Product Description

The action explodes in ALIAS' phenomenal fourth season. When Sydney leaves the CIA to join a powerful new Black Ops unit, she has no idea of the reunion in store for her. Family secrets are revealed and old adversaries come together for a year of betrayal, suspense, and breathtaking surprises. It's nonstop excitement -- from the spectacular two-hour first episode to the stunning impact of the season's final seconds. Experience all 22 heart-stopping episodes of season four in a sensational six-disc set. ALIAS features "the best acting and most addictive plot lines on television," raves CNN.com. Now with exclusive bonus features, including a conversation with Jennifer Garner, bloopers, deleted scenes, and more, this spectacular set makes TV's most exciting show even better.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4497 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-10-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Ukrainian, Uzbek
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 923 minutes

Amazon.com
True to form, at the beginning of its fourth season J.J. Abrams' Alias proceeded to reinvent itself yet again--and the results looked quite a bit like the first season, but with a decided twist. Super agent Sydney Bristow (Emmy nominee Jennifer Garner) found herself once more working for a covert secret-ops group that was "off the books" and headed up by Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) as she was partnered with... Hey, wait, wasn't Sloane a bad guy before? Well, yes, he was, but having been "rehabilitated" from his evil ways, he's now Sydney's new boss--nevermind the fact that he's trampled all over her life in more ways than one--and head of the CIA's new super-secret division, APO (for Authorized Personnel Only), which also includes all of Sydney's old friends, as well as her dad (Victor Garber) and love interest Vaughn (Michael Vartan). But as Sydney and Vaughn struggle with their budding relationship in the wake of his wife's death, and Syd also comes to realize her father may have had quite a bit to do with her mother's abrupt disappearance, a few monkey wrenches are thrown into the works. There's the emergence of South American agent Nadia (Mia Maestro), who's Syd's half sister--and the daughter of Sloane; the reappearance of Syd's nasty nemesis, Anna Espinosa (Gina Torres); a Sloane doppelganger (Joel Grey); and a mysterious cabal intent on harnessing the power of the legendary Rambaldi device.

Alias was definitely all over the map during its fourth season, and a few off-screen factors managed to take their toll onscreen as well. The end of a real-life relationship between Garner and Vartan gave Sydney and Vaughn's scenes a lack of romantic spark, but at the same time a decided tension, as the two warily circled each other and deepened their relationship; they clicked best in the episode "Welcome to Liberty Village," in which the duo infiltrates a Stepford-like suburb as a picture-perfect couple. And the absence of Lena Olin, as Syd's mother, was definitely felt, as her character became a looming presence despite little screen time. Where Alias succeeded this year was in the dramatic impact individual episodes had: "Nocturne" was a captivating tale of Sydney in the throes of deadly hallucinations; "The Orphan" affectingly fleshed out the enigmatic Nadia's background; "In Dreams" (directed by Garner) probed the subconscious of bad guy Sloane, who wasn't as evil as you might think; and "Mirage" forced Sydney to impersonate her mother in her father's fevered dreams. Don't worry, there was plenty of action--especially in the season's final episodes, which prominently featured a deadly Sonia Braga--and despite its ups and downs, Alias remained one of the most intelligent, compelling dramas on television. --Mark Englehart

Customer Reviews

Lack of characterization
This season was a disappointment for me. All I can think about is how much potential there was within the story and characters and these things were seemingly abandoned. The season as a whole lacks in the strong characterization the series had in its first three seasons. Sydney, who was a such a great character is very flat in this season and the same goes for the rest of the characters. I think maybe there were too many characters this season and so not a lot of attention could be paid to any of them individually.

The first half of the season is episodic and really disappointing. The episode ending cliffhangers which I loved so much over the first three seasons were gone which left every episode a bit flat. I learned later that the network asked for the episodes to be stand alone and cliffhanger-less to appeal to new viewers. The season premiere, which I was excited about after the cliffhanger at the end of season three, was disappointing because I felt like it didn't make sense with what I saw at the end of season three and I later learned this was retconned, I assume because maybe they had some problems getting some actors to reappear. This I think ruined Sydney's character arc for the season. The second half of the season gets better as the story arc is resumed and there were some great moments in these episodes, but it took far too long to get to them and still the characterization remained flat. The story arc could have used a lot more build up and had more of an impact on the characters themselves. The season finale was good, but I think it should have been great.

I still highly anticipate watching the fifth season.

Losing steam
Alias is gradually losing momentum in the fourth season. There are still some good moments, but Rambaldi stories become more and more painstaking. The end is just laughing stock. After this series, I stopped watching Alias.

The demise of a decent show
Have no fear, this review contains NO spoilers.

Obviously whether or not you like a television show depends heavily on your taste, but for fans who have seen the first three seasons and are considering buying the fourth I have this to say...

While I found the first three season of Alias to be exciting and fun to watch, I had to wonder what happened to season 4. Somewhere during this season, the show crossed the line from an intriguing spy drama with lots of fantastic plot twists to a cheap thrills action series with plot holes through which one could drive a truck. While the show was always obviously fantasy, this season really tested (in my case, broke) the viewer's ability to suspend disbelief.

Without going into spoilers, I will simply say that if you've been watching the show to this point, don't bother buying this set- rent it. You will not watch them a second time.