Product Description

The mystery and excitement reach unimaginable heights in ALIAS' spectacular third season. Special Agent Sydney Bristow awakens to an all-new world of intrigue from the very first moment of episode one, and her life is turned upside down as the action accelerates through the season's final frame. All 22 episodes plus must-see special features are included in this 6 disc set.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6071 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-07
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Bulgarian
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 940 minutes

Amazon.com
The third season of Alias found super spy Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) waking up in Hong Kong with a monster hangover and two years in the future with nary a memory. What's worse, her world has been turned upside-down with the evil Sloane (Ron Rifkin) now a world-famous humanitarian and philanthropist, and, even worse, her true love Vaughn (Michael Vartan) married to a seemingly great gal. Nice way to go back to work, eh? After coming up with one heck of a cliffhanger in season 2, Alias proceeded a bit aimlessly through these 22 episodes, and as a result, the parts were truly greater than the whole. With Lena Olin no longer around as Syd's duplicitous mother, and the addition of admirable yet bland Melissa George as Vaughn's wife Lauren, Garner found herself for the first time without a compelling female foil to play off of. By dividing its focus equally between the quest for the enigmatic Rambaldi device, Syd and Vaughn's now-contentious relationship, and the uncovering of Syd's missing years, Alias lost a little of its power without a larger story arc. The loss of regular cast members Merrin Dungey (Francie/Alison) and Bradley Cooper (Will)--both of whom do make great guest appearances--also divest the show of the personal life that kept Sydney human and approachable. Still, Garner is stellar as always, the plot twists come fast and furious, and secret identities are revealed. This season does have a great panorama of guest actors including Ricky Gervais, Justin Theroux, Djimon Hounsou, David Cronenberg, Quentin Tarantino, Vivica A. Fox, and Isabella Rossellini as Syd's long-lost aunt. --Mark Englehart

Customer Reviews

Steep quality drop; still better than most TV
This is an honest, reasoned review from a devoted fan of Alias. I know that I will get plenty of negative votes simply because I am not giving it five stars and saying nothing more than "THis is dEfinately kewl. Buy iT now!" So be it.

As has been said many times before, Season 3 was a huge letdown from the previous two (which are stunningly excellent). This decline can be traced back to the episode that aired after the Super Bowl in Season 2. When the creators used that epsiode (one of the most exciting in TV history) to "restart" the series so new viewers wouldn't have to learn all the backstory of SD-6 and so forth, it eroded and (in Season 3) eventually wiped out all the best elements of the show. The Rambaldi elements became incredulous. The twists, turns, and liaisons became arbitrary, forced, and repetitive. Worst of all, the crackling tension in the relationships has downshifted into sniping and griping. And Lena Olin is sorely missed.

The fall of SD-6 and the end of Sydney Bristow's double life may be likened to the Scoobies of "Buffy" graduating high school. It may have been inevitable but things were never the same after.

I love "Alias" and I still ask people to ty it out - both so my friends can enjoy it and so its ratings will improve! The feature film flavor still lingers, the actors are all engaging, the look and music are still cool, and Jennifer Garner is so sweet she should be illegal. It's better than 95 percent of the pablum on the tube. But, for the first time, it didn't kill me to miss an episode during this season. I stopped caring so much about what happened to Sydney Bristow. That's an unfortunate loss.

Alias... the best!
This season may not have been like the previous 2, but it was still wonderful TV and still the only hour of TV that I absolutely will NOT miss. If you have been on the fence about buying the DVD for Alias, don't...if you watch the show from season 1 through season 3 you will be as excited and desperate to see season 4 premiere in January of 2005 (ABC). I only got into this show after buying the DVDs for season one and becoming an absolute Sydney Bristow addict.

First, the writting is great, the suspense and action is always a plus, but it is the cast the really makes this show unforgetable. Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow... quite simply no one else could do this character justice, Victor Garber as Jack Bristow.. he was one of my favorites before and I love him more now. Michael Vartan as Michael Vaughn and the list goes on...

I will say this if you are looking for a series that gives you the whole package (innovative, creative, suspenceful, great character development, action packed, lots of eye candy and a little romance thrown in to the mix) this is your show. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would. Go ahead get these DVDs you deserve it!

I can't wait for season 4.....Is it January yet???

If Alias doesn't get better than Season 3, I quit
The merits of Alias are obvious if you watch seasons one and two. They lost their way in the third season, with frenetic action taking over -- taking too much time away from personal and interpersonal drama, characters acting out of character, and plots that were unbelievable even within the framework of a fantasy/spy/romance show. On any whim, the guys and gals would leave the CIA to go off on some rogue mission (where do they get the funding for all these insane worldwide operations?) and be back in time for supper, with no permanent repercussions.

I don't know if the Rambaldi stuff will ever go anywhere or not. But what made Alias special was the relationships anyway. And these have been folded, spindled, and mutilated in season 3. The season finale looks like another "good guy" is going to turn out to be a betrayer. I won't say who, but it is horrible that they spent three seasons building up a special relationship between two people who had big issues at the beginning of the series, and now it looks like they want to destroy all the trust that was built. Perhaps they are simply running out of ideas, and they are simply going to destroy all the characters we have grown to love, like one of those sick John Irving novels.

I never saw the series on TV, and I'm glad I've been able to watch the DVDs. I'm all caught up on the plot (implausible as it became) and ready for season four to begin in January. But unless they return to some of the scriptwriting sense and character consistency of the first and second seasons, I'm going to give up on it. I hope they can get back in the game. The first two seasons were magically good.