The Rules of Alias

I just finished watching 3 seasons of Alias in about 2 weeks.  I love the show, except maybe in the early part of the third season, which I thought dragged a bit.  Given the way each show is structured with cliff hangers, this is a much better way to watch the show -- not to mention that each show is only about 41 minutes long which implies that I am missing a good 19 minutes of commercials every episode for a total of 1,254 minutes of commercials over the three seasons.

From watching these episodes, I have distilled certain "rules" of Alias:

  • There is always a next Rambaldi device, which are probably just part of a 500 year practical joke scavenger hunt (see the Amazon film tooth fairy to get the idea)
  • Your wife is probably an enemy agent
  • Satellites can do anything
  • Competing spies always show up at the same place and at the same time
  • There is always an arbitrary time limit set by the technology, usually under 4 minutes
  • Spies never run missions to Dayton or Bloomington.  Always to Berlin or Kazakstan.
  • The bad guys always shoot worse than Imperial Storm Troopers.
  • Marshall Rules.