{"id":6798,"date":"2018-04-13T13:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T20:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6798"},"modified":"2018-03-30T10:56:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T17:56:42","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s04e01-authorized-personnel-only-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/04\/mark-watches-alias-s04e01-authorized-personnel-only-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S04E01 – Authorized Personnel Only, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first episode of the fourth season of Alias<\/i>, what the HELL is happening??? Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that was jarring, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I actually am<\/i> excited about the new direction of Alias<\/i> because I tend to LOVE when a show can re-invent itself. (And for what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one reason I did<\/i> love LOST<\/i>, for all its excess and flaws. Each season was so distinct!) However, some of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Authorized Personnel Only, Part I\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is confusing because of the jumps in the narrative.<\/p>\n

So, let me start here: Why the hell<\/i> is this out of order? There is virtually no reason for in media<\/i> res; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no reason for some scenes in this episode to be shuffled about; and it makes no sense that the two major cliffhangers we were dealt at the end of season three are not addressed until the end of this episode. Why keep that from the audience? What narrative purpose does it serve? On the surface, it seems like this was done so that the writers could throw the audience in the deep end, which is not a bad idea! It was exciting to watch Sydney on a mission with God (IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO RECOGNIZE HIM), and then get dressed down by Director Chase, PLAYED PERFECTLY BY ANGELA BASSETT. In rapid succession, Vaughn and Sydney are out of the CIA, and we learn that it was all fake so that they could join a new black-OPs division of the agency. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S LIKE SD-6 ALL OVER AGAIN, except it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legit<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a cool concept! Gone are the bureaucratic oversights, and the team is re-united (minus Marshall and Weiss???), and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re gonna kick ass doing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 stuff? There isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an observable arc or Big Bad for this season yet, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious as to how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to tackle this.<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a huge elephant in the room, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not quite<\/i> sure I buy this yet, but: Arvin Sloane. I get the basic idea of folding him into the CIA because he has contacts that he can use and<\/i> he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have a good cover story, since he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not officially employed by the CIA. But making him the person in charge<\/i> of the main task force at APO? Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, that seems like a lot<\/i>. I am like Sydney throughout this episode: I CANNOT FATHOM HAVING HIM BE IN CONTROL. It seems like such an awful, awful idea, even with<\/i> the rest of the team keeping an eye on Sloane. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to do them wrong? Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I have no doubt about that at all??? But even if I were able to ignore that (I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t!), there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a greater issue: Why would they put Arvin Sloane in charge of a team of people who have all been ruined<\/i> by him? Dixon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife is dead because of him! He absolutely destroyed the lives of Vaughn, Jack, and Sydney, and now he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s their boss<\/i>? That is just a bad organizational structure!!!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not willing to give Sloane a chance, but these other people have<\/i> to. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deeply, deeply uncomfortable, and I do appreciate that the writers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shy away from that. (Though part of it is the cast and the director, too, since there are SO MANY unspoken looks exchanged. THEY ARE ALL GREAT.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And speaking of looks: Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just acknowledge that Vaughn and Sydney gave one another MANY looks, and there is just so much CHEMISTRY between them. I was not surprised that the show didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just immediately stick them together between seasons because they both had a lot<\/i> of shit to deal with. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s especially the case with Vaughn, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have him suddenly forget about SHOOTING HIS WIFE, who was an EVIL DOUBLE AGENT. At the same time:<\/p>\n

please<\/p>\n

make<\/p>\n

out<\/p>\n

WHICH THEY DO! And some more! While it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important moment in their tortured relationship, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel<\/i> victorious. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s messy, complicated, and emotional, and if that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a summary of Vaughn\/Sydney as a whole, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what<\/i> is. Yes, they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly take it slow, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to have to examine their own histories and trauma in order to make this work. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just a matter of having cathartic sex, you know? THERE IS SO MUCH WORK TO BE DONE. The same can be said of Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship with Jack, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really comment on that until I know what the HELL that file says. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad enough that Sydney and Jack are not talking, Jack is ferrying messages through Vaughn, and Vaughn was able to guess what it is Jack did, sooooooo\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I STILL DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T GET IT.<\/p>\n

More Angela Bassett, though.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Authorized Personnel Only, Part I\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/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":"