Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Likeable season with a split personality, January 15, 2006
This review is from: Alias - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)
I'm an admittedly big fan of "Alias," so you'll probably have to take some of my comments with a grain of salt. Season Four, for the most part, is likeable and fun, suffering only in comparison to the heights the series reached in its first two years. Even though "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams seems to have run out of ideas regarding the series, he's established the characters and situations well-enough so that series can continue on sheer momentum for a while.
This season, like every other season, focuses on the adventures of a small group of CIA agents who work together. Despite the opening credits' insistence on the importance of series star Jennifer Garner, this season is more a team effort than ever before. There's Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner), who's a multilinguist and a master of disguise. There's her love interest Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), a decent straight-arrow of an agent troubled by his recent past. There's her father Jack Bristow (Victor Garber), who is alternately grim and emotionally unavailable, and her step-sister Nadia (Mia Maestro). They're led by the enigmatic Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin), a former CIA agent who turned into both a terrorist and a criminal mastermind similar to a James Bond villain and now claims to have been reformed. Sydney has a long history with Sloane, as does the rest of her team. As if to prove that you don't have to be part of Sydney's inner circle to work for the CIA, the remainder of the team (all in subordinate roles) include a geeky comic relief computer genius named Marshall, a strong experienced backup agent named Dixon, and a formerly occassional guest character promoted to series regular named Weiss, who serves mainly as comedy relief as well as Nadia's love interest. The cast is uniformly strong; as Nadia, Mia Maestro does the best she can with a character that isn't all that well-developed.
Abrams constructed the first third of the season to consist of self-contained episodes with a minimum of character development and next to no continuity. I'm assuming that this was intended to make it easier for new viewers to become interested in the series. These episodes reminded me a lot of the 1960s "Mission Impossible" series so perhaps it isn't surprising to learn that Abrams is working on the latest MI movie. I enjoyed these episodes a lot although I was disheartened by both the lack of continuity and absence of an overall story arc.
All this changes with the remainder of Season Four, in which Abrams not only returns to the extended story arc of earlier seasons, but also revives the Tomb Raider-meets-DaVinci Code obsession Arvin Sloane has for the Renaissance megalomaniac named Milo Rambaldi. We are treated to a series of implausible but hugely entertaining vignettes involving radiation poisoning, a woman from the past manipulating Nadia's feelings, an Arvin Sloane imposter nicknamed "Arvin Clone," and a Rambaldi doomsday scenario that would not seem out of place in a George Romero movie.
Why can't I rank this DVD set higher? It's tough to follow the ending of the season if you aren't already a fan, for starters. If you are a fan, you're likely to be annoyed at the seemingly endless succession of stand alone episodes at the beginning of the season. You'll also be disappointed in the revisionist treatment Abrams thrusts upon the occassional "guest villains" from earlier seasons, as well as the almost total lack of big-name guest stars in comparison to earlier seasons. You'll wonder why Abrams does next to nothing to further the Sydney-Vaughn relationship, and marvel at the almost total lack of chemistry between Nadia and Weiss.
Season Four of "Alias" has all the high-tech espionage, stunning stunt coordination, excellent music, and top-notch cinematography as previous seasons. (Indeed, it's far more enjoyable than most of the recent 007 films!) It's lacking much of the emotional impact of the first two seasons however, and I strongly suggest you begin your "Alias" obsession elsewhere. This isn't bad TV by any means; it just isn't up the the earlier seasons' standards.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Alias Losing Its Touch, August 13, 2005
This review is from: Alias - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)
For most Alias fans, much more than their time is devoted to the show. And the show most certainly does not end when the hour ends on Wednesday night. Time is spent talking with other fans on the internet and discussing the show with friends. I am an Alias fan. I spend countless hours each week watching and discussing the show. This season, Alias fans everywhere were sorely disappointed.
In the past, Alias has been a strong show with interesting storylines, fabulous acting, and great art direction. This year, all three were below par. Jennifer Garner's performance (although the Emmy nominators may disagree) was not what it has been in the past. She lacked the passion that she had in the past that made even the most ridiculous storylines intriguing to watch. With a few exceptions (Victor Garber and Ron Rifkin), the rest of the cast had the same melancholy attitude as Ms. Garner.
