Tuesday, February 22, 2005
I've been watching a lot of Alias lately. The series was recommended to me and I always thought it looked fairly interesting, so armed with every episode ever I've been watching bits and pieces for the last few months.
I have to say it really didn't start well. It's just so... stupid. They throw plot elements in and reel them back out whenever it's convenient (like Sydney's schooling, which is so half-assed). The whole Rambauldi thing is utterly retarded and really doesn't look like the sort of thing an intelligence agency should be wasting its time on. And the pacing! Good god, the pacing is so bad it's not even funny. Actually, it kinda is. There's just no sense of... anything during an episode. Urgency, tension, you name it, the first season-and-a-bit of Alias didn't have it. It really felt like they filmed the whole season as one gigantic episode, then randomly cut it into 22 bits. Where you think an episode should end on a dramatic note or an obvious bit of closure, it doesn't; where an episode shouldn't end, it does. I'm not even talking about twists or bits where you're screaming for more -- I mean some episodes close on the most astoundingly inane conversations. What makes it even more frustrating is how slowly the plot progresses. NOTHING gets resolved by the end of the first season. NOTHING. While I really like the idea of series that have one plotline running over an entire season (like 24), I HATE the idea that a single plot is so drip-fed to you that it would literally take you years to uncover if you watched them as they came out on TV. (This, incidentally, is what JJ Abrams' other show appears to be suffering from -- and as someone watching it as it comes out on TV I am praying I'm wrong on this one.)
The overriding feeling I got from watching the first season and a half of Alias was that it's like 24 for Girls. This is highlighted by the action sequences and missions almost feeling like a secondary strand to How Sydney Feels and How Sydney's Social Life Is Weird and Boo Hoo I Killed My Fiancée Because I'm An Idiot. And it's absolutely unforgiveable that she goes on missions apparently unarmed. Look, I get that kicking people looks cooler and is somehow regarded as less violent than a quick bullet to the chest, but she's a spy for god's sakes. At the very least make her look like she knows how to hold one, because at the beginning of the series she doesn't.
The only thing that makes Alias work are some rather good characters. Marshall is good if overly quirky, always good for a laugh. I like Jack Bristow a lot. And Arvin Sloane is one of the more insidious villains on TV (though again: I really hope we resolve his problem sooner rather than later). But what really makes the show work is Sydney, or more accurately, Jennifer Garner. She's awfully convincing, both in action and more surprisingly during those dumb slow Sydney Has Issues scenes. The super-emotional events of the first episode could have been laughable in the hands of a less talented actress but she really carries it well and just makes it work.
But this is the thing: Alias gets better. It gets so much better and turns into everything I thought it could be. Just past the mid-point of the second season, stuff happens. To be more accurate: In the space of one episode a rather major plot is resolved and EVERYTHING changes. Though that episode was rather abrupt -- honestly considering the magnitude of events I'd have liked to see it stretch out to two or three episodes, and they TOTALLY wasted a guest role from Rutger Hauer -- it felt like a breath of fresh air. To be more precise: It felt like they stopped, gave the show to an entirely new team with a fat new budget and a remit to fix all that was wrong in the Alias Universe. And they did.
Certain hyper-annoying characters mysteriously disappear, cool characters like Mr Sark and Weiss get more airtime, Sydney suddenly graduates from school, and things happen. She handles a gun (AND SHOOTS PEOPLE WITH IT). Scenarios become improbable, yes, but in a cool 007 I-want-to-believe sort of way (like a secret server hidden aboard a permanently airborne 747!). The budget increases tenfold, allowing for effects that are no longer laughable and cooler sets. There's tension, there's excitement. There are quite astonishing (yet believable!) twists. The Sydney Has Issues scenes are reduced to a manageable level and action takes centre stage. In short: It's become a very good show. In particular, the Emily Sloane episode in Season 2 (I say no more) was outstanding.
I'm now at the beginning of Season 3, after another staggering twist that shakes up the landscape yet again in rather interesting ways, and I really hope it can sustain this. It's still not up there with 24, but it's still very good and must-watch TV.
Posted at 4:10 AM
