An Early Season Take on Alias
The fourth season of Alias is in full swing. I saw the two hour premiere at my brother-in-law’s house, along with Willa and Steve (check out Willa’s review here). Pam and I watched the second episode last week. Tonight I missed it because I was at an officers’ training class at church (which BTW is meeting from 8:00-8:55 for the next twelve weeks). I would have had time to make it home, but I needed to run to the grocery store. So, instead I recorded the show on my PC and burned it to a DVD. I will either watch it in bed later on our portable DVD player, or at lunch tomorrow at work.
I am not sure what to think yet of the new season, but there has already been some controversy stirred up in the Chattablogs circle. I do not fault anyone at all for fleeing from temptation. The comments I made in this thread were largely in response to the comments that came after the actual post. I chose not to make any follow-up comments on Bob’s blog, but there are a few things that actually bother me personally about Alias this season.
One item is the seemingly endless cold-blooded killing. Every episode some evildoer gets whacked Hollywood style. Those who meek out this justice — Vaughn, Sydney, and Nadia — do it with expressionless faces. They never show any remorse. Instead, they just go right back to what they were doing as if nothing happened. I think that this is just as dangerous to the Christian mind as the temptation to lust. A lot of people say that violence does not bother them, but I think we have to be careful when it devalues human life in such a repetitive way.
Another other issue that I see, which is related to the first, is this sense of the ends justifying the means. In Jack Bristow’s world how many wrongs does it take to make a right? For him the number seems infinite. Maybe the whole covert op plot plays into this style of justice, but once again I think it is warped. You find yourself rooting for the good guys, only to find out that they are continually crossing the line between cop and criminal.
My last big complaint is that there is no evil kingpin. Sloan is now the fearless leader. The Covenant is (and has always been) somewhat intangible. Both the Japanese assassin and the British playboy have met violent ends. Where’s my Dr. Evil? Of course I have not yet watched tonight’s episode, but so far Alias is becoming as predictable as a Scooby Doo cartoon.
I, too, am disappointed with Alias. I still enjoy the show, but find that I am more inclined to watch Lost a second time. During the 2nd season of Alias, when it was, IMO, in it’s prime, I would watch every ep at least three times. There was so much there, and it mattered in the next ep because everything built on everything else. There are two logistical issues that I think are to blame for much of what is wrong with Alias right now:
1)ABC has changed all their prime time shows from 4 acts to 6, meaning more commercial breaks. This translates into less total air time for the show itself, and I think that is translating into less character development, less remorse time.
2) ABC has also mandated to the Alias writers that the story of each ep be completed with the end of the ep. In other words, new bad guy each ep, resolved in one ep. The goal is to make the show more watchable to the “casual” viewer. Unfortunately it is becoming less watchable, period, since they are forced to trade watchability for the magic that made Alias good. The combination of these two things is forcing the writers to make the show more compact (less time to do more), and I think some of the increased violence may be the result of having to get rid of the villain each week, rather than the “near misses” we used to have with Sark and Sloane.
Oh, we do meet in other places (I’m teaching Esther to Crochet) and have dinner together. But now when D and I watch Alias, it is only the two of us who yell at the TV instead of 6 of us.
Nerts is a lot like Perpetual Commotion. I remember playing that with Pam years ago and getting very frustrated…she’d always win!
There are so many inconsistencies with reality on Alias that it is hard to take it seriously, period.
When Alias first started we used to complain that Sydney never killed anyone. She just horribly maimed people who were in her way. Now, she has no problem killing people.
When SD-6 was blown away and the show was recreated, it was an interesting approach. But the show’s quality wasn’t too hot. Then the show was recreated again, but again, the quality was even lower. Now, JJ Abrams is focusing his efforts on Lost and the show has once again been recreated- into the Scooby Doo predictability that Scott mentioned.
I think what I miss the most is the camaraderie I had with our Alias group from the last few seasons. I think that was the only reason we kept watching last year.
Have I got a great card game for you! It’s called Perpetual Commotion. If you haven’t heard about it you need to give it a try. Let’s just say that it’s very fun and quite addictive. The bad part for me is that it brings out my competitive nature.
Here is a link to info about the game.
Bob, what do you mean by art/entertainment dichotomy (true or false)…that the two are mutually exclusive? I think it’s dangerous to treat the latter as non-art, because it lets us fall into a consumption mentality (i.e., we don’t guard ourselves). So I guess I would say it’s a false dichotomy. Sure, there’s a difference between high art and popular art — and some things that are entertainment aren’t art (like a football game) — but in many ways the media arts are much more influencial and powerful in shaping our lives, don’t you think?
I’m fond of quoting (and sometimes paraphrasing…really bordering on plagarism) Bill Romanowski, who said something like “the popular arts reflect the reality that they helped to create.”
Maybe it’s good that I’m buried in work for grad school and a full time job, so I don’t have to worry about the melodrama of weighing the morality of certain shows that I watch regularly. That’s simply because if I get to do anything regularly, I choose sleep, and that doesn’t happen very often.
I don’t really know what I think about the culture vs. morality argument. I don’t look at some things very deeply. I simply evaluate what I should do on the conviction of the Holy Spirit on me personally and let someone else make the artistic argument.
It helps that I’m a science nerd and don’t have a lick of artistic taste or philosophy. Sometimes it’s good to be right brained…or is it left brained…I always forget. But I get pissed at fictional shows, like when Spider man stopped a fusion reaction by throwing the devise in water in SM2. I just kept saying, ââ?¬Å?you canââ?¬â?¢t stop a fusion reaction by putting it in water, heyââ?¬Â¦you canââ?¬â?¢t do that.ââ?¬Â Of course that was already in light of my acceptance of a manââ?¬â?¢s ability to be genetically altered to produce webs at a rate of more than 50X his body mass in a matter of minutes. So my friends that like comics or sci-fi or any other fictional shows that treat science as an abstract thing to be manipulated, ask that I donââ?¬â?¢t comment during those shows.
Where the hell am I going with this?
I have work to do, so have fun with your show and don�t look at half-nekkid chicks.
I think this season is ok, better so far than last though last year stunk. I think what he (JJ) might be trying to do is lure everyone into a false sense of the daily grind. So far sydney has gone about her spy life with an easy kill the bad guy sort of way. There hasn’t been the evil genius but I feel his invisible hand still lurks. I think JJ’s trying to start off the season with some episodes that don’t require the viewer to have seen season 1-3. But I also feel the show will soon die as it can only be cutting edge for so long. It had a good run and I think it might be time to wind it up here soon.
I failed to mention in my post that not only was the show getting bad for my soul, it was also getting just plain bad. not only was I tired of the obligatory nearly-nekkid scene, I grew weary of the obligatory club scene, the obligatory torture scene, the nearly-obligatory bedroom scene, and now the obligatory cold-blooded homicide scene. it seems like you can set your watch to it.
and thanks for your comments. what do you think about the art/entertainment dichotomy (or false dichotomy, as the case may be)?
have your friends over anyway! maybe watch another show, or better yet, turn it off and play cards or something.
Nerts is a great game for a pair of couples to play also! It’s also fast-paced, fun, and addictive.