ALIAS addict confesses all

My feelings for ALIAS are anything but restrained. I’ve never felt so fascinated with a television show. Every Monday after a new episode airs, I’m sending off e-mails to friends who enjoy it as much as I do. We share ideas and observations, and generally geek out over Jennifer Garner and this wonderful show.

My dear wife got me ALIAS Season 2 for Christmas (because I begged for it) and I finally finished watching it all and feel like I can now share my thoughts.

Cast
The cast is fantastic. To paraphrase Salieri in Amadeus, “Displace one character and there would be diminishment. Displace one actor, and the structure would fall."

The cast from Season 1 is pretty much intact for Season 2, with some excellent additions.
The very lovely and talented Jennifer Garner portrays Sydney Bristow, agent of SD-6, and double agent with the CIA. SD-6 is part of the Alliance, which includes 11 other SD cells, SD-1 through SD-12. The Alliance seeks to make money, and lots of it. It does so through arms deals, black mail, drugs, and more.

Michael Vartan is Michael Vaughn, her CIA handler. When Sydney enters the field on a mission for SD-6, it’s Vaughn who gives her a “countermission.” In this way, SD-6’s plans can be thwarted and eventually destroyed.

The brooding, intense Jack Bristow is brought to life by the capable talents of Victor Garber. As Syd’s father, Jack is a senior officer with SD-6, and is also with the CIA. From the beginning of ALIAS, Garber has been tremendous. It’s not hard to picture him as an intelligence officer, skilled in finding secrets and, if necessary, ending lives.

Lena Olin, of course, assumes a major role as Sydney’s mother, Irina Derevko. Olin is a rather attractive “older” woman and does a fantastic job portraying the mysterious, manipulative Derevko. What are her motives? Where do her loyalties lie? Even by the end of the season, I wasn’t ever quite sure.

The Syd-Jack-Irina triangle is an underlying thread throughout the season. While this angle could have devolved into absurdity, it works remarkably well. That’s a testament to the strength of the actors and the show’s writers. Even when it’s just one-on-one (Syd and Irina, Jack and Irinia, or Syd and Jack when it involves Irina), the scenes of familial misery are full of anguish, suspicion, guilt, and even love.

Ron Rifkin is Arvin Sloane, the head of SD-6. Sloane has a wardrobe I’d kill for, and is wonderful (have I used that adjective before?) in his role as the diabolical mastermind.

Terry O’Quinn is “Assistant Director Kendall,” a hard-nosed, hard-assed by-the-book bureaucrat. Regardless of who is in the scene with Kendall (Vaughn, Jack, Syndey), you can look for added tension.

David Anders portrays Sark, who was fairly prominent in Season 1, but has a magnified role in Season 2. Even though Sark is a “bad guy,” he’s rather likable. Interestingly, Anders is from Oregon, so the English accent he speaks with must be assumed.

Merrin Dungey’s role as Francie is expanded quite a bit, as the “real” Francie has been doubled and killed. Her “replacement” is…a mole, I guess, working for Sloane, keeping tabs on Sydney.

Like Dungey, Carl Lumbly (Marcus Dixon), Kevin Weisman (Marshall Flinkman), and Bradley Cooper (Will Tippin) all enjoy greatly expanded supporting roles. Marshall, still providing comic relief, gets to go into the field and nearly pays a high price for it. (As an aside, his near suicidal programming of “Pong” in “A Higher Echelon” is a great moment that has to be seen). Will has to pretend he’s a heroin addict and eventually joins the CIA as an analyst. Dixon faces dark moments after first learning the truth of SD-6 and then struggling with the violent murder of his wife. Especially in the last shows of the season, Lumbly is achingly good as Dixon.

Rutger Hauer, Ethan Hawke, Christian Slater, David Caradine and Faye Dunaway (or pinch-face, as I call her) all have good guest starring roles.

