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.