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"Alias" vs. "24"

1/7/02

Folks--

Now, with the addition of TiVo in the Bell/Wilber household, I have been able to watch every episode of two of the better new series on television this year, “Alias” and “24.”  Now, as many of you know, before this TV season I mainly only watched “The Simpsons” and all major sporting events not featuring the word hockey.  But, through watching all of these sporting events, I was literally bombarded with television ads for these two new shows and I decided that I would watch both to see what I think.

These two shows share one common theme—working for a top-secret government agency.  So, what do you think about these two shows?  Here's the lowdown on my end, with almost six months to go in the season.

“Alias”

The pilot episode of “Alias” was Hollywood-class, mostly due to an expensive-looking production and some shoot locales that looked to be real, not faked, destinations around the world.  The setup for lead character Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner, who appeared briefly in last summer's “Pearl Harbor”) is a deep one:  when we meet her, she is just about to be married to a fiancé that happens to be a doctor, foreign, and promising...until she tells him what she does for a living, which is work as a secret agent.  In this same pilot episode, she finds out that her dad works for the same agency, the fiancé is killed, and she is tortured before killing her oppressors in some dingy prison in China.

Oh, that, and a lot of shit blew up.  That’s why I originally watched the pilot anyway.  But I had to admit, I got behind Sydney's dilemma, and in subsequent episodes the writers for “Alias” have really found a nice mix between Sydney's “day job” as a spy and her personal life, which is full of issues that have entered her life since the first episode.  And, by really slowing down the pace of the show during scenes with her roommate, a potential new boyfriend, her dad or her CIA handler (Sydney has decided to become a double agent, working with her agency and with the US government), it makes for a good hour of TV since the action scenes are serviceable, taut fun.

But, it is during those action scenes where I am having the most trouble.  The two biggest problems for me so far:

1) Sydney, carry a fucking gun!

Although trained in all manner of martial arts, codebreaking, lockpicking and all popular forms of espionage, common sense does not seem to be on Agent Bristow's resume.  Although every single “client” she comes in contact with is carrying a weapon, including her K-Directorate rival Anna Rodriguez, Sydney is never armed.  She could probably do herself some favors by dealing with some oppressors by putting a slug in their back.  This one fact is annoying not because it isn't believable—I can imagine a world where some top-secret spies don't carry a handgun—but because two or three times in each show, she kicks a gun out of someone else's hand by running 20 feet in their direction and risking getting plugged in the chest.  But, even if it was a damned Tazer gun, so that she wouldn't have to actually kill anyone (this is probably the producer's MO, to get out of each episode with no deaths on Sydney's hands), just give her something.  Garner makes me believe that she could kick my ass, but she isn't doing Jet Li impersonations, if you know what I mean.

2) Seven years on the job should make you more experienced

Apparently, Sydney has been a member of SD-6 (her spy agency) for over seven years now.  If this is the case, why is she going “undercover” to international fundraisers, parties or Mah-Jongg social gatherings in the brightest colors her employers can fit her in?  She has worn, in no particular order, fire-engine red, neon blue, solid green and sparking white dresses—and of course, all cleavage-friendly—to various black-tie affairs at which she needs to spy.  I don't have a problem with this in a James Bond film, since Bond is the world's most famous spy and he doesn't even bother with using an alias.  But, “Alias” seems to shoot more for realism than for surrealism, so put Sydney in a tight BLACK dress and have her go about her business.  And, is it just me, or does Sydney always seem scared when she is on a mission?  She has been a professional spy for SEVEN years, for chrissakes!!

Rating:  $8.25 Show

 

“24”

Simply put, “24” is the best TV drama I have ever seen...and, amazingly, it is on Fox.  This is surprising mostly because the show has yet to go straight exploitation, like most other Fox dramas.  No strip clubs, no need to reach into a “Married...with Children” style of comedy, no soapbox-style speeches (ala “Boston Public”) that are meant to show us what is wrong with our lives.  Without question, Kiefer Sutherland has languished in a B-level movie career that has spanned “Young Guns”, “Flatliners” and other so-so films, although he did appear briefly in “A Few Good Men” and “A Time to Kill” over the years.  But, with “24”, Sutherland has found the perfect role for his skills—a regular guy that is simply having the worst 24-hour period of his life unfold in front of the camera.

And, there are great supporting actors in “24”, and its attempt to map out every minute of every show keeps the action cutting from Jack Bauer (Sutherland) to the myriad other actors in the pool, including a black Presidential candidate, members of Bauer's counterintelligence force in Los Angeles, terrorists bent on killing the candidate, and Jack's wife (Leslie Hope) and teen daughter (Elisha Cuthbert).  So, there is always something going on and the pacing of the show is excellent.  I thought the show would really struggle in its early episodes, because the show's pilot started at midnight on the day before the candidate's (Dennis Haysbert) primary; I wondered how they would fill up the first six hours of the series, since that would be from midnight to 6 AM.

Surprisingly, the first quarter of the season has been excellent.  And, it has beautifully set up what will surely be a busy daytime for Bauer, as he tries to track down his daughter, his wife, the terrorists and the moles at his agency.  But, this is also the series' biggest downfall—you simply have to have seen each episode to know what the hell is going on.  So, for those of you hoping to just latch on at this point will be able to find some enjoyment in the show, but you won't really be able to love it unless you have seen it from the beginning.  This is unfortunate, because for those of you that have watched all six episodes so far, I imagine you would agree with me that the narrative has been strong so far.  It would make sense that Fox will at some point show a marathon of, say, the first half of the season (“Alias” recently did that on ABC Family), but they will probably do that on Fox Family or FX, the cable networks on which Fox usually airs its reruns.  So, for the time being, you will have to tune into Fox at 9 on Tuesdays or Fridays, when they air the repeat of that week's episode.  Naturally, this is where having a TiVo unit is key, because I can't live my life around these shows but I really want to watch them, so I am not captive to the television at 9 PM every Tuesday night!

Rating:  Opening Weekend

 

justin@bellviewmovies.com