On Wednesday, ABC made official what had been pretty well suspected for some time: this season will be the last one for Alias.
I'm sorry to say this move was probably long overdue.
I've still been watching the show every week, which I suppose goes to show you that I didn't find the show terrible. (Though I had talked about maybe giving it up a few times last year.) Still, it was a pale shadow of what it was in years one and two. And the longer it went on in such a sub-par state, the more it seemed to weaken those first two years. As the whole grew larger, that part of it that was so outstanding was becoming a smaller and smaller part of it. Every new episode was making Alias less a "great" TV show.
They're getting enough notice to be able to work toward a big series conclusion, one that hopefully gets back to the original "Rambaldi" roots and ties up the story in a satisfying way.
It'll be interesting to see, once the next fall season rolls around, what impact this has on Lost (if any). Lost co-creator (and Alias creator) J.J. Abrams has been splitting his focus between the two shows and the upcoming Mission: Impossible 3 he's directing. Actually, he's been giving the movie most of his attention, and leaving most of the day-to-day show running responsibilities on Lost to the other major co-creator, Damon Lindelof. But it seems to be the norm in Hollywood that when a show folds up shop, much of its writing staff is absorbed into other shows under the same production umbrella. (Several Buffy writers moved to Angel, for example.) There had already been a little cross pollination between Alias and Lost, with writers of one turning in a script for the other.
Are there going to be Alias writers on Lost next season? If so, is that going to be a good or a bad thing? I for one would say it hasn't been individual scripts one can blame for Alias' decline -- it's more the sum of those scripts, as the season arcs simply haven't been as compelling as the glory days. Would some of those Alias writers do better on a show more clearly being "steered" in a good direction?
The TV season is not even half over yet, so I guess it will be some time before we find out. For now, just mark it all down as further mysteries surrounding Lost -- these behind the scenes, for a change.
3 comments:
Another heap of blame should be directed at ABC proper, who meddled with Alias while J.J. was busy crafting Lost. Unlike the Arrested Development writers, the Alias writers didn't ignore the "left notes." They derailed the show completely in the third season.
You're completely correct that the sum of Alias, like Moonlighting and others before it, is being tainted by its later seasons. Much as I eagerly recommend Twin Peaks up to the revelation of Laura Palmer's killer, I recommend Alias up to the moment SD-6 and The Alliance are dismantled.
I suppose the writers no longer have an excuse to stretch Rambaldi. We'll finally realize his (sigh) endgame.
Personally, I'd even go a step farther and say that the second half of season two was just as good as the first half. But regardless, it definitely started going downhill after the two year amnesia gap. (Which, though an interesting premise, paid off very poorly.)
I put a brake on the demise of SD-6 because it puts an end to Sydney's "triple life" and, while it officially brings Sydney and Michael (don't say Vaughn) together, it exacts the cost of Francie's life and eventually Will's heart. To be honest, while I thought turning Francie from buddy to villain was a bold move, her connving wore a little thin with me. A better move would have been to reveal Good Francie's death when Evil Francie's true nature was revealed. (Think Bashir Founder in DS9.) The piece of information that Project Helix was used at least twice would have carried more weight than simple dramatic irony.
This episode also began to completely deconstruct Sydney's life away from her usual shenanigans. When she wakes up two years after "killing" Evil Francie, the part of the show that kept it balanced was gone completely.
The amnesia premise was clearly the season two writers handing a hefty open-ended task to the next season's staff. It could have been handled correctly, but the writers in season three were too beholden to ABC's whims and unable to cope with Lena Olin's inability to return to the show. Plus, Terry O'Quinn left.
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