EvilSpaceAlien
Sinister Swede
So after visiting the thread about rewatch threads I was convinced to start rewatching Alias. It was the first remotely sci fi show I ever watched and it does hold a special place among all the shows and movies I've watched.
Scroll down for character/organizations breakdowns.
I've just watched the first episode "Truth Be Told", so here's my review. It's part summary and part review since there's probably a few who haven't watched the show. It's probably not a very good review, but I'm not good at this.
1.01 '"Truth Be Told"
Written by: J.J. Abrams
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Okay, the episode starts with Sydney in the clown red hair having her head shoved in a bucket of water, but I want to start with the proposal scene. It was cheesy. Incredibly cheesy with Danny bursting into song…. okay, it was probably more like screaming in middle of the campus, but I love it. It's just cute, that's all. Also, Danny's call to Sydney's dad to ask for permission to marry her just showed the surface of awesomeness that Jack Bristow really is.
Jack: "I may become your father-in-law, that's just fine, but I will not be used as a charming little anecdote that you can tell your friends at cocktail parties so they can see what quaint, old fashioned guy Danny really is. Are we clear?"
Danny: " Yes sir"
Jack: "Good. Then welcome to the family"
Also, when Sydney enters SD-6 we hear some of the examples of the great way Alias uses contemporary music. SGU could learn from this. They gotta use more contemporary outside of montages.
And I totally agree with Will. How the hell can someone choose Pretty Woman as the best movie ever created????
The episode does use quite a lot of flashbacks, however they are executed in a good way and this is probably the first show I can remember that did its pilot in a non-linear fashion.
Knowing what I know now it feels a bit weird to hear the references to Sydney's recruitment and her mom, but I'm not going to go into that this early on.
Apparently Sloane is looking for the Mueller device which is supposed to be some kind of battery or something. So they go on a mission to Taipei where she gets to use the Bond-style gadgets made by Marshall the tech geek. Sure, he's constantly nervous and neurotic, but that's what makes him awesome.
I can understand Sydney's reasons for telling Danny the truth about her working for the "CIA". She's getting married and how can she really keep lying about her job and other life to her future husbands. A marriage based on such a dangerous secret will never work out for the better, and she knows. It's just too bad about Danny's drunken call to her. BIG MISTAKE.
Of course the performances by the cast are all great as usual. Jennifer Garner is really the one who stands out. When she comes home and sees Danny's dead body in the bathtub her reaction is very believable. The first time I watched the pilot her scream was just gutwrenching, and it's no different this time. It's just too bad that it had too end that way for him, but it was necessary for the story. I really wanted Sloane to die for ordering Danny to be killed. The funeral scene was also really sweet and very sad.
Sydney is truly badass in that red clown wig while being tortured by that asian guy. I would not last a second under that kind of torture. Pulling out teeth??? That's just messed up.
I can really understand her reasons for leaving SD-6. How can she really continue working for the people who killed her fiancée? However leaving your employer does get more difficult when they try to kill you. She was in trouble there for a while, but then Jack Bristow comes to the rescue! Sure, he doesn't torture anyone, but it is nice to see him shoot at someone. And then there's the big reveal. Papa tells her that SD-6 is not a black ops division of the CIA, but a part of the Alliance of Twelve, a group of mercenaries, terrorists, etc. She has been working for the people she thought she was fighting.
Now we go to the point where she colors her hair red and gets the whole rocker look going and just looking generally hot. Now she's in Taipei again and breaking into the same place where she went for her SD-6 mission. And now we've arrived at the point of the flashbacks just after she's had one of her teeth pulled out, and now it's to for revenge. Yeah baby, yeah!! She gives that psycho headbutt that could almost rival the Young Headbutt of Doom for awesomeness. Just almost. Now it's time for the psycho bastard to have his teeth pulled out. Fitting, ain't it? Too bad the guards arrived to he just gets a metal thingy jammed in his leg or gut or something not seen in the picture.
Now it's time for Syd to start shooting around and kick in doors, etc. Then she arrives in the lab where she finds the fully functioning Mueller device which is pretty freaky but small *hint, hint*. It sort of looks like a half circle with a red fluid ping pong ball suspended right in the air. Anyway, she cuts off the power to the device and the red ball suddenly collapses and turns into something that looks like water and splashes all over the device. The the guards arrives and she fires at them, dual wielding guns. The she runs out of ammo and decides that it's good idea to release the flammable gas. Of course then she runs as hell and there's a cool explosion as the guards fire at her.'
