The Big Picture

  • Alias is a high-octane espionage/sci-fi thriller series that follows Sydney Bristow, a university student who discovers she has been working as a spy for an enemy organization disguised as the CIA.
  • The show features strong female characters and introduced a mythological style of storytelling that influenced popular shows like Lost and Orphan Black.
  • Sydney Bristow's enduring appeal lies in her human connection to the often outlandish events happening around her, making her a relatable and enduring heroine.

When first I encountered J.J. Abrams’ high-octane espionage/sci-fi thriller Alias, it was not the love at first sight I’d been hoping for. It was 2011, the summer after seventh grade, when I had settled on the series as my next (read: first) big serial commitment. While others my age might’ve been taking the bus to the mall to meet their friends and spend the afternoon roaming around together, I was going to Best Buy to browse their once-beloved A-Z selection of TV on DVD. As a legendary gift card hoarder, money was no object: I’d decided on the complete first season of Alias as my notable purchase for the day.

But despite my best attempts to give it every bit of my attention over the next few months, I could never make it past a few episodes. My TV comfort food fix was soon filled by the likes of Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives, which every 14-year-old boy goes through an obsession with, of course. My problem, so to speak, was that my criteria for browsing television series to watch at that time—a decade before multiple streaming apps allowed hundreds of titles at our fingertips—consisted of shows that had either caught my eye while my parents had been watching them or while browsing Best Buy aisles. Having been the bullied queer kid in the schoolyard for most of my life until then, I’d have done anything to appear older and unassociated with the interests of my age group or generation.

Years passed, and I could never shake the thought of my Alias first-season box set sitting mostly unwatched on my shelf. I tried again around 2014, still to no avail: perhaps an action spy drama just wasn’t going to be my thing, despite my inclination to watch anything with Jennifer Garner and anything with a strong female badass. (As comedian Meg Stalter would put it, “Hi, Gay!”) It wasn’t until 2020, otherwise known as the time when any previous sense of daily routine or structure had gone to die, that I forced myself to give Alias yet another try—partly because I was still mad at myself for making this (gift card) investment as a bright-eyed 13-year-old, and partly because I felt I needed to commit myself to something, anything, to get out of a pandemic-induced depression.

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Alias
TV-14
Action
Adventure
Drama

A young woman learns she has a familial history of undercover work and agrees to become an international spy for a supposed secret branch of the CIA. The secrecy complicates her social and love lives, but it's nothing compared to what happens when she finds out her employer has no ties to the CIA.

Release Date
September 30, 2001
Cast
Jennifer Garner , Michael Vartan , Victor Garber , Ron Rifkin , Carl Lumbly , Kevin Weisman , Rachel Nichols , Amy Acker
Main Genre
Action
Seasons
5
Creator
J.J. Abrams

What Is 'Alias' About?

Alias-Jennifer Garner-Bradley Cooper

The series follows Garner as university grad student-turned-spy Sydney Bristow who, in the pilot episode, discovers she’s spent the last seven years of her life working for an enemy of the United States, SD-6, disguised as a black-ops division of the CIA after they have her fiancé killed. Not only that, she learns that her distant, estranged father Jack (one of Victor Garbers best roles) also works for the CIA as a double agent for SD-6. Living a double life as a spy is hard enough when you learn that at least one of those lives, if not both, has been a complete lie. She then decides to also become a double agent for the CIA in order to take down the sinister forces of Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin).

Alias came at the tail-end of a wave of series in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s that featured strong female characters, including but not limited to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, La Femme Nikita, and Dark Angel. In fact, it was arguably the last series in said lineup but unfortunately, has not enjoyed the same level of nostalgia as the youth-oriented desires of Buffy or even Xena: Warrior Princess. Rather, Alias existed in almost its own lane entirely—with its only comparable modern equivalent perhaps being that of Orphan Black—and introduced a mythological style of storytelling that would only reach its peak mainstream popularity when Abrams debuted Lost in 2004.

But much like the strong female leads found on Buffy or Dark Angel, Sydney Bristow’s enduring appeal—aside from the fact that she manages to always look fabulous while kicking grown men’s asses, often to a soundtrack of Sinéad O’Connor’s “No Man’s Woman” or No Doubt’s “Hella Good”—is her human connection to the often outlandish things happening around her. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine the human connection surrounding the breakneck lives of surgeons on Grey’s Anatomy or any number of Shonda Rhimes programs if Alias hadn’t already laid such groundwork.

Why Is 'Alias's Sydney Bristow Such an Enduring Heroine?

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It’s easy to see the link between my own love and admiration for Sydney during a time in our lives when it felt like outlandish everyday occurrences had become commonplace. But before long, the incredibly fast-paced missions and recurring occult storylines on Alias had come to provide me with the TV comfort food I’ve also found soothing in any number of family dramas or comedies. (Its signature cliffhangers and plot twists make it a little too stimulating to watch before bed, but still comforting nonetheless.) It’s because the series is, at its heart, a family drama with soap opera tendencies, anywhere from its old-fashioned orchestral score to its ability to convince us that cloning and centuries-old prophecies concerning everyday people are entirely possible.

“What you want to have in your mind [as a writer] is you’re telling a metaphor,” explained writer Robert Orci in the book Alias: Declassified. “For example, Buffy is a metaphor for teen angst; jocks turning into werewolves is how we thought of people in high school who stuffed you into lockers. One of the organizing principles of Alias is it’s about a screwed-up family who happens to be spies. That’s the disguise—this is about a dysfunctional family.” Furthermore, it’s that very dysfunction, coupled with the aforementioned bizarre occurrences, that allows Sydney to embrace the full breadth of her emotions throughout all five seasons, constantly reminding the audience that there’s a human being behind these taxing and life-threatening excursions of hers. Which simultaneously gives the audience the right to feel the full intensity of their own emotions, and know that they aren’t going to die from those feelings.

Although she doesn’t maintain as much of a lasting pop culture legacy as Buffy Summers, Veronica Mars, or even Hermione Granger, Sydney Bristow embodies the strong characteristics of a woman who knows that doing the right thing always outweighs walking away. She also thus allows herself to become a role model for young adults who no longer identify with the antics of teenage badasses. I’m a firm believer that things always enter our lives when we need them most, and I can say nothing less for now having Alias to fall back on for some comfort and reassurance. “It’s sort of like quicksand,” Abrams once described. “If you get into it, you’ll sink into the depths of it.”

Alias is currently available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

Watch on Prime Video