I liked episode three. Despite me finding it incredibly hard to believe that Rachel Nichols' character would believe everything Sydney & co. was telling her, I was engaged by her character. Hope she brings a little something more than Mia Maestro (who was good but never really propelled the show anywhere).

I thought Balthazar Getty was a little flat, though.

Getty = more interesting than Vaughn; but thats no big task.
Nichols = Sydney Mark II thats for sure, but she can never replace the real sydney.
Bouchez = Uglier than I'd expected; and im not sure if shes the best actress but her character is AMAZING and shes easily my favourite newbie.

Another good, if not great, episode.

Glad we got a little Sloane court coverage, considering I never bought him getting off in the first place. (And I didn't really buy him getting off here either, but meh.)

The Sydney/Rachel dynamic is interesting, but I hope it evolves into something more over the season than just Sydney teaching her the ropes. Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but I say turn her (Rachel) into a Francie type character, an actual friend. Those home scenes JJ promised us last year? Can't say I remember getting them. So yeah, I hope this goes somewhere.

I'm liking this season so far, though. I thought tonight's episode was better than last night's Lost.

You know what.... and Michael get ready for this....

I thought this episode tonight was fantastic. Classic Alias.... brings me back to Seasons 1 and 2.
I also like the direction it's going, wherever it might be, but the feel is good.

The one thing I did not like was that cliche line Rachel Nichols delivered that always seems to come up a few times during an ALIAS season.... the one that went something like... "I just had this done to me and now this this and that, so unless something I'm gonna keep doing this" line.


LOVVVVVED the casino alias. Garner reallt put a smile on my face.

Im going to see this epsiode tonight i guess. But then im afraid im out of the Alias loop; waiting fro the season to hit tv before i see it. Im just not sure WHEN its hitting tv here; the lag between america is frustrating and that Vaughn thing would have been spoilered for me had i not seen them straight away.

Alias' latest episode is the shows lowest rated ever with 6.81m viewers.
Night Stalker after it had 4.5m and Primetime had 6.4m.

Loved the episode. My one concern is that Nichols is gonna take away some of my beloved Marshall-in-the-field moments, now that they got a butt kicking computer genious.

SOME MAJOR HUGE ASSED spoilery images

http://img463.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... r128zj.jpg

http://img463.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... r318wk.jpg


BE WARNED.

heres a video of the above.

Garner and "X" seem to have a lot of akwardness together, she seems to talk to the other crew members a lot more than him and he seems to not really do much of anything at all.
But i wouldnt derive any mutual dislike in the clip.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2005/10/21/alias-mockingbird/

Great review that asks the same questions that im asking.

WTF is your problem, Aliasers? To be honest i think we are so used to hearing Alias fans whine about the show becuase it isnt following the path they saw for it that even if the reaction is good, we automatically assume that the fanbase isnt happy for some reason.


The TV.COM average for this season is actually better than last season. Which is user graded. The latest episode got the highest rating of the season yet. Considering the Vaughn backlash will have spawned a lot of negative comments i think that Alias is actually emerging from the fan's dismay for whatever reasons they can make up and is turning out to be extremely interesting and engaging. Last year was a lot of fun, and the final half of the season was pretty great. I enjoyed it - but it was a little bit aimless at times. The year before was the weakest even though it was still brilliant tv, and season 2 was the best.

But with 100% standards set in its second year, how could alias ever beat itself?

TVSquad joins the list of fans of the show who think that Season 5 could be a real return to Alias' better days

[http://www.tvsquad.com/2005/10/22/watercooler-talk-alias-is-good/]

I've had the first four episodes of Alias saved on my DVR for a couple of weeks now. I finally got around to watching them last night, and a funny thing happened to me -- I fell in love with it all over again. Now, I've been a fan of the show from the start, but I've been pretty well relegated myself to the fact that the great days of this show were gone at the end of season two. That's not to say I haven't liked the past two seasons, because I have. A lot, in fact. Probably more than most fans of the show, but seasons one & two was some of the best and most original programming that's graced TV, ever, in my opinion.

I was never a huge fan of Michael (Vaughn) Vartan. I think he's kind of a putz in real life, and Vaughn seemed to only be used to setup hurdles for Sydney to jump, something that could have been done a dozen different ways. That said, I wasn't among those that were all that torn up when he was killed off. His "replacement", for lack of a better term, Balthazar Getty's Thomas Grace, is fantastic. He's got a very "normal" air about him that is quite charming. He's not the pretty boy that Vartan was; he's a smartass on the show, in the total deadpan way that I love. More often than not, he seems to be completely "winging it" on the missions; and is just generally quirky ("If he tries to blindfold us we may have a problem: I'm not in the mood for blindfolds today.")

We also have, for the most part, clear cut bad guys again. It's been so tedious the past couple of years just trying to figure out who we were fighting, let alone all the other mysteries going on. Sure, Sloane is ambiguous, but it looks like we're going to get a resolve to who's side he's on here shortly. And at least this time we feel for him and understand his motivation a little bit better, having known Nadia for an entire season.

