Alias

[JirinPanthosa]

Alias got recommended me in the Buffy/Angel thread after I brought it up due to Drew Goodard's involvement and twelve episodes in it's really blowing me away so I thought I'd create a separate threaad.

Thuthfully the moment the series had me hooked happened in the first episode, two minutes in. "I will not be used as an anecdote about what an old fashioned guy you are." Before any of the actual story happened, that interchange told me the story had good writing.

I can't believe I never saw this show before. A friend of mine recommended it to me several years ago but I never watched it until now.

Great acting and exciting melodrama. Just found out that

Spoiler: First season

Sidney's mother was the KGB agent, not her father.

I've heard this story goes in bizarre directions in the third and fourth seasons, but so far, holy crap this show rocks.

Edit: Why is their facial recognition program having so much trouble? It's clearly Quentin Tarantino.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Good hunting.

Sloan and Will Tippin are on Limitless together in the present sometimes.

I was distressed earlier today by how fat Greg Grunberg has become on Heroes, but then, the last 16 years has done similar damage to my own silhouette.

 

[gblews]

Alias really was a great show for about a season and a half (or maybe a bit more). Then the network decided it needed to be dumbed down.

I still liked the show after the change, but not nearly as much.

My favorite line from the first episode is "Daddy"???!!!

 

[CorporalClegg]

"Bizarre" doesn't half cover it.

Honestly, I would just stick to the first two seasons. And I mean that in all seriousness. To put it into perspective, I consider the first two seasons (or first season and a half, really) to be some of the best television ever made, yet, overall, I think the show is hardly worthy of a footnote.


*To be fair, they do sort of pull and Angelesque soft reboot with season five, and isn't too bad for the most part until they dive right back into the sewer towards the end.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Wow. This guy is only slightly more likable than the real Quentin Tarantino.

 

[Guy Gardener]

He smells worse.

It's amazing how no one tells you to shower more if you happen to routinely kill four random people per day.

 

[Mr Light]

The first 1.5 or 2 seasons are some of the best TV out there. After that, it's a slow decline to mediocrity.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Unless you like pulp melodrama.

Which I do.

Mia Maestro is another woman who makes me want to speak Spanish.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

If you like maguffins and shaggy dog stories, Alias is perfect.

 

[Greg Cox]

And this where I shamelessly mention that I wrote three of the ALIAS novels. Don't know how readily available they are these days.

That was a fun gig. I miss it.

My one disappointment is that I had to stay away from certain recurring villains just to avoid stepping on the TV show's toes. Sark and Irina would have been fun to write.

 

[urbandefault]

I watched Covert Affairs before watching Alias.

Of the two, Covert Affairs was much more fluffy.

 

[Greg Cox]

I watched Covert Affairs before watching Alias.

Of the two, Covert Affairs was much more fluffy.

And ALIAS overlapped with LE FEMME NIKITA (the first NIKITA tv show, I mean).

You could always tell that ALIAS had a much bigger budget when it came to faking exotic locales than LFN did. I enjoyed LFN, but no matter what exotic location Nikita's missions took her to, they always seemed to look like the same generic warehouses and industrial sites.

ALIAS generally did a better job of faking Marakesh or Hong Kong or whatever.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

And ALIAS overlapped with LE FEMME NIKITA (the first NIKITA tv show, I mean).

Le femme? That makes for a whole new, boundary-breaking story.

 

[John Clark]

And this where I shamelessly mention that I wrote three of the ALIAS novels. Don't know how readily available they are these days.

That was a fun gig. I miss it.

My one disappointment is that I had to stay away from certain recurring villains just to avoid stepping on the TV show's toes. Sark and Irina would have been fun to write.

In the UK, I think Road not taken is currently not on the Kindle, but the rest are. Road not taken seems to be easy enough to get on paperback though I think I have most of the later novels including these three.

I watched Covert Affairs before watching Alias.

Of the two, Covert Affairs was much more fluffy.

Definitely (at least in my opinion). Looks like they haven't bought the final season here though.

Overall, I much preferred Alias. La Femme Nikita was ok, but it was on at awkward times here

 

[JirinPanthosa]

One thing weirding me out now is that guys with machine guns seem to have studied at Stormtrooper U. Also it's weird the head of K directorate goes to that meeting with no protection.

 

[Forbin]

And ALIAS overlapped with LE FEMME NIKITA (the first NIKITA tv show, I mean).

You could always tell that ALIAS had a much bigger budget when it came to faking exotic locales than LFN did. I enjoyed LFN, but no matter what exotic location Nikita's missions took her to, they always seemed to look like the same generic warehouses and industrial sites.

ALIAS generally did a better job of faking Marakesh or Hong Kong or whatever.

And they swear they never traveled more then 50 miles from LA for all those locations. Pretty good.

Oh, and apropos of totally nothing - I was such a fan of that Nikita that I named our Samoyed dog "La Chienne Nikita".

 

[Greg Cox]

Le femme? That makes for a whole new, boundary-breaking story.

Oops. My high-school French teacher is rolling over in his grave. (Sorry, Mister Metcalf.)

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Just when I thought I was watching a series with no magic.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

What's up with this 'Prophecy' stuff all the sudden? It's like if I were watching The Office and suddenly Dwight discovered an ancient manuscript that says he is destined to user in a whole new era of paper sales.

...Actually, bad example, Jim would totally do that prank.

 

[DarKush]

OP, good luck with the show. I really enjoyed the first two seasons and then I felt it went off the rails in Season 3 and never quite got back, though it did attempt to. I dropped it for a good deal of Season 5 but came back for the series finale.