Take this entire review with a grain of salt, because I have just started season 3, and so far, am skeptical of where we're going with this whole thing.
That being said, seasons 1 and 2 of Alias are awesome and totally worth your time. It's a spy show, full of double agents, fake-out deaths, geeky spy gadgets (you know, lipsticks that can blow open safes and stuff), and even heart-wrenching love stories and family drama. J.J. Abrams, as he is wont to due, leaves you dangling at the end of each episode, so it's highly addictive with its international underground crime-busting missions packed with action sequences.Here are the things that propel Alias above and beyond your typical procedural:
1. Victor Garber. Plays every scene with incredible intensity. If that's not enough acting clout to impress you, consider that he was great as Jesus in Godspell back in the day. Now that's range.
2. It's the best elements of Mission: Impossible (crazy spy gear in creative new situations each week!) combined with season-driving plot developments in the vein of Dexter or Lost.
3. For those of you who care about this kind of thing, Jennifer Garner wears more sexy outfits in pretty much every episode than Gillian Anderson did in all nine seasons of the The X-Files combined. Or, for those of you more interested in the male species, you've got Bradley Cooper in the prime of his youth. Plus previously-unknown-to-me Michael Vartan. Just imagine the love triangle possibilities!
Maybe more than anything else, though, I have to love a show with a kick-butt female lead. She can shoot guns, dominate hand-to-hand combat, and speak a zillion languages. There's really not a male counterpart who she backs up; all the men are her accessories and behind-the-scenes support. Rock on, Sydney Bristow.
