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Published On: Jan 06, 2005 05:26 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jan 06, 2005 05:26 PM
Review: Alias Season Four Premiere
As promised, here is my review of last night's
Alias Season Four Premiere. As the detailed
review will likely contain spoilers, I'll throw out my general thoughts here.
Click "read more" for the full review. I thought this episode was an
interesting reboot for the series. It reset many of the relationships and
storylines that were taken in what many saw as the wrong direction last season,
while at the same time adding new conflicts and new characters. I think it was
an interesting balance of exposition and action that gets the show off to a good
start for the season. I'm going to give it four stars out of five. Should be a
good season.
Now, for those who want more details, here we go.
It was interesting that this show started in a nearly identical fashion as the
show's pilot. Sydney's in trouble, and then flashback 72 hours. Syd is in
Shanghai, apparently chasing some guy down the street, but it turns out she's
trying to extract him, and they're being chased by some Chinese muscle. They
duck into a Chinese night club, where we find out that Syd has apparently
violated some aspect of contact protocol, thus endangering her companion and
others. They do eventually escape, but Syd has to face the music at her
performance review. She gets demoted by the new director of the LA office,
Angela Basset, leading to her subsequent resignation. Ok, not off to the best
start...
At this point, I was slightly confused. I knew that her resignation couldn't be permanent, otherwise we wouldn't have a show, but I failed to see how they were going to get her out of it, at least at first. When we found out Vaughn was also quitting, things started to click for me a little bit. When Sydney was on the subway, I knew she was heading to a secret base, but what she found there...Whoa! No real surprise, Syd's been invited to join an elite black-ops group of the CIA, along with her dad, Vaughn, and Dixon. The shocker was who was going to head the group--Sloan.
As I mentioned in my introductory review, this episode was in many ways a reset for the show. This new group is almost an SD-6 redux, with the addition of Vaughn, and, by the end of the show, Nadia. The base of operations is also an echo of the show's beginnings. I loved the use of white to distinguish it from the SD-6 headquarters, though. To ensure that APO (Authorized Personnel Only) is as identical to SD-6 as possible, the group "coincidentally" found it necessary to "recruit" Marshal. Having him arrested for hooking up his Playstation was just icing on the cake. The theft of the Samurai Sword from that English museum was also very well-executed. Nice product placement with the Coke as well.
Probably the only part of this episode that I had trouble with is the direction they have decided to go with Irina. I was hoping to see her character again, as she, Jack, and Syd are great when playing off each other, but alas...I'm not sure why they had to kill her, and why Jack? The final scene with Syd and Nadia, where Nadia swears to kill the person responsible for killing her mother foreshadows the rift that is very likely to grow between them, and I don't like it. For one thing, Sloan seems to know about Jack killing Irina. Why wouldn't he tell Nadia? I guess we'll find out more about this next week.
On a final note, there are still a few unanswered questions from last season that they seem to be completely ignoring. For instance, what ever happened to McKennas Cole and the Covenant? Sark and Lauren are out of commission, I wouldn't think that would spell the end of the Covenant, unless Irina was behind the who thing. After all, Cole worked for her when she was "The Man" in the first season, why not now? Another thing is, what did Nadia and Sloan find when they went off at the end of the season last year? They mentioned a Rambaldi device, but what was it? And, finally, what was the rest of that file about that Sydney found in the bank. Couldn't have been just about Jack killing her mother. Anyway, I bid you all adieu until next time. Have a good day.
--
Brooks Travis
At this point, I was slightly confused. I knew that her resignation couldn't be permanent, otherwise we wouldn't have a show, but I failed to see how they were going to get her out of it, at least at first. When we found out Vaughn was also quitting, things started to click for me a little bit. When Sydney was on the subway, I knew she was heading to a secret base, but what she found there...Whoa! No real surprise, Syd's been invited to join an elite black-ops group of the CIA, along with her dad, Vaughn, and Dixon. The shocker was who was going to head the group--Sloan.
As I mentioned in my introductory review, this episode was in many ways a reset for the show. This new group is almost an SD-6 redux, with the addition of Vaughn, and, by the end of the show, Nadia. The base of operations is also an echo of the show's beginnings. I loved the use of white to distinguish it from the SD-6 headquarters, though. To ensure that APO (Authorized Personnel Only) is as identical to SD-6 as possible, the group "coincidentally" found it necessary to "recruit" Marshal. Having him arrested for hooking up his Playstation was just icing on the cake. The theft of the Samurai Sword from that English museum was also very well-executed. Nice product placement with the Coke as well.
Probably the only part of this episode that I had trouble with is the direction they have decided to go with Irina. I was hoping to see her character again, as she, Jack, and Syd are great when playing off each other, but alas...I'm not sure why they had to kill her, and why Jack? The final scene with Syd and Nadia, where Nadia swears to kill the person responsible for killing her mother foreshadows the rift that is very likely to grow between them, and I don't like it. For one thing, Sloan seems to know about Jack killing Irina. Why wouldn't he tell Nadia? I guess we'll find out more about this next week.
On a final note, there are still a few unanswered questions from last season that they seem to be completely ignoring. For instance, what ever happened to McKennas Cole and the Covenant? Sark and Lauren are out of commission, I wouldn't think that would spell the end of the Covenant, unless Irina was behind the who thing. After all, Cole worked for her when she was "The Man" in the first season, why not now? Another thing is, what did Nadia and Sloan find when they went off at the end of the season last year? They mentioned a Rambaldi device, but what was it? And, finally, what was the rest of that file about that Sydney found in the bank. Couldn't have been just about Jack killing her mother. Anyway, I bid you all adieu until next time. Have a good day.
--
Brooks Travis
Posted: Thu - January 6, 2005 at 04:40 PM