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'Alias' Creator Offers 'Full Disclosure'
By Kate O'Hare of Zap2It
At opposite ends of the spectrum lie two of the most viscerally satisfying of TV experiences. On the one hand, there's that moment when some great plot twist is revealed, and you leap out of your easy chair, do a victory dance around the living room and shout, "I knew it. I knew it." Then there's the other moment, when your jaw drops open, you shout, "No way" and clasp your hands over your mouth.
Depending on how good a guesser you are -- or how assiduously you seek spoilers on the Internet -- the Sunday, Jan. 11, episode of ABC's spy drama "Alias" may offer thrills from one extreme to the other.
Called "Full Disclosure" and written by series co-producer Jesse Alexander, it sets out to answer -- if not once and for all, at least for the moment -- what happened to CIA agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) during the two-year gap in her memory. In last season's finale, after a bone-crushing fight, Sydney woke up two years later in Hong Kong, thinking it was just the next day. Very quickly she learned otherwise.
Most shocking was the revelation that her love, CIA agent Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), thinking she was dead, had met and married NSC agent Lauren Reed (Melissa George).
It's been a tangled trail this season, as Sydney has traversed the world and the inner workings of her own subconscious in search of answers about the evil Covenant, her alter-ego Julia Thorne, the enigmatic room "47" and the mysterious scar on her belly.
Some TV shows might have teased all season before answering big questions like these, but "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams just couldn't wait that long.
"It felt like at this moment in the show, the midpoint of the year, that we had this story that this allows us to tell," he says. "It sends the story in a direction that we needed to go. There's nothing more frustrating to me than shows or movies that raise provocative questions only to abandon you, like, 'Go talk about it and figure it out.'
"That's not to say that you always want all the answers. Part of the fun is not getting all the answers, filling in the blanks yourself to some degree.
"But I feel, if you don't provide viewers with some concrete specifics, they start to get disinterested and feel, 'Oh, it's a lot of hot air, smoke and mirrors,' and not pay attention.
"You have to reward your fans."
This is nothing new for Abrams, who upended the show's original double-agent premise partway through its second season, in a big episode that aired after the Super Bowl. Then he did it again in last season's finale. But however the circumstances within the show change, the fundamental theme remains the same, the idea of having an "Alias." It's no different in "Full Disclosure."
"That was always the idea," Abrams says, "the issue of identity and the question of, 'How's Sydney going to figure out ultimately who she is, where does she come from, what's her destiny?' That, to us, is always very interesting."
The show's large revolving cast of characters and inherent complexity -- with shifting family ties, multiple identities, undercover guises and fabulously rococo mysteries -- can be off-putting to novice viewers, who may feel like they need a reference book to keep up. Luckily, for those willing to invest the time and money, the current fad for DVD boxed sets of TV shows is there to help. The first season of "Alias" came out in early September; the second was released in December.
"If people are watching it only on DVD," Abrams says, "that's fine with me."
"Full Disclosure" ends with a moment that could elicit either or both of the two reactions mentioned above. Asked what he hopes for, Abrams says, "I hope people feel that rush of possibility of what comes next.
"Although there are some new questions that are posed, and there's a big twist at the end, the thing that was the most fun for me on this story is it's finally allowed us to tie together these many loose ends. If you've been watching the show and trying to figure it out, this show really does answer so many of the questions and then it raises others.
"To me, it feels like a crucial tent-pole episode for the year, that everything was building to this moment. Then there's this roller coaster because of it, this ride we're going to be on until the end of the year."
Following the startling revelations of last season's finale, fans are no doubt waiting to see how Abrams will top that this year -- and he's even starting to scare himself.
"As we've been talking through ways to take the idea that we have for the end, there have been some ideas recently that are so extreme that if we actually dare to do some of these things, we'd have to be really careful that we don't cross the line.
"Our audience is, for better or worse, really smart. They dissect and analyze in a way that they can sense when something isn't working right. Some of these ideas are so wild that how we execute them is ultimately as important as the ideas themselves."
Also, fans of Sydney's enigmatic espionage nemesis, the cold-hearted Brit Julian Sark (David Anders), have something to look forward to a couple of weeks down the line.
"David Anders must have sold his soul, he's so good," Abrams says. "He's been very patient this year in his role, and his story line amps up in a huge way.
"Wait until you see where his story goes. Starting, I believe, in episode 13, it's huge for Sark. I can't wait to see David pull it off. He is a genius. He is an amazing talent."
