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Dumbed down: An
'Alias' fan's lament
J.J., you are a heartbreaker. I'm outta Spyland.
By Lynda Liu
I have been to the Promised Land
of television with “Alias,” the J.J. Abrams creation about
superspy Sydney Bristow. But that was then, seasons one and two.
With its twisted plots, bursting with betrayal, “Alias” showed
us like no one else that appearances can be deceiving. Now in its
fourth season, it is delivering this lesson again, in a way that
breaks the heart of this once die-hard fan: Despite "Alias’s" strong
ratings, the show is nosediving faster than you can say C.I.A.
In a misguided effort to dig this spy vehicle out of its
third-season ratings ditch, producers have taken an extreme makeover
approach to overhauling the show: drastic superficial changes
yielding funny-looking results, and more importantly, doing nothing
for the emptiness inside.
They have equated attracting a wider
audience with appealing to the dumbest common denominator. God
forbid viewers should suffer the onus of following a story from week
to week. "Alias" now exists as self-contained episodes. And to save
viewers from the mind-draining experience of processing original
ideas, plot lines are recycled from the successful early seasons.
Watching “Alias 4” is like watching the original show after it
was given a lobotomy.
In the first two seasons, Abrams made us believe the
unbelievable. Sydney Bristow, played by Jennifer Garner, worked for
the CIA only to discover that it wasn’t really the CIA. She then
joined the real CIA and became a double agent only to learn that her
father, whom she thought was a bad guy, was really a good guy and
also a CIA double agent, and her mother, whom she thought was a dead
saint, was alive and well and a murderous treasonous spy.
Not only
did we buy into this roller-coaster, but we could not get enough of
the ride. Yes, there were the spectacular fight scenes, the
Bond-like gadgets, the myriad disguises and accents that Garner
skillfully employed—all fresh once upon a time. But what kept us
invested week to week were the characters and their relationships
with each other.
At heart, “Alias” was not about spies but about
a family as it worked out its issues, and specifically a daughter,
who like all others, wanted her parents’ love and approval. The
storylines were moving, painful, inspiring and complex, just like
the human relationships they portrayed.
This human core disintegrated in season three. The
characters became a shadow of their former selves, mere pawns for
executing a plot line that spun out of control with prophecies and
conspiracies.
Even those working on “Alias” acknowledged it was
a big disappointment, and when they said season four would return
the show to its original glory, I believed Abrams would take us back
to the Promised Land.
He has but with a new show called “Lost.” “Alias” has
been left to the plagues. The recycled plot lines, instead of giving
loyalists more of what they loved, feel like an insulting
bait-and-switch. We’ve come too far with these characters to have
them doing the same things with the same people.
How many times will
Sydney hate her father for something he did only to discover later
that he was acting in her best interest? How many times will she
save her lover Vaughan from the jaws of death or he her? How many
times will she put on lingerie and bat her eyelashes to get one over
on a world-class agent working for the bad guys, thus solving the
dilemma of how to accomplish an impossible mission? We have been
there, done that, and it was better the first time around.
Better not just because it was original, but because
it was deeply moving and substantive. “Alias 4” is nothing but
déjà vu lite.
Don’t be fooled by the ratings boost “Alias” is
enjoying. That is the result of its lead-in from “Lost,” which
painfully reminds us of what the show once was. Abrams has found his
way with “Lost,” but he has lost his way with “Alias.”
When
the best reason for tuning in is the guilty pleasure of watching
awkward love scenes between Jennifer Garner and her co-star Michael
Vartan—whom she dated and reportedly dumped for Ben Affleck—you
know it’s time to get out of Spyland.
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March 9, 2005
©
2005
Media Life
- Lynda Liu is a New
York writer.
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