Plot (with spoilers)
Season 2 picks up literally where Season 1 finished: Syd in the clutches of "The Man" who turns out to be a woman. She's Syd's nefarious mother, Derevko, a former KGB agent once thought dead, and whose organization has been competing with SD-6 for Rambaldi artifacts. This organization first appeared in Season 1 when Quentin Tarantino guest-starred in the “The Box.”

With ALIAS, you kind of have to expect the unexpectd. For example, at the end of the season's first show, Derevko turns herself in to the CIA. Huh? What's going on?

The search for Rambaldi artifacts is still the main plot point. By the end of the season, Sloane has assembled the Rambaldi Device, called "The Telling," (also the name of the season finale). What it does is not revealed in Season 2. In Season 3, Sloane says the device delivered a message of peace, but can we believe that?

The first half of Season 2 is also notable for a plot line in which Sloane is led to believe that his wife -- whom he apparently killed at the end of season 1-- is still alive. Sloane believes he’s going crazy or seeing things, until a phone call and a severed finger make it pretty clear that he’s not imagining anything.

Halfway through Season 2, in Episode 13, “Phase One,” the entire ALIAS world is changed forever. After accessing security codes on an airborne server, the CIA raids all SD cells simultaneously. Even more shocking than that is who was pulling the strings (I won’t say here).

“Phase One” aired immediately following the Super Bowl in 2003, and it seemed obvious at the time that it was a way for the show’s creators and ABC to make ALIAS more accessible to the masses. Now that I’ve had a chance to go back and see the season again in a few week’s time, the upheaval we see in “Phase One” seems natural. I don’t know how long the show could have gone on like this:

SCENE: SD-6 briefing room
SLOANE: Sydney, we’re sending you to X to do Y, because of Z.

SCENE: Moments later, obscure location
VAUGHN: Sydney, when you’re in X to do Y for SD-6, do A, B, and C instead.

Among other things, with the destruction of SD-6, Ron Rifkin can stretch his Sloane character farther. Vaughn and Sydney are also able to develop their relationship on a much more…intimate level.

In its final moments, Season 2 finishes with an unbelievable fight between Syd and "Fake Francie." What follows is a jaw-dropping twist that had me scratching my head for weeks.

I think Season 2 works as a whole better than Season 1 did. Whereas Season 1 had some bigger moments and had a fresher feel, Season 2 is more consistent and the actors have more opportunities to plumb the depths of their characters. The result is a more satisfying journey.

I can freely admit that sometimes ALIAS is far-fetched. Sydney falling into freezing Siberian water and surviving after shooting her way out of the quick-freeze ice comes to mind. I mentioned earlier how I discuss shows with friends. It seems we always find a hole or disagree with how something was done. Personally, I keep waiting to hear someone complain about jetlag (what with everyone flying around the world every show).

You know what? IT DOESN'T MATTER! Even with some plot holes and absurdity, ALIAS is fun.

Bonus Features
Season 2’s bonus features are certainly worth spending time on. We get:

"The Making of The Telling.” This is an interesting look at what went into making the season finale.
"The Look of ALIAS"
Deleted scenes
Blooper reel
Radio interviews
TV spots
The making of the video game
DVD-ROM: scripts for two episodes

Four episodes include audio commentary, including the pivotal “Phase One” and the last two episodes of Season 2.

Packaging
Normally I wouldn’t waste any time talking about packaging, but I think what Buena Vista did is really cool. Sydney, Jack, and Irina are pictured on the cover. The back has a series description and photos of Vaughn, Sloane, and Dixon. It turns out that this cover is a plastic sleeve surrounding the actual box.

When the box is in the sleeve, Sydney, Jack, and Irina have a somewhat 3D appearance. The front of the box itself features the ominous Rambaldi sketch from Season 1 that seems to be a likeness of Syd. The back shows a Rambaldi artifact (also from Season 1) which revealed the location of a Ramaldi journal.

Technical items
Season 2 is presented in wide-screen format and in 5.1 surround sound. It’s “enhanced for 16 x 9 televisions” and also includes Spanish subtitles.