I don't know if it was because I really missed seeing her on-screen, but I really liked her in Alias.

It would be so cool, if they could also get Gina Torres back, and make Amy's character cross paths with Gina's Anna Espinosa.

Numfar PTB | October 17, 23:42 CET

I'm trying to picture Amy auditioning for an Alias role whilst still wearing Illyria make up and I'm failing miserably.

Simon | October 17, 23:44 CET

Good for Amy! Its a shame we keep having our former Buffy and Angel stars in new parts that are on tv at the same time. We have Nick and Alyson up against each other and now we have James and Amy competing in the same timeslot as well.

killinj | October 17, 23:44 CET

Amy was very good in her Alias role, and I am so delighted that she will be returning for several more episodes. Not only was it good to see her again on my TV screen, but she helped inject some life into the tired series. I would love to see her become a "permanent" regular, in the same sense as some of the other recurring characters on the show.

palehorse | October 18, 00:01 CET

Yay! Terrific news. She creeps me out on the show.

Christopher | October 18, 00:40 CET

In the article they call Jeffery Bell co-exec producer but he's actually credited as one of the executive producers now.(on a side note, Drew Goddard and Jennifer Garner are producers now). I'm glad Amy is on for so many eps!

eddy | October 18, 01:21 CET

They gave her the role because she was blue.

I would have loved to be a fly on that wall during the audition.

Nebula1400 | October 18, 02:15 CET

it's great to see her again on an almost weekly basis...

Here's something random: Everytime I hear someone say something about being blue, it reminds me of Arrested Development's Tobias. His character says "I blue myself" regarding his audition for the Blue Man Group. :D

Mr Universe | October 18, 02:28 CET

This is excellent news for Amy, very happy she'll have this many episodes. Good to hear so many positive statements on her role, this show could use a good shot in the arm at this point.

As for blueness, I always think of 'Turned Blue' by Caroline's Spine.

Madhatter | October 18, 02:43 CET

I'm still waiting for J.J. to hire Alexis to play Vaughn's long-lost terrorist cousin.

electricspacegirl | October 18, 03:15 CET

So are we liking this season of Alias? I lost interest progressively over the last season (though I was a die-hard for the first couple seasons). I get it that Jen is pregnant, but the whole Sydney pregnant without the baby's daddy seems to really stray from the premise of the show.

MySerenity | October 18, 03:18 CET

I've been really liking this season of Alias, and I thought that the 3rd season and the first half of the 4th were very weak. It seems to be back ot the tone of the first two years. As for her pregnant without the baby's daddy, I don't know how that strayes from the premise, as in the pilot she lost her fiancee as well. IMO Sydney going at it alone, and finding her father is there to help her is something that melds with the shows arcs.

[ edited by rabid on 2005-10-18 01:40 ]

rabid | October 18, 03:39 CET

Last week's episode was the first time I've paid attention to Alias since last season, and I enjoyed it enough that I'll probably be sticking with it for now (I had originally planned on completely writing it off). Amy Acker is part of it, but I also like the idea of bringing in all these other new characters. Frankly, I think the show needs some massive retooling, and if Rachel Nichols eventually replaces Jennifer Garner, I'd be cool with that. Is anyone else tired of the entire Bristow clan?

areacode212 | October 18, 03:45 CET

I will never ever get tired of Jack areacode212, and I miss Lena Olin. As for Sydney, honestly either way I'm good.

I do agree about liking the idea of all the new characters, hopefully they'll be well-developed characters.

[ edited by rabid on 2005-10-18 01:50 ]

rabid | October 18, 03:49 CET

I personally think that this season of Alias has been strong, fun, and thrillingly addictive. I don't think the series needs a shot in the arm at all, but having Amy around certainly doesn't hurt.

MindPieces | October 18, 04:03 CET

I think Alias is unwatchably bad now. I might tune in for Amy, but that means having to sit through another tortuous Rachel Nichols non-performance - I think I had enough of that on The Inside. Oh, and I LOVED the frist two seasons of Alias. I still maintain that Alias season 1 is one of the best single seasons of television I've ever seen. It's so sad to see what's happened the last 3 seasons.

bonzob | October 18, 05:14 CET

And I gave up on Alias Season One (and following) after six or so episodes that I found to be technically-proficient but emotionally unrewarding and entirely ungripping. Taste. There's no accounting.

However, I'd probably give it another go for Amy A. Just shows to go ya.

SoddingNancyTribe | October 18, 05:27 CET

I'm a fan of Victor Garber - I watch him in some fascination because when he was an up and coming actor in Toronto, he was a comedic singer/actor. And now he just makes his mouth really really small and never smiles.
The whole show is somewhat fantastical and I have to agree with Amy that if you miss an ep, there is just no explaining.

