Will and I recently revisited the first two seasons of "Alias" (and wow, it was just as good as I remembered), one of my all-time favorite TV shows (or before it went downhill from Season 4 on).
Since I was a big fan of "Felicity," another J.J. Abrams' gem that Jennifer Garner made a cameo in, the spy adventures of Sydney Bristow were recommended to me a few times before I officially signed on for the mission.
I'd been told many, many times that I'd be hooked as soon as I started watching. And of course, it didn't take long for me to get majorly addicted. Yes, the writing, the plot twists and turns, the crazy, scale-the-globe missions, yeah, it's all that good.
In case you're wondering why I'm mentioning this, I guess I'm thinking about "Alias" because it's Christmas Eve. Back in my Nashville bachelorette days, I was stuck in Tennessee one particular Christmas. I'm thinking the always-unpredictable Midwest weather may have had something to do with why I couldn't head back to Wisconsin. But whatever the reason, I remember driving to the nearest Best Buy and standing in a long, long line to pick up the first season of "Alias" and some microwave popcorn on Christmas Eve.
'Cause if you can't be with your family, you need reinforcements, right?
And before Christmas morning rolled around? Well, I was already about a third of the way through all the craziness at SD-6 and beyond.
While I inevitably notice something different every time I've watched, it's really helped serve as inspiration for my own writing (a great justification for having to watch TV, by the way). Not only is it clever and action-packed, but it's been a good exercise in remembering how to develop characters that people really care about.
Whether it's Sydney herself, Vaughn (her handler/amour played by Michael Vartan) or her good pal Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper in his pre-movies breakout role) who endures way more than any good friend should, you can't help but get entrenched in their lives, fictional or not. And that's exactly how I want anyone who reads my writing to feel...invested from the get-go. Basically like I was with "Alias."
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