|
|
|
| Alias
(Season One) DVD Review |
|
Order this DVD from Amazon.com
|
Alias
The Complete First Season
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
|
| DVD
Release Date:
|
September
2, 2003
|
|
Length:
|
990 mins.
|
| Rated:
|
NR
|
| Format:
|
Widescreen (1.78:1) Enhanced for 16x9 Televisions
|
|
Audio:
|
English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby 2.0
|
| Subtitles:
|
English, Spanish, Closed Captioned
|
| Extras:
|
Alias
Pilot Production Diary, "Inside Stunts" Documentary,
Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel, Audio Commentaries, Season 2 Sneak
Peek, Alias Video Game Preview, DVD-ROM Script Scanner, Alias TV
Spots
|
Season One of the television series
Alias stars Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a secret agent working
for SD-6, a covert branch of the CIA. By day, Sydney is a college grad
student attending university in Los Angeles. By night, she travels to
all corners of the earth, wearing all sorts of disguises, and carrying
out all sorts of missions - whether it be stealing ancient artifacts,
finding hidden weapons, or sabotaging enemy resources. And in between
attending college and fighting the bad guys, Sydney has to juggle her
personal life, where she has to hide her real identity from her
friends, where she is trying to repair a severely damaged relationship
with her secret agent father (Victor Garber) and where she is trying
to deal with the deaths of people very close to her, including the
death of her very own mother. The six-DVD set features 22
action-packed, high flying, edge-of-your-seat episodes and a bevy of
extras that is sure to entertain even the most un-entertainable
person.
I must admit I was pleasantly surprised after watching Season One of
Alias. Although the pilot episode was quite gripping, there were a
couple of episodes in the middle that I just did not see going
anywhere. They just seemed to be the same story in different episodes
and different locations. But then the season took a few surprising
twists and turns and ended up being one hell of a ride. The back of
the DVD claims that after watching season one, we will be
"gasping for air and begging for Season 2!". I can't say I
was really gasping for air, but begging for Season 2? Yeah, I'm
begging. There is just so much to like about this show, starting with
its main attraction Jennifer Garner. Garner plays the role of Sydney
Bristow to perfection - one minute being the sweet, innocent,
vulnerable beauty and the next minute kicking some guys balls up his
throat just before she hacks into his computer, steals all his data,
breaks into his safe, steals his stolen artifacts and jumps out the
window to safety. She is intelligent, beautiful, athletic and all that
stuff that every guy looks for in the perfect woman. And it doesn't
hurt that we get many a shot of Garner in skin-tight dresses, bikinis,
bra and panties, in the shower, in the bathtub and even in her pajamas.
Garner is a strange one though - there are some shots of her where her
beauty is simply mesmerizing and then there are other shots where she
doesn't look too great. It's sort of like that Seinfeld episode where
Jerry has a beautiful girlfriend but when she steps into a certain
light, she looks terrifying. Nevertheless, Garner is the star of the
show and she does a bang up job in that role.
But Garner does not carry this show on her own. Ron Rifkin as SD-6's
ice-cold boss Arvin Sloane and Victor Garber as Sydney Bristow's
father Jack are quite possibly two of the strongest characters I have
seen on television in the last ten years. They are outstanding and
practically steal every single last scene in which they appear. The
remaining main cast includes Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper), Dixon (Carl
Lumbly), Marshall (Kevin Weisman), Vaughn (Michael Vartan) and a
handful of others that are equally strong characters (but not nearly
in the league of Rifkin and Garber).
As for the episodes, well, you have to give the creators of Alias
credit. Considering the show is featured on prime time television,
they are not afraid to push the envelope in terms of blood, guts and
violence. There are plenty of scenes of torture, death and several
main characters getting knocked off, which while disappointing,
disturbing and sometimes heartbreaking, it always makes for good
television. These guys and gals really went out on a limb at times and
for that, they get my respect. Sure some of the stunts that Sydney
Bristow and her comrades manage to pull off and the bullets they
manage to dodge will leave even the biggest optimist scratching his or
her head but hey, it can't all be perfect. Besides the spy stuff
Sydney has going on, there are plenty of other happenings - her
relationship with Sloane, her father, Will, Vaughn; her search for the
real reason her mother died; Will's search for some answers to a few
questions he has stumbled upon - to keep you interested. In fact, I
often found myself much more intrigued by the side stories of Alias,
rather than the real spy stuff.
As for the extras on the DVD's, Disc 1 has an Alias Script Scanner
that requires you to put the DVD in your computer's DVD-ROM to access.
There is a commentary for the episode entitled "Truth Be
Told" which is narrated by creator J.J. Abrams and Jennifer
Garner (quite an entertaining commentary) and another commentary for
the episode called "So It Begins" which is done by producers
Michael Bonvillain (who I believe also directed this episode), Sarah
Caplan and Ken Olin. In this commentary, they do what I am beginning
to notice many directors and producers do in their commentaries -
complain how difficult it was to shoot almost every scene in the
episode. Disc 5 has a commentary of the episode "Q & A"
by executive producers John Eisendrath, Alex Kurtzman-Counter and
Roberto Orci who basically explain this recap episode and point out
the reason the recap episode was made was because of budgetary
concerns (another common theme amongst producers and directors -
complaining about money). Disc 6 has the final commentary track, this
time for the season finale "Almost Thirty Years". It is
quite an entertaining commentary, which includes Jennifer Garner,
Micharl Vartan, Victor Garber (briefly - apparently he disappeared
during the taping of the commentary), Bradley Cooper, Carl Lumbly, Ron
Rifkin, Merrin Dungay and Kevin Weisman. It is quite an entertaining
commentary in which the cast seems to get along extremely well, as
they joke, laugh, interrupt and make fun of each other. Perhaps it is
this camaraderie that has contributed to the extreme success of Alias.
Then again, this is only Season One. I wonder if the jokes will last
into Season Two.
Disc 6 also includes some short featurettes, which include an Alias
Pilot Production Diary (an interesting look at the making of the pilot
for the series), Inside Stunts (where we learn that Garner does a lot
of her own stunts), Deleted Scenes, Gag Reel (funny stuff), Alias TV
Spots, Alias Video Game Preview, Season Two Sneak Peek and Credits.
Overall, I will say that Alias: The Complete First Season is a keeper.
I was not expecting much from this DVD and came away pleasantly surprised
with a show that I look forward to watching in the future. It is by no
means my favourite show of all time - that still belongs to the likes
of The Shield and The Sopranos. But I could see it replacing 24, who,
after a stellar opening season, has seemed to stumble a bit late in
the second season and into the third season. Although I am not yet
gasping for air, I will enjoy watching Season Two of Alias and will
probably do so tonight!
| The
Feature: |
  |
8/10 |
| The
Extras: |
|
8/10 |
|
|
|
What
did you think?
Have your say on our Message Boards...
Brendan Cullin - Senior
Editor
More Reviews - Click Here
|
|
|
|
|
