Product Description

Golden Globe Award-winning actress Jennifer Garner (Best Actress In A Television Series, 2002) is Sydney Bristow. Syd's not exactly your average grad student. Her life might appear normal, but she's hiding a secret life working as a spy for the CIA. Sydney's world is turned upside down when she learns she may work for the very enemy she thought she was fighting. Now she's entangled in a covert lifestyle where she is forced to question the allegiances of everyone, including those closest to her. Entertainment Weekly says ALIAS is "a spy-fi roller coaster of killer gadgets, double roundkicks, triple crosses, poignant confessionals, cliff-hangers, sliced-off fingers, conspiracies, outrageous outfits, exotic locales, flirtations, mythologies -- and that's just before the first commercial break." Now see the 22 mesmerizing episodes that launched it all in this 6-disc set. You'll also experience never-before-seen extras that give you special access inside the world of ALIAS. See the show everyone has been talking about that has redefined series television. This edge-of-your-seat collection with its heart-pounding action of unpredictable plot twists will have you gasping for air and begging for Season 2!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12473 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-02
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: Spanish, English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 1007 minutes

Amazon.com
Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a super (and super sexy) spy, fighting nefarious villains and working for the good guys--or so she thinks. Recruited as a college freshman for espionage work, Sydney found her true calling with SD-6, a secret division of the CIA. When her hunky doctor-boyfriend proposes to her, she decides to let him in on the truth she's not supposed to tell anyone: she's not a grad student with a demanding job for an international bank, but a secret agent who constantly puts her life on the line for the free world. But when SD-6 discovers her security breach, her fiancé is brutally assassinated, and Sydney suddenly finds herself face-to-face with the truth: she's been working for the bad guys. Deciding to become a double agent for the CIA and bring down the evildoers, Sydney gets one more surprise--her estranged father (Victor Garber) is also working for SD-6, and the CIA as well. Welcome to the family, Syd!

Confusing? This is all just in the first episode of Alias, the brainchild of Felicity creator J.J. Abrams that plays like a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and James Bond. With its double-edged tension (how long can Syd play double agent?) and one heck of a MacGuffin (the dreaded Rambaldi device, the mythic creation of a Renaissance genius), the show leads its viewers from episode to episode with visceral, compelling action, not to mention the nascent romance between Syd and her CIA handler, Vaughn (Michael Vartan), and her clashes with her heretofore distant father. Sharp, smart, and always suspenseful, Alias' center was held by the gorgeous Garner, a stellar action heroine and an even better actress who could pull off Sydney's exotic undercover missions and conflicted emotions with equal dexterity. By the end of this first season, which concludes with a breathtaking cliffhanger, you'll be seduced into Alias' world with, happily, no desire to escape. --Mark Englehart

Customer Reviews

WARNING: A well thought out script.
My wife has watched this show since the beginning, but I never have as it interfered with my sleep schedule. After recently buying a new DVD player I was anxious to get started watching something. I bought "Alias Season 1" and "Six Feet Under" (which I would also recommend highly). Anyway, my plan was to watch one episode a week, or at most a couple, so I could make it last. So I'm thinking I can get through the 22 or so episodes in 10 weeks. Try 2.

Thats right! I would watch like three a day. I was addicted. Conversations in my house sounded something like this...

"Honey, come eat dinner."
"No, I'm watching Alias."

"Honey, help me with the groceries."
"No, I'm watching Alias."

"Honey, I'm pregnant."
"Wow, thats great, we'll talk later, I'm watching Alias."

I'm really serious. Every episode would end on such a cliffhanger you had to see at least the beginning of the next episode. But then the middle was so good you wanted to see how it would develope. But then another darn cliffhanger and you were locked in the cycle for good.

I can't wait for Season 2. I pre-ordered it at 3 in the morning because that was a minute after I finished Season 1. I'm thinking about starting AA (Alias Anonymous) until I can get my fix.

A great first season
Alias is, simply put, one of the best shows currently on TV. Few shows (especially action series) are able to move at such a fast pace, yet retain a truly human element throughout. The mark of a good show is the ability to keep the viewer begging for more, and Alias is a master at this, with every Act and/or episode ending capable of making me groan simply because I have to wait for the conclusion.

Jennifer Garner leads a superb cast as Sydney Bristow, a double agent for the CIA who, until recently, had been working for SD6, which she thought was a secret unit of the CIA, but is really part of a shadowy organization known as the Alliance. In this first season, she has to keep her affiliation with the CIA a secret from both her friends and with her coworkers at SD6, while finding out about the details of her mother's death, and her father's role in both the CIA *and* SD6.

The DVD set is presented in widescreen, with some documentaries, a gag reel, a few deleted scenes, and a handful of commentaries (the best of which being the cast commentary for the season finale). Aided by good writing and direction and a few well-placed instances of "stunt" casting (Patricia Wettig, Roger Moore, and a delicious turn by Quentin Tarantino), Alias is not to be missed, and this DVD set should be a joy for fans (even if the special features are a tad too sparse).

DVD Release set for September 2, 2003
J.J. Abrams confirmed to TV Guide Online that the first season is being preped for release:

"There are going to be a lot of great special features," he says of the mult-disc set, wich is slated to arrive in stores on Sept. 2. "When I filmed the pilot, a good friend of mine shot like eight or nine hours of behind-the-scenes footage and did interviews with most of the cast. So, in addition to a number of other really cool features, we're going to edit together a behind-the-scenes piece on the making of the pilot."