Escalations Into Adventure And Espionage Come In Alias Season Three!

The Good: Excellent use of new cast, Compelling plot, Well-written, Acting, JACK!
The Bad: Some character issues, Loss of Will.
The Basics: When Sydney awakens to find her life completely changed, she works to discover what transpired in the two year absence and meets a new adversary: Vaughn's wife.


The third season of Alias takes a lot of heat. A lot of people do not like the third season and when one sits down to watch the show on DVD, it is hard to see why. Alias had a killer first season, with establishing the series, super spy Sydney Bristow, her incredible but stoic and dysfunctional father, and her mission to destroy the terrorist group SD-6, headed by Arvin Sloane. In the first season, Sydney learns that her long-lost mother is still alive, was a spy and that Sydney herself is the subject of a prophetic inventor's musings from back in the 16th century. The second season found Sydney dealing with her mother, destroying SD-6 and chasing Sloane in his attempt to fulfill the inventor's greatest invention.

The second season ended with a cliffhanger that topped even the first season's impressive finale. If you have not seen the second season of Alias, stop reading, read my review of the second season, buy the set, then when you're done watching it, come back to read this.

The third season begins literally the moment after the second season's end, with Sydney learning that she has lost two years of her life. After she is able to confirm that it is true, she finds herself caught up in putting the pieces of her life back together. She has no memories of what happened in the two years between her fight at the end of the second season and the moment she woke up. She is flown back to the United States where she discovers Vaughn is married, Dixon has been promoted, Will is in witness protection, Marshall is going to be a father, Sloane is now a humanitarian worker, and her father is imprisoned.

The third season of Alias puts Sydney on track to finding out what happened to her in the intervening years, a task that is by no means easy. When she loses the terrorist Sark in a hostage trade, she comes to believe that a new, very dangerous organization called the Covenant held her for those two years. The Covenant appears to be on a mission to find out the secrets Milo Rambaldi (the inventor) left behind and Sydney and the CIA are assigned to thwart them. In the process, Sydney butts heads with Lauren Reed, Vaughn's wife and as she searches for the secrets to her lost time, she discovers not all of the events in her life are as separate as they initially seem.

First, because it will take less time, the negative. Will Tippen, who survived the events of the previous season finale, is left alive, but not as a regular member of the cast. He does manage a guest appearance, but the role he played in the first two seasons as an anchor in Sydney's life, is noticeably absent. I miss Will and I believe it was a tremendous mistake for him to not be brought back in the third season.

That said, the other complaint most people have is that character was sacrificed for plot in season three. I disagree. I think that character was maintained remarkably well for the story being told. Sydney is obsessed (reasonably) with finding out what happened to her over the two years she was blacked out. Neglecting any aspect of her character outside the single-minded pursuit of the truth works well for the character and adds a level of realism that, lacking Will's non-CIA presence, reads as very true to me. And obsession is nothing new to Sydney. In the first two seasons, her obsession with finding and defeating Sloane is quite immediate.

Alias has always done character very well. Like all good or great serialized television, the characters grow and change throughout the season. Here is how the third season of Alias finds the principle characters:

Will Tippen - a favorite character of mine (and Jack Bristow), has disappeared into Witness Protection. As Sydney fights to regain her memory, Will is able to provide some critical information to her, but is otherwise out of the picture,

Weiss - Agent Weiss now lives next door to Sydney and acts as a human conduit for Sydney by presenting information to her about the people in her life and what has become of them. As the season progresses, Weiss allows Vaughn to express his doubts about the health of his marriage to him,

Marshall - Still completely socially inept, Marshall has managed to get closer to Carrie in the intervening years and is now looking to be a father. He continues to work his little technological miracles and his skill is evident, even after the baby is born,

Sark - Released from CIA prison, Julian Sark finds himself the inheritor of a great wealth, wealth that is appropriated by the Covenant. In exchange for his fortune and his life, Sark aids the Covenant and becomes invested in their success in their nefarious missions. And when opportunity arises, he finds himself in league with someone who can help him ascend within the Covenant,

