DVD Review HTF REVIEW: ALIAS (TV series, Season One -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (1 Viewer)

[Robert Ringwald]

Just to add, the pilot episode was honestly very well done. Who says TV can't be as dramatic as a movie?

JJ Abrams is also great with music choices. I kind of wish the FELICITY sets had all the original music, because I missed seasons 2-4 on TV and they'll likely all have different music on DVD. His choices are always accurate.

The DVD set is easily one of the best I've seen so far.

The packaging is nice (except the horrible photoshop main cover) and simple to open.

The menu's are fantastic. The picture and sound is amazing. As of now, this set is my little treasure...

 

[David Williams]

The supporting cast is very good, except for that CIA guy who likes Sydney. He is such a cliche'd preppy boy character, I hope they cap his a$$ in the next season.

That's very interesting... I wonder if others who are seeing this for the first time feel the same way considering that quite a few of us watching when S1 first aired wanted Will Tippin to be hideously murdered, and not Vaughn.

 

[David Susilo]

I'd like to torture Will Tippin too. Sooooo freakin' meddlesome.

 

[Steeve Bergeron]

Jennifer Garner is definitely appealing and the fight scenes are fun to watch. But she stll sucked as Elekra in Daredevil. I've read many Daredevil comics, Garner is not a convincing Elektra Natchios.

I agree. That's why I said I was never a fan of Jennifer before seeing this TV series. She's a bad choice for Elektra, she doesn't look like her at all. Frankly, Ben Affleck is also pretty bad for Daredevil. That movie is very miscast.

 

[Ben Rockwell]

I picked this set up on Saturday evening, and my g/f and I watched the first four episodes. Unfortunately she's out of town now, and I told her I wouldn't watch any more of it until she got back. I never saw S1, but I am familiar w/ S2 and I was afraid that I would not enjoy it knowing what ends up happening.

Dang, was I wrong. I could sit down and watch all of the episodes, probably w/o a break b/c they are so enthralling. Ever since "Dude, Where's My Car", I've loved Jennifer Garner, and although I am not a Daredevil comic fan (or a comic fan in general), I thought she looked super-hot as Elektra, esp. when she first went into the coffee shop. She's super-hot as Sydney Bristow, too, and that certainly helps in watching the show.

As for Vaughn, I doubt they'll kill him off, unless his off-screen romance w/ Garner fades away. But, Vaughn is married in the end of S2, and I think he says that the CIA asked him to return, so he may indeed be gone...who knows?


I can't wait to get S2 on DVD (esp. for the Super Bowl episode), and S3 is right around the corner. Very exciting times for us Alias fans right now.

BTW, someone mentioned that the highlighted letters in each show may spell something out...has anyone figured it out yet?

 

[Tim Glover]

I just watched the pilot of Alias. This was a blind purchase. Loved it.

Question:
Are TV shows film based or video? My reason for asking is wondering if shows like Alias should be seen with the progressive scan feature on or interlaced? I'm fairly new with progressive scan so pardon the dumb ?

It seemed to look a little better when I switched back to interlaced and selected "video" for the transfer process.

I use the Panasonic XP-30, which uses the Far. DCI chip I think for interlacing???h

Thanks

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Hey Tim!

Based on the "film grain" or what looks like it I'm assuming that the episodes are shot on film. It also has a film-like look to it in focus and in the way motion "feels"...different than the way motion looks in "video" 60Hz signals.

Anyone know for sure?

 

[Tim Glover]

Thanks for the response David. I really didn't compare too much as it was late and wanted to just watch the dang show!

I'll do some more comparing later on. Both interlaced and progressive outputs looked really good though. One of the shots of Sidney walking down the street with very bright red hair was a little fuzzy and blooming some. But that could be the result of other factors too.

I also noticed the weak LFE too.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Hey Tim,

Just FYI, you can leave your DVD player set up to "progressive" regardless of whether the source you're watching is film or video. Most DVD players have different "deinterlacing" modes that switch back and forth on the fly when you switch from film to video stuff.

Any reason why you felt you should switch progressive "off" if the source is video?

dave

 

[Tim Glover]

I thought that if it was a video source I would need to switch the progressive "off". I need to do some reading on progressive/interlaced stuff because I really don't know about all that. Just enough to be dangerous.

