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S I G H T S | review
A Complex Fantasy
by Andy Dehnart This fall season introduced a handful of television dramas focused on the Central Intelligence Agency: There’s ABC’s action-filled Alias, CBS’ mostly incompetent and disposable The Agency, and FOX’s gimmick-driven 24. That three CIA dramas were conceived during the same season isn’t really surprising, considering how often networks copy each other. What is worth noting, however, is that although their source material is ripe with drama — what better setting than the cloaked and mysterious CIA? — the shows get less interesting the closer they are to reality. Of the three shows, the bland, typical The Agency has been mostly, and deservedly, ignored. The other two, both of which won Golden Globe awards Sunday night — 24’s Kiefer Sutherland took best actor and Alias‘ Jennifer Garner won best actress in a TV drama series — are worth the attention they’ve received. 24 debuted to the most hype, likely because of its creative structure. Each episode takes place in real time, and the whole season will unfold in 24 60-minute episodes spanning a single day, tracking agent Jack Bauer (Sutherland) inside the Counter Terrorism Unit as he tries to prevent an assassination, save his kidnapped family, and discover the identity of a mole. Alias, which is from Felicity creator J.J. Abrams, follows the life of grad student Sydney Bristow (Garner), who’s working for the CIA as a double agent inside an enemy organization. Both shows are remarkably similar at first glance: Taking place inside specialized CIA divisions, they focus on the world of a single agent who is at the center of multiple conspiracies and who must carry an immeasurable weight. Yet Alias is to Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as 24 is to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Both movies are solid films, ones that will entertain and enchant for their entire running time. But Fellowship of the Ring has everything its blockbuster predecessor lacks; namely, depth. The analogy is ironic, considering 24 has the most realistic premise of the two; indeed, both shows require some suspension of disbelief, but Alias requires a significant amount more. The premise, which Sydney explains at the beginning of each episode, sounds almost comical: "My name is Sydney Bristow. Seven years ago, I was recruited by a secret branch of the CIA called SD-6. I was sworn to secrecy, but I couldn’t keep it from my fiance. And when the head of SD-6 found out, he had him killed. That’s when I learned the truth: SD-6 is not part of the CIA. I’d been working for the very people I thought I was fighting against. So I went to the only place that could help me take them down. Now, I’m a double agent for the CIA, where my handler is a man named Michael Vaughn. Only one other person knows the truth about what I do — another double agent inside SD-6. Some one I hardly know: My father." Ridiculous? Unbelievable? Most definitely, especially when you add the fact that Sydney is also a grad student trying to keep up with her assignments while pretending to work full-time for a bank. She is constantly juggling multiple lives, one of which involves high-kicking bad guys while wearing heels and tight eveningwear. But on screen, the entire concept is executed flawlessly. Garner as Sydney is never once unbelievable, the action sequences come together crisply and more fantastically than a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, and the characters display a Felicity-esque range of connectedness. Together, they make it easy for a more realistic, solidly acted show with a workable gimmick to get pummeled by a campy, often funny spy series. Despite the leather-skirt high kicks, the action sequences in Alias are breathless visual orgies, full of spectacular but mostly bloodless violence, and even sexual energy. (For examples of the latter, just watch Sydney exchange glances with rival spy Ana, or flirt gently with someone before she knocks them unconscious.) Almost every episode of Alias features a tracking shot of Sydney running, arms flying, the pulse of techno music accelerating as she glides. In these moments, Garner seems to be Franka Potente’s prot”g”; the latter starred in Run Lola Run, a movie that features Lola running in the same powerful way throughout most of its 90 minutes. In fact, Alias almost seems like the televised follow-up to the German film, which featured a 20-something woman handling responsibilities beyond her expected capacity. Sydney’s just a grad student — struggling with her relationships with family and friends — yet she’s trying to take down an evil international organization. As if to acknowledge its slight debt to the 1998 film, Alias‘ first episode and advertising collateral found Sydney sporting fiery red hair, just like Lola. And similar to Run, Lola, Run, Alias is full of a literal edge-of-your-seat tension that basically never stops, something 24 lacks. Which is amazing considering that 24 has a real-time clock running continuously and a percussion accompaniment for every passing second. Boom, boom, boom, yawn. The action sequences are few and far between, and what lies between isn’t even as active as The West Wing’s scenes of White House banter. Alias keeps the tension high because there are so many layers to every scene, even if they are far-fetched. Potentially bland and simple moments are full of complexity. For example, Sydney’s SD-6 partner, Agent Marcus Dixon (Carl Lumbly) and his wife come to her house for a party. His wife and her friends think they both work for a bank, and her partner has no idea Sydney is a double agent. And as they all talk, the deception overwhelms: Sydney is lying to nearly everyone on some level, and she shares that burden only with us, so we carry that weight throughout the episodes. Certainly, 24 has its moments. And as it progresses, there have been startling revelations, as characters we know die or turn out to be something other than what they seem. But it’s mostly surface and not much meat, at least not yet. Alias works where 24 doesn’t because it treats its audience intelligently, allows for a lot to happen at once, and counts on our ability to keep up and play along. That’s evident in the smallest of details. For example, we never see subtitles when characters speak foreign languages; the show assumes we can figure out what’s going on. 24 takes the easy way out, opting to force-feed the obvious and teetering between mostly realistic situations and disingenuous realism. Neither scenario is as hyper-compelling as Alias‘ fantasy-connected-to-reality storytelling turns out to be. Maybe that’s what makes Alias not as well received: The show will grab you and not let go for the entire hour, but you have to pay attention, and you have to be willing to hand yourself over entirely to the world it creates. Nearly every episode ends with a cliffhanger that leaves viewers caught between heartbeats, but it doesn’t feel manipulative; we’re out of breath anyway and ready for a break, having been blown away by what we’ve just seen. Alias‘ major weakness lies in that it could easily follow the path of other TV shows that started brilliantly but later diminished into virtual parodies of their former selves. As fans of the show have pointed out, Abrams and company seem to be burning through most of the obvious plots, and fast. SD-6 already suspects Sydney of being a mole, her reporter friend is getting dangerously close to finding out what really happened to her fiance, and so on. But because the show is so new, it hasn’t yet shown signs of devolving into X-Files-style conspiracy ridiculousness. That eventual potential for failure aside, Alias is one of the strongest dramas on television today, and definitely the best of the CIA-themed ones, despite its departure from groundedness. When it comes to presenting a version of reality, as both Alias and 24 do, realism might not be the best route to maximum entertainment. Andy Dehnart is a writer living in Chicago. Related Sites |
