Like Sydney, ‘Alias’ kept reinventing itself

When “Alias” debuted in 2001, the advertisements for the show featured star Jennifer Garner in a brilliant red wig. Besides being an homage to Tom Twyker’s thrilling film “Run Lola Run,” whose similarly take-charge female star had bright-red hair, the ads also illustrated one of the show’s early trademarks: Garner’s multiple costume changes as undercover CIA agent Sydney Bristow.

In most episodes, Sydney would show up in exotic locations, from eastern Europe to South America, and enter glossy places such as dance clubs or office buildings dressed in a spectacularly campy and outrageous costumes that were frequently topped with incredible wigs. After interacting with others in character, often speaking languages other than English, she’d proceed to gain access to a high-security area and kick major butt, as CIA agents regularly do, especially when they’re backed by a hip soundtrack.

Sydney’s multiple costume changes also worked well as a metaphor for the series itself, which over its five-season run has reinvented itself perhaps more than any other modern TV drama.

Despite that constant reinvention, which was aimed at keeping the series creatively fresh, the show never quite gained back the momentum it had in those early costume-heavy days.

“Alias,” which bows out on May 22, began with what seemed to be a simple premise: Sydney Bristow was a graduate student and an undercover CIA agent who worked for a black ops division of the agency called SD-6. She soon discovered, however, that she was not working for the real CIA, but for a terrorist organization, and she became a double agent. Her desire to help take down SD-6 was due in no small part to the fact its leader, Arvin Sloane (played smarmily by stubble-covered Ron Rifkin) had her fiancé assassinated when Sydney told him that she worked as a secret agent.

Spy vs. Spy
Working with Sydney to help destroy SD-6 was her handler, real CIA agent Michael Vaughn; naturally, they quickly fell in love with each other. The nature of their jobs, however, made that love impossible to realize, because it would compromise both their mission and their lives. In addition, Sydney’s co-workers, including SD-6 partner and friend Marcus Dixon and quirky comic-relief tech guy Marshall Flinkman, were not aware that they were working for a terrorist organization.

As if all of that wasn’t enough to complicate Sydney’s life, there was her strained relationship with her estranged father, Jack (played with determination, yet few facial expressions by Victor Garber) who also worked as a double agent inside SD-6. And in season two, we met Irina Derevko, Sydney’s mother, who was herself a spy, although for the KGB. Together, Sydney, Spy Daddy and Spy Mommy, as they’re affectionately known, formed a trio desperately in need of family therapy.

Despite the family-centered nature of much of the show’s drama, the series was not just, as it was sometimes described, “Felicity working for the CIA.” Instead, it slowly built a mythology that made it much more “Carnivale”  than “24.” There was so much conspiracy and prophecy that viewers needed an Excel spreadsheet and an Absurd-O-Meter to keep track of everything, even though it all ultimately ended up meaning very little.

Over its five-season run, the series changed directions at least three, perhaps four, times: in the middle of season two, when SD-6 was demolished and Sydney and Vaughn were finally able to kiss in public; at the beginning of season three, when Sydney woke up having lost two years of her life as a brainwashed spy; and at the beginning of season four, when Sydney joined a real black ops division of the CIA called APO.

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