| The
Review: |
Sydney A. Bristow (Jennifer Garner)
is a college student and the daughter of two secret agents,
one good - her father, Jonathan 'Jack' Donahue Bristow (Victor
Garber) - and one bad - her mother, Laura Bristow (Lena Olin).
With her past so heavily associated with spying, it only makes
sense for the leader of the top secret organization, SD-6,
Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin), to recruit her to work for him.
The problem is that Arvin initially tells Sydney that his
organization is a branch of the CIA, but it doesn't take long
for Sydney, with the help of her father, to figure out that
SD-6 isn't the CIA. ***
When she realizes this she then
goes to the CIA with the intent of bringing SD-6 down. She
is assigned a handler, Michael C. Vaughn (Michael Vartan),
who gives her counter missions for each of her missions she
is assigned to by SD-6. So Sydney, like her father, Jack,
becomes a double agent - working for both the CIA and SD-6.
***
In all of this it is slowly revealed
that Sydney's mother, Laura, who supposedly died when Sydney
was a child, didn't actually die. As it turns out, Laura is
actually one of the leaders of the 'evil' organization that
opposes both the CIA and SD-6. Eventually Sydney is going
to have to find her mother and face her. ***
I have to admit that the idea for
the show is a pretty cool one - a college student who flies
to exotic locations on a weekly basis to perform secret missions
for a top secret organization. It sounds like it would be
a lot of fun. ***
Also impressive is the production
of the series. There are a lot of locations and the scope
of the series is often more of a feature film than a television
series with Sydney having to travel all around the world.
***
But there are some problems. First,
the story isn't really great. There are an awful lot of coincidences
and people are continuously doing things that no one would
do in real life. For instance, Sydney tells her fiancé once
they become engaged that she is working for a secret organization,
SD-6. SD-6 finds out about this and has him killed. Sydney
is upset, but she goes back to work for them and, what's more,
they let her come back. Sure, I understand that they tried
to explain all of this by Sydney becoming a double agent for
the CIA and also giving SD-6 something that they really wanted
in order for her to come back, but it was pretty far-fetched
and very unrealistic. There is also the whole rip-off of 'The
Prophecy' from some ancient philosopher, who is really just
a combination of Nostradamus and Leonardo DaVinci. It's pretty
silly and ends up giving the show the aura of a strung out
and loosely concocted X-Files episode with all sorts of mystical
conspiracy theories. ***
Also, with most TV shows there
is at least some effort to create deeper story lines for the
characters. This show doesn't actually have any of those because
Sydney's deeper story is her search for her mother, which
just happens to be the same thing she is doing as an agent
for the two organizations. What you see is about all there
is in this series. So, I haven't been too impressed with the
story. ***
The episodes are also really, really
repetitive, with only an occasional exception. Essentially
what you have is some inane mission that is just an excuse
to dress up Jennifer Garner in some very sexy clothing and
then watch her kick people. I have to admit that whoever is
in charge of Jennifer's wardrobe and wigs is doing a great
job of coming up with new outfits, but maybe she should occasionally
just go like most secret agents do - looking like herself.
But, of course, this never happens. Ironically, her partner
in all of this, Agent Marcus Dixon (Carl Lumbly), never dresses
up. He's always wearing either technical gear or a tuxedo
or suit - he's your standard James Bond like character. ***
As for the acting... It really
isn't that bad. Sadly, the weakest link in all of this is
probably the star - Jennifer Garner. I can't say I'm really
surprised that her performance is only mediocre on her good
days considering her absolutely pathetic performance in Daredevil.
But what I have noticed is that they try to keep her dialogue
to a minimum. Now, whether or not this is intentional or just
a side effect of the format of the show, I don't really know.
But the effect it has is to turn Jennifer Garner into a sexy
actress that only has to kick people (see above, the apart
about the 'inane missions') but never really has to talk to
anyone. Considering that she doesn't do a great job of delivering
her lines, I can't really blame the director's and writer's
on this - it would really ruin the show if we had to listen
to Jennifer Garner the whole time. ***
The rest of the cast is actually
okay. Of course I can't help but notice that Michael Vartan,
like Jennifer Garner, is just a bit too good-looking to be
a CIA agent; with his looks he should be a model, which he
probably was before he became an actor. But his performances,
which are generally rather short sequences, aren't too bad.
Also pretty good is Sydney's father, Victor Garber, who I
think is probably the best actor on the show. ***
Overall, the series is probably
fairly interesting to some people, but I have found it to
be rather shallow. There isn't much depth to the plots, most
of the plot reversals are rather cliché, and the primary focus
seems to be on Jennifer Garner's ability to dress sexily and
kick people (I think I like that phraseology). The box set
of the first season actually comes with quite a few extra
features, which makes owning this a good investment if you've
liked the show. If you haven't, well, then you'll obviously
not be interested in what they have to offer as most of the
special features revolve around how cool Jennifer Garner is
for doing her own stunts. I'd recommend this for Jennifer
Garner fans, but that's about it.
|
| The
Extras: |
There are quite a few extras with
this DVD set, but what you will inevitably find is that the
majority of them revolve around Jennifer Garner. The 'Inside
Stunts' featurette is almost all about Jennifer doing her
own stunts, but it does include a lot of behind the scenes
footage and some commentary and explanations by the stunt
coordinator. ***
The deleted scenes and gag reel
also tend to focus on Jennifer Garner, with most of them being
laughing sequences or line flubs. ***
The Pilot production diary featurette
is essentially the 'behind-the-scenes' featurette of this
set. It takes you through the production process, but the
format is a little weird as it doesn't really just go from
interview to interview but instead from location to location
and kind of follows just some randomly chosen filming sequences
from the pilot. ***
I wasn't really interested in the
PlayStation 2 game sneak peek, but it is offered, along with
a few DVD-ROM features that I was also not interested in viewing.
There is also a sneak peek at season 3 through the DVD-ROM
features. ***
Overall, the extras are kind of
interesting but leave you with the feeling that this show
is all about Jennifer Garner. Of course, she is the star,
but everyone also seems to idolize her for being willing to
do her own stunts. That's great, but a lot of people do their
own stunts. Anyway, these are useful additions to the box
set, but there could have been some better 'behind-the-scenes'
featurettes that focused on different elements of the production
process.
|
