Alias, Audacious
I've been watching Season 1 of Alias, borrowed from someone I persuaded to buy it, and it really is a cracking show, one of the best reasons for Channel 5 to exist. What is has is a sort of audacious confidence that is so often lacking in the play-it-safe noughties.
They have to play it straight-faced, of course, because it's just so ludicrous, but I love it because the way they put an episode together is so different. For example, the cliffhangers are outrageous - especially as it's often like watching the first 15 minutes of the next episode. What I mean is, there'll be a rounding off of one plot-line, and even a little catharsis or some kind of conciliation (or reconciliation), but then it will kick into a whole new sequence of action and adventure - 10 or 15 minutes' worth - and only then stop on the cliffhanging moment.
And the beginnings can be as amazing. You will sometimes literally be halfway through an episode before you get the title sequence. Not 3 or 5 minutes, but 20 minutes, and then: title. Nobody else makes television like this.
It's brilliant, and unsettling at the same time, keeping you unsure of what is going on, which, of course, is exactly what the show is all about. You can't trust anyone, you don't know who or what anybody else is, and, no, there are no easy conclusions.
They pulled a brilliant stroke at the end of the season recently ended on 5, when they had Sydney wake up in Hong Kong, two years after she "went to sleep", and her whole world had changed. Again.
It's one of the best things on TV today: watch it.
They have to play it straight-faced, of course, because it's just so ludicrous, but I love it because the way they put an episode together is so different. For example, the cliffhangers are outrageous - especially as it's often like watching the first 15 minutes of the next episode. What I mean is, there'll be a rounding off of one plot-line, and even a little catharsis or some kind of conciliation (or reconciliation), but then it will kick into a whole new sequence of action and adventure - 10 or 15 minutes' worth - and only then stop on the cliffhanging moment.
And the beginnings can be as amazing. You will sometimes literally be halfway through an episode before you get the title sequence. Not 3 or 5 minutes, but 20 minutes, and then: title. Nobody else makes television like this.
It's brilliant, and unsettling at the same time, keeping you unsure of what is going on, which, of course, is exactly what the show is all about. You can't trust anyone, you don't know who or what anybody else is, and, no, there are no easy conclusions.
They pulled a brilliant stroke at the end of the season recently ended on 5, when they had Sydney wake up in Hong Kong, two years after she "went to sleep", and her whole world had changed. Again.
It's one of the best things on TV today: watch it.
posted by Anonymous at
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
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