How close to reality is ALIAS?

Although i cannot firmly establish whether ALIAS is a good example of how real spies live their lives, i consider the show to be edgy enough to be quite real. I would guess that missions may take longer to plan and carry out in real life and that only a super-spy could get out of as many situations as Sydney has! That aside, the hook which got me into ALIAS was Sydney's character. That is, i was drawn to Sydney's character because i felt her to be so real, emotionally. The conflicted nature of her mind and the way she handles herself in spite of it is nothing short of graceful.

So i think that the tech./mission aspect of ALIAS is not so realistic but the depiction of the characters' emotions are very real. And anyway, i think that true ALIAS fans watch it because they love the characters. Although the action is great, i think it is the characters who draw the most fans.
 
I think it realistically shows the emotional strain of being a spy. I mean, there may be no Prophecy or Covenant or masks that make you look like someone else and most agents probably don't work with theie father, ex-boyfriend, and ex-boyfriend's wife, but working for the CIA does involve a high level of commitment that makes a personal life difficult. So, I agree that Syd's character is grounded in reality as far as fer feelings as portrayed.

As for the missions, they wouldn't be s much fun to watch if they were true to life. :D
 
MsKateJones said: "As for the missions, they wouldn't be s much fun to watch if they were true to life."

You're absolutely right about that!
 
they dont really have the kind of missons they have in Alias like they have in real intellegence life, its also more complex then the show presents it.
ppl like jack or syd or vaughn (or even dixon) that disoby the system would be kicked out with no chance of returning.
sydny wouldnt b recruted to a intelengnce world normaly bcuz her mother is a russian spy, but after all sloane recruted her so maybe...
but i guess they cant do the real intellence world exactly , so its good this way...
 
I think that the show is as based in reality as a spy drama is. I mean how well would Alias do in the ratings if they played bug the opposing government, steal a file from the filing cabinet, or even disect the satelite photos to find weapons of mass destruction for the military to confiscate every episode. They show the possilbe things and make them as exciting as possible.

I agree with Espionage82 tho I think that one of the main reasons we love the show is because we love the characters. And I think that each of us identifies with a didferent character in our own ways, tying us to that character. Those are the things that make us love and hate these people and make us addicted the way we are.
 
I wonder if there are actually terrorist organizations in the world that the government keeps hush hush. Even in America! Imagine the bank you go to is the headquarters for a secret terrorist orgainization. That's pretty scary. Back to what's real or not. I don't think that Sydney being a double agent was very realistic, if she was realistically, she would have probably been caught about 86000 times. But nonetheless, the SD-6 storyline is a great and IMO the best storyline of alias so far.
 
Real-life spies like Sydney and Vaughn? I certainly hope not. Surely real CIA agents are not so imcompetent. I would hope they would be more like Jack and Dixon.
 
What Syd is competant! Are you crazy? But i do agree that don't think that real spies are like that. But who even cares when i start thinking about that stuff it makes me realize that even though Syd & Vaughns missions are way cool thats not why i watch.
 
Ophelia :lol: Well, Sydney is definitely more competent than Vaughn and alot more tougher, but she didn't do a very good job dealing with Ryan. I would hope spies are more like Jack and Dixon.

I went to a CIA information session, and the recruiter was saying that the real thing is not like Sydney Bristow.
 
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