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The
Series:
Minor Spoilers
for Season 1 follow...
A highly complex
and intricate show, Alias was able to deftly blend
together multiple storylines dealing with
everything from neutron bombs to arms dealers to
soviet spies along with a touching, lighter side
that showed the humanity of the characters and the
true depth each one of the characters brought to
the show. In season one, it all starts off
with Sydney working at SD-6, a highly secretive
branch of the CIA involved in shady dealings and a
search for a mysterious device by an even more
mysterious man, Rambaldi. At the end of the
first episode, Sydney realizes that SD-6 is not
actually a branch of the CIA, but instead, a part
of a much larger "alliance" and she
becomes a double, working for the CIA to bring
down SD-6. As the show progresses, the plots
become much more complex as we jump around the
globe from one location to another as Sydney works
as an agent for SD-6, but then has to juggle the
responsibility to the CIA as she either has to
sabotage the SD-6 missions or provide intel for
the CIA.
Season one, in my
opinion featured some of the best episodes to date
and was an incredibly fun season to watch.
As we watched Sydney try and juggle all of her
different covers, deftly switching between SD-6
agent and CIA agent, a high level of tension crept
into the series and from episode to episode, you
just couldn't wait to see what would happen
next. The first season featured such gems as
The Box, guest starring Quentin Tarantino, and
great characters, including, but not limited to,
Anna Espinosa, Alexander Khasinau and Milo
Rambaldi.
If you're new to
Alias or missed a few episodes from season one,
here's your chance to catch up with what is easily
one of the best shows on television from the past
decade.
The
Picture:
The picture
quality is the crown jewel of this DVD
collection. When the box set was originally
announced, it was revealed that the episodes would
only be presented in a 1.33:1 ratio (your standard
4:3 TV ratio). Those of us with widescreen
TVs cried foul and, luckily, ABC changed its
mind. These episodes are simply
beautiful. I did not have a widescreen TV
when season one aired, but now that I do, I enjoy
watching Alias each week in high-definition and
what I enjoy even more is the extra picture you
get with widescreen. Presented in an
anamorphic widescreen ratio, these DVDs look
gorgeous and watching season one over again with
such great clarity is a real treat.
The quality of
the picture is top-notch. I only noticed
minor artifacts at times during extremely dark
sequences and there are miniscule flaws that pop
up from time to time, but they do not distract
from a normal viewing and are, for the most part,
invisible to the regular viewer. Each
episode, all 22 of them, is presented in a
widescreen format with exceptional clarity and a
good balance of colors as there are many scenes at
night in almost pitch black darkness and they are
all easily watchable. Overall, a magnificent
presentation.
The
Sound:
Each episode is
presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and
is a welcome addition to the DVD. Like the
widescreen option, I missed watching the episodes
when they aired on TV with surround sound.
Watching them again with surround is a
treat. Dialogue is easy to understand and
not washed out by music or special effects.
A great transfer with exceptional sound quality.
Also included on
the DVD is a Spanish language track for anyone
interested. For the hearing impaired, both Spanish
and English subtitles are provided.
The
Insert:
There's just
something about a DVD not having an insert that
upsets me. I don't know why, and I know not
everyone feels the same way, but I just have come
to expect a booklet or something else included
that gives a brief overview of the series, some
credits, and perhaps some behind-the-scenes
information. Unfortunately, there is no
insert, per se, included with the Alias box
set. There are two one page inserts that are
inside disc one, but they are just advertisements
- one for season two and one for the video game.
Special
Features:
Since not
everyone will buy the DVDs just for the episodes
(though the episodes alone are worth the price),
ABC has included the following extras (each
described in-depth below):
Pilot Production
Diary, "Inside Stunts," Deleted Scenes,
Gag Reel, Audio Commentaries, Special Season 2
Preview, Video Game Sneak Peek, DVD-ROM
ScriptScanner, TV Spots.
Bonus:
Audio
Commentaries:
Episode
1: Truth Be Told: Narrated by
Jennifer Garner and J.J. Abrams, the pilot
features a quick intro with both of them as we
learn neither has seen the pilot since its
original airing which makes it interesting as
they watch the episode. It's interesting
to learn the origin of the title sequence and
just the origin of the show. What's
interesting is that they really didn't know the
direction the show was going in at this time, so
they talk about that for a lot of the
commentary. Interesting side-note: J.J.
Abrams and Greg Grunberg went to kindergarten
together. Best part of the commentary:
Jennifer talking about her favorite scene from
Alias - Danny calling Jack and asking for
permission to marry Sydney.
