Friday, July 13, 2007

Can't Get No

Thanks to DLove, I watched the final episodes of Alias last night. As satisfying as is was to watch Sydney Bristow raise her gun and empty her clip into the chest and head of her most hateful enemy, I am feeling the same as I did the first time I saw it- unsatisfied. Argh!

What a horrible feeling to have after 6 years. What a terrible way to go out- on a low note. I still have so many questions! I am still so utterly confused by Tom Grace’s role on the show- why bring him in if you were just going to throw the Cardinal at us and then have the character commit suicide for no apparent reason- especially after he made a connection with Rachel??!!!

And for the love of all things, after 5 years do not try to convince me that Jack Bristow was not in the car with his wife when it went plunging into the river! He told Sydney in season 1, they were in the car on their way back from a movie and the car went off the road. Sydney blamed him once she found out about FBI Agent Collier and the possibility that Jack night be selling secrets. There is never a conversation about Jack not being in the car- yet, the flashback seen in Reprisal shows Jack at home with the police, telling Sydney about her mother. At that point in time, Jack still didn’t know about his wife, not until they arrested him and Sydney had to go live with the Sloane’s.

AND THAT’S ANOTHER THING! I know I have babbled on and on about this- but how could Sydney Bristow FORGET she lived with Sloane and Emily!!!??? When we first meet Sydney and Sloane in season 1, there is no evidence to suggest the two knew each other before hand. Of course later we find out that Sloane and Jack have been friends forever and that Sloane was well aware of Sydney- but at some point Sloane tells her that he knew her, but that he was away with Emily (where they lost Jacqueline) and that he checked in “in his own way.” So, season 5 roles around, Jack tells Dixon he sent Sydney to live with Sloane, and in an icy cavern on Mt. Subasio, Sydney vaguely remembers this as Sloane tells a story about drowning stuffed animals. WHAT?

For 2 hours, everything felt rushed. Everything felt limp and fake- even the fight scene between Irina and Sydney. Gosh, don’t even get me started on Irina. She was always cool and calculating and in the final season, she looked like she had been bit by a rabid dog!

I was okay with Sloane in the finale. Sloane has always been consistently inconsistent. You never know what he is going to do- except, you always know he is going to make alliance with someone and then somehow stab them in the back. He is always speaking about protecting the people he loves, and wanting to use Rambaldi for peace and blah blah blah- but he killed Danny, Francie, Diane (remember Diane!!??), Nadia and the list goes on. The man has no conscious until season 5, in the form of his dead daughter. Nice of Mia Maestro to hang around, but Sloane doesn’t have a conscious, never did. Why have him all the sudden be questioning his faith?

Okay, I know, I know, this post is discombobulated and totally pointless, but I just had to vent. What are you thinking about the finale now? Have you gone back and watched it? How did you feel? What did you like or not like? Are you satisfied?

PS. I will tell you- I got a lump in my throat when Jack Bristow stood, bullet riddled and nodded to his daughter. Even in the end, that old man wanted to protect Sydney from anymore pain- especially the pain of losing him. Gotta love Jack B!

19 comments:

SRM said...

I had all those same feelings and frustration the last time I watched the S5 finale, and it took a while for me to go back and start watching season 1 again. Right now I'm in my happy little season 2 bubble, I might just never watch the last two show episodes ever again, they piss me off too much. :-\

Girlscout said...

Hahaha! I totally agree. I might just stick to the first 3-4 seasons and then stop. I would rather stop at the "My name's not Michael Vaughn" car crash then be reminded and subjected to the pathetic attempt to end the series.

Girlscout said...

WOW, am I bitter today or what?? HAHAhA

uncle111 said...

GS,
I'm with you 100%. So much so I did my writing as theropy- literally. I had to fix it (and I did) or I couldn't be at peace.

I am dieing for everyone to read it, but the contest is still another month from over, and then I will know if it is marketable or not.

Page48 said...

We feel your pain, GS. Your bitterness is not misplaced.

What is particularly galling is that a little over a year later, we haven't received an apology from the players or the producers. In fact, I rather doubt that they have spared so much as a thought for "Alias" since they faded to black.

At the time, the dutiful employees fulfilled their obligations on the talk-show circuit, telling us that they wrapped the whole story up for the benefit of all their loyal fans (chumps?). Yet, everyone who watched the sawed-off final season, and especially the series finale, knows that it was nothing more than a rush to the exits by all concerned, like a bunch of kids on the last day of school.

Thomas Grace (and his Cardinal) remain a mystery to me as well. I understand that there was an absence of testosterone on the set what with Vaughn and Weiss moving on, but bringing Grace on board just so he could be mysterious and then commit suicide (just as he was about to get some from Rachel) just leaves my head spinning.

It was a mess created by people who didn't care and we were/are the bagholders of record. It makes you wonder if getting invested in a series is worth it, and it also makes me wonder if there is any good way for a great show to end, or for that matter, any reason for a great show to end.

Anonymous said...

