Cheap Alias - The Complete Fifth Season (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Alias - The Complete Fifth Season

Disappointing Final Season
Season 5 of super spy hit Alias picks up moments after season 4 ended. Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) and Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan) were just in a car crash. They are quickly whisked away and hidden but eventually Michael can explain his comment to Sydney. The revelation about his name leads Sydney and the rest of CIA black ops unit APO to Prophet Five, yet another secret organization trying to rule and world and solve the Rimbaldi riddle. Just as Sydney is getting the good news that she is pregnant, tragedy strikes. Now Sydney will stop and nothing to take down Prophet Five and get her revenge. <
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>I have been a loyal Alias fan since day one, but I felt this season was the weakest of the series. We've already fought against multiple secret organizations, so that plot felt old to me. The biggest problems, however, were the actors who left. We lost three of season 4's main characters. The producers brought in potentially interesting new characters to replace them, but with only 17 episodes, they didn't get the time to develop they needed. <
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>Not to say the season is a complete loss. The storylines are still interesting. The decision that this would be the final season came early enough that the major storylines from the series could be resolved. And lots of old friends and enemies come back for a final appearance. I thought this was an especially nice touch as the show wound down. The acting, as always, is top notch, not only from the returning actors but also from the newbies. <
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>Ultimately, I just couldn't get over the loss of characters I already knew and loved to fully enjoy this season.

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Series finale time!
Judging from the prior seasons, and from having seen the final epiode, I'm quite certain this season will be up to any/all expectations (I'll eventually add more once I've watched all the episodes). <
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>The show has always had top-notch production values and been highly reminiscent of La Femme Nikita. In the spy-thriller genre, Alias is second only to its LFN progenitor, but a step above (in my opinion) 24 in terms of overall story arc. <
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>The DVD releases have always been impressive: good video quality, good audio quality (granted I'm not a sound/video snob, and I don't have a 30" plasma TV yet). The discs always have sufficient bonus materials from deleted scenes to commentary tracks, and blooper reels. I expect this release will be no different. <
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>I will note however that they have changed the packaging format (just like LFN did on their fifth/final season; speaking of which is it coincidence that both series ended on a shortened fifth season and made large attempts to tie up all the "loose ends" of the series?). However, I'm not as thrilled with the changes to Alias' packaging as I was with the changes to LFN. Whereas LFN change from an attractive book format to a more standard double-thin pack format, Alias appears to have changed to a double-stacked fold-out configuration, that I frankly dislike in no uncertain terms. IE, to get to disc 2, you have to take out disc 1 then take out disc 2 then put disc 1 back into the fold-out case. I really wish that studios would stop doing that to customers (I vaguely recall they did that with one or two of the last Highlander seasons too, much to the dismay of fans). I'd have preferred that they simply used two double-disc thin packs like LFN did. I much prefer those to double-stacked fold-outs. <
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>That aside, the rest of the packaging is pretty standard, down to the outer plastic slip case with the special fetures printed on the back, and Jennifer Garner printed on the front. Though for those who tend to throw out the outer plastic, it would be NICE, if they'd print the special features on the back of the fold-out packaging rather than the outer plastic. C'est la vie. <
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>I look forward to catchign the last season in DVD re-run. I'm sure it will be spectacular, one way or the other. And I know the ending is appropriate.

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Ending on a high note
Alias was definitely running out of steam heading into Season 5 and the episodes before the break seemed to indicate the last season would be a disaster - especially with JJ Abrams and Jennifer Garner seemingly moving beyond this project. However, after the break there was definitely more energy, the scripts were tighter and Season 5 was saved with a slam-bang final episodes. <
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>Without giving away too much, many loose ends were tied up/together: We find out about Irina's "death", Sloane gets some "alone" time, and we get to see Sydney and Vaughn reunited... <
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>All around good fun and worth the time, especially the 2nd half of the season. <
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