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By
WAYNE KLEIN
There are only 36 dramatic
situations in the world. The Greeks invented or
documented them all. At the rate "Alias" creator
J. J. Abrams burns through plots, he'll be lucky
to have anything left for the fourth season of the
series. Luckily, however, the conflicts remain the
same while the plots can be changed. You know it's
a bad day when your Mom shoots you as a prelude to
torture.
When we last left CIA double agent Sydney
(Jennifer Garner), she discovered that her own
mother (the subtle Lena Olen) wasn't dead but was
the head of an evil organization that uses
blackmail and extortion to achieve wealth and move
toward world domination.
Sloan (the oily Ron Rifkin) the head of the evil
faux CIA agency SD-6 that Sydney is spying on with
her father (the marvelous Victor Garber) suspects
Sydney is a double agent (for the umpteenth time).
After murdering his terminally ill wife, Sloan
believes his rivals are trying to drive him insane
when he gets a mysterious call from his wife's
favorite bed-and-breakfast. When he discovers her
dying garden in full bloom he knows someone's
trying to ship him out on the next train to
Wackyland. To top off a horrible week for Sydney,
one of her best friends is almost assassinated and
her CIA handler disappears during a joint mission.
Have you caught your breath? That was just the
first three episodes of the second season. The
manic pace of this series will keep your brain
nimble even as your body becomes as round as a
potato.
"Alias" manages to combine elements of the
original television series "Mission: Impossible,"
Alfred Hitchcock's suspense films, the cult series
"The Prisoner," "Felicity" and "The X-Files" in a
series of entertaining (and occasionally absurd)
story arcs. Series creator and producer J.J.
Abrams has created a series of multilayered
stories that continue to keep the audience
guessing. It may not be great "drama," but it's
great spy opera. Garner runs from one emotional
extreme to another, all within the same episode,
making the series a rollercoaster ride for fans.
Thankfully the McGuffin of the first season, the
Rimbaldi Prophecy, doesn't dominate the second
season quite as much. While the Rimbaldi Prophecy
and all the pieces of that puzzle were
interesting, they had become somewhat absurd by
the end of the first season. Abram's in his reach
to create a mythology as complex as "The X-Files"
exceeded his grasp. While it does figure
prominently in the second season, it's less of a
driving force than the character relationships and
double crosses.
The Complete Second Season DVD has all 22 episodes
that aired last year, plus some nice extras. The
picture quality is very good considering how much
data is included on each disc (roughly 5
½ hours each). There are
some minor compression artifacts but the picture
is clean of analog flaws. The Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround is faithfully reproduced and has far more
depth than the episodes' run on ABC.
The extras are surprisingly solid considering the
price of the set. There's a featurette on the
making of "The Telling," one on the look of the
series, and a glimpse at the video game.
The blooper reel allows an inside look into the
series and reminds us that, to paraphrase
Hitchcock, it's only a television show. Audio
commentary from the cast and crew accompanies four of the more important
episodes. I really haven't had a chance to spent
a lot of time with the DVD-Rom Scriptscanner, but it
does seem to provide a nice
companion and comparison piece to the series.
Extra points go to Buena Vista for the nicely
packaged second season. Two discs are in each snap
case and the cardboard holder comes with a plastic
sleeve that makes it look very classy. A few
demerits however for the annoying habit of force
feeding previews to the audience. I find this form
of advertising offensive -- and it's been taken to
absurd new heights on the Universal DVDs where you
have to watch or fast-forward through the ad before reaching
the main menu. At least Buena Vista offers the
option of going to the disc menu directly. |
