Alias

This high budget TV show. It uses lush, dramatic, international sets.

The plot has layers upon layers. It is like the old Saturday afternoon serials, ending each episode with a cliff hanger. I think this show is primarily the work of women. Our heroine, Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, dresses in elaborate high-fashion costumes, makeup and hair barely recognisable each time. There are plenty of handsome charming young men who adore her. The focus is on relationships.

Jennifer Garner runs for miles at top speed in every episode. The stunts are well done. It appears Garner is doing them herself. It is quite an athletic performance.

Garner speaks a number of languages in each episode (without subtitles). I don't speak these languages, but her accent was very convincing.

They did a number of technical things that made me angry they were so inept. Sydney moves back and forth between two groups of warring spy agencies without taking any precautions that she is being followed or that her phone is tapped. She dismantles a nuke and holds up a grey sphere which she proclaimed is the plutonium core. Plutonium is radioactive, and as soon as it is formed into a sphere it explodes. Oddly road flares go off in a bank vault.

She is a double agent, but at times does some bit of daring for both simultaneously. The plot often does not make sense, which amusingly one of the characters points out.

I remember this show debuting when I was a teenager. I was so engrossed in it that I was considering one day becoming a government agent. Looking back at this, it still holds up. Between the clever story telling, and character development, it also shows a bit of the spy cliches that I fell in love with. It's also pretty crazy to see a young Bradley Cooper and where he would go from here. The gadgets and technology that is used in the show may look dated but I think it gave Alias its charm. I would love to see Abrams try to come back to this project and bring it to the modern day audiences.

From the very first episode to the series' final moment, 'Alias' never failed to keep me on the edge of my seat. Dramatic, funny, thrilling, action-packed and smart, it brings you through so many twists and turns that you may have to come up for air once in a while, but will undoubtedly find yourself diving in for more. Three years after its conclusion 'Alias' still remains my favorite show, thanks to a stellar cast, gripping score, intelligent writers and great production values; with the lovely Jennifer Garner being the glue that holds it all together, and of course, the brainchild behind it all, J.J. Abrams. Part James Bond, part Indiana Jones, Garner's Sydney Bristow is a hero for the ages. 'Alias' is at once epic, heart-warming, exciting, and ultimately unforgettable; a true gem in the history of serialized television.

I love this show. That being said, it has some flaws. You can tell when it went downhill is when J.J. Abrams stopped working on it regularly. Season 1 is great, Season 2 is great, Season 3 was OK, Season 4 not so great, and I'm going to pretend Season 5 didn't happen. I'd have to agree with some of other reviewers on here, it seems like they ended up with a bunch of different writers that lost direction or understanding of what the show was about and where it was supposed to be going. It started out as a spy show with a hint of sci-fi, and ended up the other way around which was just weird. It seems like the only person who really understood the whole Rambaldi thing was JJ. I think that the actors did a good job with what they were given. Watch Season 1-3 if you want to check it out. Its on Netflix as of 8/16.

Sidney Bristow is a college student who has an unusual job – she is a spy working for the CIA under secret conditions where not even her friends knows what she does. When her boyfriend proposes Sydney tells him what she does for a living and her employers kill him in line with procedures. Deciding to leave the agency before they kill her too Sydney discovers that she has actually been working for SD6, an agency that is actually a shadowy criminal organisation world-wide. Sydney joins the CIA and works as a double agent to help CIA Agent Vaughn to bring down SD6. She finds that her father is the other double agent within SD6 and the pair work together. While following her missions to uncover the work of the prophetic Rambaldi she must feed information back to the CIA without blowing her cover.

When this series started on TV last year there was a lot of hype about it being the teenage 24 and other such things. When I saw the pilot I wasn't overly taken as it had too many `music video' moments and the action seemed forced. However I stuck with it and, once I got into the way it all works then it became actually quite enjoyable if not exactly gripping. The plot is pretty stretched – never more so when a run of 15 or so episodes are based around getting the work of a prophet who may have designed the ultimate weapon etc. However it is still quite fun to watch and moves along with a certain amount of energy and pace. The cliff hangers are often a little forced and didn't keep me waiting for the next show. In fact most of the `cliff hangers' are sorted out in the first few moments of the next episode.

The overall theme of Sydney versus SD6 is one that runs consistently well even where the week to week plots may be weak. The action of the weekly missions is OK and I was glad to see that the series did not go the way of just putting Garner into different skimpy clothes each week as a way of getting an audience (although she does do that quite a lot!). Sydney's friends are also given reasonable side plots rather than just filling out the cast. The journalist is the best subplot although it isn't consistent and runs out of steam, while Francie's romances don't quite fit the rest of the action they do make an occasional change of pace.

Garner is very sexy and can also act very well and is a good lead. She deservedly has had good film roles out of it. Vartan is very good as Vaughn and has a good chemistry with Garner without going overboard on the `will they won't they' thing. The support cast is full of famous faces who do sterling work – most noticeably Garber and Rifkin. Also the guest stars who come and go for a few episodes here and there are quite good with even Quentin Tarantino giving a good performance. It's not all perfect but the cast do good work generally.

The series may not be well enough written and the thrills are mainly manufactured and temporary, although the running plot is enough to keep tension and excitement running through the show. Overall this series is polished and slick and is well serviced with a good cast and a reasonably good plot. Series one has been good if not great and I can see what series 2 will be dealing with. However I hope that they stop after 2 (or 3 at a push) series rather than taking it too far and outstaying it's welcome.

Series one has been enjoyable if not perfect and I will be looking forward to series two, I hope it can keep up the energy, polish and enjoyment of the first series and maybe even improve on it's weaknesses.