Marcus Dixon - Now promoted to head the task force that Jack Bristow (and Kendal) once commanded, Dixon is now a leader and administrator as opposed to a field agent. Alone and raising his two children, we see very little of Dixon's life now,

Arvin Sloane - Having been granted immunity for all of his past crimes, Sloane reveals that El Dire (the device he worked so hard to assemble in the previous two seasons) spoke to him the word "peace" when it was completed and he was transformed. Sloane has become a humanitarian feeding and inoculating millions of people worldwide. And while Jack and Sydney are quite suspicious of him, he comes to their aid in working against the Covenant,

Lauren Reed - Introduced in this season, she is Michael Vaughn's wife and a woman of some mystery. Working for the NSC and not the CIA, she is a professional ally and personal adversary of the CIA and Sydney, respectively. While it appears that she is simply a normal worker who has fallen in love with Vaughn, circumstances force her to reveal herself as something completely different,

Michael Vaughn - Apparently shattered by the apparent death of Sydney two years prior, Vaughn is now a schoolteacher and is happily married until Sydney resurfaces. His relationship with Lauren is threatened when he returns to working with Sydney and he finds himself unable to reconcile the disparate parts of his life,

Jack Bristow - Aided by Sydney in getting out of prison, Jack sets Sydney on the path to discovering the truth. In the third season, Jack will find himself able to face Sloane, get closer to Sydney and learn more about his fugitive ex-wife. As well, Jack will find himself in league with Katya Derevko, his ex-wife's sister,

and Sydney Bristow - Awakened after two years without any memory of the intervening time, Sydney goes all-out on a quest to find the truth about what happened to her in those years. Learning immediately that she was awake, alive and active, she confronts the idea that she may have spent the years brainwashed as an assassin for the Covenant and works to put her life back together.

Alias has a real strength to reinvent itself (as I write this, I have just watched the fourth season premiere where the show has once again shifted directions). In the middle of the second season, SD-6 fell and Sydney found herself in a character struggle wherein she was chasing a loose coalition of Sark, Sloane and her mother. That conflict worked well on a character level, exposing the depths of Sydney's determination and obsession, but made for a very difficult plot to sustain. Moreover, the second season ends with a revelation that is huge and impossible to come back to the same show.

The third season of Alias is a very decent story that encapsulates the season. It is the story of one woman's hunt for herself and the reconciliation of her past with the weird present she finds herself in. But at the end of the second season, Sydney is dropped off such a major cliff that the show, by necessity, has to shift direction. And while the show exhibits wonderful rising action through the third season, the finale does not compel the way the previous two endings did (and having now seen the fourth season premiere, I am dubious).

What keeps the show watchable and compelling is that the actors sell the stories. Jennifer Garner is great as Sydney. Unfortunately, in the third season, she finds herself playing fewer characters as opposed to simply switching outfits and hair styles a lot. Is it still worth it? Absolutely.

The real reason to watch, though, is Jack Bristow. Jack's character arc continues as an amazing "protect Sydney at all costs" story of how much a father will do to keep his daughter safe. Victor Garber is exceptional as Jack and he's been robbed of awards the last few years for his portrayal of Jack.

Finally, the DVD set boasts an animated episode of Alias and let me say, I was looking forward to getting the set to watch it. Sigh. If your only reason to buy the set is because of this lost episode, let me tell you, it's not worth it. It probably will make the die-hard fans gasp, but it's not important, it is not substantive, it isn't clever and it is short. Not a full episode by any means, the animated short is a sloppy collection of Alias-esque scenes that fails to satisfy or deliver anything really new or worthwhile.

If you have seen the first two seasons of Alias, the third season is a period of transition and it is a steady escalation of revelations and cloak and dagger intrigues that deliver in much the same way the two prior seasons did, without giving much focus to Sydney's emotional life outside work. Better than most people think (except those who love the Sydney/Vaughn relationship, an audience I am not part of), the third season of Alias stacks up remarkably well and delivers on the promises of a show reinventing itself once again.

For other works with Melissa George, please check out my reviews of:
Friends - Season 9
Mulholland Drive
Dark City


7.5/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the television reviews I have written!

© 2012, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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David Lynch's Lesbian Love Dream Masterpiece Mulholland Drive Suffers When Viewed Rationally . . . Or On DVD.

