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Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia)
September 11, 2003
Jennifer Dudley reviews Alias, Seven, Monday, 8.30pm
by Jennifer Dudley
MOST of life's little complications involve inoperable electrical products, inexplicable stains, chocolate shortages, telemarketers and four-wheel-drive users who fail to indicate.
One's life might occasionally be coloured with a work/health/financial/family/pet drama, but usually one is too busy dealing with the aforementioned concerns to pay it serious attention.
So we should all feel a little sorry for Sydney Bristow. The woman's life is seriously complicated. Plus, her lean and muscled appearance seems to indicate she has never eaten chocolate.
Those who have yet to witness Sydney's problems, of which there are many, will be made aware of at least one major grievance at the beginning of this week's episode of Alias. Her father is almost killed. It happens a lot.
He was just sitting in a movie theatre, meeting one of his underworld snouts, when men with guns spoiled his cinematic experience. His bullets managed to subdue them, but he became angry when his daughter showed up to save him. So not only does Sydney have a murderous, spying, double-crossing father, but he is ungrateful as well.
Then there are Sydney's problems with her mother -- a former Russian spy.
Since Sydney's mother (played by a fantastically steely eyed Lena Olin) turned herself into the CIA, she has endured even more family squabbles of international significance, with her father setting her mother up for execution at one stage, and the discovery that Sydney was trained as a gun-toting spy as a toddler.
All told, it is a wonder the young Agent Bristow is not completely dysfunctional with delusions of adoption. Instead, Sydney is a double agent and collecting a pay cheque from a terrorist organisation called SD-6 while she also holds down a job at the CIA subverting her other employer's missions.
Not a bad way to double one's budget.
Hyperactive as she is, even Sydney did not have time to cultivate a love interest outside the world of espionage but has long been shooting loving looks at her CIA "handler" Michael Vaughn. Vaughn has been firing them back, but at a distance so as not to compromise their missions with counter-operational nookie. This episode sees a breakthrough. Finally, Vaughn invites Sydney out to dinner.
Meanwhile, back at Sydney's terrorist employer, we have yet another special guest star. A tight-faced Faye Dunaway is investigating an extortion attempt on the SD-6 boss Sloane.
You don't bring a big gun like Dunaway in for nothing, and she soon shows her worth investigating Sydney's father and creating more family squabbles.
Alias may be set in James Bond territory, but, at heart, the show is a relentless, soapy melodrama with guns and important-looking bad guys added.
It should be credited for its use of big words and high-brow spy concepts, and also for its ability to allow viewers to tune out during Sydney's wordy mission briefs and still appreciate a serving of personal drama, nifty gadgets and action sequences more suited to the big screen.
Sydney's wigs are becoming more ridiculous as time passes and the show requires massive suspension of reality on several fronts, but it's fun and its signature cliffhangers leave viewers wondering what Sydney's family will do next.
Surely, she has an evil aunt somewhere.
© Nationwide News Pty Limited 2003
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