Alias - The Complete Second Season

Starring: Jennifer Garner, Ron Rifkin, Michael Vartan, Victor Garber, Bradley Cooper, Carl Lumbly, Merrin Dungey, Kevin Weisman, David Anders, Lena Olin

Creator: J.J. Abrams

Rating: NR

Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Release Date: December 2, 2003
Review posted: May 2, 2004

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

SYNOPSIS

Jennifer Garner stars in this television series as Sydney Bristow, a 26 year-old graduate student working for a secret division of the CIA. The mission of this arm of the CIA is to combat SD-6, a secret terrorist organization whose agents believe that they, in fact, work for a secret organization of the CIA that combats terrorism. This second season of the series introduces a host of new plot twists including a new romance for Sydney and the appearance of a woman who may be Sydney's mother.

CRITIQUE

Alias really mixes things up in the exciting second season, especially in the middle of it with the pivotal episode Phase One that changes everything!

Not only does Sydney meet her mother for the first time since childhood this season, she has to overcome her feelings of pain and neglect as newly-developed situations force the CIA to consult with her (traitor) mother (Lena Olin), and it is only Sydney who can make her talk.

The new developments this season are exciting and thrilling to watch, making for splendid entertainment. The last few episodes of the season move into high gear and change a lot of things in the show's own world. The big twist at the very end of the last episode is quite overwhelming, not to mention I'm unsure of what to make of it.

The show is still plagued by some logic gaps and a few other irks, specifically the obvious Los Angeles locations that are supposed to dub for England, Germany, France, Spain, whatever, etc. However, watching various guest stars making cameo appearances, including Christian Slater and Ethan Hawke, is fun.

THE VIDEO

Buena Vista presents Alias in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are vibrant and well-saturated. Color detail is pretty good and shadow detail is good. Softness is not apparent. Skin tones look just fine. Dark tones are not consistent and deep blacks don't have much depth. Image quality is fresh and devoid of major problems. However, there are noticeable amounts of grain in even the slightest of dark scenes. I didn't notice any compression artifacts. Special effects shots look nice, but are very obvious. I'm not sure if they're intended to look that way or if the effects are just of lesser quality; I guess it ultimately depends on the show's budget, which is not very high. In any case, Alias looks pretty good to me in the overall sense. The widescreen presentation makes the show look cinematic.

THE AUDIO

Buena Vista presents Alias in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand. It is nicely spread across and reproduced among the two front channels. Sound effects are aplenty, like gunshots, punches, kicks, kisses; heck, you name it. Despite that, the surrounds are not used to great effect. The rear speakers pick up sounds from time to time, but the presentation is usually without much dynamic range. The score comes across nicely, however. Overall, the show sounds just fine.

THE EXTRAS

Disc 1 starts off with trailers for Hidalgo and Pirates of the Caribbean, followed by commercials for the third season of Alias and the Alias video game. Except to plug the show, which is on ABC Sundays at 9 (whoops! I guess I did it, too), the third season commercial is unnecessary and pointless as it shows no actual footage of the new season.

Disc 4 features an audio commentary (with a short introduction by all participants) on the episode Phase One by J.J. Abrams, Jennifer Garner, director Jack Bender, Greg Grunberg, Michael Vartan and Victor Garber via satellite. These guys go on a romp. They're clearly enjoying their time making jokes, reminiscing about specific filming and commenting on the show in general. Abrams is the most informative of the group, but Bender gets behind some info, too. Grunberg speaks up quite often, Vartan rarely says much and Garner's comments are alright. For some conflicting reason Garber joins the group via satellite. He almost has nothing to say, except when Abrams and the others tease him about stuff, like his last commentary outing (for Season 1) where he apparently left early for some dinner invitation. This time he doesn't have one scheduled. At one point Abrams asks him what he thinks of the episode and Garber responds, "I'm so transfixed right now I can't even talk to you." That kind of stuff is funny, but you know he's just saying that to get it over with. Well, I mean, Garber seems funny in a dead pan kind of way, so maybe he's just odd like that. Anyway, check it out for yourself. This is a really fun track.

If you're interested in viewing that episode and reading the script simultaneously, place the disc in your DVD-ROM drive and access the Alias ScriptScanner.

Disc 5 features an audio commentary on the episode A Dark Turn by director Ken Olin, and writers John Eisendrath, Jesse Alexander and Jeff Pinkner. These guys go technical on the show, but also make a lot of jokes. Some of them distracting, however. There is some good information here, but that's it.

Disc 6 contains the meat of the extras, but first are two more audio commentaries; The next-to-last episode Second Double by director Ken Olin, Bradley Cooper, Carl Lumbly and Terry O'Quinn. Lastly, there's commentary on the season finale The Telling by Abrams, Ken Olin, Ron Rifkin, Merrin Dungey and Kevin Weisman.

The Making of The Telling (45:15) is a detailed behind-the-scenes look at pre-production, filming, and post-production of the season finale. You get to meet a lot of the production crew and see some cool on-set footage, plus an interview with Abrams in a white In-N-Out t-shirt. Most of the documentary spends a lot of time detailing the shoot of the infamous cat fight towards the end of the episode. Jennifer Garner also celebrates her birthday during the filming of that scene. The rest of the docu shows the editing process, scoring, additional dialogue recording (ADR) and mixing session. Overall, this is a very nice in-depth look at the making of the season finale.

The Look of Alias (12:00) is a featurette on the many costumes and wigs worn by Jennifer Garner. Interviews are with Abrams, producer Sarah Caplan and several other people, such as the show's stylist. I didn't care for this one at all as it was basically just "talk". However, there is a nice montage of clips and costume designs at the end of this piece.

Next, Abrams appears in a 35-second introduction to the 7 deleted scenes that can be played individually or all at once. To give viewers some perspective, the menu indicates the episode each scene was cut from. Two scenes were cut from both A Double Agent and The Telling, plus three others, but overall these scenes don't add anything to the season, yet it's nice to see them here once.

Probably the single most fun extra on this release is the season 2 blooper reel (4:20). Congrats to whoever edited together the footage of on-set mishaps, actors fumbling their lines and everyone taking it easy by laughing it all off. Composed to an upbeat score, this blooper reel is pretty hilarious! I wish it could've been three times as long. Lastly, watch out for a really creepy laugh by Merrin Dungey! It's especially creepy if you freeze frame it. Whoa!!

Then there is an audio-only feature called KROQ's Kevin and Bean Radio Show Interviews. Participating in the interviews are J.J. Abrams (12:40), Victor Garber (7:52), Kevin Weisman (9:13) and Jennifer Garner (6:57). A "play all" option is available. Except for Garner's interview, which is from the time of Season 1, the interviews were conducted close to the 2003 Superbowl. These are fun to listen to. Kudos to the DVD producers for including them.

Next are 7 Alias TV spots, the Making of Alias the Video Game (4:25), which is ok, and another Alias ScriptScanner for your DVD-ROM drive.

Menus are interactive and very easy to navigate. You can select to view the show with optional English (closed captioned) and Spanish subtitles. Each episode is roughly 42 minutes in length and is divided into 8 to 12 chapters (depending on the individual episode).

FINAL THOUGHTS

Alias is a really cool show. The amount of entertainment and excitement is terrific. Season 2 is great overall, not perfect however, as a few episodes don't quite make it happen, yet considering it all I can't complain. Video/audio quality is pretty slick and on the money, and the selection of supplemental features is pretty nice.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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