Who’s watching “Alias”? What do we think?
SPOILERS
The fights are pretty good, but I’m getting tired already of Sydney whining about her dead fiance and how much she hates her father. We get it already. Some of her missions and counter-missions are interesting and credible, but I’m getting a little worried over the “get the computer code written by the guy in the 15th Century” business.
Yeah, I watch it too. I agree on the fiancé and father question. I don’t mind keeping them in the plotline, but it could be done with more subtlety. I find it harder to believe that a huge conspiracy/organization such as SD-6 (and now the K Directorate) could even exist outside governmental channels. Same disbelief with the 15th Century computer geek. But what really annoys me, is their habit of ending a show on a cliffhanger, like, they don’t think the show is good enough to stand on its own, they have to tease the viewers to tune in the following week. But it’s only three shows in the season, there is still time for them to change. In the mean time, I’ll keep watching.
SD-6 was explained as having been formed by rogue CIA agents (and apparently Sydney’s father acting as a double agent, which begs the question of why he didn’t just ice the rogues at the first company picnic). Presumably, they can exist by using the skills and networks they created through the CIA, although the idea that they would pass themselves off as the CIA and then go out and recruit people to fight SD-6 is a little strange.
I like the cliffhangers, but then, I was perhaps the only person in America who watched that old show “Cliffhanger” all the way through to the end.
Nope, watched it too and I liked it, but that format was all about cliffhangers, in this one it looks like a contrived trick to keep you watching week after week.
I agree that the cliffhangers every episode are contrived, but I like everything else about it. (It’s not just becasue Jennifer Garner is hot – it’s good television. No, really! Where are you going?) I think it’s kinda cool that there are all these different agencies working against and sometimes with each other.
–Cliffy
I like it. But I can’t tell if I like it because it’s a good drama or if I like it because it pretends to be a good drama and I can’t tell the difference. It’s really weird that, three shows in, I can’t yet figure it out one way or the other. Anyway, I think I’ll keep watching.
I missed the begining of this week’s. What happened with that whole plutonium thing?
And Sydney is take a hell of a lot of chances. It’s almost mind boggling that she hasn’t been caught as a double agent yet. She apparently meets the CIA every friggin day, drops notes to them like breadcrumbs, and even carries on extended conversations with them during a mission that’s being observed by both SD6, the K Direcorate, and five hundred thousand snipers.
Also, I need more plot twists. I know, I know, it’s only been 3 episodes, but still. They really just blew their wad on the first episode and then stopped. Why is the CIA being portrayed as this Uber-good group of people?
SPOILERS
The evil arms dealer has the gun to Sydney’s head, she points out she’s holding enough plutonium to kill everything, she throws the ball in the air and kicks some ass, catches the ball, runs away, escapes, turns the plutonium over to the CIA and lives happily ever after.
Not a whole hell of a lot - which is one of the big problems with the cliffhangers, they don’t go anywhere. It’s a bad show. A bad show that has no competition from the other networks, and cool fight scenes, so it gets watched despite being bad.
I’m sure she and Ana will fight over whatever was in the case, she’ll win. And by the opening credits, that plotline will be dropped as well. (Thank goodness, the 15th century computer code is the most idiotic plotline I’ve seen on tv in quite a while).
Has anyone figured out what she’s supposed to be studying in grad school - or is she in some “general studies” grad program?
First off, I’d like to point out that two previous Alias thread have been started, one by me. All I did was type “Alias” in the search engine and these came up.
I posted the first one, but got no responses so I never started another one on my own. I figured no one here had interest. Here is the link.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=90145
Here is the other one.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=90357
Anyway, this show is good but not as good as I had hoped. The cliffhanger last week was not fulfilling, but this one might be more interesting.
I think they may have made a bad choice going with Jennifer Garner. She overacts a bit. Also, all the promos had her with the dyed pink hair and it was just the one ep. that had it. That was terrible.
It’s a good show, I’ll keep watching, but I hope it starts to get better soon.
Well thanks Otto.
Well thanks amarinth.
Mahaloth, never trust promos to tell you what an episode (or series) is about. Promotions people lie. They also kick small puppies.
I actually like Jennifer Garner. I really like the journalist character. He’s a good actor and, surprisingly, they’re developing it constantly along with his sideplot. The rest of the characters seem to just be fulfilling a role and can’t get out of the first dimension. Even SD6’s inventor guy, though he does make me laugh on occasion.
So I set up my VCR to tape the show tonite, and dammit, I forgot to turn the damn machine off so it would tape off the timer! So what was in the box and what did our heroine do about it?
The inside of it was a sheet of paper that contained a number of rows with 1 and 0. As soon as the case was opened, vials on either side broke open and started dissolving the paper so Syndey and Anna had maybe 15 seconds to memorize the code before it was gone forever.
I can only assume that no one thought to bring a camera along and the sheet was behind glass so it couldn’t be snatched away before destruction.
Anyway, they both memorize it, run back to their respective camps to list the sequence off in the hopes it produces something. Sydney toys with the idea of messing up the code on purpose to screw with SD6 but her CIA contact talks her out of it because any failure to produce the right code will look extremely suspicious.
Anywho, that’s the end of that. They basically end that subplot for this week. I’m sure they’ll pick it up later, but the story moves onward.
That’s the first 3 minutes of the show. Someone else wanna go into the rest?