Love is in the air part II -- it's EEEvil!
Mar. 3rd, 2003 01:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynComments about Alias -- spoilers!
I came back from vacation today to find my office all shambled out -- my computer unplugged from the network (which I didn't realize at first), about 15 error messages on the previously shut down monitor, the computer frozen, my keyboard and mouse unplugged, the CPU sitting in the middle of the floor where my feet go normally. And someone had readjusted my chair! I felt like frigging Evil Goldilocks had come by while I was gone, and now I forgot all the things I wanted to say about Alias from last night that I was going to write this morning before everyone arrived to see me goofing off.
Anyway. What else is there to say but that it rocked? Everything they're cribbing from La Femme Nikita is the good stuff these days. The double, triple, quadruple crosses, the insiders bickering, the duplicity and seduction, the lies and half-truths and missions being lost to petty infighting. Yummy! And the thwarting process for Syd and Vaughn has begun, with her already doubting him, and him holding back, Michael-like, with how he feels and what he knows and his own personal fears and failures, and it's all very Nikitaesquely tasty.
I especially love Lena Olin and have enjoyed her immensely on the show, all this time waiting to see if she was as evil as I figured she'd be, and last night's denouement made me deliriously happy to see that she was. I'm hopelessly heterosexual no matter how hard I want not to be; but man, if was bi, I'd want to be bi with Lena Olin (or Angela Bassett, but that's another story!). She is dangerous, sexy, predatory, cool, intelligent, mysterious... that character of Irina fits her to a T, and she plays it to the hilt. Victor Garber really helps her do it, too -- they have a lovely chemistry and their love scenes last night were delightful, especially because we so rarely get to see older actors having love scenes that are sexy and cool -- they were proof positive that you don't have to hide your eyes and scream "old people macking!"
Poor Jack! He's going to be dismembered for this failure. And poor Syd -- first to have her hopes confirmed by Vaughn that her mother is clean, and then to find out the truth! It's terribly tragic and wonderful. And most of all, poor Willage!! The guy cannot get a break -- now he's going to lose this job because he's giving out info to the enemy and he thinks he's just sleeping with his lover. And then he'll also have to find out his lover isn't his lover, and so all the positive steps in his life will be destroyed, the way his life was destroyed in season one. The guy is just doomed, and he's so cute and sweet -- even his nightmares show how cute and sweet he is that he has bad dreams he's failing the CIA.
I just love a show where everyone's fucked, and there's love and betrayal and sex and longing. At first Alias was annoying me by doing a bad imitation of LFN; now it's making me happy because it's taking those torturous elements and doing wonderful things with them. And they still throw in the butt-kicking and the psycho cruelties and the torture -- what's not to love? I knew once they got everyone into the CIA the fun stuff would start, and it has. Now we get to find out who helped Irina contact Sloane, how he knew what was going on, and see what fate awaits Jack. Whee!
And during Alias they advertised Miracles, saying there would be six weeks of all new episodes of it and the Practice. I have no trust in ABC for keeping their word about this (they yanked MDs when we'd been promised a few more eps), but if I could get six more eps, I'd be thrilled -- at least then I'd have enough to vid with. Damn, I love this show and am so looking forward to tonight's; but if they keep pre-empting it for crap like more Michael Jackson bullshit, it's got even less hope than I anticipated.
I came back from vacation today to find my office all shambled out -- my computer unplugged from the network (which I didn't realize at first), about 15 error messages on the previously shut down monitor, the computer frozen, my keyboard and mouse unplugged, the CPU sitting in the middle of the floor where my feet go normally. And someone had readjusted my chair! I felt like frigging Evil Goldilocks had come by while I was gone, and now I forgot all the things I wanted to say about Alias from last night that I was going to write this morning before everyone arrived to see me goofing off.
Anyway. What else is there to say but that it rocked? Everything they're cribbing from La Femme Nikita is the good stuff these days. The double, triple, quadruple crosses, the insiders bickering, the duplicity and seduction, the lies and half-truths and missions being lost to petty infighting. Yummy! And the thwarting process for Syd and Vaughn has begun, with her already doubting him, and him holding back, Michael-like, with how he feels and what he knows and his own personal fears and failures, and it's all very Nikitaesquely tasty.
I especially love Lena Olin and have enjoyed her immensely on the show, all this time waiting to see if she was as evil as I figured she'd be, and last night's denouement made me deliriously happy to see that she was. I'm hopelessly heterosexual no matter how hard I want not to be; but man, if was bi, I'd want to be bi with Lena Olin (or Angela Bassett, but that's another story!). She is dangerous, sexy, predatory, cool, intelligent, mysterious... that character of Irina fits her to a T, and she plays it to the hilt. Victor Garber really helps her do it, too -- they have a lovely chemistry and their love scenes last night were delightful, especially because we so rarely get to see older actors having love scenes that are sexy and cool -- they were proof positive that you don't have to hide your eyes and scream "old people macking!"