Yea, I could just leave the prog. out to "on" and switch the transfer modes for different material. Not sure where I got the idea of turning that off??! I probably should go back and read the Panasonic manual too!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Most progressive-DVD player automatically switch modes for the different material so you don't have to worry about it. Most of them also have a way to manually force on mode or the other in case the material confuses the player.

chances are if there's an "auto" setting for progressive processing you should probably use it and not worry.

dave

 

[Tim Glover]

thanks Dave.

 

[Chris Farmer]

Picked this up as a blind buy today as a result of what people here have been saying. Damn I'm impressed, this show is fun as hell. It's like James Bond with the suspension of disbelief, but if you know what you're getting into, it's fine. Just don't expect ultra-realism.

So far watched the first disc (disc 2 is tomorrow), I realized just how much I was into this show after only three episodes when the cliffhanger at the end of disc 1 cause me to immediately blurt out on seeing the Alias logo "Son of a *****!!!" Def looking forward to disc 2 tomorrow, at this rate I'll have offed the whole season in under a week.

As for highlighted letters, don't know, haven't been paying attention, but I'll try to remember to watch for that tomorrow.

 

[Daryl L]

LOL @ Chris, I take it you like the show.

For all to know, it's not intended to seem or be realistic. Just exciting, intense, entertaining and like Chris said, "fun".

 

[EricW]

okay, i just finished the entire 1st season on DVD (having never seen an episode on broadcast) and i have a few questions (S1 spoilers):

1) is SD-6 the "alliance of 12"? (i assume so) - then what's SD-1? SD-4? 5? are they all connected to the alliance?

2) was Sloane originally a member of the alliance of 12? at the beginning of the season, they made it sound like he was, but then they offer to make him a "member" at the the end of S1. or is it that the alliance of 12 is NOT the board of directors (of which Roger Moore was one of)... even though there are 12 "directors"/"members" (for that matter, i think Jack Bristow said he was one of the alliance of 12 in ep1).

3) was making Hicks the snowman totally illogical (even for the show)? didn't they say the Snowman had been on the CIA's most wanted list for 12 years? or is being the Snowman like being the Dread Pirate Roberts?

 

[David Williams]

3) was making Hicks the snowman totally illogical (even for the show)? didn't they say the Snowman had been on the CIA's most wanted list for 12 years? or is being the Snowman like being the Dread Pirate Roberts?

Well, apparently Hicks was an assassin even before he joined SD-6. I'm guessing he used it as cover for his activities (sort of in the same way that Sydney is a Double Agent). Remember, Noah is about 7 years older than Sydney (at least, according to the novels).

 

[EricW]

apparently Hicks was an assassin even before he joined SD-6

i thought Hicks and Sidney were recruited together... even Sidney's friend Francine(?) knew about him.

i thought it was pretty abrupt how they wrote out Francine's fiance out like that. also, it's too bad they got rid of Will's assisstant Jenny. she was H-O-T.

the show is pretty good. as for if it's any more/less realistic than 24, i'd have to say everything is relative - 24 is supposed to be more realistic/real world. Alias is less realistic but therefore can take bigger leaps without causing a bigger shock to suspension of belief. having said that, there were alot of things that stick out in my mind that made absolutely no sense. i won't list them as i'm sure everybody could point them out.

 

[CoreyII]

To, rich_D, Dan Rudolph, and Robert Ringwald

Sorry for responding so late, I don't get to the forum as often as I used to. Anyway in response to all of your statements, I do watch the same Buffy as all of you watch I just have a differnt opinion of the series. I like the series,I've watched it from the end of Season 2 where she killed Angel to the very last episode where Spike died.
And I've even watched many of the season 1 & 2 episodes since the series is now on DVD.

I feel the series in its own very subtle way is sexist towards men. For example, how come every major villain, every big bad that has dominated each individual season has been a male and that's just for starters. The reason I feel that no one ever brings this perspective of Buffy up is because in these pollitcally correct times that we live in people have been conditioned to accept reverse sexism on a woman's behalf.

I assure you, if Buffy had been the reverse and the series had a male protagonist with predominately female villains, the series would have been under a lot of fire and Joss Whedon knows this. The male and female characters on Angel are more balanced than on Buffy.

Look, I don't want to get to involved in this type of discussion since this thread is about Sydney Bristow not Buffy Summers. Just, from what I've seen so far of Alias, I have a feeling I'm going to ultimately like this series more than Buffy.

(Admin note - spoiler text pertaining to Buffy added)

 

[Joel C]

Corey, I'd edit the Buffy series-ending spoiler out of your post.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Buffy spoiler text added.