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Alias, season 2, begun
Nov. 13th, 2004 11:14 amWhat I hadn't mentioned before: when I couldn't sleep im the wee hours in Paris, I put in my newly aquired French Alias season 2 DVDs. Yesterday I did that, too, and thus I have seen the first twelve ups, until The Getaway. Some reactions:
1.) Like everyone else, I seem to have fallen for the charms of Irina Derevko, and regret SpyMommy is only in one season. I've only seen Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being eons ago and liked her there, too. Excellent actress, gorgeous, gorgeous woman, and what a great and intriguing character. Irina's wooing and slow seduction of Sydney so far is far more captivating than the Sydney/Vaughn angsty coworker romance, although I have to say Vaughn is slightly more interesting this season than last. (Which still makes him the least interesting member of the show to me except for Francie, but I did like his scenes with Irina.) Still, the Irina/Sydney, Irina/Jack (now THAT is what I call sizzling! Makes me think of that song Orwell quotes in 1984 as well - under the (hm da ) chestnut tree/ I sold you and you sold me ), and Irina/Sydney/Jack scenes are the highlights of the show. Loved the SpyFamily excursion in Passage. Am proud of Sydney and the way she tries to balance what is quintessentially the divorced parents situation from hell with the work situation from hell.
2.) Speaking of Sydney, I liked her last season but really love her in this one, dealing with her messed-up family as best she can and being a good friend with Will, Dixon and poor (and incredibly brave) Marshall. Plus I can finally see why there is Syd/Sark fanfic, and why people compare it to Buffy/Spike. Sark himself improved in that he reminds me less of an adult (though not very much) Draco Malfoy (which wasn't a good thing for me - I'm not a Draco fan, neither of fanon nor of canon Draco). Loved Sydney's "you're cute, but I'll pass". They do have enjoyable snark going on. Meanwhile, we also get a lot of adorable Syd & Will friendship scenes. If I were Sydney? I'd banter with Sark some more but would want to end up with Will, bypassing Vaughn altogether.
3.) The ending of The Getaway, complete with Gounoud's Faust playing in the background, had me exclaim "Arvin Sloane, you clever son of a bitch!" in delight. I had an inkling when the finger arrived, because that reminded me strongly of Sloane sacrificing his own finger in season 1 when the situation required it, but I wasn't sure until the actual revelation. Sloane's subplot this season is the only serious contender to the Irina scenes in terms of "highlight of the show" title. When he told Jack about Emily, I thought it was a clever juxtaposition on the part of the writers, because at that point Jack had framed Irina which would have resulted in her getting the death penalty, if not for Sydney. So you have, supposedly, two men being willing to kill the women they love (and of course Jack still loves Irina, almost as much as he hates her), only as it turns out neither of the women in question dies, and the whole elaborate schemes actually serve to help them (although that wasn't the intention on Jack's part). WHY is there not more fic dealing with the Jack Bristow & Arvin Sloane relationship? Or is there, and I haven't found it yet? Because that is one of the most interesting of the show to me, what with the complicated deceiving and using each other while also helping and protecting going on. And the whole backstory.
Sloane as a boss: on the one hand, you have poor Marshall being thrown to the dogs, so to speak, on the other, you have him dressing Sark down for making snide remarks about SD6 employees who believe they work for the government. Ah, what a delightfully three dimensional villain Sloane is.
4.) At least Will questions whether the US government having the ability to listen to every conversation on the planet is any better than SD6 having it, but alas, so far that's a rather singular occurance. We're still in the James Bond school of spying where the cause remains unquestioned. (Well, except by Sloane who if what Jack says to Ariana King is in any way reliable went from CIA agent to going into business for himself because of disillusionment.) I mean, look at the entire Project Christmas thing. Sydney (and later Vaughn and Will) is horrified the KGB did it. She's also horrified that her father tried it out on her. But she doesn't think the fact that the US government started the entire affair by testing kids for their future spying suitability, and designing a program to turn said kids into future spies, is bad per se. Which is in character for Syd who needs to believe in the CIA-as-good-guys in order not to have a nervous breakdown with her razor edge existence, but I'm not sure the audience is supposed to question where she doesn't. We're back to what the Former Government Official told me: doing this stuff for a democratic regime is not the moral equivalent of doing it for a totalitarian regime. Which I'm not sure I can believe, either in fiction or in reality.
Otoh: Irina telling Sydney about being recruited at age 18 to work for her country by the KGB was clearly intended to draw a parallel to Sydney's own recruitment. However, we can't be sure Irina did not intend this parallel, as a tool of manipulation. (Of course Jack accusing Irina of manipulating Syd is rich considering he does it all the time. These two are really worth each other.) Which reminds me, why is Irina held under charge of treason? I mean, I get espionage, naturally, but since she's not an American citizen and wasn't at the time when she was a KGB agent, she did not "betray this country". She worked for her own country back then, spying on her country's enemy and doing in essence exactly the same thing that Jack did and does. Oh, and another thing: Irina going into business for herself post-KGB apparently was brought on by disillusionment as well, which makes her a parallel to Sloane. Which in turn reminds me of the way the series in season 1 juxtapositioned Sloane and Emily as Sydney's shadow parents: Emily as the idealized version of her mother, and Sloane as the father figure whom otoh she can permit herself to hate and blame for her life but who otoh gives the open approval and open need that Jack for a long time withheld. So Irina is both a contrast/parallel to Emily and to Sloane. Hm...