The art direction in season four was dull and repeated. The set of choice this season was a nightclub; which can be interesting the first few times, but when it is exhausted it begins to drag the entire show down. Which it did. The only artistic aspect of the show that did not lose its life was the costumes that outfitted Ms. Garner. They were, as always, stunning and fabulous.
The part of the show that suffered the most was definitely the writing. I believe I can speak on behalf of many Alias fans when I say that it was absolutely abysmal this season. Many storylines seemed to be borrowed directly from the X-Files. Never before have the writers had to resort to exhausting paranormal storylines in order to get viewers. Also prevalent in the series this season were so many cheesy lines and bad dialogue. The best example of this comes in the season finale, "Before The Flood". It was embarrassingly bad. The exceptional talents of special guest star Lena Olin were wasted with a plethora of bad dialogue! Several examples of this come to mind: the whole speech about the white horse; and when Irina is reunited with her evil sister, Elena, she says "Hi sis". The writing of the finale pales in comparison to the actors.
The only advice I would give to Mr. Abrams and the good people at ABC for next season is to drastically improve the quality of the writing for next season. Also, I highly recommend bringing back the marvelous David Anders (Julian Sark) and Lena Olin (Irina Derevko) for next season. Both of these actors are beyond superb and improve upon the overall quality of the show dramatically.
As an Alias fan, I will be purchasing the fourth season; but it will be only for the reason that I purchased the third season: to complete my collection.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for new viewers, horrible for die-hard fans (A spoiler free review), January 4, 2006
This review is from: Alias - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)
After finishing the final disc of this season, i felt a great dissapointment and sadness as i realized that the show is far from what it once was. The storyline remains the most important thing so i'll try not to reveal anything, though when reading most of the other reviews it's hard not to ruin yourself most of the surprises.
So here i go:
After 3 years of great TV, despite a few mistakes and wrong turns here and there, Alias entered its fourth season wanting to regain the audience lost in the last season. And the new structure of the episodes manged to attract more viewers, at one HUGE, WRONG, DESTRUCTIVE sacrifice, the storyline. You're watching the episode and listening " this new weapon could wipe out an ecosystem....you must get it back and stop the terrorists from using it." And then you think: wasn't this in the last episode? No, last time it was a bomb, and the time before it was a chemical weapon, and before that a new weapon, and before that a new defense technology...etc.etc... Every episode is almost the same! (except for the final ones, but i'll get to them later). However, i'm not saying the episodes are bad, the missions are better than before, longer more realistic, Marshall no longer makes everything happen. Sydney and the gang have use oldschool tricks.
Towards the middle of the season, the shows begins to show faint signs of a storyline, despite this, the level of excitement remains as low and you then continue to the ussual "terrorist" episodes. it is until the final episodes that the story takes hold and doesn't let go, but it is not as strong as past seasons for this very reason, it all happens in a short time and you don't understand what happens until the final episodes when everyhting is explained, including what happened to nadia and sloane at the end of the 3rd season. Besides, big plus here, you finally get to know what is the goddamn red ball from season 1 for.
So, if the missions are good, and you get some explanation from past misteries, why do i say it is horrible for die hard fans? Well the answer is the lack of a continuing storyline, in past seasons, each episode flowed nicely into the next, however, like lost, the next episode may have nothing to do with the past one. This new way of presenting the storyline creates a whole different Alias, wich fans may not see as a better one, like i did.
Secondly, the storyline only answers misteries from the 3rd season, not progressing much, not moving moving forward (this is most obvious when in the final episodes a series of flashbacks from different characters appear to explain the past). Therefore, i see season 4 only as closure for the past season. Finally the season finale, though interesting, was most different from the past ones. It felt more like a superhero movie where the villain is about to destroy the world with his evil creation and the good guy has to stop him before its too late. You'll see for yourselves if you buy it. Also, the twists and turns are getting old and predictable, much like 24's i could see the surprises a mile away! It's getting boring when the bad guy says he is good again blablablabl and we all know how that turns out later.
So...yes i recommend it to new viewers, fans may find the final episodes to be the only interesting ones. Nevertheless, i feel i owe it to the show to continue watching the 5th season,and if you are a fan too you may feel you have to watch this season, but don't expect too much. I didn't and i felt dissapointed anyway.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