Poor Jack! He's going to be dismembered for this failure. And poor Syd -- first to have her hopes confirmed by Vaughn that her mother is clean, and then to find out the truth! It's terribly tragic and wonderful. And most of all, poor Willage!! The guy cannot get a break -- now he's going to lose this job because he's giving out info to the enemy and he thinks he's just sleeping with his lover. And then he'll also have to find out his lover isn't his lover, and so all the positive steps in his life will be destroyed, the way his life was destroyed in season one. The guy is just doomed, and he's so cute and sweet -- even his nightmares show how cute and sweet he is that he has bad dreams he's failing the CIA.
I just love a show where everyone's fucked, and there's love and betrayal and sex and longing. At first Alias was annoying me by doing a bad imitation of LFN; now it's making me happy because it's taking those torturous elements and doing wonderful things with them. And they still throw in the butt-kicking and the psycho cruelties and the torture -- what's not to love? I knew once they got everyone into the CIA the fun stuff would start, and it has. Now we get to find out who helped Irina contact Sloane, how he knew what was going on, and see what fate awaits Jack. Whee!
And during Alias they advertised Miracles, saying there would be six weeks of all new episodes of it and the Practice. I have no trust in ABC for keeping their word about this (they yanked MDs when we'd been promised a few more eps), but if I could get six more eps, I'd be thrilled -- at least then I'd have enough to vid with. Damn, I love this show and am so looking forward to tonight's; but if they keep pre-empting it for crap like more Michael Jackson bullshit, it's got even less hope than I anticipated.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 01:37 pm (UTC)Love scenes? Did you get a Very Special "Alias" that I didn't get? LOL.
Because all I got was CHEATED.
I wanted full-on, tastefully naked, Spy!Parent Sex.
:)
no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 01:56 pm (UTC)Notice how carefully I said "love" scenes -- not sex scenes, because I figure kissage is more in the love scene vein, and I did kind of feel the way she talked to him and tried to touch him on the plane was in the love scene vein, too. All love veiny, but not with the sex...
And yeah, Spy!Parent Sex in this case is a good thing. YOu know what would be fun? A big scene where Jack catches Irina and it turns out she really is doing a triple-cross and then he has to beat the hell out of her to make it look real and they have hot pissed off sex and then... well, okay, they did that on LFN but a girl can dream.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 01:59 pm (UTC)DUDE. That's EXACTLY what I'm hoping happened. A triple-cross. See my LJ this morning, lol, where I'm trying to justify what happened in the ep.
Jack and Irina's scenes were lovely. They made me all achey. VERY reminiscint of Michael and Nikita.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 01:46 pm (UTC)I'm hopelessly heterosexual no matter how hard I want not to be; but man, if was bi, I'd want to be bi with Lena Olin (or Angela Bassett, but that's another story!).
don't worry, you're not the only heterossexual female who'd screw SpyMommy as if there was no tomorrow.
I'm the Micheal-esque characteristics of Michael. Cute, stable, trustworthy Vaughn = hot. Ambiguous, dangerous, puzzling Vaughn = super hot.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 02:01 pm (UTC)But yes, my shipepr heart bleeds.
And why do they only show Vaughn in the morning after? Why do they have to tease us with mentions of Vaughn-shower? And the key, oh the key ::painful moan::
no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 02:09 pm (UTC)It's interesting to see your comparisons with LFN, because although I've recognized the similiarities since the beginning, I've never really compared them. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because the vibes feel very different to me. (Especially now that Syd is "in" by choice and not by force.) Alias just doesn't feel quite as desolate and dark as LFN (and I'm not saying that as if it's a bad thing, I love LFN) and Syd never felt to me like she was as totally alone as Nikita usually was. Anyway!
I didn't try Miracles at all because I was sure it was going to get canceled promptly, but maybe I will TiVo the next episode or two, just for a taste!
no subject
Date: 2003-03-03 02:20 pm (UTC)I get what you're saying about the darkness and LFN vs. Alias, and you're totally right. What I picked up on was more the storylines, the positioning, and the whole sort of inside but outside vibe before, especially with the SD-6 stuff. There were times they so closely mapped, even down to guest stars and dialog, that it annoyed me. But the show, for me, keeps getting stronger, and while so many elements feel Nikita-ish to me, I don't mind now because it has its strengths and is playing to them. It's not as glum and hopeless a universe as LFN's, which is probably the key difference, but the twists and turns remind me so much of that wonderful show.