Oh Really? (Alias version)

[selenak]

Every now and then, you come across a fannish red button of the "conventional wisdom" type in the internet. By which I mean: people mention something as a self-evident truth when reccing a show/movie/book series to someone else, and yours truly forgets attempting to be mild-mannered, Clark-Kent-style, and feels like hulking out instead in protest. There are, each time, rational reasons I could give on why I disagree but the instinctive reaction is just to throw a temper tantrum and yell "no, NO, NO!"

...well, in the last week I discovered that in addition to the ones I already knew about, I have yet another one. To recapitulate, previous acknowledged red buttons are, for Highlander, "only the Methos episodes are worth watching!" (succint answer: no, they're not, and you miss a great deal of character interaction and some very watchable tv if you believe that), and for Babylon 5, "you can start with season 2" (succint answer: no, you can't, because mixed as it may be, s1 contains absolutely crucial character and arc stuff, and if you skip that, you're looking at a colour painting in black and white, it's as important as that). The new button I wasn't aware I had mostly because I hadn't come across exactly what pushed it before concerns Alias and consists of "only the Irina Derevko episodes are worth watching".

Attempt at rationality: NO NO NO NO SMASH!! Even with Irina as a primary focus of interest, you're robbing yourself of some crucial emotional background if you haven't seen how utterly dysfunctional the relationship between Sydney and Jack is at the start of s1. You don't know just how deep Jack's Irina issues go if you haven't seen him unable to do something as simple as have dinner with his daughter and having uncomfortable dreams of her in her mother's place. You don't know how Sydney used to idealize "Laura" and thus her response to real Irina in s2 reads differently than if you do. Moreover, you're missing out something Abrams is really good at, to wit, ensemble interaction, and more than two or three characters having interesting relationships with each other. By which, believe it or not, I don't just mean my own favourite character, Arvin Sloane, and everyone else, but also Sydney's partnership with Dixon, her friendships with Will and Francie, and Marshall going from comic relief to very endearing character indeed. Also, so much of the s2 pay off makes absolutely no emotional sense if you've only watched the Irina episodes. I mean, for heaven's sake, a crucial s2 episode with Irina in it like Truth Takes Time really depends on knowing Emily Sloane, what kind of relationship Sydney has with her, what kind of relationship Arvin has with her, the cancer arc from s1; the whole doubling of mother figures for Sydney and the parallels/contrasts between Arvin/Emily and Jack/Irina aren't there if you have only watched the Irina episodes. And let's not even get into the fact you can't disentagle the Fist Gen Spies from each other; if you don't know the relationship between Arvin and Jack, you know only part of the relationship between Jack and Irina, full stop. And you can't make sense of Sloane's scenes with Irina, either.

...I won't even get into the part where my favourite Alias season is actually the fourth one which has Irina in only two episodes (though she's an important absence and often refered to in the rest) and Nadia, how I love you, let me count the ways, and zomg Tuesday, most fun supporting character episode ever, and Ron Rifkin, you are a god of acting which is why Alias is The Arvin Sloane Show for me, what do you mean, hypocrite?.

But really, that's just just rationalization of the appalled realisation I have another fannish red button. About a show which while being still fond of most of it, I wouldn't have assumed I get protective about because it's definitely not on my must-see tv list to pimp. But if you do watch Alias? Don't just watch the Irina episodes.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

While the Irina episodes are certainly my favourites, I agree that they wouldn't stand up half as well without all the previous character/relationship development.

[selenak]

My point exactly.:)

[jesuswasbatman]

At least it's people claiming a female character is the only interesting one for once.

[selenak]

True, that ought to make me feel better than in the Methos & Highlander case on general principle, yet somehow, it does not.

[andraste]

The emoticon that best expresses my reaction is: 0_o

I don't think Alias would make sense on any level if you only watched the episodes with Irina in them. Why would anyone suggest that someone do that?

[selenak]

The reccee (is that a word in English? Person to whom this was recommended to?) wanted shows with strong morally ambiguos middle-aged women after the end of Damages and BSG. And absolutely, Irina fits the bill, but like you said: Alias makes no sense if you only watch the episodes with her in them.