jetpack_monkey_ljarchive

Sucked in. That's what I am. I just finished Disc 3 of Season 2, and I'm halfway through Disc 4 (with the SHOCKING, yes SHOCKING post-Super Bowl episode, complete with gratuitous shots of Jennifer Garner in very, ah, revealing lingerie). It's an interesting series - it keeps me guessing at its twists and turns, makes me salivate for the next disc... but I'm not sure I'd spend actual money to buy it.

I think the problem is that the episodes just flow one into the other - its a big 16+ hour arc, and popping in one individual episode seems like it would be nigh-on impossible. Whereas Buffy and Angel tend to be comprised of individual episodes that tend to have satisfying beginnings, middles, and ends, even if they are part of a larger arc. You can pop in Calvary or Touched individually, even though they are very arc-centric episodes, and not necessarily have to worry about watching three episodes on either side to make the arciness more complete.

I'm watching for the spy antics, I'm staying for Will Tippin. Bradley Cooper? Hawt. Also, really interesting character, neat guy, and hey, writer. Who can't dig that? Or who out there who is not me can not dig that? Uh... I should quit with the complicated sentence structures. Anyway, love the Will stuff a bunch, interested in seeing where the character goes.

Also, really dig Agent Weiss, because who doesn't love a goofy but adorable big guy? Love his attitude, his snark, the fact that Greg Grunberg is a "Special Guest Star." Love his attitude shift after his near-death experience, and the great buddy-buddy chemistry he has with Michael Vartan (who, in still photos, looks perpetually confused).

Oh, yeah. And Marshall - especially in "The Abduction" where he's nervously trying to be "supah-swank." Its why I miss a lot of the SD-6 interplay in Season 2 - there's way too much focus on the CIA; the premise of the show is working for the bad guys. That's the FUN part of the show - watching Arvin Sloane be evil while his agents run around, patriotically oblivious. It gets touched on in a few eps, the aforementioned "The Abduction" being one of them, but overall, the season spends far too much time in that fancy-schmancy Ops Center (I miss the CIA offices - it gave the show a more "real" feeling... the bad guys were all basements and desks on concrete floors, and the good guys were in carpeted office buildings).

Of course, that all gets blown away when Arvin Sloane single-handedly dismantles SD-6 and the entire Alliance... and I'm still waiting to see how that plays out, and where Ms. Sloane's place in all of it is. So far, I'm unconvinced, but I've only seen "Phase One" and "The Double Agent," so who knows? In any case, it's a good way to put Sloane back to what he does best - evil mastermind with a human heart.