I am glad so many people are really digging past seasons of ALIAS and falling in love for the first time.

The consensus after all is said and done about ALIAS I firmly believe will be that Season 2 was the golden season.

Cynthia and Casey, true. Season 2 was by far the best and the finale was awesome. Even the episode leading up to the finale were pretty damn good.

Season 3 remains half an upset and half a revived show. The second half was defintely the closest we got to Season 2. And I must admit the Season 3 finale did kick ass as well. I didn't remember it being that good till I watched it over last month!

Season 4 is gettin a bit dull but that is because of 2 main things...

1) We are living episode to episode with no real story arc or cliffhangers because the creators and the network want to reel in viewers who don't have to work through complicated storylines and thus, will stick with the show. The flaw in making each episode stand-alone is that it not only kills the basic theme and forumula that makes ALIAS work but it makes it just as easy for new viewers to tune out as it does tune in and it's driving the patience of ALIAS devotees. They could make the show simpler and then start bringing in the past story archs little by little. they don't have to just shut new viewers from the ALIAS world off and then introduce them again. They should have started to built in Rambaldi already in this season. It's basically what the show runs on and there was one slight mention of it in the premeiere.
The up-side is that we are promised classic ALIAS story archs and cliffhangers soon.

2) People who watch the DVD's are getting spoiled at having episodes at their disposal. Waiting week to week obviously kills the momentum (as do commercials often times). We just have to be patient. OR you can stop watching and catch them on DVD again (but that will defeat the purpose of the new season!)


I am glad they are bringing back Sark at least (though he wasnever a favorite character of mine).
Bringing an old character may have some good intentions and I hope they work.
What we really need is Will and Francie back!!! Evil Francie!!!!!

And we better start getting into serious storylines now. No more BS. If Sloane doesn't have an end-game then this season is practically worthless. If they don't mention Irina in the next 2-3 episodes, I'll go crazy! What happened to Katya?? So many questions! start answering them already!!!

in the spirit of Ripper listing her favorite characters in order, mine would be:

1. Nadia (lately anyway, hopefully it will hold up)
2. Weiss (provides the closest thing to a real person on the show)
3. Will (not around anymore but listing him anyway, like a cross between weiss's realness and vaughn's action man)
4. Marshall (a little predictable, always the same joke of him being enthusiastic about some horribly deadly weapon then realizing others aren't amused -- but fun anyway)
5. Vaughn (he's good in his action scenes, but is always outmachoed by his girlfriend which doesn't do much for his image )
6. Dixon (who always is great but is not given enough to do and also is not given enough lighter moments to make him seem more real)

The show needs some more humor to make the characters seem real. Does Jack never tell a joke ever?

I do actually know people who worked for the NSA, CIA, and such, I used to want to work for the NSA.

If this were her first year then yes, but we are led to believe she's been doing this for awhile, and that she is one of the best...and I don't buy it, she is far to emotional and naive.

It is logical that she was sad about danny, but she cries as much about other agents dying as she does about Danny, while this makes her very emphatic it doesn't make her a great spy. Spies, police officers, fireman, they knwo there are risks, and that they wills ee casualties, she becomes unabel to move whiel out in the field due to her emotion...that is BAD, very bad. Dixon has to bloody carry her, that calls into question her abilites as a field agent.

I stand by everything I said, through the box episode of season 1, Sydney is one fo the most grating characters on the show. It is like wathcing a n00b spy, not a veteran who has earned Sloane's trust. I like Sydney better now, by alot, but she really got on my nerves for the first 16 episodes of season 1. I was happy to get through a whole episode were she did not cry.

Favorite characters....

1. Irina
2. Evil Francie
3. Marshal
4. Jack
5. Will
6. Katya
7. Sloane
8. Nadia
9. Sydney
10. Vaughn

It's so funny how the two leads are my least favorite characters!

The leads beign the lesat interesting characters on a show happens alot.

Season 1: Q&A, worst Alias episode I have seen yet. I found it boring, and I coudl have skipped all but the last ten minutes and not missed anything. Just when I was really starting to like Sydney, they her go back to being irrational.

The plan was very sloppy, using a CIA car, c'mon this is not the badass Jack I know. Jack has warehouses full of guns all over, they get a goddamn plane, he couldn't get a non CIA car?

Thankfully I am almost done with Season 1 and I can move on to Season 2, the best Alias season, only 5 episodes to go, and I doubt any of them can aapraoch teh suck of Q&A.

I am desperatly waiting for Season 3 disc one to come in the mail......too many unanswered questions that i must know the answers to.

