Alias

By Myles First, we discover that Michael Giacchino, who had been phoning it in for the preceding episodes in the series, is still capable of writing haunting and moving music, as the central composition of the equation is the perfect melody for the episode.

By Myles Best Actor in a Television Series: Drama Tony Shalhoub (Monk) Melissa George (In Treatment) No shockers here: all Emmy contenders, all but John Adams going home empty handed. Best Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie Catherine Keener (An American Crime)

By Myles December 2nd, 2008 What we got, finally, is an episode that felt meaningful: where the science was being used not to terrorize but to disrupt, and where both our characters and the conspiracy took on new roles that will lead to a better series once the show returns in January.

By Myles Still, compared to last season’s less consequential episodes, this was a huge improvement - having a central and interesting villain makes all the difference, and was one of the things that the show chose to focus on this year. It led to some early stuntcasting, but it all worked out really...

By Myles As for Casey, this is definitely a lesser episode for him compared to last week (and next week, considering that we’re getting what I’d consider our first Casey-driven hour of the year with the arrival of Alias’ Carl Lumbly as his former mentor), but that doesn’t mean Casey doesn’t get to b...

By Myles Yes, the show still feels a bit like a low stakes Alias at points, but this episode combined some of the most interesting qualities of Alias’ mythology while focusing on the dramatic pathos of the right character at the right time. I’m not quite ready to see it as a trend, perhaps, but I was enr...

By Myles Started watching Grey’s, and Alias flashbacks had me pausing it and digging into some media studies essays instead. Onto ‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Melissa George? Decent. Mary McDonnell? A bit one-dimensional. Ghost Denny? Le sigh. Survivor

By Myles The reason that The X-Files or Alias worked was because, despite treading on ground that other shows had done, there was something about the characters that made it all work. Alias had its Rambaldi artifacts, strange and abstract, but because we were engrossed in the characters and their...

By Myles One of the fascinating things about Fringe is that, at its core, it is many things we normally associate with lesser television series. It’s blindly derivative of The X-Files, is a procedural in an error where the term is a dirty word, and J.J. Abrams’ creative influence feels like a simplifi...

By Myles I previewed the 90-minute pilot earlier in the summer, and I think the same of it now: this is the fall show that feels most like something I’d want to watch every week, to get wrapped up in and think about long after I’ve watched it. While I love Lost and Alias’ pilots, I find this creation to be A...