RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Media Alias season 4

Alias had 16 million viewers last night. Its highest rating ever. Lost had 23.5 milllion, so there was some drop off, but still great news.

I doubt Sydney would leave the show, the entire thing is centered around her. She leaves and it's a different show.

She may be a movie star now, but this show is her bread and butter. You never know, she may make a poor judgment and star in a flop, then what? If she's gone from Alias, she's got a boat load of pressure to find another role, one that wont bomb.

if it wasn't so true i wouldnt be so embarassed!

Why do you think I'm doing it?? You're so hot when you blush!

it's true!

You're king of the world!!!

And your harem prechews your food and spoon feeds it to you!!

And you ride a big white flying horse named Blue Eyes!

i dont have a flying horse....but the rest is true!

This guy loves you so much he has to make an alt ID to speak in your presence!

it's so flattering i broke all my furniture!

Tonights episode:

Episode three
The Awful Truth
To learn the location of a stolen NSA code-breaker, an undercover Sydney must convince a murderous arms dealer to fall in love with her. Meanwhile, Vaughn fears that Weiss might have been killed on a mission, and Sydney and Jack argue about telling Nadia the horrible truth about her mother, Irina.

Hey hey hey,
new episode today.

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You've been warned!

Wow, Weiss found out about the APO much sooner than I thought he would, AWESOME!

Jack... he RAWKS! Leave it to him to save his hide by forging the docutments. The way he was talking to Nadia about her test scores led me to think that Project Christmas was used on her as well. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out, if it does. Although I can't see them throwing a little tidbit like that out without plans to go back to it some day.

Did you catch the song that was played at the party?

No, missed it. What was it?

It was "We Are Everybody" from Driveshaft. The band that Charlie from Lost was in.

Ah, don't watch Lost, nor do I keep up with mainstream music.

Its not a real song. It was made up for Lost.

Anyhow, Todays episode was another great one. Now that the groups back together, I'm betting next episode is when the shit really starts to hit the fan.

Jennifer Garner is on Jay Leno right now. They showed some blooper clips and then she talked about Electra.

It was a good episode, but a few things bugged me. Jack has become way too predictable, for one. I knew he was going to make something up, I just didn't know he was going do exactly what he did. And I wasn't happy with what he did. It was too easy, and it won't work in the long run. That said, I don't think that Nadia is stable. There is something not quite right about her, but I haven't seen her enough to be sure, so I'm curious how that's going to play out. As for Weiss, it will be interesting to see how his relationship with Nadia parallels Michael and Sydney. Especially in the field. Like I said, something doesn't seem right about Nadia.

Now, for my big problem, what the hell did they do the Sydney's hair? She looked awful in the fight scenes at the end of the show. The color was horible, and her hair was too long and too straight. She looked cheap. Sydney should never look cheap. She needs a hair cut.

I wouldn't say Jack's become predictable, more like he was beng himself. He did something for the good of Sydney, someone didn't like it, so he had to lie to the person to sooth their feelings. Think about how many times he's done it to Sydney.

Though Jack's cover up may have been too easy, it's just a matter of time before it blows up in his face/Nadia finds out. You don't think she's not going to find out the truth do you? Personally I think Sydney's atitude towards Jack is a bit harsh. Though he killed Irina to save her life, she'd been warned repeaditly by Jack not to trust Irina, that she would do anything to suit her needs, and that she did by way of putting out a hit out on Sydney. I don't know, I think Syd should lighten up, Jack knew Irina better than anyone. *shrugs*

You're right though, something isn't right about Nadia. I was on the phone while it was on last night so I had to go back and watch my tape after the episode ended and found her atitude during Jack's Psych evaluation of her to be out of line.

You know, this season really hasn't done anything for me yet. Everything has been so forced these past three episodes. Why do they need the the APO agian? Makes no sense. If they would have said that they needed it to combat the Covenant, that would have been perfect. But they are probably just going to disregard the Covenant, which would be a shame.

Last season really was the best season, in my opinion. And I'm not alone. I know people complain about Syd's lack of a private life, but that's just b.s. Last season she developed a strong relationship with Weiss, her new best friend. And there was motivation from the first episode. Think about it. At the end of season two, after the big fight, Syd is wondering through the streets of (I can't remember), and she calls the CIA and finds out she's been missing for over a year. Talk about a shit kicker. We had to wait all summer and half a season to find out what happened. Not only that, from the first episode of season 3, she finds out Vaughn is married, and she has to work with his wife. And Dixon is in charge of the LA branch of the CIA. And Sloan is a humanitarian. And she was a reprogrammed rogue agent working for the Covenant. It was non-stop. First, it was all about getting her memory back. Then, it was about finding the mole. Then, it was about finding her sister. Then, Syd reads some papers, and we find out this season that Jack killed her mother. But, there is nothing in the story that is keeping me interested this season. Seriously. Last season, I had to watch every episode. The story was awsome.

