Unpopular Opinions

[amensisterfriend]

This is the place to safely confess the Alias-related opinions you've found to be unpopular or just plain odd! 

 

My views may well be skewed by the fact that I just binge watched this series all at once for the first time---but definitely not the last. I had always held off on watching this show for various reasons, but I'm now totally obsessed and have already ordered the entire thing on DVD :) 

 

1. This is officially my favorite JJ Abrams show now---and this is coming from someone who loves LOST more than most :) I know it had numerous flaws, but somehow they never marred my overall love for the show.  

 

2) I LOVE Sydney. And Michael. And Michael/Sydney. They're now on that short list of couples who I "ship" to a shameful degree. I wasn't surprised to learn that they dated in real life. 

 

3) I had heard nothing but criticisms of the final three seasons, so imagine my surprise to find that S5 turned out to be my very favorite! Objectively, I can understand the issues people had with it, but for some reason it just worked for me on every level. (I had the unpopular opinion of loving LOST's final season as well...maybe I'm just a sentimental sucker for the way JJ ties things up at the end irrespective of what preceded it!) 

 

4) This show singlehandedly made me love Jennifer Garner, who I had never much cared for before. And I actually feel Sydney Bristow is underrated as a heroine.  

 

5) I loved Amy Acker in this (she's one reason for my unpopular S5 love!), and I have pretty much never liked Amy Acker before in anything ever!

 

6)  The show really overdid the conflict and angst and vaguely nonsensical "twists" sometimes, but somehow no matter how dark and/or convoluted it became it never lost its emotional hook for me or totally strayed from the infectiously fun energy that reeled me in 

Edited August 11, 2015 by amensisterfriend

[Athena]

I think most of your opinions are actually really popular about those of us who watched it live especially in regards to all things Sydney. For me, the show dipped lowest in quality only when she was less around (ie. when she became pregnant). She was the soul of the show and yes, hugely underrated. Sydney/Vaughn were a huge pairing and while they had issues, for me, they didn't have anyone else viable for Sydney as a partner. I also fell in love with Garner in this show, and I will always have a soft spot for her from when she was on. As evidenced by the posts in this forum, the show is a classic and was even a bit ahead of its time.

[Joe]

I always felt that Lauren being evil was a cheat. It felt like the writers couldn't be bothered to try and make her likeable any more.

[Boundary]

One unpopular opinion I have is that I loved the Rambaldi stuff, even though people said it was too much in S3. Granted, the resolution of most Rambaldi threads was inadequate - the set up tended to build up the anticipation too much but landing the damn things proved to be tough (il dire anyone?) But the little unexplained pieces fascinated me so much. The 500 year old clock maker, hidden manuscripts, the Prophecy, all of it. I loved how a forgotten Rambaldi artefact could suddenly find use in some future episode. Was Rambaldi a good guy? Or the idea that maybe he just was, and that his followers fell into the two camps of good and evil? 

 

But all these fantastical elements of the show needed to be grounded by Will/Francine, or homework or office politics or relationship and family troubles. When the balance was off, notably in S3 and then swinging too much the other way for large parts of S4, that's when Rambaldi became a scapegoat, imo.

[JES004]

I liked Will and Sydney as a couple.  In fact, I preferred Will and Sydney as a couple.  Also, I didn't have a problem with Melissa George's acting ability.

[Athena]

Even though Will was a bit annoying in the first couple of seasons, I didn't realize how much I missed him until he came back later. Seriously, he should have been the new regular instead of Balthazar Getty's character.

[KaveDweller]

One unpopular opinion I have is that I loved the Rambaldi stuff, even though people said it was too much in S3. Granted, the resolution of most Rambaldi threads was inadequate - the set up tended to build up the anticipation too much but landing the damn things proved to be tough (il dire anyone?) But the little unexplained pieces fascinated me so much. The 500 year old clock maker, hidden manuscripts, the Prophecy, all of it. I loved how a forgotten Rambaldi artefact could suddenly find use in some future episode. Was Rambaldi a good guy? Or the idea that maybe he just was, and that his followers fell into the two camps of good and evil? 

 

I loved the Rambaldi stuff too.  I think it set the show apart from just typical spy stuff and I liked that the missions were all kind of connected because of the Rambali thread.  There probably never was going to be a way for them to do a decent pay off of all that though.  It would have been funny if it turned out it was all meaningless and not magical.  All these evil people were running around the world and literally was just collecting old clocks that didn't lead to eternal life (or whatever).

