Product Details

• Actors: Jennifer Garner, Ron Rifkin, Carl Lumbly, Kevin Weisman, Victor Garber
• Directors: Alex Kurtzman, Barnet Kellman, Brad Turner, Craig Zisk, Daniel Attias
• Format: Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 29
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
• DVD Release Date: November 21, 2006
• Run Time: 4512 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (180 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000H5V8DG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,596 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Alias - The Complete Collection (Seasons 1-5 + Rambaldi artifact box)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

From the moment Jennifer Garner appeared on screen, tied to a chair in a fluorescent red wig, Alias burst onto the scene as an intriguing "spy-fi" series that sucked viewers into a weekly action movie. Like its successor, Lost, creator J.J. Abrams spun a cult favorite show that held interweaving conspiracies, mysteries, and even some of the same actors. Unlike the island drama, however, Lost was really only about one central character: Student-turned-agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner, who was catapulted from obscurity to the A-list) learns the government agency she was working for isn't CIA at all, but a rogue baddie outfit called SD-6. Sydney, along with her father (Victor Garber, robbed of an Emmy) work as double agents to bring down SD-6 and its top gun, the ever-shifty Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin). Once that happened, of course, there were more bad guys and villainous networks to be brought down, and the rest of the series followed Sydney's adventures--always in various disguises--as she roundhouse-kicked her way through each one.

While season one was about the threat of SD-6 discovering her identity, season two dealt with her personal relations: her romance with CIA handler Vaughn (Michael Vartan), her reunion with her duplicitous mother (Lena Olin, The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and hiding her agenda from outsider friends while revealing it to her former SD-6 comrades. Season three catapulted Sydney two years into the future (with amnesia!) facing a suspicious new agent (and Vaughn's new wife) and more prophecies of Rambaldi, a cross between Da Vinci and Nostradamus whose writings and artifacts became a deadly obsession for Sloane. Seasons four and five went all over the map, introducing a new black-ops unit, a half-sister for Sydney (Mia Maestro), two new agents (Balthazar Getty and Rachel Nichols), and more bad guys before its final showdown between Sydney and Sloane. Due to the show's cancellation and hurriedness to finish season five in a shortened amount of time, some plot points and questions were never answered.

On the DVD
The entire Alias series comes housed in a replica of the Rambaldi box, an intricately designed gold case with red velvet lining, embossed with "IRINA" on the lid just as it was on the show. Inside, each season's discs are housed in its own storybook case, and a small hardcover companion book features the show's cast and crew answering fans' burning questions, particularly the unanswered storylines such as "Who was Deep Throat?" (the anonymous tipster who kept calling Will in season one, whose identity was never revealed). Hidden in the Rambaldi case's false bottom(!) is a bonus disc of material not found in any previous DVD release. The featurette "Case Closed" interviews cast members at the close of the show, with footage of their very last set takes (It's touching to see veteran stars Garber and Kevin Weisman, who plays lovable techie geek Marshall, struggle not to cry while season five newbie Nichols weeps openly). The included fan tributes are amusing to watch; one inventive obsessor hangs a red Japanese lantern above his bed and calls it his own personal "Mueller sphere." Other featurettes explore interviews with the cast after the pilot was filmed; the significance of the number 47 throughout the series; the numerous networks of villains (The Covenant, K. Director, Prophet 5, etc.) But the best quote from the bonus disc comes from an interview with Rifkin, who assesses Sloane's complex motives with: "He's bad. Sloane is bad. Sloan is baaaaad. Sloane. Is. Bad." If you're a die-hard Alias fan and don't own any of the previous seasons on DVD, this one is for you. -- Ellen A. Kim

Product Description

From J.J. Abrams, the creator of LOST, comes the culmination of one of the most thrilling series ever -- ALIAS. Bring home the ultimate fan box set with ALIAS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION, including all five complete seasons of ALIAS on DVD. This special collector's set is a must-own for all true fans and allows you to become part of the ALIAS phenomenon. Immerse yourself in hours of all-new exclusive bonus features with a special DVD packed with never-before-seen footage that you can only find in this set, including an emotional reunion with all your favorite stars from the series!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great content, horrible disc protection December 6, 2006

By DonShulaDoingTheHula

Format:DVD

Other reviewers have mentioned this, but it's worth repeating: THE PACKAGING FOR THIS SET IS ILL-CONCEIVED AND WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY DAMAGE EVERY DISC. Each season's discs are packaged in beautifully detailed cardboard sleeves that are constructed so that corners and edges meet where the bottom of the disc rests. This means that each disc brushes up against four pointed corners each time it moves in the sleeve. Almost all of my discs were scratched upon delivery, and my older DVD player would not read some of them because of the depth of the scratches (my newer player didn't have any trouble, fortunately). I'd ask for a replacement set, but it would arrive in the same condition because this is a design flaw, not a manufacturing error. I'm thinking about contacting Buena Vista or its manufacturer to complain. For the price of this set, the discs ought to be protected better.