Going back to the beginning, the story was what drove this seires. The characters were developed because of the fast paced story. It all started in season one. Syd finds out she was working for the enemy, and that Sloan murdered her fiance. She wanted nothing more than to kill him. She can't tell her partner anything. She can't tell her best friend (Will) anything. The show had us coming back every week because we knew that she was going to take down SD-6, but we didn't know when, and we didn't know how. And Will was investigating SD-6. How many times did he almost die? We cared about him. And how many times was Syd's cover almost blown? As the season developed, we started getting into the mystery of Syd's mom. And the finale, perfect.

On to season two, where we have don't have to wait too long, just enough, in fact, for SD-6 to finally be taken down. But after Sloan sets it up, he escapes. Other things that happened? Sloans wife was fully developed, again, because of the story. And Will became an analyst. He also had a relationship with Francie, who wasn't really Francie, but a spy. And then there was Syd's mom. Again, developed because of the story. In fact, Francie was introduced from the beginning because she was going to be replaced with a spy, so her relationship with Syd had to be fleshed out from day one. We had to care. And we did. So, we spent the whole season wondering about the spy, and about Irina's true motives. Oh, and about getting Sloan. Dixon wanted revenge. He killed Sloan's wife, and Sloan killed his. So Dixon wanted revenge even more. Lot's of Syd's friends getting developed, because they had to be. Season 2 ends with a great shit kicker, and we're on to season three.

So, season 3, hmm...Will, whom we thought was dead, is in the witness protection program. He gets one episode, and it was a good one. It showed why he should have been back for the second half of the season. I'll admit that was a mistake to write him out, because that was a huge piece of Syd's private life. And Francie, or rather, the spy? Well, we think she's dead, but she's not, but Will gets to kill her, and that was great. So she's not around to be Syd's friend. Vaughn? Can't be Syd's lover anymore. Can't even be a friend. He's married. His wife is a jealous bitch. Oh, and she's really an agent of the Covenant who is having an affair with Sark. And her mother is probably one of the Derevko sisters, but they never played on that. OK, what about Syd's mom? Her decision not to come back hurt the show. A lot. They should have written in that Sydney had to kill her as Julia. That would have made all the more reason for Syd to not wanting to remember her life as Julia. Oh well, blew that. She's alive and in communication with Jack. But we never see her. Instead, we meet Katya. Turns out that she also works for the Covenant. I was thinking that the Covenant was the Derevko sisters. Too bad they'll probably never play that out. So, Syd doesn't have a private life. Instead, she gets to develop a close friendship with Weiss. I'll take that development over a complicated provate life any day. There wasn't room for anything else. It's the story that pushes the characterization. That's the strength of the show. Anyway, the season comes down to having to find Syd's sister, who is Sloan's daughter. It all ends up with Nadia and Sloan disapearing, and Vaughn killing his wife. Great ending. Except for the crappy cliff hanger. You know, they could have done almost the same thing for the cliff hanger, except, the revelation could have been that Sydney had to kill her mother while she was Julia, and that it was Katya who communicating with, and manipulating Jack all along. That's a shit kicker.

That brings us to now. The all new Mission Impossible. That's right, that's what the last episode was. I saw from the very beginning when they were working as a team to break into the vault. I saw it as the show moved to the next stage of the opperation. I saw it when Weiss kept going "I knew it!" And I saw it at the end, when they were all hanging around at headquarters. It was entertaining, but it wasn't Alias. Not even close. There is nothing driving this story. There is no motivation. They formed APO, with Sloan in charge, because they couldn't deal with government tape? Sorry, that doesn't work. Every step of the way there has always been a goal. There is no goal. These past three episodes were all about forced character development. Syd still wants to kill Sloan. Great. Now she has to work with him. Why? Dixon hates Sloan. He's there. Why? This is all wrong. All wrong. The only people who should have gone rogue were Syd and Vaughn. And it should have been over something big, something that we missed last season having to do with the Covenant. In fact, they could have surprised us and teamed up with Sloan and Nadia, who could have still been on the run. Except, half way through the season, we could have found out that it was Jack who put this whole thing together, and that the four of them were actually running black opps for him, while he was working with Dixon and Weiss at the main office, who thought Syd and Vaughn really were rogue. That's what Alias is all about. That's a story. But, instead, we get the latest version of Mission Impossible.

