. Loved the show--
wasn't as good of an ep as "Phase One" after the Superbowl.

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[> [> You know...last night's episode perfectly highlighted why I haven't been able to watch this show on a regular basis. Inside for my long-winded thoughts :) -- Canrane, 20:25:48 01/06/05 Thu [1]

There are so many things I love about this show...but the things I *don't* like not only drive me nuts, but they prevent me from being a regular viewer.

What I love:

Pretty much ALL of the male characters. Vaughn, Jack, Dixon...are all awesome. Marshall is hilarious. I can't really come up with a single word of complaint. Their characters have been expertly written and acted.

I even like the bad guys. Sloane is intriguing. You really don't know what his motives are and why he's doing things. He's clearly not a nice guy, but at the same time, he has shown enough emotion to make the lable "pure evil" inappropriate.

Sark was also a lot of fun. In fact, I even liked the asian assasin guy. I wish they hadn't killed him. He would have made a great recurring bad-guy IMO.

What I have major problems with:

1) Sydney Bristow - the way she's written.

Why was she so quick to assume the worst of her father? I mean, she didn't even stop to ask herself ONCE if there could have been a reason for her father's actions. And all this animosity towards him for a mother who has been nothing but selfish and unscrupulous? I know there were plot-driven reasons for this behaviour, but it still makes it hard for me to sympathize with her.

Also, she comes across as pretty selfish. I mean, Vaughn found out his wife was a double agent and ended up killing her. Where was she in the aftermath? Did Sydney support him? No, she ignored his calls because she needed to "take things slow". At a time like that, I would think she would be more concerned about being a good *friend* first rather than a lover.

This struck me especially since Vaughn was so sweet when he was comforthing Sydney...

In general, I've found her characterization very cold. She doens't seem to really appreciate the people who care for her so deeply. All the guys look out for her, but she doesn't reciprocate IMO.

2) Sydney Bristow - the way she's acted.

I find that her acting isn't subtle enough for my tastes. There are so many times when her animosity comes across as too strong. I'm comparing her perfmance to others in very similar roles, most notably Nikita and Miss Parker on the Pretender.

3) The plots. Maybe I watched too much Nikita and Pretender...but it feels like a lot of Alias's "big plot twists" have been done before. But it wouldn't bother me in the least if I could just like the main character. And try as I might, I just can't.

I don't think too highly of the "I vow to find my mother's killer" thing. This is exactly like the Pretender, actually, right down to the "Your father killed my mother" thing.

That said, I will give Alias an honest try this season though, hopefully it'll get better.

Oh! And what is up with the new intro? I didn't realize it was the Jennifer Garner show, I thought it was supposed to be an ensemble!

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[> [> My take inside: -- KatRose, 20:56:38 01/06/05 Thu [1]

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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[> [> [> 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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