Packaging flaws aside, this is an excellent collection. The Rambaldi box itself is a great piece of eye candy and has magnetic sides and top so it closes easily; it's almost a toy itself. The bottom compartment is lined with felt and holds a bonus disc exclusive to this set. You also get a small book detailing some of the series' secrets, which is a nice bonus but not beefy enough to be a selling point.

I won't critique the content itself, other than to say that Alias is a shining example of dramatic television. It's one of my all-time favorite TV series and this collection contains every minute of every episode along with every bonus feature you could ask for.

Concerning the show alone, this product would easily merit a five-star rating, but the packaging is a real bummer. I'm as big of an Alias fan as there is, but even I have to knock off a star for the scratched discs. I'd recommend to anyone who already has two or three of the season sets to just buy the remaining seasons separately. You won't have to rely on scratched discs that way.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Idea - Bad Packaging January 26, 2007

By Jeffrey Reid

Format:DVD

I first pre-ordered this item during the summer, and was very happy when it arrived weeks before the December 23rd shipping estimate. Yet when I opened the box, I was disappointed to see that they had used cardboard sleeves to keep the DVDs in. Even worse, they had a rough cardboard edge directly in the middle of the DVD.

Due to the packaging, the DVDs shifted around during shipping, and several were scratched. Approximately 5 would start freezing while being played - but not until a good part of an episode!

I contacted Amazon, who sent me another box, and allowed me to pick and choose between the better DVDs. I managed to get a complete set that works, with minor scratches, but I'm afraid that storing them inside the Rambaldi DVD sleeves will just scratch them further.

Great idea, but the packaging is horrible. You'll spend more time trying to assemble a working set, then it's worth.

80 of 94 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Complete Story July 30, 2006

By T. Stewart VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

If you've never seen an episode of this amazing show you have no idea what your missing... from the can't-take-a-breath pilot, to the mezmorizing series finale `Alias' was always about the shock factor, and once it got it's claws into you there was no letting go. Serving almost as the Generation X, female version of James Bond, `Alias' is a heartpounding spy-series that does not know how to give the audience a break.

Throughout the Series 105 episodes we are given a glimpse into the life of Sydney Bristow and her unbelievable and crazy decade-long transition from a wide-eyed naďve graduate student, to the worldly and weathered woman that she became, with all the bumb's and bruises along the way; and let's not forget all the butt-kicking that came along with that as well...

With Seasons One and Two, starts off with a pilot that introduces us to the happy and excited Syndey Bristow, her relationship with her estranged father, her two best friends: Francie and Will, and her soon-to-be fiancé; not to mention her job as an undercover spy for the CIA. But it isn't long before Sydney realizes that she is not working for the CIA, but in fact for the very enemy she thought she was fighting, which leads her into a dangerous life as a double agent, fighting the war on both fronts. While leading this life her personal life becomes very stressed, and she learns that sometime its impossible to separate the work from the personal.

Season Three picks up approx 2 years after the season two finale, and to stay mostly spoiler-free all I will say is that her life has been turned upside down, and the season focus's on her quest for understanding her life.

Season Four picks up about a year after season 3, and finds Sydney starting a new job, going back to being a Secret Agent, but with a few surprises on the work front.

Season Five picks up again, about a year after season 4 and finds Sydney facing the realities of the world, and of her life...

As you can see not much can be said without giving anything way. This is an extremely complex/continuity heavy show that is really well known for being hard to follow (missing several minutes of an episode can affect your understanding of not only the next couple of episodes, but story lines several years down-the-lines) and this aspec's initially turned people off from the series in its broadcast run, in favor of the DVDs.

Presented here are all 105 episodes, on 29 discs, with all the special features from the individual releases, as well as a special DVD with new bonus features and a commemorative book all packaged inside the Rambaldi artifact (a thing that play's a centeral role throughout the series).