"Alias" went rotten.
These are sad times for those of us who have been fans of the show from its inception four years ago. With so much crap on television, why did the mediocrity bug have to bite this once-compelling program - the best, most interesting network offering since "The X-Files"?
Jennifer Garner's star-making vehicle was once a complicated action-drama about a female spy working as a double agent to bring down a vastly funded terrorist cell that passed itself off as a branch of the American government.
Her character, Sydney Bristow, worked to stop the madman running the cell, a guy named Sloane who also murdered her fiancÇ. Sloane employed several well-trained field agents, including Sydney, under the guise they were working as CIA operatives.
In actuality, she and her fellow agents were helping construct an ultimate weapon based on the designs of an inventor that lived hundreds of years ago.
Heady stuff, right? "Alias" was once a nasty combination of "Kill Bill," "James Bond" and "The DaVinci Code."
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Now it's more like "The Brady Bunch," but with gun battles and ninja sword fights.
A story that once wound together Bristow, her CIA partner Vaughn (played by Michael Vartan), and her father, also working as a double agent, has spun off into an insane web of stupid love triangles and family squabbles.
Season four started this year with a two-hour episode that did nothing to alleviate fears the show would stop its steady decline. Bristow now works for the evil madman again, along with her ex-partner, ex-boyfriend and her father, whom she resents after learning an oh-so-lame secret. Also recruited to the team is Nadia, Sydney's half sister who was fathered by her arch-nemesis, Sloane.
The show has always had some hokiness to it. A tongue-in-cheek wit helped maintain the balance between hard-core action and drama. It's become less tolerable. I've given up watching.
The program's bad ratings, despite a small-but-dedicated fan base and glowing reviews, obviously brought about a need for change in the show's brass.
I can imagine a meeting with network execs trying to fix the show's low Nielsen ratings:
"Can't these two hook up, and can't this girl be this girl's mother, and wouldn't it be great if these two had a little fling, and this guy should betray this other guy and blah, blah, blah...?"
It's a shame. The science and intrigue are gone and were replaced with predictable banality.
The plot was once dense and unnerving. Now it's just tired. Check out seasons one and two on DVD, then never watch them again.
"Alias"
Abc, Wednesday, 9 p.m.
Grade: D