By Kate O'Hare of Zap2It
At opposite ends of the spectrum lie two of the most viscerally satisfying of TV experiences. On the one hand, there's that moment when some great plot twist is revealed, and you leap out of your easy chair, do a victory dance around the living room and shout, "I knew it. I knew it." Then there's the other moment, when your jaw drops open, you shout, "No way" and clasp your hands over your mouth.
Depending on how good a guesser you are -- or how assiduously you seek spoilers on the Internet -- the Sunday, Jan. 11, episode of ABC's spy drama "Alias" may offer thrills from one extreme to the other.
Called "Full Disclosure" and written by series co-producer Jesse Alexander, it sets out to answer -- if not once and for all, at least for the moment -- what happened to CIA agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) during the two-year gap in her memory. In last season's finale, after a bone-crushing fight, Sydney woke up two years later in Hong Kong, thinking it was just the next day. Very quickly she learned otherwise.
Most shocking was the revelation that her love, CIA agent Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), thinking she was dead, had met and married NSC agent Lauren Reed (Melissa George).
It's been a tangled trail this season, as Sydney has traversed the world and the inner workings of her own subconscious in search of answers about the evil Covenant, her alter-ego Julia Thorne, the enigmatic room "47" and the mysterious scar on her belly.
Some TV shows might have teased all season before answering big questions like these, but "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams just couldn't wait that long.
"It felt like at this moment in the show, the midpoint of the year, that we had this story that this allows us to tell," he says. "It sends the story in a direction that we needed to go. There's nothing more frustrating to me than shows or movies that raise provocative questions only to abandon you, like, 'Go talk about it and figure it out.'
"That's not to say that you always want all the answers. Part of the fun is not getting all the answers, filling in the blanks yourself to some degree.
"But I feel, if you don't provide viewers with some concrete specifics, they start to get disinterested and feel, 'Oh, it's a lot of hot air, smoke and mirrors,' and not pay attention.
"You have to reward your fans."
This is nothing new for Abrams, who upended the show's original double-agent premise partway through its second season, in a big episode that aired after the Super Bowl. Then he did it again in last season's finale. But however the circumstances within the show change, the fundamental theme remains the same, the idea of having an "Alias." It's no different in "Full Disclosure."
"That was always the idea," Abrams says, "the issue of identity and the question of, 'How's Sydney going to figure out ultimately who she is, where does she come from, what's her destiny?' That, to us, is always very interesting."
The show's large revolving cast of characters and inherent complexity -- with shifting family ties, multiple identities, undercover guises and fabulously rococo mysteries -- can be off-putting to novice viewers, who may feel like they need a reference book to keep up. Luckily, for those willing to invest the time and money, the current fad for DVD boxed sets of TV shows is there to help. The first season of "Alias" came out in early September; the second was released in December.
"If people are watching it only on DVD," Abrams says, "that's fine with me."
"Full Disclosure" ends with a moment that could elicit either or both of the two reactions mentioned above. Asked what he hopes for, Abrams says, "I hope people feel that rush of possibility of what comes next.
"Although there are some new questions that are posed, and there's a big twist at the end, the thing that was the most fun for me on this story is it's finally allowed us to tie together these many loose ends. If you've been watching the show and trying to figure it out, this show really does answer so many of the questions and then it raises others.
"To me, it feels like a crucial tent-pole episode for the year, that everything was building to this moment. Then there's this roller coaster because of it, this ride we're going to be on until the end of the year."
Following the startling revelations of last season's finale, fans are no doubt waiting to see how Abrams will top that this year -- and he's even starting to scare himself.
"As we've been talking through ways to take the idea that we have for the end, there have been some ideas recently that are so extreme that if we actually dare to do some of these things, we'd have to be really careful that we don't cross the line.
"Our audience is, for better or worse, really smart. They dissect and analyze in a way that they can sense when something isn't working right. Some of these ideas are so wild that how we execute them is ultimately as important as the ideas themselves."
Also, fans of Sydney's enigmatic espionage nemesis, the cold-hearted Brit Julian Sark (David Anders), have something to look forward to a couple of weeks down the line.
"David Anders must have sold his soul, he's so good," Abrams says. "He's been very patient this year in his role, and his story line amps up in a huge way.
"Wait until you see where his story goes. Starting, I believe, in episode 13, it's huge for Sark. I can't wait to see David pull it off. He is a genius. He is an amazing talent."