Episode
2: So It Begins: Narrated by
Ken Olin, Sarah Caplan and Michael Bonvillain,
this is another interesting commentary with the
producers rather than the writers or the
cast. All three of them complement each
other nicely, and you can tell they've been
working together for a while and really love
doing the show. They mainly talk about
different filming techniques - wide shots,
close-ups, etc. and they also give a nice nod to
the fans at the end of the commentary, saying,
"[we] love our fans, they keep us
going," which is always nice to hear.
Like the other three commentaries, this one
should definitely be listened to and provides
some interesting looks into the making of the
show. Best part of the commentary: the
beginning of their "love of hallways."
Episode
17: Q & A: Narrated by John
Eisendrath, Alex-Kurtzman-Counter and Roberto
Orci, this commentary is an interesting change
of pace after listening to the other three
commentaries. Q & A was a clip show to
get the audiences caught up with the show again
right in the middle (plus, they had gone over
budget and needed to save some money).
This is a great choice for the three
writers/producers to commentate as they can talk
about various episodes without having to
commentate each individual episode. The
three men here really work well together and are
able to expound upon topics touched upon by the
other men. You kind of lose track of who
is who as the three frequently talk over each
other, but it doesn't really matter. Best
part of the commentary: "Did you guys know
Sydney was supposed to be a student in this
show?"
Episode
22: Almost Thirty Years: Starts
off with a short intro by the cast and then cuts
quickly to the episode. This is by far the
best audio commentary of the four and is great
fun to listen to as all of the actors talk over
each other and just interact so well with each
other. It's probably best to listen to the
commentary for this episode right after the
commentary for episode one, Truth Be Told.
Whatever order you listen to them in, you'll
find yourself laughing out loud at a few
points. Great commentary - just wish they
had a full cast commentary for more episodes
(hopefully we'll get this for Season 2).
Best part of the commentary: blueberry girl.
Alias
Pilot Production Diary: Quite
possibly one of the coolest special features on
the disc. The production dairy runs for just
under 30 minutes and gives you a great
behind-the-scenes look at the making of the pilot
episode. It just looks like such a fun set
to work on - they've got behind the scenes before
fight scenes with Jennifer just having some fun
and there's also some added bloopers (very few
though). The only slight detraction is that
it is narrated by J.J. Abrams, so if you've
watched his commentary for the pilot episode,
you'll hear a lot of the same stuff in the
production diary. Not a huge problem though,
it's still a good featurette.
Script
Scanner: This is a pretty cool
little feature. It works alongside the pilot
as you watch the script scroll by on the right as
the video plays on the left. You can see the
actual script from the pilot, in its entirety as
the episode unfolds beside it. There are two
modes - synchronized and clickable. With synchronized,
the script follows along with the video
automatically. With clickable, you can
choose the part of the script you want to see the
video for and just jump around the episode.
The Script Scanner, though, is only playable on a
computer with a DVD-ROM - it will not work in your
standard DVD player.
Which is all fine
and well - a lot of DVDs have DVD-ROM content, but
the problem I had, was that you had to install the
InterActual DVD player that is included on the DVD
to use the feature - and when you install it, if
you're not careful, you might end up being spied
on (sort of ironic, isn't it?). The casual
viewer may not see the box that you need to
uncheck if you don't want InterActual "to
anonymously upload system information to
InterActual's automated support system," or
the box allowing InterActual to "locally and
anonymously collect and upload product usage and
viewing behavior permission," in other words,
monitor what you watch and do and then upload it
to them. Not only that, but the first screen
that pops up is a "registration" screen
that asks for zip code, age and gender.
While not too incriminating, most people will fill
that out, forget to uncheck the privacy boxes, and
go about their tasks - when all you really need to
do is click "Cancel" and you can
continue viewing the DVD without any sort of
restrictions (conveniently left out off the
registration screen).
Inside
Stunts: This
short featurette has interviews with John
Eisendrath (Writer/Exectutive Producer) and Alex
Kurtzman-Counter (Writer/Supervising Producer) to
lead it off and then goes behind the scenes of
practicing for the fight in the pilot
episode. It then goes on to interview
Jennifer Garner and others involved in the fight
sequences - David Morizot (Assistant Fight
Coordinator), Jesse Alexander (Writer/Producer),
Jeff Pinkner (Writer/Producer). There are
even some outtakes from stunts included which add
a bit of humor to this serious discussion.
After discussing the setup of the fight sequences,
it switches to the choreography of the stunts
which includes fight rehearsals and then switches
to a rehearsal of The Solution (episode 20) and
talks about the work involved in using the archaic
weapons involved in the episode. After that,
we go to Q & A (episode 17) which talks about
the stunt of the car driving into the water
because Jennifer has a fear of drowning and the
fact that she panicked a lot and they also talk
about how she actually took a breath of air from
the car tire. Time Will Tell (episode 8) is
the next stunt examined as Jennifer goes off the
side of the building with a crane set-up.