Lioness | October 18, 05:59 CET

Ah. You gave up right before one of my favorite episodes. Color Blind. I wish the guest actor from that episode was in more. He was so good!

eddy | October 18, 06:02 CET

I'm almost willing to PAY to see that!




I caught him in the movie "Godspell" recently, where he played hippie-clown Jesus, and what a set of pipes! He has the most incredible singing voice, too!

Anyway, now we have Amy Acker on opposite James Marsters. My VCRs are working overtime this season.

Nebula1400 | October 18, 07:30 CET

This was hands-down the best episode of Alias I've seen in a long time. I, too, had decided to write it off after the lame last season, and only watched the episode for Amy. She was sinister, intense, and exciting! Wow, I can't believe how much I missed seeing Amy on TV! What an incredible actress! Rachel Nichols was convincing and very enjoyable to watch. This ep really turned the tide for me, I will be tuning in again. Major Jack Bristow fan here, but Syd has lost her spark, IMO.

SaltyGoodness | October 18, 08:12 CET

While I think that Garber & Olin are compelling to watch, and that Garner can be charming & likable, I'd like to be rid of them (along with Sloane, Dixon, etc...) because I think their characters are just played out. There's only so much "Your mom's dead. Oops, no she's not. OK, now she definitely is because I killed her. Oh, wait..." that I can take. At this point in the series, everyone has accumulated so much tedious backstory that I really don't want to be reminded of anymore.

However, I still like the "female spy" concept, so if they want to start fresh and hopefully avoid the mistakes from previous seasons, I'm game.

I haven't really been following Alias news. Does JJ Abrams still have an active role on this show, or is he busy with his other projects? That article made it seem like Bell is the new boss.

areacode212 | October 18, 08:17 CET

I think there are about five executive producers running the show at this point (Jeffrey Bell is the latest.) I am under the impression that J.J. is working hard on his Mission Impossible movie, but I bet he's still involved in all the major decisions.

rabid | October 18, 08:56 CET

bonzob, thank you thank you thank you for pointing out the dullness of Nichols. She's like a wet towel on screen. I think she's an okay actor, but the camera loves her not at all. It all comes off as drippy. While it was great seeing Amy on the show, I kept half wishing she had Nichols' role. As for the show, I'm of the mind that they haven't played out the Bristow stuff because they keep side-stepping it for what might be appealing to new viewers (give it up; there aren't any). I was actually annoyed with this last episode. Am I now supposed to care about sub-classic Syd going through sub-par Syd situations? I'm not impressed.

Sorry about tirading. I once truly loved this show. Season two and all the re-inventing -- wow. And now it's a knocked up girl sitting in a truck while characters I don't give a crap about run around getting blown up.

mosie | October 18, 10:50 CET

While I will agree that seasons 3 and 4 may not have been as good as seasons 1 and 2, I really don't agree that the show isn't any good any more, it's just that seasons 1 and 2 were excellent, and it would be hard to reach those heights again (I do believe that the back end of season 4 came pretty damn close). Any way, Amy Acker being on the show can't hurt, I'm wondering if she's actually evil, or if she just strongly believes the guy that had Vaughan killed's lies.

I love the show, but if Jennifer Garner leaves, I hope it finishes, it is clear that they're trying to introduce characters that could potentially carry the show if needs be, Rachel Nichols would be the new Sydney, Balthazar Getty is the potential love interest for her, Elodie Bouchez is the wanted criminal they can sometimes rely on for help, yet the next week be chasing. Alias has always been about the characters and their relationships with Sydney, unless they try really hard to forge interesting relationships between the old characters and the new ones this season, the only old character I can see sticking around is Marshall, and that's just 'cos the guy seems to like most people (he even started having breakfast with Sark before he and Weiss joined APO), and he's funny. Jack, Dixon and Sloane are all interesting characters, but will they still be as interesting without Sydney there, none of them have Jack as their father who they used to not be able to rely on, none of them have been partners with Dixon for years, and none of them were personally effected by the old, evil Sloane that would make it difficult to believe or trust the new, not evil Sloane.

Ghost Spike | October 18, 12:44 CET

I'm only about half-way through Alias season three at the moment but I'm still enjoying it. I thought the first season was very high quality throughout, in every aspect, and it was very compelling, and season two kept that momentum with even more important and shocking plot twists.

Season three I have been interested in but I can understand some of the reasons why people didn't like it, I do feel a slight isolation from most of the characters, apart from perhaps Sydney herself, who is just as confused as the viewer. It has certainly been much darker and sort of more unusual and dreamy.

But I think it had definitely lost its sense of fun, and with the darker, more depressing stories it is essential to maintain the same level of humour, if not a little more. It's like Buffy season six again. It was occasionally harsh, and quite suprising, but Buffy still kept a lot of humour and other things that didn't let the darkness take over, however I feel Alias is very lacking in this respect.

