Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

The Intro

Over the last 10 years, the ABC television network has had less than a half dozen shows that I would consider "good", "enjoyable" or even "watchable." Those shows include Sports Night, The Drew Carey Show, Dharma and Greg (only season 1 though) and Whose Line Is It Anyway?. For this reason, I have made it a general rule to avoid watching that network entirely. Sadly, this has led me to miss out on one of the better shows to come out within these last couple of years and that would be Alias!

The Story

Alias is your typical spy action/thriller television series that is anything but typical! The main character that we are following is a beautiful young college grad student named Sydney Bristow who moonlights as a spy for the super secret organization known as SD-6.

In the first episode, we are introduced to her world and within that episode we see her fight, kick, flip, steal and get proposed to! Whew! But that's not all... also in this episode she decides to break her vow of secrecy and tells her fiancé all about her secret double life which leads him to do some serious soul searching in a bar and then leave a message on their home machine saying that he is ok with her being a spy....... um, dude have you never watched a spy movie before?? Well, not suprisingly he is killed soon after and it is then that Sydney learns that SD-6 is not a secret Black Ops group of the CIA but instead they are a terrorist group.

Over the next 25 episodes that make up Season 1, we are taken into loops and turns that no one could ever see coming including myself and I even like to think of myself as a TV know it all who can always see what is coming next!

The Good and the Bad

When I first started watching this show, I wanted so badly to hate it. I gave myself every excuse I could think of to not like it when I put disc 1 into my DVD player including "Oh, it's on ABC so it must suck." and the ever popular "if it were good I would've been watching it by now." Yeah, that didn't work.

I can't say enough good things about this series. This is one of those series that IS almost flawless! It has enough of everything to bring even the casual fans into it. The action is top notch with incredible fight scenes that are not only beleivable but even pull you into them, moving you head as though you were trying to get a better view of the action.

The costuming is also an incredible addition to this series. Each time Sydney goes out on a new assignment, she is given a new identity and a new look to go along with it and each one is seamless! For the first half the series I was seriously thinking to myself that her hair must be brittle as hay with how much she must be dyeing it until I realized that those were just wigs (hey, leave me alone! LOL). The costuming choices are always great and there's always a perfectly good reason for her to wear them. They aren't all "hey, look at my cleavage" costumes which I find highly respectable.

The storylines in this series are also phemoninal. They really bring you in and make you want to know what is going to happen next with Sydney, her father and her CIA handler. The only bad thing about the storylines in this series though is the same as with all series that rely on long drawn out storylines is that if you join in halfway there is a very good chance that you will be completely lost and not be as drawn in as you would be if you joined in the beginning if you are even drawn in at all.

The only real complaint I have about this series is there are a couple of characters that just drive you nuts so bad that you hope that someone comes alone and shoots them so that you no longer have to deal with them and while this applies to more than one character at first, only one character fails to redeem himself by the end of the set and that would be Sydney's best friend, Will Tippin who is a constant source of annoyance. Maybe I'm alone on that one though.

Music

Another absolutely fabulous part of this series is their choice of music which is always absolutely flawless and on the dot! Each episode requires music to go along with the plot points of the episodes the musical directors of this series have to be applauded for doing a great job!

Not only do they choose lesser known artists along with well known artists but they choose great songs that really fit the mood, instead of popular songs that only sort of fit the scene.

Extras

Tons and tons of extras here! I am a huge fan of DVD extras. There's just a great feeling of popping in a wonderful DVD and then after the main feature is over..... oh look! More goodies to watch! It's kind of the dessert to a really good dinner.

In this box set we get to see lots of little documentaries including a pilot episode production diary and a documentary about the stunt work. Then to go along with that there are audio commentaries on five episodes (on volumes 1, 3, 5 and 6), a blooper reel (which I love to watch), a small selection of deleted scenes and some previews and trailers.

Overall

Overall this series is so much better than I thought that it would be. I was very much expecting to be sick of it by the end of the volume 1 but I stuck it out and watched it all the way through and while I'm not chomping at the bit waiting to get season 2, I am very curious to see what is going to happen next with this.

If you were a fan of the TV series "The Pretender" when it was on TV then you will most likely enjoy this series as much as I did.

Related Reviews

Alias Season 2
Alias Season 3

©L.B. Bryant 2004

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older