But we find out that Jennifer actually didn't do
the stunt and was quite upset.
Next up is Mea
Culpa (episode 9) and the stunt where Jennifer
parachutes onto the top of a building - short, but
informative. The Coup (episode 14) is the
next episode and one of the most memorable stunts
as Jennifer has to cross over a line about 100
feet up and then use a winch to get to the side of
the building. As with most of the other
"inside stunts," this one is short, but
it's quite interesting to see how they pulled it
off and the fact that Jennifer actually did the
stunt here. As we jump from stunt to stunt,
next up is from The Prophecy (episode 16) which
has Jennifer run off the edge of a cliff and
activate a parachute. This was interesting
to see how they set this one up and how they
executed it with two different jumps. The
Snowman (episode 19) is up next and they talk
about how they are lifted off the ground as their
inflatable balloon or whatever it was catches on
the wing of an aircraft. While I thought it
was absurd watching it the first time, according
to the stunt coordinators, it is actually done in
the military. After the episode by episode
deconstruction, there's a sort of wrap-up with
some of the producers and Jennifer being
interviewed talking about the stunt work. In
all, this featurette is ten and a half minutes
long.
Deleted
Scenes: Features the following
deleted scenes: "Doppleganger" -
Shipping off Kevin, "Color-Blind" -
Christopher Threatens Sloane,
"Color-Blind" - Remembering Danny,
"The Confession" - Drowning His Sorrows,
"The Confession" - Discussing Sydney,
and "Rendezvous" - A New Look.
Quite simply,
deleted scenes are usually my favorite part of any
bonus section of a DVD, but the problem with
deleted scenes at time is they just make no
sense. The ones here are just played in
order and you really don't know where they go in
the episode or why they were cut. Basically,
with any deleted scene, you need to have a
commentary by someone. You need to know the
backstory. There's obviously a reason it was
cut - either time constraints, or it just didn't
fit into the flow of the episode - but if we don't
know why it was cut or where it should have gone
in the episode, deleted scenes are pretty
pointless. Perhaps an option with each
individual episode to include the deleted scenes
would have worked, or just simply a short
introduction to each scene by J.J. Abrams as to
why the scene was cut. With only six deleted
scenes, that's not really too much to ask, is it?
Gag
Reel: Easily one of the better
parts of the DVD, these scenes are laugh-out-loud
funny and feature some great interaction between
the actors that you don't really get to see
anywhere else. You get to see them talking
to each other off camera and you get to see them
having some fun with some practical jokes. A
fun feature, but just a bit too short in my
opinion - just two and a half minutes long -
there's gotta be more bloopers out there.
Alias
TV Spots: This section features
TV spots for: Truth Be Told, Reckoning, The
Confession, Rendezvous, and Almost 30 Years.
You can play them one at a time or all in
one. The all-in-one option is probably the
best, but there's really no reason to watch these
other than the "Truth Be Told" spot
since it does a great job of previewing the first
ever episode.
Alias
Video Game Preview: The game
looks pretty darn cool and I can't wait to see how
it actually performs. The whole preview is
just short cuts between live action and video game
action, and unfortunately, you really don't get a
look at how the game will actually play, but
rather just some eye candy. It looks pretty
nice, but until I can see how you control Sydney,
how you fight, and how you solve puzzles, I'm not
sure I'm convinced it'll be a good one.
Season
Two Sneak Peak: Starts off with
the lingerie clip and then just cuts to other
clips from Season 2. Nothing here at all
really - no idea what's going to be included as
far as special features go or anything else.
Chances are, with Season 1 and 2 being released so
closely together on DVD, they will feature very
similar bonus features.
Conclusion:
ABC has done a
great job with Alias: Season 1 on DVD. The
picture and audio quality is magnificent and the
inclusion of an anamorphic transfer is the icing
on the cake. Season one was (in my opinion)
much better than season two and it's great to be
able to go back and watch these episodes
again. The special features only add to the
great episodes included on each disc and, all in
all, this is a great box set for an amazing
price. There were some minor exclusions that
I would have liked to see in the set, but when all
is said and done, this set is top-notch.
If you are just a
casual viewer of Alias and missed a few episodes
from season one or if you just started watching
after the Superbowl, this DVD set is a must
own. As an Alias fan, you need to watch
season one as it features some of the best
episodes from the series along with some of the
best guest stars. This box set is a great
package with special features that really shine.
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