Favorite Show #1: Alias

OK -- here's the idea. This blog (as sporatically updated as it is) is to showcase my talents and trials as I break into the writing biz. So, I figured I would not only let the 2 readers to this blog know more about me and my likes and dislikes, but try to show random people happening by what I would do as a writer for the shows and series that I like. At the very least, you will get to see how creative I am, and perhaps why my regular job suffers so much.

Alias

I loved the premise of this show: an average woman plucked out of her life, thrown into the shadowly world of espionage and struggling to keep everyone around her in the dark. Then it all collapses when she lets her fiancee in on her secret. He pays for it with his life. To top it all, she discovers that the people she's working for is the enemy who she blames for her woes.

J.J. Abrahms is a genius. Every episode I watched left me on the edge of my seat. The season finale was absolute torture. A whole season to scrutinize the previous epsiodes and try to figure out what happens. Much like the show Oz, no one is ever really safe. Characters come in and go out almost on a whim. One episode's villain is next week's hero.

However -- I think the major flaw of the storyline is the takedown of SD-6. That should have survived at least another two seasons. my idea would be to have Sloane removed (not killed, just taken out of the office) and a new director come in. In the course of getting to know his operatives, he reads Sidney's after action reports, along with the reports of his other agents... then he calls in Sidney to have a seat and 'chat':

"I've read your reports, Agent Bristow. You're a capable agent, but my predecesor had a habit of granting you some leeway, perhaps he thought of you as the daughter he never had, or he was grooming you for some other purpose. Let me assure you, that ends today. No favors, no looking the other way -- you will operate according to the regulations here, or you will be sent elsewhere. Am I clear?"

Give Rutger Hauer whatever he wanted to keep him there for another three or four seasons. Having him as the new director would have been fantastic -- if you ask me, he's an underrated actor. Also, some other things I would have thrown into the mix would be her partner starting to get a little suspicious about some of her dealings. These two work well and often together... and yet he never begins to catch on that there's something different about Bristow? OK -- I understand that Bristow is to be an agent's agent... but... think of the tension when Bristow needs to make a call... a call that could stall an air strike and give the other CIA operatives a chance to get out, but her partner's close-by... because he's monitoring her. If having her partner doesn't work -- then what if the new director calls in Marshall for a 'after-hours' project?

This was a series that started out good (I loved the Rimbaldi Macguffin) and I think kinda limped to the finish line. I wasn't a huge fan of the romance between Vaughn and Bristow (should have started a lot later). I give it a 7.5 out of a possible 10.