Alias Season 1 Review

Alias season 1 has lots of great moments. An excellent Thanksgiving episode, Bradley Cooper, Quentin Tarantino, wigs, ass-kicking, and an underrated Giacchino score, it's a good time. But even 21 episodes later, all I want to talk about is that pilot.

Seriously, it's so good! A streaming show would spend multiple seasons on Sydney telling Danny the truth, her bosses finding out and killing him, the SD-6 twist, becoming a double agent, and the dad twist. Alias bangs it all out in just over 60 minutes! And it is exhilarating. Danny's death hits so hard, Jennifer Garner plays it perfectly. Then you're immediately thrust into a series of thrilling action scenes that I don't think Abrams has ever really topped in his long career as a blockbuster filmmaker. That's all before we get the first scene with Sydney and her dad and we see where the true heart of the show lies. It's a perfect pilot, it rules, so hard. I was planning to pick up my clothes from the dryer halfway through but like hell I was pausing this thing, I let those clothes spin.

Alias never really tops its pilot in its first season, but it's still a lot of fun. The mix between "hot girl kicks but in crazy outfits" and "sentimental explorations of repressed emotions scored to melancholy soft rock" is really effective and a lot of fun. And the end of season one is really exciting. And I know that the "mythology" doesn't amount to much, so I have no obligation to pay attention to it (it's not very interesting anyway).