1.) Like everyone else, I seem to have fallen for the charms of Irina Derevko, and regret SpyMommy is only in one season. I've only seen Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being eons ago and liked her there, too. Excellent actress, gorgeous, gorgeous woman, and what a great and intriguing character. Irina's wooing and slow seduction of Sydney so far is far more captivating than the Sydney/Vaughn angsty coworker romance, although I have to say Vaughn is slightly more interesting this season than last. (Which still makes him the least interesting member of the show to me except for Francie, but I did like his scenes with Irina.) Still, the Irina/Sydney, Irina/Jack (now THAT is what I call sizzling! Makes me think of that song Orwell quotes in 1984 as well - under the (hm da ) chestnut tree/ I sold you and you sold me ), and Irina/Sydney/Jack scenes are the highlights of the show. Loved the SpyFamily excursion in Passage. Am proud of Sydney and the way she tries to balance what is quintessentially the divorced parents situation from hell with the work situation from hell.
2.) Speaking of Sydney, I liked her last season but really love her in this one, dealing with her messed-up family as best she can and being a good friend with Will, Dixon and poor (and incredibly brave) Marshall. Plus I can finally see why there is Syd/Sark fanfic, and why people compare it to Buffy/Spike. Sark himself improved in that he reminds me less of an adult (though not very much) Draco Malfoy (which wasn't a good thing for me - I'm not a Draco fan, neither of fanon nor of canon Draco). Loved Sydney's "you're cute, but I'll pass". They do have enjoyable snark going on. Meanwhile, we also get a lot of adorable Syd & Will friendship scenes. If I were Sydney? I'd banter with Sark some more but would want to end up with Will, bypassing Vaughn altogether.
3.) The ending of The Getaway, complete with Gounoud's Faust playing in the background, had me exclaim "Arvin Sloane, you clever son of a bitch!" in delight. I had an inkling when the finger arrived, because that reminded me strongly of Sloane sacrificing his own finger in season 1 when the situation required it, but I wasn't sure until the actual revelation. Sloane's subplot this season is the only serious contender to the Irina scenes in terms of "highlight of the show" title. When he told Jack about Emily, I thought it was a clever juxtaposition on the part of the writers, because at that point Jack had framed Irina which would have resulted in her getting the death penalty, if not for Sydney. So you have, supposedly, two men being willing to kill the women they love (and of course Jack still loves Irina, almost as much as he hates her), only as it turns out neither of the women in question dies, and the whole elaborate schemes actually serve to help them (although that wasn't the intention on Jack's part). WHY is there not more fic dealing with the Jack Bristow & Arvin Sloane relationship? Or is there, and I haven't found it yet? Because that is one of the most interesting of the show to me, what with the complicated deceiving and using each other while also helping and protecting going on. And the whole backstory.
Sloane as a boss: on the one hand, you have poor Marshall being thrown to the dogs, so to speak, on the other, you have him dressing Sark down for making snide remarks about SD6 employees who believe they work for the government. Ah, what a delightfully three dimensional villain Sloane is.
4.) At least Will questions whether the US government having the ability to listen to every conversation on the planet is any better than SD6 having it, but alas, so far that's a rather singular occurance. We're still in the James Bond school of spying where the cause remains unquestioned. (Well, except by Sloane who if what Jack says to Ariana King is in any way reliable went from CIA agent to going into business for himself because of disillusionment.) I mean, look at the entire Project Christmas thing. Sydney (and later Vaughn and Will) is horrified the KGB did it. She's also horrified that her father tried it out on her. But she doesn't think the fact that the US government started the entire affair by testing kids for their future spying suitability, and designing a program to turn said kids into future spies, is bad per se. Which is in character for Syd who needs to believe in the CIA-as-good-guys in order not to have a nervous breakdown with her razor edge existence, but I'm not sure the audience is supposed to question where she doesn't. We're back to what the Former Government Official told me: doing this stuff for a democratic regime is not the moral equivalent of doing it for a totalitarian regime. Which I'm not sure I can believe, either in fiction or in reality.
Otoh: Irina telling Sydney about being recruited at age 18 to work for her country by the KGB was clearly intended to draw a parallel to Sydney's own recruitment. However, we can't be sure Irina did not intend this parallel, as a tool of manipulation. (Of course Jack accusing Irina of manipulating Syd is rich considering he does it all the time. These two are really worth each other.) Which reminds me, why is Irina held under charge of treason? I mean, I get espionage, naturally, but since she's not an American citizen and wasn't at the time when she was a KGB agent, she did not "betray this country". She worked for her own country back then, spying on her country's enemy and doing in essence exactly the same thing that Jack did and does. Oh, and another thing: Irina going into business for herself post-KGB apparently was brought on by disillusionment as well, which makes her a parallel to Sloane. Which in turn reminds me of the way the series in season 1 juxtapositioned Sloane and Emily as Sydney's shadow parents: Emily as the idealized version of her mother, and Sloane as the father figure whom otoh she can permit herself to hate and blame for her life but who otoh gives the open approval and open need that Jack for a long time withheld. So Irina is both a contrast/parallel to Emily and to Sloane. Hm...
