spy vs spy
Sep. 19th, 2004 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verbicideSo Judy and John LOVE Alias. LOVE IT. And I can't think of a time they've LOVED a show and I haven't. We agree on Buffy, West Wing, Without a Trace. As little tv as I watch, we gush together.
So when they fell in love with Alias, way back in its first season, I was a little late coming to the game. About 7 episodes had passed. I tried to watch it, but by then the plotlines were so convoluted, I didn't stand a chance of following what was going on. I read the episode recaps at Television Without Pity, but the woman recapping it utterly LOATHED the show. Which, I normally love the snark at TWoP, but this wasn't snark so much as utter hatred. Kinda tinges your opinion on the show.
Stacey recently rented the Alias discs from the joy of Netflix and has also become addicted. Being the sheep that I am, I finally caved and rented the first season. I'm currently on disc 2. And I can't tell how much of my opinion is still skewed by the sneering of TWoP. I find the dialogue weak. I don't mind suspending my disbelief for the wacky spy shit and can just ignore the more obvious questions. Something about Jennifer Garner's speech inflection irritates me. Like, in 13 Going on 30 it was fine because she was supposed to be a child. But apparently that wasn't acting. That was just what she sounds like. I don't hate her or anything. Hrm. I think it's the dialogue too, because everyone's delivery is just irritating me. Even Michael Vartan, and I love Michael Vartan because he is fucking hot. So Yeah.
Also. Marshall? Alias's answer to Q? FUCKING ANNOYING.
I'm also spoiled for some future plot lines having read the TWoP stuff, but whatever. It's still fun to watch. Though I think I'd go mad with irritation at each episode's cliffhanger. So yay for dvd rentals. I don't know that I'll ever watch the show live. At best I may have to record and watch a few episodes at a time.
And Will needs to die. He needs to take his fluffy baby chick hair and go someplace that is away.
So when they fell in love with Alias, way back in its first season, I was a little late coming to the game. About 7 episodes had passed. I tried to watch it, but by then the plotlines were so convoluted, I didn't stand a chance of following what was going on. I read the episode recaps at Television Without Pity, but the woman recapping it utterly LOATHED the show. Which, I normally love the snark at TWoP, but this wasn't snark so much as utter hatred. Kinda tinges your opinion on the show.
Stacey recently rented the Alias discs from the joy of Netflix and has also become addicted. Being the sheep that I am, I finally caved and rented the first season. I'm currently on disc 2. And I can't tell how much of my opinion is still skewed by the sneering of TWoP. I find the dialogue weak. I don't mind suspending my disbelief for the wacky spy shit and can just ignore the more obvious questions. Something about Jennifer Garner's speech inflection irritates me. Like, in 13 Going on 30 it was fine because she was supposed to be a child. But apparently that wasn't acting. That was just what she sounds like. I don't hate her or anything. Hrm. I think it's the dialogue too, because everyone's delivery is just irritating me. Even Michael Vartan, and I love Michael Vartan because he is fucking hot. So Yeah.
Also. Marshall? Alias's answer to Q? FUCKING ANNOYING.
I'm also spoiled for some future plot lines having read the TWoP stuff, but whatever. It's still fun to watch. Though I think I'd go mad with irritation at each episode's cliffhanger. So yay for dvd rentals. I don't know that I'll ever watch the show live. At best I may have to record and watch a few episodes at a time.
And Will needs to die. He needs to take his fluffy baby chick hair and go someplace that is away.
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YAY!!!!!!
Date: 2004-09-20 08:33 am (UTC)She likes where I went to SCHOOL!!!!!"
Re: YAY!!!!!!
Date: 2004-09-20 08:35 am (UTC)Re: YAY!!!!!!
Date: 2004-09-20 09:07 am (UTC)Re: YAY!!!!!!
Date: 2004-09-20 10:20 am (UTC)Re: YAY!!!!!!
Date: 2004-09-20 04:54 pm (UTC)Re: YAY!!!!!!
Date: 2004-09-20 09:08 am (UTC)Yes, STILL smirking about my coup d'etat and your astonished look! *grin*
no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 08:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 09:07 am (UTC)Hah!
Date: 2004-09-20 10:44 am (UTC)Re: Hah!
Date: 2004-09-20 04:54 pm (UTC)Bleh
Date: 2004-09-20 05:05 pm (UTC)It felt like they got to the double agent thing too fast. I guess they felt had to, in order to make the pilot interesting (and it was interesting), but now they're stuck with this stupid double-agent plot. That should be like.. a part of the plot. Not the whole thing. Every episode will apparently consist of BadFakeCIA giving her a mission, and her working with GoodRealCIA to foil them. I didn't care at all about the group she was recruited into initially, because they were proven to be Evil 6 minutes into the show - before I could form any sort of emotional attachment to them (or form an emotional attachment to her emotional attachment to them, or something *vague*).
I didn't read the TWoP recaps (happily), but.. I don't see how the show has enough anything to keep it going for more than a season or two. You're right - the dialogue is weak. Good dialogue could probably make up for at least 80% of the show's flaws (hello, Buffy). And I, too, hate Q.
On the other hand, watching Jennifer Garner kick ass is cool. That could carry me for almost a season, even if I had to watch it on mute. Let me know if you keep watching the series and it does get more interesting, because a lot of people seem to really, really like it.
Re: Bleh
Date: 2004-09-20 05:57 pm (UTC)*dies* Yes. You nailed it exactly with that. Ahhh funny.
Yes. Tons of cookie cutter characters.
And I agree again with your assessment that they got to the double agent thing too fast. How cool would the show have been if they had Sydney working for SD-6 for the first 6 episodes or something, and we think she's working for the CIA doing all these missions and THEN she finds out they're NOT CIA. That would have been an explosive mid-season plot twist.
Let me again hiss at the Q character. God. I just want to whack him with a two by four. How awesome would it have been if instead of being a stuttering BUFFOON, they had him be like... like... *struggles to express* you know that nerdy guy who's always hot for Paige in Foxtrot? Gleefully geeky and slightly smarmy? Like him.
In spite of the overall unimpressive dialogue, there have been a couple (sadly only a couple) of really moving scenes and situations in the second disc. And the plot convolution got a bit interesting in the last episode that I watched, so I'm looking forward to my next disc. I'm starting to care about a few of the characters, namely Sydney's partner Dixon who still doesn't know who he's really working for.
I wish I didn't know some of the plot twists that were coming up *annoyed* Normally I love being spoiled because then I can enjoy watching what I know is going to happen unfold instead of being peeved about what's going to happen next. But too much of the show's charm relies on not knowing what's going to happen next.
Funny also--the ass kicking scenes don't do that much for me. I mean, yes cool choreography, etc. But I think I really preferred the Buffy ones. Or maybe that was because I cared so much about those characters. Or maybe lately I'm just enh about cool fight scenes.
Since so many people like it SO FUCKING MUCH, I'm going to stick with it and I'll keep you posted! Maybe in a few discs I'll be gushing about how this show is the Second Coming.