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From zap2it:
'Alias' Passes 100 on the Way to the End Zone
By Kate O'Hare, Zap2it
There was a time, not so very long ago, when ABC didn't have a lot to feel good about. It didn't have many shows that got critical buzz, and to make it worse, it didn't have many shows that had ratings high enough to make good promotional platforms for other shows.
But it did have "Alias." While never a highly rated show by the standard of, say, CBS, creator J.J. Abrams' spy drama was often about as good as it got on ABC. And better yet, the critics loved it, and the fans that loved it really loved it, like crazy mad loved it.
After a broadcast hiatus to allow new mom and series star Jennifer Garner some maternity leave after giving birth to her first child with husband Ben Affleck, "Alias" returned last week with a two-hour episode that saw her character, CIA superspy Sydney Bristow, also have her baby, fathered by allegedly slain love and CIA partner Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan).
This week, on Wednesday, April 26, "Alias" celebrates its 100th episode with "There's Only One Sydney Bristow," which features a return appearance by original series regular Bradley Cooper as former journalist Will Tippin, who's been off in witness relocation.
The series continues on Wednesdays -- paired with Abrams' other creation, the wildly successful "Lost" -- until its blowout two-hour finale, airing on Monday, May 22.
"I don't think that it's that we've been kicked to the curb for the brand-new, sleek model," executive producer Jeff Pinkner says. "I honestly believe that this season, with Jennifer and Sydney giving birth, that the show has paid off the question of the first year, which was 'How does a young woman exist in this world?'"
The cast has known since the end of last year that this season would be it.
"For all of us, as storytellers, this feels like the year the show should end," Pinkner says. "Of course, it could have gone on longer, but to a degree, it would have been treading water. This feels like the proper end to what the show was when it started out."
"It definitely feels appropriate," Garner says. "To me, this show had a finite amount of stories that we could tell. The only reason I say that is not because of the writers, because they're genius, but part of their genius is that they shove a ton of story into every episode. So we've told, in five years, what some people would do in seven seasons.
"So it feels like it's time. We've done Sydney right, and now it's time for her to go off into the sunset, but that does not mean that my heart doesn't break, and I'm not going through a total identity crisis, because I am."
As huge audiences have discovered on "Lost" -- and as "Alias" fans already knew -- Abrams' hallmark seems to be taking wildly improbable situations and finding the human connections at their heart.
On its surface, "Alias" is a story about a sexy female agent who dons fabulous disguises and kicks the felgercarb out of bad guys, but under that veneer, it's been about an idealistic young woman who has her illusions about love, family and career painfully shattered, then slowly puts all three back together.
Along the way, the father figure she admired, Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin), turned out to be her enemy, while the father she rejected, Jack Bristow (Victor Garber), slowly came back to the center of her life.
"Ultimately, the show's been about family," Garner says. "It's about this woman and her father and trying to figure out what is always a complicated relationship in the context of life and death at work.
"It was so much about how much one person could be tested and still maintain her will to fight, which is ultimately a kind of optimism. And it's definitely good vs. evil."
On the practical side, "Alias" has always given the impression of being a hardworking but happy set, with regular and guest stars bonding like family.
"We really do [love one another]," Garner says. "We've never had a harsh word amongst the cast. It is the most harmonious set you could ever find yourself on, and that is true the entire, entire time."
Since leaving "Alias," Cooper has done the hit movies "Wedding Crashers" and "Failure to Launch," and now he's doing Richard Greenberg's play "Three Days of Rain" with Julia Roberts on Broadway. But he did have time to come back for the 100th episode.
"He squeezed us in right before he was supposed to start rehearsing," Garner says, "so we were really grateful for that. You should see, the whole set, the cast and crew, we are so puffed up and proud of Bradley Cooper. He's like a little brother that we all take responsibility for the good things in his life."
For her part, Garner is looking forward to taking a couple of months off and heading to Boston with her daughter, Violet, to be with Affleck, who's directing "Gone, Baby, Gone," which he also wrote.
"I couldn't be looking forward to it any more," she says.
While "Alias" is drawing to a close, Pinkner does dream about doing a spinoff with Sloane and two of the show's other villains, Kelly Peyton and Julian Sark (Amy Acker, David Anders).
"There have not been official talks with ABC about this," he says, "but we all have our fantasies that we'd like to see. There's absolutely a show about Sark, just being a guy who works the angles."
"That would be awesome," Garner says.
Right now, Garner isn't focused on May 22, but on a day that comes much sooner. "I don't think it's as much about the final show airing for me as it is about the last day of work. And [before that], I guess we'll start saying, 'That's a series wrap for ... .' That'll be pretty crazy."
