Alias (TV series): Difference between revisions

''Alias'' is a [[Cliché Storm]]/[[Troperiffic]] [[Spy Drama]] (2001-2006) by [[J.J. Abrams]] about Sydney Bristow ([[Jennifer Garner]]), an agent for SD-6, black-ops division of the CIA, who discovers that, whoops, it wasn't a black-ops division of the CIA so much as a faction of a powerful [[Western Terrorists|terrorist group]] called The Alliance; so she becomes a [[Reverse Mole|double agent]]. She then discovers her father, a supposed salesman, is also a double agent for the CIA. Sydney then has to divide her loyalties between a team of good men at SD-6 who simply don't know their boss is the devil, and a team of mostly good men and a few pricks at the real CIA.

 

 

Unusual for its willingness to embrace a fanciful [[Story Arc]] about a centuries-old prophecy. The first four seasons all featured a subtle, never explained [[Myth Arc]] about an [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Italian inventor with a penchant for odd drawings and fanciful words]]. Somehow, this 15th century prophet is still relevant today. His designs have been implemented and his writings dissected. And apparently the global intelligence community has nothing better to do than go to war over every piece of technology he might have even glanced at.

* [[Kudzu Plot]]

* [[The Lab Rat]]: Marshall.

** Sydney's mother is [[Not Quite Dead]], and she's an ex-KGB operative.

** Sydney has a long-lost sister named Nadia.

** In Season 4, Sydney works for a branch of the CIA called APO, or Authorized Personnel Only, which is a lot like SD-6. Here, the official team relationships are the same as at the start of the pilot (minus the double-agent part), with the original team of Sydney, Dixon, Sloane, and Marshall back together in their original team roles, along with Jack and Vaughn. However, after three seasons of betrayal and general evil by Sloane, all the personal relationships are extremely frayed.

** There are other, more minor [[Retool|ReTools]], but these are the major ones. Season 5 is sort of a [[Retool]], but it's constantly changing and never settles. The interesting thing is that all of the original characters are maintained (minus {{spoiler|Will and Francie}}) despite all of the changes in the show. The same might be said of any show, but in ''Alias'', all of the characters completely change teams at least once and repeatedly betray one another, some of them over and over, in ways that would destroy most real (and even most TV) relationships.

* [[Shout-Out]]: One of Marshall's passwords is "[[The Elric Saga|Moonglum of Elwher]]".

* [[Significant Monogram]]: Sydney's dad Jack is a Cold War relic of a superspy with the initials "JB". [[James Bond|Hmmm...]]

[[Category:Alias]]

[[Category:TV Series]]