Alias 

Sydney Bristow is an international spy recruited out of college, trained for espionage and self-defense.

Creator:

J.J. Abrams

Stars:

Jennifer Garner, Ron Rifkin, Carl Lumbly

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 32 wins & 146 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Jennifer Garner	...	Sydney Bristow / ... 105 episodes, 2001-2006
Ron Rifkin	...	Arvin Sloane 105 episodes, 2001-2006
Carl Lumbly	...	Marcus Dixon 105 episodes, 2001-2006
Kevin Weisman	...	Marshall Flinkman 105 episodes, 2001-2006
Victor Garber	...	Jack Bristow 105 episodes, 2001-2006
Michael Vartan	...	Michael Vaughn 95 episodes, 2001-2006
Greg Grunberg	...	Eric Weiss 55 episodes, 2001-2006
David Anders	...	Julian Sark 55 episodes, 2002-2006
Merrin Dungey	...	Francie Calfo / ... 47 episodes, 2001-2006
Bradley Cooper	...	Will Tippin 46 episodes, 2001-2006

Storyline

Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a young, athletic, college graduate who was recruited her freshman year as a Secret Agent for SD-6, a top-secret branch of the C.I.A. After a few years, after Sydney confides her lifestyle to her boyfriend, the evil head of SD-6, Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin), has him killed. Sydney learns that SD-6 is part of a rogue international agency called the Alliance of 12, out to rule the world. She becomes a double agent, working with the real C.I.A. to bring down SD-6 with the assistance of her handler, Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), and her estranged father Jack Bristow (Victor Garber), also a double agent. Along the way, Sydney fights various rival agents, rival terrorist groups, and traitors all the while keeping her cloak-and-dagger lifestyle a secret from her friends (season one).

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Plot Keywords:

murderess | disney | cia central intelligence agency | double agent | terrorist | 

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Taglines:

Spying. Stealing. Murder. And You Think Your Family Has Issues.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Did You Know?

Trivia

After season two, episode thirteen, "Phase One", the show's prominent use of cliffhangers at every episode's end was abandoned for a more traditional (one episode, one story) way of storytelling. This was apparently done due to demands from ABC executives, who were under the impression that a decline in ratings might occur because new viewers wouldn't "get" the show.

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Goofs

In many of the episodes when Sydney visits other "countries", one can identify that filming took place in the US because of American telephones, traffic lights, types of signage, types of cars, architecture, door frames and door knobs in the background. Those are subtle for the most part but people living in the countries depicted feel that "something isn't quite right".

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Quotes

Marshall: I've lost my keys. Where are they?

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits generally do not appear until after the first act, 10-15 minutes into the episode. This was an unusually late appearance for an American TV series, but it seems to have set a trend.

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Alternate Versions

Network Standard Definition broadcast is (usually) in full-screen. High Definition, as well as DVD releases are shown in their native aspect ratio, or in widescreen.

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 TV Shows That Jumped the Shark (2014)

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Soundtracks

Alias Theme
(uncredited)
Written by J.J. Abrams
Performed by Michael Giacchino

User Reviews

Flawed, but Still My Favorite

I love this show. That being said, it has some flaws. You can tell when it went downhill is when J.J. Abrams stopped working on it regularly. Season 1 is great, Season 2 is great, Season 3 was OK, Season 4 not so great, and I'm going to pretend Season 5 didn't happen. I'd have to agree with some of other reviewers on here, it seems like they ended up with a bunch of different writers that lost direction or understanding of what the show was about and where it was supposed to be going. It started out as a spy show with a hint of sci-fi, and ended up the other way around which was just weird. It seems like the only person who really understood the whole Rambaldi thing was JJ. I think that the actors did a good job with what they were given. Watch Season 1-3 if you want to check it out. Its on Netflix as of 8/16.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Bulgarian Arabic Cantonese French German Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Portuguese Romanian Russian Spanish Thai Ukrainian Uzbek Dutch

Release Date:

30 September 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alias

Filming Locations:

U.S. Bank Tower - 633 W. Fifth Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Television, Bad Robot

Technical Specs

Runtime:

42 min (105 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3