Recommendation: Alias
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Today’s Recommendation is Alias, which aired for 5 seasons on ABC from 2001-2006.
From Creator J.J. Abrams, who’s went on to create LOST, as well as Fringe, Alias is a spy drama shows, based around the life of Sydney Bristow (played by Jennifer Garner). The show starts off with Sydney getting recruited to work at the CIA, and follows her life from there. I can’t remember a Pilot episode that was as good as Alias’s, it was incredible. All 3 of J.J. Abram’s shows have had incredible pilot episodes.
There is a great cast of characters on this show. Sydney’s Father Jack (played by Victor Garber), who also works at the CIA, is a great character, who is a loving father at times, but can also be really serious and sometimes mean when it comes to being a spy. Two other great characters are Marcus Dixon (played by Carl Lumbly), and Michael Vaughn (played by Michael Vartan). Dixon is Sydney’s partner at the beginning, and they work together throughout most of the series. Vaughn works with Sydney at the CIA, and like Dixon they work closely together.
The last 2 characters I’ll note are Marshall Flinkman (played by Kevin Weisman), who is the main technical person where Sydney works. He is always creating new devices to help Sydney on missions, whether it’s a camera in a pen, or a tube of lipstick that knocks someone out when it touches their skin. Marshall is probably the funniest character on the show, he doesn’t have great social skills, and that leads to some funny conversation moments. The last character I’ll mention is Arvin Sloane (played by Ron Rifkin), who is Sydney’s boss at the beginning of the show. He is a big part of the story, and has known Jack and Sydney for a long time. There are so much I could say about all the characters on the show, the depth of these characters is amazing.
I’m not going to get into the story very much here, there is so much that happens over the 5 seasons, and not knowing where the story is going makes the show so amazing to watch. The episodes are so unpredictable and exciting. I can’t think of another show with such well-done cliffhangers as Alias. Luckily I watched the entire show on DVD, waiting week to week when it aired would’ve been torture.
Usually each episode focuses on one specific mission for Sydney, and her team at the CIA. Some episodes are 2 parts, always with a cliff hanger to end the first episode. The show has a overarching mythology, that progresses through the seasons leading up to the finale, which I thought was excellent.
All 5 seasons have been released on DVD, and now is the perfect time to get them. After years on staying at a high MSRP, the retail price has finally dropped to $29.99 on all seasons. They can be found online for around $20-25 now. That makes the show an amazing value. The first 4 seasons are 22 episodes, and the fifth season is a short 17, for a total of 105 episodes. The DVD’s are all well done, with some bonus features, and great quality audio and video.
I cannot recommend this show enough, if you’re looking for a new drama to watch and haven’t seen Alias, give it a try.
Previous Recommendations:
Carnivale
MirrorMask
Dirty Jobs
The Lone Gunmen
Psych
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