The Good: Great weird for the sake of weird movie, Direction, Sexual graphicness, Acting, Moments of character.
The Bad: Lack of DVD bonus features
The Basics: If there was ever a film that deserved slews of DVD bonus features, Mulholland Dr. is it; unfortunately, we don't get them on this DVD presentation!


Recently, I made a tradeoff in my reviews and I was pretty straightforward about it. On my yearly cross-country trip, I was given a copy of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Having watched and reviewed the entire Twin Peaks series, I was psyched. And when I was done, I was just shaking my head and I was pretty peeved. The problem with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was that it was weird for the sake of weird, without any respect for the already known story of Twin Peaks. As a result, I allowed myself to pan that film, with the caveat: I would re-view and (finally) review Mulholland Dr. a later and better film by writer and director David Lynch and give it a positive review.

The reason I was willing to do this - and be so straightforward about it - was that I enjoyed Mulholland Dr. when I saw it and I appreciated what David Lynch was trying to do with the film, which was to create a dream on film. I could dig it and with its non-linear sense of time and creepy conceits (my ex called it "The Best Of David Lynch") it is a pretty astounding film, nine out of ten, maybe a little more. On DVD, though, it is starkly presented and for such an ambitious film, viewers deserve more. Much more.

This is the point at which I usually leap into a plot description of the film. I will, but it's important to note this: the film is not linear in its storytelling, is not supposed to make perfect sense, and includes deep philosophical ideas some of which are not brought in until the last half hour of the film. Moreover, in that last half hour, characters swap identities (so actors we have been watching for the prior hour and a half are suddenly running around with different names and characters, but not all of the characters are swapped out). Sound confusing? It's supposed to be, just like a dream. To David Lynch's credit, he does a bang-up job with making something creepy, deep, erotic and visually stunning with Mulholland Dr. I cannot recall another movie I could actually recommend sitting through with the film muted just for the creepy presentation.

A brunette is riding in a limousine up Mulholland Dr. late one night when she is ordered at gunpoint out of the car, which is immediately crashed into by young kids speeding down the canyon. She survives, memory lost and she stumbles down the hill and falls asleep under some bushes in front of an apartment complex. The next morning, she sneaks into an apartment there. This happens to be the apartment Betty Elms is housesitting for her aunt at and she discovers the woman there, who names herself Rita off a poster in the house. Betty is an eager young woman fresh in Hollywood waiting for her big break in films and preparing herself for auditions. Still, she is intrigued by Rita and her lack of memories.

At the same time, director Adam Kesher's film is being taken out of his hands. The female lead is being recast and the local mob - led by a very particular espresso-drinker - is demanding that their actress be given the lead. Kesher resists, but upon finding his wife in bed with the pool man and visited by a strange, prophetic cowboy, he gives in and hires actress Camilla Rhodes for the part. By this time, Betty and Rita are tracking down Rita's true identity and are falling in love, which puts them on a collision course with a mysterious artifact that alters reality itself.

The artifact is a blue box, which Rita has the key for. I liken Lynch's blue box to the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. From that interpretation, the color scheme during the opening scene dance contest presumes that the entire film takes place within the confines of this supernatural plane and it pleasantly voids the need for any strong, linear connection to the film.

This works better for the viewer as well because there is no real mystery to Mulholland Dr. It is a thriller where mood is heightened, colors are brightened and the stories are more contrived than real. The characters are largely archetypes, making their interchangability more understandable and acceptable. It also excuses the actors for some of their presentations.

For example, anyone watching Mulholland Dr. and looking at it rationally must conclude instantly that either Naomi Watts cannot act or David Lynch cannot write and direct. Why? Betty's first scenes in the film are strings of cliches of the young woman come to Hollywood to make it big, hammed up with an unbelievable earnest quality that makes her into the complete rube. Her appearance follows two detectives arriving on the scene of the limo crash and speaking dull lines that simply repeat the same observation over and over again. The lack of inflection in that scene plays off the over-the-top performance of Betty as an archetype screen virgin who truly is out of her element.

