Action adventure series Alias was a kind of Buffy meets Mission Impossible meets The Assassin in which kickboxing college student Sydney Bristow is drafted into the CIA. Jennifer Garner as Bristow won a Golden Globe award for her role (winning best performance by an actress in a TV drama series). Filmed in Los Angeles, California.
Creator J.J. Abrahams came up with the idea for the show whilst working on Felicity (Garner had had a small role in that series too), mixing in aspects of The Avengers, X-Files and yes even the afore mentioned Charlies Angels, Alias sees uni student Sydney Bristow (Garner) get drafted into a special operations CIA cell called SD-6 (her father Jack played by Victor Garber just happens to also be a member) with a twist of having to keep her involvement with the group secret from everyone (in one poignant moment Sydney confides in her boyfriend only for it to cost him his life).
One great thing about Alias was its ability to attract high profile guest stars including the likes of Ethan Hawke, Malcolm McDowell, Roger Moore, Quentin Tarantino, Rutger Hauer, David Carradine and Christian Slater. Mixing elements of science fiction (especially the technology factor) and classic spy stories (spy-fi if you like) this is a very exciting show putting Bristow in a tangle of double and even triple crosses in exotic places.
production details
USA | ABC – Touchstone | 105×50 minutes | Broadcast 30 September 2001 – 22 May 2006
Creator: J.J. Abrams
Executive producers J.J. Abrams and John Eisendrath
Co-executive producer Ken Olin
cast
Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow
Ron Rifkin as Sloane
Michael Vartan as Vaughn
Bradley Cooper as Will
Merrin Dungey as Francie
Carl Lumbly as Dixon
Kevin Weisman as Marshall
Victor Garber as Jack Bristow
Lena Olin as Irina Derevko (from season two)
