The Enemy Walks In
Let’s start a couple of weeks before this episode, the first of season two, even begins. A separate factor bound to have a substantial impact on audience response to ‘The Enemy Walks in’ is the stupid ruddy advertising campaign that the gits at channel seven have been running for about a month now. Season Two Alias was advertised merely as a giant ogle-fest upon the chick in the occasional bikini. Alright yes, Jennifer Garner is undeniably beautiful, some may go so far as to say sex-on-legs, and yes they seem to find an excuse to have her scantily clad if not every episode, every few, and yes that should be all you need to pull a male audience (glad we don’t have that comment feature on the reviews yet boss, don’t kill me lads!). I am left asking, as a result of channel seven’s über git-o-meter ranking, why any self respecting heterosexual female would watch a show that possesses no plot, no point, no meaning, and most importantly, no hot males. Enter Michael Vartan. Mmm… yummy.
Now would you believe, Alias actually has a plot, and a point. And a Michael Vartan. Yum. As an avid viewer of Alias since its pilot episode, the fact that channel seven were not aiming for my audience demographic was little deterrent as there I was as excited by this series return as I was for Buffy and Angel this year. The main reason being, hey it’s a fun show and I enjoy watching it, the other was the mega-über cliffhanger that closed off the previous season. They put Michael Vartan in mortal peril. I’ve been holding my breath for six months. [inadvisable — Ed.]
For viewers who didn’t watch last season, and weren’t aware of the many faceted, multi-layered overly detailed cliffhanger they left us with, ‘The Enemy Walks In’ could have seemed a bit of a bore. It took the writers at least half this episode just to round off the events of where the series left off. The device they used to get by with replaying not only the resolutions, but the background leading up to these events, was a little cheesy. She recounts the story in detail for the shrink she has been ordered to see. Pfft. As if we haven’t all heard that a hundred times before. To be fair though, for the amount of plain old storytelling they had to do, they pulled it off with minimal cliché. They lose points for the mini-cliffhanger involving will-he wont-he cut a hole down Michael Vartan’s torso to examine his gizzards. I mean, once you’ve established you’re not going to drown him in goo like you could have, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon of ‘Vaughan’s back for another season’ and I’ve had enough mortal peril for one day. Though you fellas probably don’t mind, you’re still hanging around to see Jennifer Garner in that bikini.
See what channel seven has reduced me to? I am stooping to their level and reviewing this episode in terms of the female ogle equivalent when in fact, there actually is more to this show, honest. The thing with Irina Derevko is fairly large — what’s going on there I wonder? I am predicting her little ‘truth takes time’ tagline to be a recurring theme of this season. And Arvin Sloane has got something going on behind door number three, I just know it. He certainly didn’t seem very upset at his wife’s funeral…
Well done to the director, aka ye who likes to perterb me. One episode in and I’m already throwing my metaphorical popcorn at the screen yelling as Sydney and Vaughan to damn well kiss each other already. One other thing that has to be said — tie your hair back, woman!! I don’t care how beautiful your luscious locks are, what kind of secret agent goes on covert CIA missions (like the one to the pier in Barcelona) with her hair down? How can one kick ass with hair in her face? Its just impractical and it has to stop. Don’t like my chances on that one, however.
Oh, and what’s this twice a week business? I have enough trouble remembering which night my fave shows are on when they’re only on one night. Now I have to remember two?? Lucky it comes on right before Stargate. I’ll just have to remember never to go out on Thursday nights ever again. Hmm.
All in all, a thumping start to a new season. Now that we have resolving that cliffhanger out of the way, I hope we can get to some of the intricate, ever-unfolding plot stuff I have come to trust Alias to provide. Here’s hoping its something juicy.
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