When one accepts that she is supposed to be this way and simply goes with it, the film becomes much more enjoyable. Lynch is incorporating a camp quality into Mulholland Dr. that only enhances the overall weirdness of the film.

And that is what Mulholland Dr. is truly about: style as an expression of genuine surrealism. Is there substance? I'm not sure. There is relevance as this is easily one of the most artistic films ever conceived and executed. Visually, it is stunning. Lynch plays reds and pinks off opposition blues throughout the film, creating character colors that resonate (bad things happen in the blue). As characters shift and change, so too does their color scheme. It's clever and subtle and artistic.

As for substance, it's hard to argue there is little or no substance in Mulholland Dr. when the acting is this good. Whether they come easy or not (Watts was recently interviewed saying she preferred her love scenes in this film because there was no sexual tension with her costar, Laura Harring), Watts and Harring fearlessly leap into some of the most passionate lesbian love scenes shown on the big screen. The film is sexy and it's only after one actually sits and considers it that they might realize that the most passionate moments are actually the kissing scenes. Arguably the sexiest moment comes when Harring as Camilla Rhodes kisses Melissa George as Camilla Rhodes and one is able to see that George walks away with her pink lipstick smudged over with Harring's deeper red.

The reason I belabor this is that Mulholland Dr. is largely about mood and surrealism and it manages to be both sexy and scary, tense and confusing. Adam might be the most sensible and realistic character as he has the most straightforward struggle in the film and the most believable presentation. Adam fights the fight of an artist against the mob and a studio that is strange and manifests itself only to attempt to thwart his artistic expression and one feels this is Lynch channeling his frustration at Hollywood itself.

Adam is played with subtle brilliance by Justin Theroux. Theroux is required to play Adam with quiet anger that erupts with an efficient sense of controlled ruthlessness, like when he discovers his wife's infidelity, he takes her jewelry and pours pink paint over it all. Theroux is joined by an amazing cast, which includes Lynch regular Michael J. Anderson. Fans of Alias will appreciate seeing a very different side of actress Melissa George. George erupts onto the screen in Mulholland Dr. as a pink-clad singing actress who smiles and swoons, something no one who became captivated by her in the third season of Alias would have bet she could do!

Naomi Watts might well give the performance of her career as Betty. She is absolutely convincing in every scene she is in as she goes from the eager and naive, cliche-speaking rube to the amateur detective determined to save the woman she loves. Watts makes us believe that she is a terrible actress, but by the end of the film it is so clearly a script contrivance we are forced to concede that she was amazing in her presentation.

But it is Laura Harring who rocks Mulholland Drive, not for anything as simplistic as her nudity (Lynch airbrushed out much of that). She immediately establishes the tone with her clear performance of an amnesiac without any lines of dialogue. As the film continues, she is utterly convincing as a lost woman whose identity has been robbed from her. Harring plays the vacant stares as compelling and the moments of stronger dialogue as unforced.

David Lynch writes and directs the film in such a way that it accomplishes exactly what it set out to do. This is a dream on film and it is often a nightmare, one that is confused and sweaty and an eccentric combination of darkness and bright colors. Lynch's use of music is impressive (the Spanish version of "Crying" in the Club Silencio is amazing) and one forgives him most of his conceits, even the ones he used in prior cinematic endeavors.

On DVD, Mulholland Dr. suffers from a lack of DVD bonus features. There is no commentary track (the film desperately needs one) and only a theatrical trailer for the movie. More than that, the paper slip within the DVD case gives viewers ten "clues" to solving the mystery of the movie, as if there were an actual point to it. This feels particularly low to a cinephile who loves surrealism and has stuck with Lynch through some of his more questionable works.

And this brings us back to the comparison between Mulholland Dr. and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The reason this was a "no compromise" compromise is simple. Mulholland Dr. has no cannon to betray and can do whatever it wants (and does!). Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was in some ways confined to what had been presented in that universe before and the film version made some problematic contradictions. So, for weird for the sake of weird, there is one clear choice and that is to take a trip down Mulholland Dr.!

For other works Justin Theroux is involved in, check out my reviews of:
Megamind
Iron Man 2
Six Feet Under - Season Four
Zoolander

9/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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