Just As Cool As Bond.... And Twice As Hot!!

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

The Intro

I came into Alias very late. By the time I had seen the first season on DVD, the third season had just started airing and I had A LOT to catch up on! Rarely does a show come along on television that challenges it's viewers to pay attention and really think about what they are viewing. Even more rarely is a show that comes along that refuses to talk down to it's audience in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator of intelligence... Alias is one of those shows!

The Story

When we last left our beautiful agent Sydney Bristow, she was locked in the basement of a secret laboratory in Taipei and had just come face to face with her mother (whom she thought was dead) for the first time in about 20 years (give or take a couple of years). What follows after that would be 22 episodes on six DVDs of heart pounding action.

All the characters and plots that you loved from Season 1 have returned with a vengeance as Sydney is still working with the CIA trying to take down the evil SD-6 as Sloane continues his obsession with obtaining Rambaldi artifacts (a real 14th century inventor and member of the church who's creations and ideas were mostly destroyed by the church) but now the all new dynamic of having Sydney's mother on the side of the CIA bring them closer and closer to their goal but all the while the big question always hangs out in the open: Where do the loyalties of Sydney's Mother really lie?

And that is all that I can tell you. I know that it is an incredibly short and horribly undetailed account of Season 2 but honestly if I told you ANYTHING else, I might as well spoil the whole season for you. J.J. Abrams (writer, producer and sometimes director, he also wrote Felicity) goes out of his way to make sure that every single detail of each episode is important. You can't hear one detail without hearing the rest of it.... well, there is one thing that I can tell you: The surprise twist at the very end of the series will have your jaw on the floor! I guarantee that you WILL NOT see it coming!

The Good and the Bad

I honestly cannot say enough about this series! Everything about it screams "watch me!" and yet not enough people do. The writing is top notch (the last writer to get me to pay attention this closely would be Aaron "God of Screen writing" Sorkin) filled with touching moments, dramatic tension and laugh out loud moments at all the right spots. Every character gets their time in the spotlight in this season with many standout performances. While I would love to point out every actor in this series as a standout I have to choose four that stood out the most to me.

First off, the beautiful Lena Olin is brought on cast playing the incredibly beautiful and tough Irina Derevko/Sydney's mother. This was an incredibly challenging role and coming in during the second season couldn't have been easy but she did an incredible job and I loved each and every scene that she was in.

Second has to be the young upstart actor David Anders as the young evil mastermind in training, Sark. Even though he is only 21 years old, this actor is insanely talented (to an almost ridiculous degree) and I expect a huge career for him in the future!

The last two stand outs I have to mention together which would be Kevin Weisman and Greg Grunberg who play the tech wiz Marshall and Agent Eric Weiss. In the last season, they're parts were much smaller but in this season they each get bigger parts and provide much of the comedy relief in the season. Watch these two!

The last thing that I have to mention would definitely have to be the incredible job of costumes! In each episode, Jennifer Garner has to go out on at least one mission (sometimes more) and each one requires a new costume and new wig which are done so flawlessly! Gorgeous work!

Music

Just like in season 1, the music in this series is top notch! Every single song matches every single mood. It's incredible the job that they do with not only the mainstream music that they choose for the series but also the orchestral music for the more dramatic scenes are wonderful! If you get the chance, check out the soundtracks that have been released. The range of musicians is wonderful... everything from Bob Dylan to Joni Mitchell to Yo Yo Ma to Sheryl Crow are used!

Extras

Just like on the first DVD set, the extras do not disappoint! Included in this box set are four cast commentaries, a behind the scenes documentary of the making of the season finale, a documentary about the costume design (very interesting!), 7 deleted scenes, a blooper reel, radio interviews, the making of the video game and even more on the DVD ROM side!

All in all, if you like extras you will be a very busy person!

Overall

If you couldn't tell, I love this series! The only flaw that I can really see is that it has a low replay value. After you see it once, there aren't any surprises to see. While the performances and stories are worth seeing twice, I won't be watching it again but I certainly did not mind watching it the first time.

There is actually so much more that I could say in praise of this series but I'm trying to avoid making this review Tolstoy long so just trust me on this one!

If you haven't gotten into this series yet, I suggest you spend the next six months catching up on all you missed! The new season of Alias premiers in January of 2005 so you better hurry or you might get left behind!

Related Reviews:

Alias Season 1
Alias Season 3

©L.B. Bryant 2004