In the fourth episode of the first season of Alias<\/i>, Sydney juggles more complications in her double life, and MORE CLIFFHANGERS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve definitely never watched a show with a structure like Alias<\/i>. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s both good and bad, as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Broken Heart\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reveals the strength of such a design\u00e2\u20ac\u201dholy crap, the pacing of this show is ridiculous\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand one of its major flaws. I actually did<\/i> like the resolution of the cliffhanger of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Parity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shown how adept Sydney (and Anna, for that matter) is at having to memorize a long string of numbers in a very short span of time. But the more interesting development was Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s split-second decision to cut her connection to Dixon so she could argue with Vaughn about whether or not SD-6 should get the correct code sequence. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such an important moment because it helps us understand that Sydney is a more short-term thinker. Even in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So it Begins,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we saw how she had planned on taking just two months of her life to destroy SD-6. Here, she sees the immediate option first: give SD-6 the wrong binary code so that she can deny them something that they want.<\/p>\n
Which is… I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. This Rimbaldi thing feels<\/i> like another genre, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? And while you could certainly argue that this is science fiction because of Marshall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gadgets, the show does<\/i> routinely feel grounded in the real world, albeit one of super spies and international intrigue. So, we don \u00e2\u20ac\u02dct exactly have a super great grasp on SD-6 and what it truly wants. In fact, without Jack Bristow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s admission or the CIA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insistence, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little here to suggest to the audience that SD-6 really is a criminal organization beyond their murder of Danny. (Which is still evil, make no mistake.) Now, I like a good mystery, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m certainly willing to let this mythology expand at this point. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all know I tend to be a patient TV watcher and reader of books, and I LOVE A GOOD SLOW BURN.<\/p>\n
At the same time, this show burns<\/i> through plots, leaving some unsolved for the next episode, answering them, then moving on to the next. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Broken Heart\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has some cool shit in it, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first that felt like a bunch of disparate parts rather than a coherent hole. Once Sydney gets the code back home, we find out that it was for coordinates for… nothing. Well, technically, they just interpreted the coordinates wrong, so when they do<\/i> get it right, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another heist in a church in Spain and another<\/i> throwdown between Anna and Sydney, which leads to… a polymer disc? That does… something? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dropped, and we move on to the mission in Morocco, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot<\/i> to ask of the audience. For this main plot, I felt there was more exposition than the past three episodes. We are told a lot about characters while they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on the screen rather than getting to experience them. Take Anna for example! We know she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basically Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nemesis, but the show achieves so much more by actually showing<\/i> us that through her actions. How are we supposed to feel bad for Sydney losing her friend Moktar when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never met them and they barely interact within the episode?<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot more fulfilling to watch Sydney interact with Will because we have a sense for who he is and the emotional conflict that she has with him. Is she attracted to him because she enjoys him or because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s convenient? Are her feelings genuine or complicated by the death of Danny? And what of the clear feelings that Vaughn has for Sydney? Even that has more power than the scenes of Morocco, even if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re tense for other reasons.<\/p>\n
In the end, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an issue of balance. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m more invested in Francie and Charlie than Sydney and Moktar because the show has given me more of a reason to be. I care about Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s distress over her shitty father (I DISLIKE HIM SO MUCH, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL) more than the main story, too! Hell, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even Will\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continual close calls with the truth, and Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great! I feel like it has a high potential for an interesting dynamic in the future. So the cliffhanger at the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Broken Heart\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel quite earned. Who are these people? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the UCO and why should we care about it? If the SD-6 is such an evil organization, why are they getting involved in this? It seems like an undeniably good<\/i> thing that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re stopping the implant of a bomb in this man, right? ALSO: Wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Patel know<\/i> that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just had surgery like… the very second he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conscious and aware of himself??? This plot doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a whole lot of sense to me.<\/p>\n
However, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible the resolution of this will satisfy me, so I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE MY MIND.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Broken Heart\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99.<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the fourth episode of the first season of Alias, Sydney juggles more complications in her double life, and MORE CLIFFHANGERS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[681],"tags":[682],"class_list":["post-6709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alias","tag-mark-watches-alias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}