Hmmm.... not to burst your bubble or kill some hopes... but I remember Season 3's opener to be quite like Season 4's.
Alot of things have changed over 2 years and at the time seemed like an out of place ALIAS episode.
No worries though because even if you end up hating the direction they took with season 3 (as I did), I'm sure they'll make up for it with the second half of that season.

the second half of season 3 was awesome and I had forgotten how good they were until I rewatched them on DVD.

I have yet to re-watch the first half of season 3 and I hope I like it better this time around.

Also another reminder to ALIAS fans down from Season 4's new direction.

Lost has around 7-8 more new episodes left in the season and Desperate Housewives as well.

But ALIAS still has a whopping 15 more episodes to go before the season finishes, so there si still alot on its way!

I'm a little confused, are they going to show all the season eps,22 I think, before or into June or are they splitting them up and saving the rest until the fall and making it Season 5?

I don't know if anything has changed or if there is something I am missing, but I was under the impression and read that we were promised an entire season, non-stop from Januray to May.

I mapped it out and assuming they do in fact deliver a new episode every Wednesday (which is easy cuz it's not like Sunday when there are alot of events throughout the season) they can end with a 2 hour finale on May 25th. LOST will already have been done by then, seeing as how they will end early May with only 7 or 8 new episodes left.

I really hope they just drop this individual episode thing and get with the ALIAS program. They are losing viewers by the week. And whether that's cuz of competition or because of an easily-exitable set up (just as easy it is now to jump in) they need to start focusing on story archs and for God's sake, bring back Rambaldi. Please dont expect us to believe that there really isn't anything at work or worse yet make yourselves believe that and thus, write it into the show.

(Season 3 spoilers....)
Sloane's ENTORE end-game in season 3 was to tap into a DNA database to find his daughter in order to get to the Rambaldi artifcat. That had to have been planned out at least somehwat in advance. So even if you think Rambaldi wasn't present too much in Season 3 as much as in S 1& 2) the underlying infrastructure of ALIAS is Rambaldi and Sydney's family. At the end of Season 3 Nadia informs Sloane only she has the correct coordinates for the artifact and in Season 4 opener (the only glimmer of a mention of Rambaldi in season 4 to date) was when Sloane explained to someone, I think Sydney, that he and Nadia found the Rambaldi artifact whether it was his essence or tissue or whatever and then handed it over to the government.

Are we really supposed to believe that? I mean come on.
Taking away Rambaldi and the family connection is like taking the core and infrastructure away from the show and maybe that's why this new season is letting everyone down. It has no direction and sense of framework like we were so intricately used to for 3 years.

They haven't dumbed the show down for easy access to new viewers, they have stripped it of its essence, the very formula that made it such a small hit. Now they are risking losing even the faithful fans.

Still, a bad episode of ALIAS is better than alot of other shows on TV and I still have complete hope that J.J. and the writers have thought of a great plan for this season and are just waiting to unleash it. But we are getting impatient!

Vaughn's attempt to be menacing with Sark in the cell was hilarious. He should do that more often for entertainment value. It was a good episode, that opened up a few possibilities, now if they just continue to build on it for the forseeable future. Glad to see Anna back, I do hope she stays because the little we saw of her tonight I loved.

First episode in a while where I am anticipating the next one.

Agreed on Vaughn, and I do love Sark, he's so much smarter and more interesting then Vaughn. Vaughn can stay if they are willing to humilate him for laughs.

Anna is such a great character, whenever she is around I wonder "why isn't the shwo about her."

I liked Jack taking power, that was cool. All around a good episode, though I have to admit I am not in the "loving Nadia" camp. While the actress is good, her characer is very meh.

The fight in the store was great.

I've always liked villians more than so called heroes. More Anna for me.

The fight was great, Anna was great, SArk was great, and especially Nadia was great.

Nice to see the return of the cliffhanger.

Finally we are starting to get a glimpse of classic ALIAS.

Great episode. It wasn't anything too special, but it's headed in the right direction.

Anna Espenoza was great.

Nadia is a good character but I do believe if they don't play her cards right, they can ruin it very quickly. I am assuming she has a bigger significance in the Rambaldi prophecy and I hope they just don't screw up her character by overkilling it with other stupid plotlines (I'm not saying any have arisen, but it will be very interesting what they do with the cliffhanger plotline).

I agree with Cynthia and knew she was going to mention it: JAck was great!

Marshal, as in every episode, was fantastic.
Sark had a good return. I'm glad both he and Anna are returning next week!

Agreed, msot of hte time the villians are more interesting.

Take Evil Francie and Evil Lauren, way more interesting then they dull "good" counterparts.