Pictured below: My reaction to the badassery of Sydney Bristow, illustrated by a woman who is not a witch.
Then she returns to SD-6 and gives solace the Mueller device so she can get those pesky assassins of her back. Just to remind y'all, I still hate Sloane with a passion.
Though of course Syd's not going to just accept that she's working for the bad guys and go on with it, but she goes to the CIA and meets Michael Vaughn, played by Michael Vartan. He seems pretty dull and boring at the moment, but know that he'll develop in an interesting way down the road. Now it's time for the final scene. She visits Danny's gravestone, the poor gal. Her dad arrives there too so he can let her know that the CIA has verified her story. She's now double agent within SD-6, just like her father. She's a bit surprised at he being the other mole. He walks away from her, but not before telling her how dangerous it is to do what he does (yay for positivity!), and we end with Syd's phone ringing. There's always another mission.
Overall, this is a pretty great episode, and probably one of the best pilots I've ever watched. It has its high points and low points, but the performances by the actors are good, and JJ did a good job writing and directing the episode. While not the best episode, it does get a pretty high score, and considering that it's pilot which does heighten expectations for the episode, the score is also heightened due to due good job it did with pulling me in the first time I watched it.
4.5 out of 5
Next up: 1.02 "So It Begins". I may not get it done tomorrow, but I'll try to have the review up by Tuesday.
Scroll down for character/organizations breakdowns.
I've just watched the first episode "Truth Be Told", so here's my review. It's part summary and part review since there's probably a few who haven't watched the show. It's probably not a very good review, but I'm not good at this.
1.01 '"Truth Be Told"
Written by: J.J. Abrams
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Sydney Bristow is a young university student living an uneventful life in Los Angeles. She is recruited to work for SD-6, allegedly a secret branch of CIA. After some time she falls in love with Daniel Hecht, a promising pediatric cardiologist, and makes the fatal mistake of telling him about her secret identity. When the SD-6 finds out, they murder him to protect the secrecy of her identity. Sydney, devastated by this loss, takes several months off from work to recuperate and focus on school. Her partner, Marcus Dixon is sent to check up on her, and urge her back to work. She tells him that she is not ready yet, even though it is long past when she was supposed to return to work. In a sudden series of events, an attempt is made on Sydney's life, only to be stopped (with ruthless efficiency) by Jack Bristow, Sydney's estranged father. He reveals that SD-6 is not a CIA division, but in fact a branch of a bigger illegal organization known as the Alliance of Twelve, which seeks to make profits from stolen intelligence and weapons. The "CIA black-ops" is the cover given to most of their employees, only a select few (Jack included) know of the organization's true agenda; the rest are merely pawns whose patriotism is exploited. Sydney is sickened to learn that her father has lied to her for years, and that he is a traitor who was complicit in letting his daughter become a pawn to his colleagues. Realizing that Sloane no longer trusts her, Sydney travels to Taipei and retrieves one of Rambaldi's artifacts in order to win his trust. After confronting Sloane, giving him the artifact, and promising to return to work the following week, she regains Sloane's trust. She visits the real CIA where she meets Michael Vaughn and Eric Weiss. She prepares a written statement telling them everything she knows about SD-6. She requests to become a double agent for the CIA and put an end to Sloane and SD-6. Later, the episode's final scene shows Sydney visiting Danny's grave. There, Jack reveals to Sydney that he is not a traitor, he is working for the CIA, infiltrating SD-6 as a double agent, and that the CIA is expecting her to do the same.
Okay, the episode starts with Sydney in the clown red hair having her head shoved in a bucket of water, but I want to start with the proposal scene. It was cheesy. Incredibly cheesy with Danny bursting into song…. okay, it was probably more like screaming in middle of the campus, but I love it. It's just cute, that's all. Also, Danny's call to Sydney's dad to ask for permission to marry her just showed the surface of awesomeness that Jack Bristow really is.
Jack: "I may become your father-in-law, that's just fine, but I will not be used as a charming little anecdote that you can tell your friends at cocktail parties so they can see what quaint, old fashioned guy Danny really is. Are we clear?"
Danny: " Yes sir"
Jack: "Good. Then welcome to the family"
Also, when Sydney enters SD-6 we hear some of the examples of the great way Alias uses contemporary music. SGU could learn from this. They gotta use more contemporary outside of montages.
And I totally agree with Will. How the hell can someone choose Pretty Woman as the best movie ever created????
The episode does use quite a lot of flashbacks, however they are executed in a good way and this is probably the first show I can remember that did its pilot in a non-linear fashion.
