| Alias - The Complete Fifth Season | 
 enlarge | Actors: Jennifer Garner, Ron Rifkin
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Category: DVD
List Price: $39.99
Buy Used: $19.49
You Save: $20.50 (51%)
New (43) Used (23) Collectible (2) from $19.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  132 reviews
Sales Rank: 2493
Format: Box Set, Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 4
Running Time: 724
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.6 x 0.9
MPN: DISD50208D
UPC: 786936700763
EAN: 0786936700763
ASIN: B000H5V8D6
Theatrical Release Date: September 30, 2001
Release Date: November 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 12/26/2008
Amazon.com
Alias was a show that constantly reinvented itself. And its fifth and final season was no exception, as the creative team behind the espionage show worked to pull together the labyrinthine plot elements that had existed over the years, as well as tailor the show around the pregnancy of star Jennifer Garner. The results were somewhat tinged with melancholy as everything was wrapped up, but also had a maturity and respect for its characters--which is not to say that Alias lacked in action. In fact, the season started out with a literal bang, as a truck slammed into the car carrying Sydney Bristow (Garner) and her co-worker and lover Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), right after Vaughn had made a mind-blowing revelation to Sydney. What followed was a mind-trippingly enticing blend of fake identities, false fronts, blind alleys, and new characters with dubious intentions, with the importance of the enigmatic Rambaldi device hanging over it all. Just another day at the office for Alias, you say? Not this time--for long-time fans of the shows, the true natures of all characters would finally be revealed, and Sydney would at long last discover the powers of the dreaded Rambaldi device, as well as who was behind the machinations to obtain it for world domination. What Alias did best was mix its outlandish plotlines with accessible characters who were more than just pieces on an espionage game board. The final season did have a few false starts, as it juggled the departure (and reappearance) of established characters and the introduction of new ones, but by the time it had reached its 100th episode, "There's Only One Sydney Bristow," battle lines were drawn as the core characters hurtled toward the show's conclusion. Not to be too cryptic, but the less you know the better, as part of the fun is puzzling out who's doing what to whom; suffice it to say that the ever-capable Garner, along with Victor Garber and Ron Rifkin as the dueling father figures in her life, laid a groundwork of personal drama that held the show together amidst all the shootouts, tech gadgets and costume changes. While (literally) everyone from Sydney's past made an appearance in the show's 100th episode (including an outstanding turn by Bradley Cooper as Syd's erstwhile friend Will), there were a couple great additions too: Rachel Nichols made a fetching Syd-in-training while Amy Acker, who played the daffy good-girl Fred on Angel, was a menacing and captivating adversary. We will answer one question for die-hard Alias fans: Yes, Lena Olin does return as the lethal Irina Derevko. Sorry, we're sworn from saying anything more. --Mark Englehart
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| Customer Reviews: Read 127 more reviews...
 An End To A Great Show But With Minimal Action Too October 31, 2008
This season finally wraps up the story of the mystery of Rembaldi's machine and the fate of Vaughn and Sydney's marriage. I'm sure many people remember also that Jennifer Garner was actually pregnant during this season so couldn't do as many action and fighting scenes in her appearance. And while I can understand that it just seemed that they rushed to finish this final season to quickly for my liking. I do like that Sloane had gone back to his conniving ways and of course the dark agent Sloane was always good for a diabolical scene or two. Still when you see the final episode you feel a little cheated wanting them to finish their open questions and problems that are still lurking for them in the show. Still if you're like me and have gotten the seasons sets from start to finish you of course have got to get this final set as well...
 good October 24, 2008
I don't know what's going on with this season.
I bought it twice and there is a weird thing going on:
at first, nothing happens when you insert the DVD in the player;
by chance, i let one DVD inside with the player on, and the DVD finally has been read!! so like 5-10 min after been inserted.
I, first, thought it was the player that was in cause, but I did everything (clean, play other DVDs) to confirm that it's not the case.
So, I think I would prefer to know important things like that -- if the seller knew, of course.
Hasta Luego to Ms. Bristow October 13, 2008
This was the final season to one of the few action series helmed by a female character.
Season 5 introduces the new characters of Rachel Gibson (replacement for Sydney) and Thomas Grace (replacement for Vaughn). The idea was to have the experience of how Sydney became an agent with Rachel's story. In paper an excellent idea, in the works it was TERRIBLE. The character was extremely weak, and unsympathetic. The character of Grace was actually good but was not developed enough, and brought some intrigued to the show.
The supporting cast was wonderful as usual. The interaction Sidney/Jack and Sydney/Sloane was always a welcome addition to the show.
I have to say that THE BEST ADDITION to this final season was the character of Payton (played by Amy Acker). The best to describe her is a female Sark. The whole season was worth watching and specially the episodes with her character. Her popularity was so good that they made her a regular in the middle of the season. GOOD JOB on that.
The season warps nicelly the Rambaldi theme, and the closure is well executed. The final moments, we can think that it was left for possible movies, since we understand two things: 1. they are still spies 2. Isabel has the mind to be a spy.
I was a fan since season one and read all the books prior to the APO series, and was very sad to see the show go.
The DVD set is a nice addition to my library, and should be to yours if you are a fan of Jennifer Garner or Amy Acker.
