I’ll be damned if I didn’t have exactly the same reaction to this fifth-season box set as I had to the last Alias season I reviewed: Jennifer Garner is a robot.  Now don’t jump to conclusions quite yet. I didn’t say whether I thought she was an evil android sent from the future to destroy mankind or if she was a benevolent, housetrained happy-bot. I just find her performance to be completely mechanical. I sincerely wish her happiness with her new husband and baby, but as far as Alias goes, I’m all but sure she has a mechanical endoskeleton under the babelicious curves and cute-as-pie dimples.

We have quite a history with Alias; both Joshua Zyber and I have been given review duties for the series over the years. Josh found that after two solid go-rounds, the show’s third season was a step in a dull direction, showcasing obvious limits as both a suspense thriller and an emotionally endearing character drama. I found the show to be stillborn from the get-go. 

Aside from the robot at the show’s center, the spy-versus-spy plot devices that abound are completely inane and without immediate repercussion or intrigue. Perhaps that’s just my non-Alias sensibility, but I’m pretty sure that things are severely underwritten here. If the double-season subplot about Garner and her super-spy organization having prophetic ties to relics made by a Renaissance craftsman named Rambaldi was too hard for my poor brain to wrap around in its early stages, by the time this fifth season careens toward its finale, consider this writer completely lost.

Add to this the fact that season regular Michael Vaughn leaves the show right after the season finale and the producers toss in a spiraling plot line about something called Prophet Five, a crime organization with dubiously vague aims that may or may not provide a noble rivalry with Jennifer Garner, a robot sent from the future.

As with the fourth season of the series, if you can jump onto the robotic motherboard of Jennifer Garner and her Alias cohorts, you probably won’t mind the ridiculously hard-to-understand and nebulous storylines that present themselves (and claim to resolve themselves) in the show’s final season. I know that many fans of the series disappointed with the third and fourth seasons of Alias were happy to see that this fifth season wraps things up a bit (albeit in a sloppy, kinda/sorta way), but for this writer who first approached the series in its fourth-season incarnation, I don’t hasten to call this swan song box set more of the same.
 
But seriously, she’s a robot. When she unveils her robo-guns and rampages the streets of Los Angeles with her android army, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

As with the Alias Season Four DVD boxset, I had a major beef with the show’s story and structure, but there’s very little to complain about with these fifth season 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers. Black levels are robust and consistent, color accuracy and saturation are held in place with authority, there’s excellent definition, and finely grained detail is extraordinary. Everything is a little dark – probably an aesthetic choice by the show’s creators and D.P. – so that provokes a little grain; that’s a small price to pay for these otherwise fantastic transfers.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Alias’ Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes are also impressive, exploiting both surround channels and front speakers with equal fidelity and finesse. The .1 LFE channel mostly gets its workout during action sequences, but that’s what it’s there for. Dialogue and effects both sound great and the show’s moody score comes across fine. Everything is top-notch.
 
Included are Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

First up in the goodies section of this season five release are four screen-specific audio commentaries: Ken Olin, Jeff Pinkner, and Victor Garber discuss Prophet Five; Monica Breen, Alison Shapker, David Anders, and Rachel Nichols offer thoughts on Bob; Tucker Gates, Josh Appelbaum, and Andre Nemec give commentary on The Horizon; and, Sparky Hawes, Brian Studler, Cliff Olin, and Chris Hollier discuss There’s Only One Syndney Bristow. I liked the jovial and relatively colloquial tone to these tracks. There’s a bit of nostalgic musing, but most of the time things are kept pretty light. For those of you not completely and utterly obsessed with the Alias machine, I’d recommend sticking with the Prophet Five commentary (especially with the exceptional Victor Garber involved) and leaving it at that.

Then come the featurettes: Celebrating 100 is a ten-minute look at the show’s 100th episode milestone; The Legend of Rambaldi (8:00) looks at this silly character’s inception, development,,and evolution (I must say, though, that Ron Rifkin’s personal thoughts on the character and how he approached it were quite intriguing); Heightening the Drama: The Music of Alias (9:00) is a self-explanatory look at the show’s musical components; and, The New Recruit: On Set With Rachel Nichols (8:00) offers perspective on the new girl in town. She’s an ass-kicker recruited into a CIA operation only to later realize that she was tractor-beamed under false pretenses.

Rounding out this edition is a five-minute blooper reel.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

None are included on this disc.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a die-hard Alias lover, you’ve probably thought this writer was full of it from the get-go, so don’t listen to me if I discourage readers from picking up this four-disc set. Also, if you’re really dedicated to Jennifer Garner’s android ways, the Alias: The Complete Series is also available for purchase (and it comes with a bonus disc of goodies); you just know that one’s going to be calling you from the shelves until you buy it. But for all others, even though the transfers, mixes, and bonuses are all appropriate and relatively thorough, this one’s for fan boys only.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment / 2005-2006 / 724 Minutes / Unrated

(Mike Restaino and Joshua Zyber)


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