Product Description

From J.J. Abrams, the creator of LOST, comes the culmination of one of the most thrilling series ever -- ALIAS. Bring home the ultimate fan box set with ALIAS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION, including all five complete seasons of ALIAS on DVD. This special collector's set is a must-own for all true fans and allows you to become part of the ALIAS phenomenon. Immerse yourself in hours of all-new exclusive bonus features with a special DVD packed with never-before-seen footage that you can only find in this set, including an emotional reunion with all your favorite stars from the series!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10228 in DVD
• Brand: Alias
• Released on: 2006-11-21
• Formats: Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, German
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 29
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 4512 minutes

Amazon.com
From the moment Jennifer Garner appeared on screen, tied to a chair in a fluorescent red wig, Alias burst onto the scene as an intriguing "spy-fi" series that sucked viewers into a weekly action movie. Like its successor, Lost, creator J.J. Abrams spun a cult favorite show that held interweaving conspiracies, mysteries, and even some of the same actors. Unlike the island drama, however, Lost was really only about one central character: Student-turned-agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner, who was catapulted from obscurity to the A-list) learns the government agency she was working for isn't CIA at all, but a rogue baddie outfit called SD-6. Sydney, along with her father (Victor Garber, robbed of an Emmy) work as double agents to bring down SD-6 and its top gun, the ever-shifty Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin). Once that happened, of course, there were more bad guys and villainous networks to be brought down, and the rest of the series followed Sydney's adventures--always in various disguises--as she roundhouse-kicked her way through each one.

While season one was about the threat of SD-6 discovering her identity, season two dealt with her personal relations: her romance with CIA handler Vaughn (Michael Vartan), her reunion with her duplicitous mother (Lena Olin, The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and hiding her agenda from outsider friends while revealing it to her former SD-6 comrades. Season three catapulted Sydney two years into the future (with amnesia!) facing a suspicious new agent (and Vaughn's new wife) and more prophecies of Rambaldi, a cross between Da Vinci and Nostradamus whose writings and artifacts became a deadly obsession for Sloane. Seasons four and five went all over the map, introducing a new black-ops unit, a half-sister for Sydney (Mia Maestro), two new agents (Balthazar Getty and Rachel Nichols), and more bad guys before its final showdown between Sydney and Sloane. Due to the show's cancellation and hurriedness to finish season five in a shortened amount of time, some plot points and questions were never answered.

On the DVD
The entire Alias series comes housed in a replica of the Rambaldi box, an intricately designed gold case with red velvet lining, embossed with "IRINA" on the lid just as it was on the show. Inside, each season's discs are housed in its own storybook case, and a small hardcover companion book features the show's cast and crew answering fans' burning questions, particularly the unanswered storylines such as "Who was Deep Throat?" (the anonymous tipster who kept calling Will in season one, whose identity was never revealed). Hidden in the Rambaldi case's false bottom(!) is a bonus disc of material not found in any previous DVD release. The featurette "Case Closed" interviews cast members at the close of the show, with footage of their very last set takes (It's touching to see veteran stars Garber and Kevin Weisman, who plays lovable techie geek Marshall, struggle not to cry while season five newbie Nichols weeps openly). The included fan tributes are amusing to watch; one inventive obsessor hangs a red Japanese lantern above his bed and calls it his own personal "Mueller sphere." Other featurettes explore interviews with the cast after the pilot was filmed; the significance of the number 47 throughout the series; the numerous networks of villains (The Covenant, K. Director, Prophet 5, etc.) But the best quote from the bonus disc comes from an interview with Rifkin, who assesses Sloane's complex motives with: "He's bad. Sloane is bad. Sloan is baaaaad. Sloane. Is. Bad." If you're a die-hard Alias fan and don't own any of the previous seasons on DVD, this one is for you. -- Ellen A. Kim

Customer Reviews

Great content, horrible disc protection
Other reviewers have mentioned this, but it's worth repeating: THE PACKAGING FOR THIS SET IS ILL-CONCEIVED AND WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY DAMAGE EVERY DISC. Each season's discs are packaged in beautifully detailed cardboard sleeves that are constructed so that corners and edges meet where the bottom of the disc rests. This means that each disc brushes up against four pointed corners each time it moves in the sleeve. Almost all of my discs were scratched upon delivery, and my older DVD player would not read some of them because of the depth of the scratches (my newer player didn't have any trouble, fortunately). I'd ask for a replacement set, but it would arrive in the same condition because this is a design flaw, not a manufacturing error. I'm thinking about contacting Buena Vista or its manufacturer to complain. For the price of this set, the discs ought to be protected better.