Great last season! September 24, 2008
Well, what can we say, this last season of Alias is the best (or the second best, the best one is the first one, of course!)...
The final season starts slowly, but wraps up marvelously September 7, 2008
Warning! Some minor spoilers are contained in the following review!
Season Five of ALIAS was by far the most challenging. Although the series started off well in the ratings race, it was moved around in the schedule when the ratings slipped slightly. Its fate was probably sealed when it was briefly placed after LOST, another J. J. Abrams creation, and it failed to hold the audience. So, by Season Five, ABC had pretty much given up on the show and fairly abused it, not promoting it sufficiently and then cutting the number of episodes during the long break necessitated by Jennifer Garner's time off to have her baby and recover. Luckily, the producers were given sufficient time to create a compelling wrap up to the series. Some story arcs ended up being truncated (especially Balthazar Getty's), but in the final moments one felt as a viewer that nothing major had been unresolved.
The first half of the season was, however, tremendously uneven. Much of the problem was created by Michael Vartan's departure from the show. With his "death" and Nadia's coma, combined with Jennifer Garner's decreased mobility due to her pregnancy, the show took on an entire new tone. Elodie Bouchez, Balthazar Getty, and the absolutely splendid Rachel Nichols were all brought on board as Sydney's new compatriots, while Amy Acker (best known as Fred/Illyria on ANGEL, and who will be returning to television on Joss Whedon's new series DOLLHOUSE) was the show's new bad gal. Still, the show was always about Sydney Bristow, and with Jennifer Garner in the final months of her pregnancy and not able to get about with her former vigor, the show felt oddly stilted. But as soon as the pregnancy was over and as Garner got progressively back into ass-kicking shape, both the plot and the action racheted back up.
I won't go into plot details because no review should spoil that for anyone. Anyone who had followed the series from the beginning knew pretty much how it would end if the producers and writers were given their say. The Rambaldi endgame would be revealed. Sloane would somehow or other get his. Things would be resolved between Sydney and her mother. And one way or another Sydney would find peace in life. With no real surprises (though with many twists), that is pretty much how the series ended. While the first half of the season was one of the show's low points, the second half was ALIAS at its best and reminded we fans why we watched it all in the first place.
I loved the show's final episode. If Season One of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER hadn't already used the title "Prophecy Girl," it would have been a perfect title for one of the final two episodes. Running underneath the show in its several seasons was the idea that Sydney Bristow was a chosen one (much like Buffy or, for that matter, Max Guevara on DARK ANGEL). Her role in the culmination of Rambaldi's work had been foretold. The final episode - co-written by Jeff Pinker and one of my favorite writers on TV, Drew Goddard (earlier a writer on BUFFY and ANGEL, later on LOST, more recently known as the writer of CLOVERFIELD, and appeared this summer in a cameo in Joss Whedon's brilliant DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG as Fake Thomas Jefferson) -- was wonderfully written, both moving forward the story that had been progressing in previous episodes and summing up the series as a whole. The flashbacks to the young Sydney provided a sense of closure and also of fate to the series' end, as did the flash forward where we see Sydney's daughter Isabel display some the same abilities her mother possessed. But it also ends with a sense that Isabel isn't fated to follow in the steps of her parents and grandparents. After she quickly assembles the same geometric puzzle that her mother had as a young child, she bats it over before anyone sees what she has done, a gesture of rejection of that path and a hint that things will be different for her.
So, one of the best series of the past decade comes to a close. My own reading of TV over that time is that Buffy had made TV irreparably safe for heroic female characters. Xena and Dana Scully had anticipated what was about to happen with empowered females on TV, but without Buffy they would perhaps have been remembered as exceptions. Buffy was the character that changed all the roles. Xena was too much of a cartoon to make people accept females kicking butt as something not to be taken as exceptional. But after Buffy it has been a commonplace. But there had to be actual instances of heroic females as evidence that the rules had changed. Aeryn Sun on FARSCAPE, Max on DARK ANGEL, and Sydney Bristow were the first -- and along with Veronica Mars and Starbuck from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, still the best. When someone writes the history of heroic women on TV, there will be a pre-Buffy section mentioning characters like the 1950s Annie Oakley, Emma Peel of THE AVENGERS, Dana Scully, and Xena, then a section on Buffy, and finally the next wave. Sydney Bristow should and will get her own chapter. And what a great job Jennifer Garner did! Though not trained in martial arts, she used her considerable athleticism (and early dance training -- indeed, dance seems to be a wonderful training ground for cinematic martial artists, further proof being the absolutely astonishing fight scenes by Summer Glau in SERENITY, showing that for a prima ballerina it is just choreography) to bring Sydney Bristow to life more believable than any other female hero. In fact, to this day I've seen no TV female hero (and yes, I'm avoiding the word "heroine" intentionally -- "heroines" traditionally are anything but heroic) more physically convincing than Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow. On top of this she brought acting chops that should have earned her a string of Emmys. At least she got some nominations, unlike Lauren Graham, who astonishingly never got a single nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy when she should have won seven straight times.
So a wonderful end to a great series. One reason I've just rewatched this series was in anticipation of J. J. Abrams's next major series, THE FRINGE. Hopefully that one will follow in the footsteps of this great show.
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