Rachel Nichols. She's reason enough for me to watch. She was spot-on perfect as Rebecca Locke on Fox's painfully cut short The Inside, and it's almost like what her character Rachel on Alias is going through is what's going to turn her into the calm cool Rebecca from The Inside. We get to see Alias: The Next Generation now, as Rachel goes through what Sydney initially did all those years ago. This also gives Jennifer Garner the chance to shine as not only the older sister (like last year), but also as the veteran. Sydney's now becoming the person she needed in her own life that would have made things so much easier.

It sure seems like Alias is firing on all cylinders again, and I hope this is the start of a new golden run for the show. For the first time in a long time, while watching these episodes, I found myself laughing, wincing, sitting on the edge of my seat, and hurting. This unique combination of humor, drama, action and loss is what defined Alias, and it feels like someone involved with the show "got it" again. It's jumped quickly back up my "must watch" list and for the first time in years, I can't wait for the next episode, nevermind the next season.

Hmmm... the previous post kinda sums up my feelings towards the show. But I was more skeptical, still, of Season 5 until this latest episode.

I think we're all used to seeing it going somehwere then spinning around and going nowhere fast.

But thats okay by me - its just other fans hated that it wasnt storytelling every episode. Now it is and theres nothing to complain about. The shows great again.

Maybe it's just me but Alias always seems to take a few episodes to get into the groove. I find it funny that many people thought Season 2 was great with Lena Olin but to me I thought it was boring and wondered why everyone was raving about the woman, who from what I could see sat in a cell most of the year. lol

Anyways, someone in a newsgroup suggested that with Monday Night Football over at ABC in January, Alias should move to a timeslot on that night. I think it would be a good idea, as long as it's not opposite 24.

So Alias episode 4 was really, really good. Im desperate to watch it in the UK but the temptation is tough to resist. This years so arresting and engaging and the story really is going somewhere. Lots of new questions raised this episode and not ones that are going to fizzle into non-answers.

The whole crane thing was really thrilling and Sydney is still the lead ass kicker; which im happy about.

So you find Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs boring too?

Lena Olin has a duplicitous air about her, she affects those around her and her presence is strong and forceful without her having to be so. Great actress, beautiful woman and possibly Alias' second best character ever.

Although i must say...Rachel Nichols and Eloide Bouchez's characters are really gripping.

Its irony that when Alias finally gets its groove back on the ratings go down again.

Actually I found him much more interesting and scary and worth watching. The thing is I had heard that Lena's character was great etc and expected there to be action and such and all you got was her in the jail cell dispensing advice. She just did not come off as compelling as Hannibal. But then who can?

Lol. I love Lena Olin. She's actually one of the core reasons why I desperately fell in love with the show in Season 2. Michael is right in that she has this unmatched presence! I think Jennifer Garner has showed quite some skill in her compilation of Alias seasons, but I always find myself bias towards Lena Olin; my favorite and in my opinion, the best character on the show.

Ya, I also find it ironically hillarious that the ratings dip evetytime it gets good.

What did you think of Sydney's alias in the first sequence Michael???

I LOVED it, seriously; as much as we all give Lena Olin credit - no one really stops to credit Jennifer Garner for her role; its implicit Garner Love. But seriously; girl can A.C.T. and just watching the seasons sees a lot of development and growth on her acting abilities.

Great epsiode. Again.
The plot thickens. Sloane scared the crap out of me and im suddenly feeling that two certain members of the cast who exchanged a certain glance may be in cahoots and not quite as Good Guy as we thought....

I thought it was definitely a sub-par episode. No real tension for me with the body in the box (for some reason I was under the impression that it was going to be somebody we were already familiar with).

And I dunno about these new characters. I like Rachel Nichols, but I'm still finding the Getty dude terribly dull. Same with the French girl.

Im not a big fan of Getty; but i love the "french girl" and am quite fond of Nichols.

One thing we cant critisize in this years Alias is a lack of episode to epsiode cohesion. The season is moving somewhere that the writers are clearly aware of. Whearas last year some of the season was spent distancing the show from its former year before the writers realised that they should probboly have a plot.

Right Now alias for me is

1. Season 2 [Played with its plot perfectly. Lena Olin was awesome and the entire story was at its pinacle]
2. Season 1 [Brilliant. Fun. Exciting. Smart. Fresh and Important]
3. Season 5 [feels like oldness. Which is a very very awesome thing to feel like, let me tell you ]
4. Season 4 [really, really great, almost as good as s5. If only it had original focus instead of just fun action]
5. Season 3 [was the flip side of season 4, not nearly enough sydney or action, but the story was intruiging]

I didn't enjoy the episode as much as I have others recently but i was switching abck and forth between that nad madonna so dont know if i should judge it

BTW you guys should check out Balthazar Getty's band, Ringside. Their second single, Tired of Being Sorry, from their self-titled album is fantastic.

Good, not great. I love Rachel Nichols, though.