That is why Jack is my favorite good character, he has no qualms about doing what the bad guys do to achieve his aim.

I know what you mean, I just finished Season 1 DVD and the fact he shot the mole instead of just reporting him was just awsome. He's so controlled, even more so than Sloane. Eveeeeeeeevil, yet good!

Actually, Jcak does alot of questionabale things, but in the name of odign good, it gives his character an arc, and makes want to smack Sydney everytime she likes but that's not right...yeah we know.

I loved the sequence in season 3 when Jack takes Vaughn to this location where he has uns and etc stored and vaughn says something about how he'll keep the lcoation safe and Jack repsonds "Don't worry I have others."

Jack has been threw some shit, and he is well aware of what he is dealing with. Jack is why I watch this show.

OK that's it, I give up on this show for now. It has regressed to the Rambaldi crap that messed up the last season, and the sickening cutting off of the guy's finger made me pretty much hate the leads as they were doing it. For a while, a few episodes ago, it looked like the show had turned a corner and was becoming something other than the soap opera it used to be but it is back in soap territory.

OK that's it, I give up on this show for now. It has regressed to the Rambaldi crap that messed up the last season, and the sickening cutting off of the guy's finger made me pretty much hate the leads as they were doing it. For a while, a few episodes ago, it looked like the show had turned a corner and was becoming something other than the soap opera it used to be but it is back in soap territory.

I finished Season 1.

My final thoughts.

I worship Jack, I just love him.

I really dislike Syd, there maybe three episodes were she didn't irk the fuck out of me, but that was sort lived.

Also, the CIA seems rathersloppy in their dealing with Syd as a double agent, when she is out in the field with a partner why not make her CIA call sing the same as her SD-6 call sign, to avoid the "Your ode name was Bluebird not Freelancer" issue with Dixon...and sending her out with a device that sent a singal, they seem tot hik Sd-6 is just stupid.

I really dislike Francie, wheras WIll is amusing and interesting, Francie is just he epitone of dull.

I am going to start watching Season 2, yay

As for season 4, can soeone please explain where all the nadia love comes from? I reallly don;t get it, she doesn't really do anything, except make us have t put with more Weiss screen time.

God its fucking great that Alias finally took off in America - means lots of new fans for the old seasons on DVD too
I dont think we should be too worried about "Alias" ratings drops guys - its still wayyy above the timeslot index and the shows previous ratings inspite of being head to head with America's biggest show. Last year, it would have folded if it had tried that. Im proud of it. Although if ratings ever drop bellow like 8/8.5 Million viewers then thats dangerous. But "Alias" has to be commended for its improvement on previous seasons and its resillience in the face of big competition. Its also still a big hitter in the ads demographics and an even bigger hitter with Merchandise and notably DVD sales.

Season 4s ratings gave us fans the space to breathe a sigh of relief - Season 5 is practically a lock - but i wish American Idol didn't have to come back.

And what? the CLiffhangers are back!? THANK GOD - thats what MAKES this show

Shes BACK wohoooo! i cant wait for Alias sooo much.

Anyway my favourite characters ever

1. Sydney
2. Evil Francie
3. Irina
4. Anna Espanosa
5. Sloane
6. Marshall
7. Emily Sloane
8. Francie
9. Will
10. Dixon

Oh and P.S "Alias" is ranking an average of 24th position out of all shows this season ; of cours if ratings continue to dip then so will that ranking . But with ABC keen to keep J.J. Abrams under their wing, and a double hitter that is providing ratings and hype so far above the networks other shows [bar one] then theres no way that Alias looks like it will be cancelled.

Ewwwww. Evil Lauren was one of the dulllest characters on the show...ever, and is a part of why last sesason didn't quite live up to the previous seasons.

Archie, I don't understand how you liked the show so much before if you hate the Rambaldi plot. It's the core of ALIAS!

I said Evil Lauren was better then boring wife of Vaughn "good" Lauren, being better doesn't make one good.

Their are subtlies to the english langauge which you gloss over.

Then again my opinio seems to differ then all of you since I hate Sydney, and I find Nadia good awful boring.

@Raffiki
As for disliking Rambaldi, it always came off as kind of hooky and stupid, the predictions..but I could see peopel being obessed with it. The lack of Rambaldi stuff at the beginning of the season certianly made the episodes stnad alone andn ot all that interesting, but around season three the Rambaldi stuff jsut got more annoying...its starting to became a bit like the conspiracy plot on the X-Files. We need a resolution to some things, or it just loses interest.

Take Nadia's conection to Rambaldi, I could do without it, honestly.