I realise that perhaps it isn't always satisfying simply to alleviate some tension by having Sydney pull on a disguise and pull off a mission, but if they had a few more inventive, fun missions and some upbeat music then I think it would really help me personally to enjoy the show just a little more.

I also think Marshall is a tremendously underused character. I mean he usually appears in only one or two scenes at most, when this would be the best time for him to feature a little more prominently and provide some comic relief. I'm also getting a little tired of Sark. I wasn't a big fan to start with, but the number of times either he or Sydney has the other in a position of mercy or had a good chance to kill the other, they always seem to escape. Just kill the guy already, it's getting ridiculous!

At this point I'm not tired of the Sydney's various relationships but I have always thought it could be a potential problem. The reason I really enjoyed it at the start was because she had a lot of interesting relationships- the cold, distant one with Jack, two friends who she really loved, the potential love interest Vaughan, her hatred of Sloane and eventually the very weird but engaging relationship with Irina.

At the start of the show all of these really interested me, but the way the show is headed I'm not sure it always will. How many revelations and twisted relationships can be formed between these people? We need at least some stabilising forces in Syd's life, something to interest us aside from the whole spy business.

Has anyone else really, really been missing the presence of Will and Francie? I think Irina not being there is also quite disappointing, and I think it really sticks out that if Lena Olin did want to be there then she would be a much more important part of the story.

So basically at this point I'm a little disappointed but I still think it is usually consistantly good, but I really need some variation and more fun injected into proceedings. Of course it's very strange to think that I am so far behind the US, but the season three DVD was only released a few months ago and I have been working through it steadily, whereas you guys are already well into season five!

Any of my hopes and wishes for the series are really redundant because the next season is already done and dusted long ago.

But I'm glad to hear that Amy is involved, and I will definitely be looking out for her in Alias.

Razor | October 18, 22:05 CET

Oh, just you wait until tbe end of season three. I fell in love with him then. He's delightfully antagonistic and he has great chemistry with Sydney. Yes, I'm one of those evil Syd/Sark shippers. Hee.



Oh god yes! That was the dynamic that made Alias so compelling in the first two seasons - Sydney's secret life, and how one part of her life was normal and that was her solace. Now everybody knows she's an agent and it's no secret anymore. She has no other life now. I don't know how they can go back to that feeling unless she decided to quit the CIA and go be a teacher, and fast-forward a year when she has a new life full of good friends and new boyfriend, when suddenly she gets a phone call and they need her on an assignment to rescue a Rambaldi artifact. Actually, that would make a great season finale, now that I think about it.

I especially miss Will. He was a great presence on the show. What's ironic about that is that one of the reasons Bradley Cooper left Alias was because he didn't feel his character was appreciated by the fans. Now everyone wants him back. I miss him a lot on the show. There's a great big Will Tippin void on Alias.

But I'm still watching. It's not my favorite show (VM and Lost are) but it still has potential to be amazing at times. I was very impressed with the second half of last season. I'm one of the rare fans that actually liked Nadia.

electricspacegirl | October 19, 00:20 CET

After the first episode of season 4 it seemed like they were going to do the secret life thing with Weiss, though I thought it was crap writing to make Weiss actually believe that Syd worked at a bank, it would have been cool if they'd kept that going for a bit before bringing him into APO.

Nadia wasn't at all bad, in fact I think she's the only character that they should have considered to replace Sydney as the star of the show.

Apparantly they got loads of letters from fans complaining about Will because there were long stretches when he didn't do much, I've heard that they got a few letters saying "kill Bradley Cooper" and they just hoped they meant "kill Will Tippin". Along with Irina and Sark, Will really is one of the characters we need to see again if this is to be the final season.

Ghost Spike | October 19, 00:38 CET

Ugh, the people who complained so much about Will annoy me so much. I think there were a lot of people who said he was boring, or annoying, and stuff, and I would imagine a lot of them probably complained when he finally did leave.

Personally I thought he was a great character right from the start, and I really liked and appreciated Bradley Cooper's work on the show. I agree perhaps he didn't always have a huge amount to do, but they could have worked him in more instead of getting rid of him.

Same with Francie, they should have done so much more with her when she was alive, and I personally would have liked to have even see more of her setting up her restaurant and stuff, yes when she was killed she had become pretty much a role to be filled rather than a character, but it didn't have to be that way had the writers focused more on that element.

I think now it would be difficult for the writers to shift some normalcy back onto Sydney's life but I really think that's what they need to do. It's a pity that they will probably never be able to capture the natural friendly dynamic between Garner, Cooper and Dungey again.

Razor | October 19, 00:52 CET