Knowing what I know now it feels a bit weird to hear the references to Sydney's recruitment and her mom, but I'm not going to go into that this early on.
Apparently Sloane is looking for the Mueller device which is supposed to be some kind of battery or something. So they go on a mission to Taipei where she gets to use the Bond-style gadgets made by Marshall the tech geek. Sure, he's constantly nervous and neurotic, but that's what makes him awesome.
I can understand Sydney's reasons for telling Danny the truth about her working for the "CIA". She's getting married and how can she really keep lying about her job and other life to her future husbands. A marriage based on such a dangerous secret will never work out for the better, and she knows. It's just too bad about Danny's drunken call to her. BIG MISTAKE.
Of course the performances by the cast are all great as usual. Jennifer Garner is really the one who stands out. When she comes home and sees Danny's dead body in the bathtub her reaction is very believable. The first time I watched the pilot her scream was just gutwrenching, and it's no different this time. It's just too bad that it had too end that way for him, but it was necessary for the story. I really wanted Sloane to die for ordering Danny to be killed. The funeral scene was also really sweet and very sad.
Sydney is truly badass in that red clown wig while being tortured by that asian guy. I would not last a second under that kind of torture. Pulling out teeth??? That's just messed up.
I can really understand her reasons for leaving SD-6. How can she really continue working for the people who killed her fiancée? However leaving your employer does get more difficult when they try to kill you. She was in trouble there for a while, but then Jack Bristow comes to the rescue! Sure, he doesn't torture anyone, but it is nice to see him shoot at someone. And then there's the big reveal. Papa tells her that SD-6 is not a black ops division of the CIA, but a part of the Alliance of Twelve, a group of mercenaries, terrorists, etc. She has been working for the people she thought she was fighting.
Now we go to the point where she colors her hair red and gets the whole rocker look going and just looking generally hot. Now she's in Taipei again and breaking into the same place where she went for her SD-6 mission. And now we've arrived at the point of the flashbacks just after she's had one of her teeth pulled out, and now it's to for revenge. Yeah baby, yeah!! She gives that psycho headbutt that could almost rival the Young Headbutt of Doom for awesomeness. Just almost. Now it's time for the psycho bastard to have his teeth pulled out. Fitting, ain't it? Too bad the guards arrived to he just gets a metal thingy jammed in his leg or gut or something not seen in the picture.
Now it's time for Syd to start shooting around and kick in doors, etc. Then she arrives in the lab where she finds the fully functioning Mueller device which is pretty freaky but small *hint, hint*. It sort of looks like a half circle with a red fluid ping pong ball suspended right in the air. Anyway, she cuts off the power to the device and the red ball suddenly collapses and turns into something that looks like water and splashes all over the device. The the guards arrives and she fires at them, dual wielding guns. The she runs out of ammo and decides that it's good idea to release the flammable gas. Of course then she runs as hell and there's a cool explosion as the guards fire at her.'
Pictured below: My reaction to the badassery of Sydney Bristow, illustrated by a woman who is not a witch.
Then she returns to SD-6 and gives solace the Mueller device so she can get those pesky assassins of her back. Just to remind y'all, I still hate Sloane with a passion.
Though of course Syd's not going to just accept that she's working for the bad guys and go on with it, but she goes to the CIA and meets Michael Vaughn, played by Michael Vartan. He seems pretty dull and boring at the moment, but know that he'll develop in an interesting way down the road. Now it's time for the final scene. She visits Danny's gravestone, the poor gal. Her dad arrives there too so he can let her know that the CIA has verified her story. She's now double agent within SD-6, just like her father. She's a bit surprised at he being the other mole. He walks away from her, but not before telling her how dangerous it is to do what he does (yay for positivity!), and we end with Syd's phone ringing. There's always another mission.
Overall, this is a pretty great episode, and probably one of the best pilots I've ever watched. It has its high points and low points, but the performances by the actors are good, and JJ did a good job writing and directing the episode. While not the best episode, it does get a pretty high score, and considering that it's pilot which does heighten expectations for the episode, the score is also heightened due to due good job it did with pulling me in the first time I watched it.
4.5 out of 5
Next up: 1.02 "So It Begins". I may not get it done tomorrow, but I'll try to have the review up by Tuesday.
I'll update this list as I go.
Is that a good place to start? Does the show start "meh" and then pick up later? Will these characters grab me from the start? I dont want to give up early if it stumbles a bit in the beginning.
) with Syd and a big bodyguard, however we don't really know too much about the man who dies to really care much about his death.