 

My other unpopular opinion is that I didn't like when they started sending Vaughn on missions.  I loved Vaughn and I loved Sydney/Vaughn but I liked the dynamic of him being her handler and her being in the field.

[Boundary]

My other unpopular opinion is that I didn't like when they started sending Vaughn on missions.  I loved Vaughn and I loved Sydney/Vaughn but I liked the dynamic of him being her handler and her being in the field.

 

Couldn't agree more!! The dynamic of handler/agent, who are also falling in love, was so good. Vaughn could get to places and find out things that Syd couldn't. And Syd could do things Vaughn couldn't or wasn't allowed to. That meant that they each brought something different to their interactions. When he started going on missions it felt like he was just tagging along and was being a plot device, it basically reduced him to nothing more than a love interest. All that CIA office politics stuff gave us a something different, a normalcy in the same way Will did.

 

Don't know how unpopular this opinion is but I hated Francinator. We got the best girlfight ever shown on tv out of it but I wouldn't hesitate to change that thread in the script if I had the chance.

[SharonH58]

They got too scifi for when Red ball showed up.  JJ is obsessed with it since he also used it in Star Trek.  And Sydney either boo hooing over her mother or sister.

[Brit Babe]

Rambaldi stuff I never really had a probably with except for the green goo nonsense. In some parts is could have been done better but it was apparent they did not a "bible" for it.

 

I never really had a problem with Will, the him being in love with Sydney etc was pushed aside for his investigation which I thought was true to the character. I did miss Will and Francie when they were gone. I think it was a mistake not to have the Francinator as an ongoing villian in season 3.

[kingshearte]

I just recently hauled out my DVDs because I needed something familiar to mindlessly binge-watch (still digging this decision). I haven't gotten to Season 3 yet, but I definitely agree that making Lauren evil was a sucky choice, especially when it was so obviously retconned. One of the best things the writers on Grey's Anatomy did was make Derek's wife actually a delightful character. It adds way more interesting nuance to a triangle if one of the points isn't such an obviously unsuitable option. I had nothing against Lauren when she first showed up — it wasn't her fault that the late partner of the man she fell in love with and married turned out to not actually be dead. I mean, I still would have wanted Syd to triumph in the end and reunite with Vaughan, but I would have loved it if they'd written Lauren in a way that allowed for that decision to be a genuine struggle for Vaughan, and for us to actually feel for her when she inevitably got dumped.

[ursula]

On 5/4/2018 at 12:30 PM, kingshearte said:

One of the best things the writers on Grey's Anatomy did was make Derek's wife actually a delightful character. It adds way more interesting nuance to a triangle if one of the points isn't such an obviously unsuitable option. I had nothing against Lauren when she first showed up — it wasn't her fault that the late partner of the man she fell in love with and married turned out to not actually be dead. I mean, I still would have wanted Syd to triumph in the end and reunite with Vaughan, but I would have loved it if they'd written Lauren in a way that allowed for that decision to be a genuine struggle for Vaughan, and for us to actually feel for her when she inevitably got dumped.

Thank you. Adding my voice to the list of people who wanted Lauren to stay good, and friends with Sydney. And if they wanted Sark to have an Evil!Girlfriend that they could juxtapose against Sydney and Vaughn, they should have kept Merrin Dungey on as Alison. 

On 5/8/2016 at 9:20 AM, joelene said:

Great read. Thanks for that! I agree with Merrin Dungey's disappointment about Allison Doren not continuing on the show or at least not getting a proper sendoff. I too went, wait, so what happened? Did the knife kill her? Why? She survived, like, five bullets to the chest. It all just seemed very haphazard.

[HighQueenEB]

On 2/9/2016 at 2:51 PM, nosleepforme said:

• I liked Lauren until they made her evil. I thought it was such a cheap plot twist. Same with Vaughn's death. I thought it was really brave of them to kill him off. It was disappointing when it turned out he had faked his death.
• To this day, I have never watched season four, because I was so angry about the season 3 finale.
• Sloan should have died in season 2 or season 3. He had run his course by then.
• I loved Lena Olin in season two, but every time when they brought her back, it failed to live up to her character in season 2.
• Always loved Will and Francie.

I'm currently binge-watching and haven't gotten to S5 yet (next week!) and agree about Lauren.  Such a cheap plot twist.  I hated Vaughn being dead in S5 at the time, mostly because it felt like Vartan was being discarded due to rumors of tension between him and Garner (they had been a real-life couple before she met Affleck, gotten married & pregnant).

You should watch S4.  Much as they ruined S3 by making Lauren evil, and much as everyone hated the Wittenberg plot twist we got at the end of the S3 finale, they turned it around in S4.

