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"What was wrong with the black one!?"
- Syd, after changing lingerie
"No one can be blamed for trusting their own mother." - Dixon, to Syd
"How stupid are you to think I would ever believe you again?" - Syd, to Irina
Lena Olin, Jennifer Garner, and Victor Garber - as the Bristow family, Laura/Irina, Sydney, and Jack
Season 2 episode listing:
The Enemy Walks In
Trust Me
Cipher
Dead Drop
The Indicator
Salvation
The Counteragent
Passage, part I
Passage, part II
The Abduction
A Higher Echelon
The Getaway
Phase One
Double Agent
A Free Agent
Firebomb
A Dark Turn
Truth Takes Time
Endgame
Countdown
Second Double
The Telling
< O >
Thanks to Steve and Don for pitcure research.
- Editor
| March 2004 | SITE MAP SEARCH |
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Alias: Season Two cast: Jennifer Garner, Victor Garber, Michael Vartan, Lena Olin, and Terry O'Quinn created by J.J. Abrams 940 minutes (PG) 2003 widescreen ratio 1.78:1 Buena Vista NTSC DVD Region 1 retail RATING: 9/10 reviewed by Jeff Young |
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SPOILER ALERT!
With its marvellous opening
season, the impact of this sci-fi espionage adventure was such that telefantasy fans
eagerly replaced their Sarah Michelle Gellar posters with Jennifer Garner pinups - and
wondering, Buffy... who? Garner is today's action girl par excellence (playing heiress
turned assassin Elektra, she was the best thing about
Daredevil).
She has the looks, the charm, and the acting talent to bring rich emotional life to the
standard TV heroine. As CIA super-spy double agent Sydney Bristow, we care more about
Garner's troubled character than all of the recent TV action starlets (yes, including
angelic blonde Gellar as Buffy) put together. Season two of Alias boasts an
impressive story arc that changes nearly every aspect of the SF mystery scenario established
throughout the first season, while continuing with a balance of personal tragedies, intriguing
conspiracies and convincing geopolitical storylines designed to appeal to keen fans of both
24 and The X-Files. Succeeding where British shows like Bugs (1995-96)
failed miserably, and picking up where the likes of Jim Cameron's
Dark Angel (2000-3)
left off, Alias delivers plenty of chills and thrills to satisfy the younger audience,
plus more than enough gripping human drama with an extensive cast of supporting characters to
interest mature viewers.
Spectacular stunts that rival 007 showstoppers are accomplished here on a TV budget, while the programme's frequently ingenious plot twists, astonishing cliffhanger endings and shattering revelations will keep all discerning viewers in unbearable suspense. There's startling double and triple crosses, amusing one-liners, an assortment of incredible gadgets (worthy of the cult TV series Mission: Impossible), shoot 'em up gun battles, nerve-wracking torture scenes, gratuitous lingerie or leather costumes, conflicting CIA and NSA agendas, ever-shifting loyalties, perverse moral values, and consistently amusing in-jokes. What more do you want? By now, Alias has long since shaken off any lingering influence of French movie Nikita, Hollywood's remake The Assassin, the La Femme Nikita TV series, and other influences like Run Lola Run (aka: Lola Rennt, 1998) and cult TV classic The Prisoner (1967-8). Under the guiding hand of Jeffrey 'J.J.' Abrams, the show has become a phenomenal international success in its own right. Here's my pick of the best stories from this batch of 22 x 42-minute episodes...
Passage is a two-parter featuring wall-to-wall action with all three Bristows on a mission to Eastern Europe. A story about stolen nukes, Sark's new alliance with Sloane, and lots of family-at-war activities, especially amusing when Syd, Jack, and Irina are undercover as tourists, or turning the tables on their captors in the terrorists' base. This is undoubtedly the season's highlight (it's like a movie when both episodes are played back-to-back), delivering an immensely entertaining mix of intimate character moments (such as Irina and Jack sharing a sleeping compartment on the train journey) and spectacular action (a helicopter rescue during an air strike) that lifts the quality and production values of Alias way above your typical TV drama. The Abduction finds SD-6 tech-ops expert Marshall (Kevin Weisman) partnering Syd for a mission to London, and their comedy double-act, before Marshall gets kidnapped by the bad guys, takes the show to a new level of wry humour that's continued in follow-up A Higher Echelon. Another outstanding episode is The Getaway. Jack's verbal sparring with Alliance inquisitor Arianna Kane (Faye Dunaway) is one of the season's non-Sydney highlights, but our heroine gets fine moments too as her relationship with CIA agent Vaughan (Michael Vartan) turns seriously romantic in Paris. Male chauvinists will certainly enjoy Syd's punk style pickpocket routine at the airport, as she strips down to a PVC bra for the security scanner. However, this is also the start of Alias' most annoying product placement, as Sydney (and other characters) are seen driving the latest model Ford.
Truth Takes Time expands on the deceptions and escapades of recent episodes and Syd gets into a big shootout with Irina. Then along comes another raft of moral dilemmas and abrupt plot twists suggesting the season's principal story arc won't be going in the direction most viewers are likely to have expected, after all. This is what makes Alias such great TV. Despite the apocalyptic dramas and Rambaldi revelations of Endgame and Countdown (boasting a cameo by David Carradine - hey, if he's good enough for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, he's good enough for Alias), I think it's penultimate episode Second Double that has the best dramatic scenes. Former reporter Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper) is arrested by the CIA on suspicion of treason and, in a disturbingly Kafkaesque turn of events, he's unable to definitively prove his identity, even to himself. With the true identity of Will's new girlfriend Francie (Merrin Dungey) in no doubt for regular Alias viewers, there's suspense and subtle twists aplenty to please attentive fans. Season finale The Telling has Sloane completing his 30-year odyssey for all the Rambaldi secrets, and his quest reaches a grand climax when he assembles (teasingly it occurs off-screen) the pieces of "Il dire." The truth about Francie's 'evil twin' is out, and she gets a fantastic showdown fight against Syd. Then writer-director Abrams presents us with an emotionally devastating and incredibly risky closing sequence (though I won't reveal the details here), making season three an exciting prospect indeed.
NEXT
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