Packaging flaws aside, this is an excellent collection. The Rambaldi box itself is a great piece of eye candy and has magnetic sides and top so it closes easily; it's almost a toy itself. The bottom compartment is lined with felt and holds a bonus disc exclusive to this set. You also get a small book detailing some of the series' secrets, which is a nice bonus but not beefy enough to be a selling point.

I won't critique the content itself, other than to say that Alias is a shining example of dramatic television. It's one of my all-time favorite TV series and this collection contains every minute of every episode along with every bonus feature you could ask for.

Concerning the show alone, this product would easily merit a five-star rating, but the packaging is a real bummer. I'm as big of an Alias fan as there is, but even I have to knock off a star for the scratched discs. I'd recommend to anyone who already has two or three of the season sets to just buy the remaining seasons separately. You won't have to rely on scratched discs that way.

The Complete Story
If you've never seen an episode of this amazing show you have no idea what your missing... from the can't-take-a-breath pilot, to the mezmorizing series finale `Alias' was always about the shock factor, and once it got it's claws into you there was no letting go. Serving almost as the Generation X, female version of James Bond, `Alias' is a heartpounding spy-series that does not know how to give the audience a break.

Throughout the Series 105 episodes we are given a glimpse into the life of Sydney Bristow and her unbelievable and crazy decade-long transition from a wide-eyed naïve graduate student, to the worldly and weathered woman that she became, with all the bumb's and bruises along the way; and let's not forget all the butt-kicking that came along with that as well...

With Seasons One and Two, starts off with a pilot that introduces us to the happy and excited Syndey Bristow, her relationship with her estranged father, her two best friends: Francie and Will, and her soon-to-be fiancé; not to mention her job as an undercover spy for the CIA. But it isn't long before Sydney realizes that she is not working for the CIA, but in fact for the very enemy she thought she was fighting, which leads her into a dangerous life as a double agent, fighting the war on both fronts. While leading this life her personal life becomes very stressed, and she learns that sometime its impossible to separate the work from the personal.

Season Three picks up approx 2 years after the season two finale, and to stay mostly spoiler-free all I will say is that her life has been turned upside down, and the season focus's on her quest for understanding her life.

Season Four picks up about a year after season 3, and finds Sydney starting a new job, going back to being a Secret Agent, but with a few surprises on the work front.

Season Five picks up again, about a year after season 4 and finds Sydney facing the realities of the world, and of her life...

As you can see not much can be said without giving anything way. This is an extremely complex/continuity heavy show that is really well known for being hard to follow (missing several minutes of an episode can affect your understanding of not only the next couple of episodes, but story lines several years down-the-lines) and this aspec's initially turned people off from the series in its broadcast run, in favor of the DVDs.

Presented here are all 105 episodes, on 29 discs, with all the special features from the individual releases, as well as a special DVD with new bonus features and a commemorative book all packaged inside the Rambaldi artifact (a thing that play's a centeral role throughout the series).

A Well-Crafted, Visually Vibrant Spy Series Set Apart by its Wild, Endless Imagination
Just out of college, Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is recruited by Arvin Sloan (Ron Rifkin) to be part of a globe-trotting secret government spy agency known as SD-6. When tragic events occur Sydney realizes that SD-6 is not what it seems and joins up with her father (Victor Garber) at the CIA as a double agent to bring Sloan down with the help of her undercover handler and future lover Vaughn (Michael Vartan) and her partner Dixon (Carl Lumbly). Meanwhile, Sloan races to uncover the artifacts of an ancient profit known as Rambaldi, the possessor of all of them will become so powerful that they could become immortal and rule the world.