I'll keep watching, because I like the charcters. But this show has got to pick up the pace, starting with the next episode. We've already lost three episodes this season. Anymore, and it may not be able to hold my interest.

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OK I'm liking the back to basics that we've had this season. The brush pass and pick pocekting was great. Shows that they can still do the job and not rely on tech, which you tend to get the impression when we have episodes that have lots of cool toys... I mean tech. Don't get me wrong, the tech/gadgets are cool and they help make the show what it is, but bottom line, they are spys and spys I'm sure still do the basics (like brush pass) in addition to everything else they do. Granted I'm not claiming to be an expert, having never even gone through the police academy, much less gone through training for the CIA or someone else.

Anyway, I missed all of what was said between Nadia and Syd when Nadia asked about the pictures, I was in the kitchen and I didn't warn my mom not to run the dishwasher until AFTER Alias was over, so I had that drowning out the tv. That's what I get for waiting that long to make popcorn. *sigh* But Jack's reaction to the picture was so Jack. The look on Sloane's face when he saw it made me wonder if he knew more about the picture than he was claiming, maybe even more than Jack does. Did anyone else catch how they flipped the negative when Jack was holding the picture? Everytime we saw it, Irina was holding the baby with it's head on her left arm, but then when we see it in Jack's hand, it was flipped. Nice blooper guys! Wonder if that was on purpose or an accident. The only thing I can think of is that they filmed it with 1 person holding it and so to show it was being held by 2 different people, they flipped the negative, which I can't see them doing on Alias. It's too high quality to do something that cheap to.

Anyway, loved how Jack later came up to Nadia and apologized in his own way, opened up a bit to her. Showing her that he did care for Irina, still does (you could so see it and hear it in his voice here) but that the lies out weighed everything else and that's why he's cold and distant at times. I really hope Syd would stop acting like an idiot and just go to daddy already. It seems like she's running to Vaughn and jumping back into a relationship with him when she should be going to Jack and talking to him, re-establishing their relationship and moving forward. You know Jack wants to be close to Syd, like he should have been when she was younger, but due to his stupidity and keeping her at arms length all those years, he doesn't know how to talk to her like he wants to. He tends to get frustrated quickly and is short with her.

OK, enough of my ramblings. I do have one question though, what did Vaughn tell what's her name, his name was when he was under cover as the priest? Did he say Micheal Vartan? That's what I heard in all that noise that was the dishwasher AND washing machine. I swear my mom has no respect for the tv.

He gave a fake name. He called himself father something.
Sydney and Irina were trying to figure out which one was in the picture. I hated how they were hinting at maybe another sister.

That was my first thought when I saw the preview last week, and the way they edited it, giving us the bit where Nadia asked Jack about it and he snapped at her about it.

One of the things thats bothering me about this season is that I never know when Jack is lying or telling the truth. He's lied so many times about so many things, I can't take his seriously now.
I also find Sloan somewhat boring now also. He hasn't had any real good scenes yet.
Those two characters are too important to the show to be cast to the side and ignored.

aaaaaaaaaand we're back. Before I post my thoughts on this one, great ep btw, all I can say is....


2 WEEKS!?????????????????

Its off next week bacause of the State of the Union speech. I think.

There will be spoilers in this post.




















This was better than last week, and at least now we know there is something going on, but...

(Admit it, you knew there would be a but from me. )

They tossed the formula that made this show work, and now it's just not nearly as good. Again, they didn't end the episode where they should have. When "Tom" turned around with the gun, and Sydney was gone, that's where the show should have ended. Then, the next episode would start with a longer escape, and the show would feel like Alias agian.

As it was, the escape was too short. It should have been about ten minutes (at the beginning of the next episode). OK, so they wouldn't have had dinner in Paris. When have they ever had an oportunity like that? This isn't a Bond film, it's Alias. In Alias, they are always moving. When they are resting, it's because things are about to start moving faster.

I want my show back!

I liked this episode. I liked the humor and I loved it when Vaughn started explaining how he was going to propose to Sydney three years ago.

That was really good. That was the Alias magic. But the show is not Alias. For all of last season's early faults, the second half of the season reached a high point in suspense. Just because they messed up a little with the first half didn't mean they needed to reevaluate the formula. It just meant they needed to be a little more creative.

This episode seemed like one big setup for one liners. That whole Dixon/Sloan thing at the end was totally unbelieveable.