Woah... I um, don't really know what to say. It makes me so sad that people were disappointed with the finale -- I LOVED IT. Like seriously LOVED IT!

I have to admit though, the whole Sydney staying with Sloane when Jack wasn't there -- which we knew couldn't be possible -- was a little hard to get over. Just because they didn't keep everything consistent and smoothe -- the story got mixed up.

It's like with the whole Bill Vaughn rescuing Nadia -- he would have been dead! It makes me... I don't know what exactly, but it's just disappointing. And it was just the little things.

Like GS mentioned, the whole Tomas Grace and the Cardinal thing -- the writers just dropped it! And thinking about it now -- he really did commit suicide for no reason.

LOL, saying this makes me want to cry because I feel like I'm just looking for the bad in ALIAS -- when there really wasn't a whole lot of it. But we only do this because we love it, right?

The Cast & Crew of ALIAS said that we would be pleased with the final episode of ALIAS -- and I am -- but we weren't. (Does that make any sense?)

Anyway, I did love it. I didn't feel that Irina's death was silly or stupid, like some people on baords have said -- I mean, we all knew that she Loved Jack & Sydney, but she was always working for the greater evil. Working for her own personal gain -- just like Sloane.

I was satisfied. But I still find it extremely hard to watch the final 2 episodes just because it's over. I cried like a baby -- literally!

I still do. I find it virtually impossible to watch the scene between Sydney & Jack before she leaves for Hong Kong. I mean, doesn't watching that make up for something? It is such an INCREDIBLE scene!

Anyway... UNCLE -- I am dying to read your script. Like, very excited! That little snippet that we got to read looked pretty good.

RE: Harry Potter -- I thought it was BLAH! I mean, I do not like Harry Potter, but I went into the film expecting nothing -- and I thought we literally got nothing.

I actually fell asleep... *hides*

Page48 said...

Every time a "Harry Potter" movie comes on the tube, I try to sit down and watch it, knowing how popular HP is with many, but I inevitably lose interest early on. I have similar issues with "Lord of the Rings" movies. Maybe it's down to the degree of fantasy or maybe it's just the "convenience" of the remote control.

The remote control created a different kind of TV viewer, one with far too many options (most of them bad), and the likelihood of staying faithful to a 3 hour movie is slim, though not impossible. I think, for me, the HP experience might be more effective in a theater than in the living room.

Now, if we could get a 3 hour "Alias" movie, I would take the batteries out of the remote and unplug the phone, although I would no doubt remain online. I was almost always online while watching "Alias", often checking the ABC board during commercial breaks for on-the-fly reaction.

SRM said...

it's all about the books man, for both HP and LOTR. If you read the books you'll get much more out of the movies. But I digress, this is an Alias blog, and I know not everyone can love HP and/or LOTR, whatever floats your boat.

Page48 said...

Reading...yes, I've heard of that, srg! Hahaha
I tend not to read anything that isn't backlit. Not only that, but HP books, lying flat, come up to my knees. Very daunting for a less than avid reader who tends to get bogged down somewhere around, oh let's say...page 48.

That's the beauty of the Rambaldi Manuscript, it was absolutely rocking by page 47.

uncle111 said...

Have't read LOTR, but loved all the movies.

Page46- what was your name on ABC? I joined right after S4 finale and was always online during S5 episodes.

uncle111 said...

Just noticed I typed Page 46- sorry 48!

Page48 said...

Uncle, my participation on the ABC Board was purely voyeuristic...all listen, no talk.

uncle111 said...

Page,
That's too bad. You would have been a real asset as a contributor.

Page48 said...

Thanks, Uncle. It took Girlscout to flush me out of the bushes and into the squinty light of day.

Come to think of it, it had to be someone on the ABC Board who directed me (and no doubt others) to Let's Talk Alias. I'd give credit but I don't have a clue who it was.

uncle111 said...

It was Girlscout who recruited me.

SRM said...

"It took Girlscout to flush me out of the bushes and into the squinty light of day." lol, you seriously crack me up page!

Girlscout said...

Glad I blinded you Page! The 3 of you have been keeping the blog alive all weekend I see.

I watched the bloopers too. Half of them were from other seasons! Are you telling me, in the 9 months JG was pregnant and filming, they don't have any funny stuff? Nothing? No baby jokes or something? Seriously!

SRM said...

yeah seasons 3 and 4 are my favorite bloopers.

Page48 said...

Completely OT:

I'm channel surfing tonite, and I run right smack into "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America".

Now, drop the last 2 words of the title, and this piece of crap might be worth watching. However, as utterly boring as the tanned-beyond-recognition Posh is at the best of times, being asked to monitor carefully edited surveillance tape of her taking Los Angeles by storm, is a far distant second to spending an hour with "The Dog Whisperer".

If anyone hasn't slit their wrists and swallowed poison by the end of Posh's debut, they can then grab a beer and watch "Age of Love", where shameless bimbos of different generations duke it out for a chance to dig their heels into Joe Sixpack.

And here we are missing a silly spy show like "Alias", while quality programming is coming at us from every direction on a Monday night in July.