ABC was unusually good to "Alias". While they gave the show an opportunity to bring its 5-year story toward a satisfying conclusion, the show went through so many changes in the meantime it is hard to talk about it as one entity. Creator J.J. Abrams starts out keeping things very simple. Season 1 is like a run-and-gun video game where in episode after episode Sydney sneaks into a secret facility in a fantastic disguise, steals or downloads something for the CIA under the cover of SD-6 and then runs, kicks and punches her way out. Part "La Femme Nikkita", part "Mission: Impossible", it is a light and sound show.

In a rare example of positive network and creative collaboration Abrams got a call to reinvent the fledgling series (5th place will make a network start to get religion). What came out of the meeting was a complete dismantling of the series as we knew it and the establishment of something better. The show ditched the head-scratching cliffhanger endings for more self-contained episodes, but Abrams was given the freedom to continue his story arcs and flesh out the character relationships into what will ultimately be a tangled web of familial soap opera drama involving Syd's mother (Lena Olina) and Sloan's daughter.

Mid-way though the 2nd season and into the 3rd , "Alias" hits its stride. In a series filled with stupendous action sequences, a 2-hour finale that culminates in a rollicking, all-out brawl between Sydney and an evil duplicate of her roommate (just watch) that rips their apartment to splintered shreds ranks as one of the coolest scenes in modern TV for me. It is also here when the look of the show is expanded to a gorgeous cinematic scope it will have to the end. I could just drink up the colors and cinematography of this show. In addition to a perfectly short and sweet intro, Micahel Giacchino's on-target original score is laced with sound-alike Bernard Hermann violin riffs that beautifully puts a classic Hitchcock spy thriller spin on things.

Abrams has wrapped his core cast so tight with indispensable characters - including a show-stealing Kevin Weisman as computer ace Marshall (a 4th season bit where Marshall goes in the field, and must pass a retinal scanner, is classic) - that he has little room for twists and suspense. Unlike 2001's "24", we know that all of the "Alias" characters must stay safe to keep the story moving. He compensates by bringing in one long lost family member after another. Mothers, sisters, aunts and stepfathers all are revealed to be a close part of Sydney's universe. Some will find it a convoluted overkill, others will find it giving everyone more depth and resonance.

At the center of it all is Garner, who gamely goes for all the network's guilty pleasure requirements to put her in skimpy bikinis and lingerie. Strikingly beautiful, she has two modes as an actress (fighting and crying), but fills the heels of our kick-butt heroine perfectly - commanding the show and the audience around her just as a great hero should. Garber is an ever-present force of dignity and credibility. The show's fuel is arguably Rifkin who makes such a classically nasty villain and yet give him a vulnerability that, despite his pension for murder, makes you want to believe him.

Now, here's the problem with "Alias" and Abrams' writing style. Abrams spends a lot of time, for lack of a better word, stalling. Several episodes go by with nothing being revealed and wrenches being thrown into the gears of the story for no other purpose than to artificially drag out the over-arching plot until the end of the season, end of the series or maybe even until Abrams can finally settle on an endgame. Like many of the HBO serials, there is a lot of pointless running in place here.

Delivering a kick-butt girl-power action hero, a few David E. Kelley music-over-dialog montages and a focus on fashion and exotic locations mixed with some fierce violence, smashing guy-movie car chases and creativity in the gadgets and story lines that most women won't appreciate, "Alias" may have suffered a bit of gender confusion with the viewing public. I'm not sure if Abrams set out to create the ultimate gay man's spy series, but here it is. The big difference between "Alias" and the other spy shows is the endless imagination Abrams and his crew infuse it with. Tiny details like the inventive array of gadgets and weapons (like DNA replicating masks and microwave bombs) keep us enthralled.

Sure there are quite a few cracks in cinematically polished armor, but "Alias" is an overall solid, action-packed, visually vibrant piece of popcorn entertainment. Recommended for those that want something a little different and are willing to indulge its contrivances and trust that it actually might be going somewhere. The modern spy series given a little twist - Abrams gives it a refreshing imagination, Garner gives it strength, Garber credibility, and Rifkin a force to be reckoned with.