I could have been on-board with killing off Sloane in S3 or the start of S4 had I any confidence the show's writers would have given us a character as compelling, with questionable motives, in his stead.  It would have required really swinging for the fences, the way they did with Irina Derevko in S2, and, given how that turned out with Lena Olin quitting the show after that one, glorious season, I can't help but wonder, on reflection, if the writing staff wasn't more than a little gunshy at the notion of getting rid of such a deliciously complex and evil character as Arvin Sloane.  

I disagree about Lena Olin.  Watch S4 and you'll understand.  Sure, in S5, when they brought her back, dear God, no, there was no living up to the epic-ness that was Irina Derevko in S2.  But her appearance in S4 was just beautiful.

Not much of a fan of Francie - I was and always shall remain indifferent to her.  Evil Francie/Allison, on the other hand...  See my comments below.  I did, though, love Will, and would have loved to see him remain as a CIA Analyst, working for the good guys.  I can never get enough of early Bradley Cooper, lol.
 

On 8/16/2018 at 8:18 AM, ursula said:

Thank you. Adding my voice to the list of people who wanted Lauren to stay good, and friends with Sydney. And if they wanted Sark to have an Evil!Girlfriend that they could juxtapose against Sydney and Vaughn, they should have kept Merrin Dungey on as Alison. 

Yes!  To all of this!  I loved Evil!Francie and Merrin Dungey was so great as Allison.  

On 10/27/2015 at 3:51 PM, Brit Babe said:

Rambaldi stuff I never really had a probably with except for the green goo nonsense. In some parts is could have been done better but it was apparent they did not a "bible" for it.

I never really had a problem with Will, the him being in love with Sydney etc was pushed aside for his investigation which I thought was true to the character. I did miss Will and Francie when they were gone. I think it was a mistake not to have the Francinator as an ongoing villian in season 3.

Agreed.  Francinator would have been a good ongoing villain in S3, and the point at which everyone believed Syd was dead, why would Will have needed to go into the Witness Protection program?  I've never understood why he needed to go.  It would have been interesting to explore that dynamic between Syd, Will, Vaughn and Lauren.  Weiss was the go-to character to vouch for and defend Vaughn mourning Syd and that Lauren was a good person, but he was also Vaughn's best friend.  It would have been more impactful had that information come from Will, and had he been the one, familiar part of her life that remained when she turned up after those 2 years.    In that scenario, I could have seen a romantic relationship developing between Will & Syd.  Sure, it would have had some of the hallmarks of a rebound relationship, which is essentially what I always thought Lauren was for Vaughn, but it could have been an interesting, or at least better, roadblock to the inevitable Syd/Vaughn reunion.

On 8/11/2015 at 8:01 PM, JES004 said:

I liked Will and Sydney as a couple.  In fact, I preferred Will and Sydney as a couple.  Also, I didn't have a problem with Melissa George's acting ability.

I didn't care about Will & Syd as a couple - I did love them as best friends though, and that dynamic was sorely missing once they got rid of Will.  I also didn't have a problem with Melissa George's acting ability, which is a big reason why I'll never believe that Evil!Lauren was anything but retcon from the writers in response to the enormous blowback they got from the fanbase in reaction to the character and the roadblock that character was to Syd/Vaughn.

[HighQueenEB]

Back to add an unpopular opinion, or, well, maybe an opinion that I don't think has been expressed often enough...

While I think Mia Maestro and Sonia Braga are excellent actresses and I appreciated what both women brought to their roles as Nadia Santos and Sofia Vargas/Elena Derevko, it bugs the heck out of me that we were expected to believe they were blood relatives of Lena Olin, Isabella Rossellini, and Jennifer Garner, and in the case of Maestro, also Ron Rifkin (or possibly Victor Garber, if Irina's comment about Nadia was meant to imply that she was actually Jack's daughter rather than Arvin's).   Neither Maestro nor Braga look remotely northern or eastern European.   

I recall, at the time, that there was always some speculation about Sark being Irina's child and while that would have certainly been a good option, I've come to the conclusion that I would have preferred for Lauren to have been Irina's other daughter.  What would have made some sick, twisted sense would have been for Lauren's mother (can't remember the character's name, just that she was played by Peggy Lipton) to have been Elena Derevko.  I could have gotten behind that explanation of Lauren's sudden evil turn, and both Melissa George and Peggy Lipton bore far more resemblance to Olin, Rossellini, Garner, and Rifkin than Maestro and Braga.