Has CC's I wish the manufactures would understand how important CC's are to people who are hearing challenged. I received all 5 seasons of Alias and was disappointed because the packaging did not state that there were CC's. After spending much time, on the internet I could find no documentation of CC's and was ready to return them. At the last minute, I decided to try season 1 anyway. I am so glad I did they do have CC's. I really liked this show and had been disappointed twice by other shows that did not have CC's. Thank you ABC Studios for having them, but it would be helpful to people like me if it was stated on the case and on the web sites. I have not been buy any shows that do not have CC's, however this time I had borrowed the older set from a friend and assumed that the newer version did also.
Great Series I just started watching this show and I think it's great! I hope the following seasons are just as good. I find myself watching back to back episodes because they are great. This is a great show.Alias = 24 Lite I bought this set on a whim. I didn't know much about it, just heard that it was pretty good. I guess that's how I would describe it: "pretty good." The acting is passable. The martial arts sequences are poor. The plot gets stretched thin at times. I know that, for some people, this will make no difference. They just want to see some attractive young woman kick butt. Unfortunately, compared to someone like Michelle Yeoh, she can't. This series is probably worth a quick look, but I would hesitate before investing in it.Take a good look at the cover, because thats what the show is mostly about Firstly, I have never seen this show before. I saw in on Amazon for under $20 and I need a show. I need a show with enough action to keep my attention on the tredmill every night, and preferably enough of a female element to interest my wife, so we have a show to watch together. Alias meets both criteria, but only just barely.
All my reviews are spoiler free, so I won't ruin the plot by giving it away, but seriously, 1/2 of all the episodes involve secret agent Sydney Bristow dressing up in a slinky outfit with a sexy hairdo to infiltrate a swanky party always being thrown in the same building as a secret base for her to break into and steal some item or artifact. Apparently bad guys are quite fond of swanky parties and also can't get away from the "office" long enough to really enjoy them, so why not throw a party at the secret bad guy base? Perfect! Well maybe not. Sure, I can appreciate Jennifer Garners mid driff and long sexy legs as much as the next guy, but after a while it feels like I'm watching a game of "dress up" when every other episode involves her dolling up in a new sexy dress.
Mixed in with the action are "daddy issues", "mommy issues", friend issues, romance, long discussions worthy of daytime drama and a good dose of crying and hand wringing over Sydneys life foibles. Fortunatly, my wife enjoys those parts too, so it gives us something to enjoy together, Alias has become "our show".
There is too much violence and torture for my tastes. Some things the bad guys (and some of the "good guys") do is just too graphic for the both of us.
We bought the whole series and will watch it all eventually, but the main plot line is starting to feel too much like "Lost", which is a show I despise. "Lost" is a snipe hunt. After watching "Lost" for years, it has become clear that there is no underlying plot, its just a bunch of crap the writer thinks up over coffee that day. If you remember Lost, there was a point where the story starting going off from reality (People stranded on an island trying to survive) to fantasy (smoke monsters, dead people flash backs, mystical powers, etc). The first half of Alias season one is quasi reality (a female secret agent) and 1/2 way through gets mystical (500 year old prophesies, machines created by an ancient mystic prophet named Rambaldi who keeps coming up for reasons that are, by the end of Season 1, not at all explained) and part of it starts to feel silly.
Overall the writing is passable. There are a couple good scenes and a couple good plot twists. In fact there are many plot twists, but most of them are blindingly obvious. A lot of the time I can't tell if the writers are being serious or tounge-in-cheek as well. One time they need to disarm some C4 plastic explosives. It is "hidden" in a maintenance closet in big boxes with "C4" written all over it. One character says, "well I can tell its C4, because it has "C4" written all over it." Also, working in Network Admin (as I do) is a liability for enjoying some of the show, because I know that things don't work the way the writers think they do. Wireless Modems don't steal data off hard disks just by putting them 4 inches away from a mainframe, for example... Unfortunatly, there is quite a bit of this sillyness, but thats a common problem.
In the end, each episode got me interested enough to watch the next, so its certainly worth the under $20 price, but I have no doubt that the whole underlying "Rambaldi" plot will not pan out to my satisfaction...The Best Show...no longer on television Season 1 of Alias hooks you. The story of how Sidney gets entangled into living double-lives is immediately intriguing. The characters are talented and work extremely well together. This show has everything...kick-butt action, suspense, drama, and romance. This was hands-down the best show on television, and since it's no longer on tv, the only way to see it is purchase the dvds. You won't get bored from watching it over & over again.
