Abrams Promises to Fix 'Alias'
 

From zap2it.com:

Abrams Promises to Fix 'Alias'

(Wednesday, July 14 04:03 PM)
By Daniel Fienberg

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Few television shows have a fan base as faithfully and dedicatedly obsessed with their every detail as ABC's "Alias." The spy drama's aficionados have put up with and embraced thousands of unconnected details about some dude named Rambaldi, doppelgangers galore, several total reinventions of the show's plot, scores of distant and rediscovered relatives and enough confusing twists to leave even the most patient of heads scratched raw.

For all of that nearly unconditional adoration, most "Alias" fans will admit that between Sydney's missing years and Evil Lauren and the arrival of The Passenger and Sloane's seemingly never-ending shuttle to-and-from prison and in-and-out of death, the show lost its way last season. Fortunately, the man who held the rudder steady for the first two seasons of "Alias" thinks he's found a way to fix the problems.

The show's creator J.J. Abrams was working on the pilot for ABC's desert island drama "Lost" when he looked at some of last season's episodes and was stunned.

"It was a physical pain to see where the show was and where I felt it needed to be and I was so hopeful that we would get picked up so we could do the corrections that so desperately needed to be made," Abrams says.
Abrams was able to take advantage of the fact that ABC ended the season mired in fourth place. On NBC or CBS, a show drawing only 8.2 million viewers per week wouldn't stand a chance, but for ABC, any kind of buzz-worthy drama was worth keeping around. The network decided, however, to postpone the new season of "Alias" until January, using its Sunday slot to launch the quirky black comedy "Desperate Housewives."

Looking forward, Abrams is relishing the opportunity to right the "Alias" ship, even though much of the show's daily operation will be handled by a team that includes writer-producer Jeff Melvoin, director-producer Ken Olin and a writing staff populated with many fresh faces including "Angel" alums Jeff Bell and Drew Goddard. The crew will have extra time to get the early scripts in order and the postproduction time will be expanded, all in the name of achieving Abrams' mission.

"I can tell you my mission statement: Go back to what works about the show," Abrams announces. "Go back to character first. Go back to Sydney and Vaughn as a relationship that you rooted for. Go back to Sydney and Jack as a conflict of parent and child. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to give away where it's going, but go back the dynamics that made the show absolutely function. The irony is that I felt the show was at its best.. when SD-6 existed and that's sortta the biggest hint that I will give in that storyline."

With all of these internal narrative changes, Abrams reveals that there will be some cast alterations as well. David Anders, whose Sark never properly gelled as a full-time cast member last season, will return to recurring status, a move that Abrams hopes will free the writers from stretching to insert the character into story arcs. After a full season away, it has also become increasingly less likely that Lena Olin's Irina Derevko will make a return. While recasting the part has been generally considered, Abrams isn't leaning in that direction.

"In the myopic universe of 'Alias,' it would be sacrilege to recast that part," he acknowledges. "I can't imagine doing that. I would love Lena to come back. I don't think it's something she wants to do."

Also in character limbo is Greg Grunberg's Eric Weiss. Grunberg is starring in "The Catch," a bounty hunter drama that Abrams has been writing and developing for some time. In fact, Abrams was nearly ready to go forward on "The Catch" last spring when an ABC executive called him in to work with Damon Lindelof on the "Lost" script.

"I finished the script and worked on the outline with Damon and then on that Saturday they picked up both 'Lost' and 'The Catch,'" he recalls. "That was exciting and great, but the fact was that I knew I couldn't do both at the same time. One had to come first and they wanted 'Lost' for the fall. So I decided to put 'The Catch' on hold."

In its current incarnation, "The Catch" will shoot its pilot in October with Abrams directing and Grunberg, Orlando Jones, Don Rickles and Kym Whitley starring. Abrams wants the show to be ready for a midseason slot on ABC and if that were to happen, Grunberg's character would be written off of "Alias."

For now, though, Abrams is concentrating on "Lost" and his rediscovered love for "Alias."

"I feel like I found the show again," he says. "It's a weird feeling. It's almost like dating someone and breaking up because it's just not the right time and finding them again and you get married."

So I guess he's gonna add a gay or lesbian character to "fix" the injustice.

Re: Abrams Promises to Fix 'Alias'
 

Refreshing honesty. The show is in disarray. I know some will disagree, but I feel like I felt during Season 6 of <i>Buffy</i> ... that the heart of the show's style and creativity was busy with another project and those charged with running it in his place couldn't duplicate it.

Still ... I'll believe it when I see it.

das

Oooh, more double-agent stuff! And I hope Lauren will come back from the dead for that hottub scene with Sydney.

I think season 4 will be worth the wait. I liked season 3 more than many of you, but after re-watching season 1 on DVD and part of season 2, it's obvious that the show was sub-par last season compared to the first two seasons.

:lol:

I totally agree that the show was at its best during the SD-6 days. Some folks think that there was a problem with repetitiveness with that situation. But I never felt that because the missions changed all the time, and there wasn't always one bad guy that was in every episode (like Sark this past year). Sark came and went, Anna Derevko came and went, same with Khasinau, etc.

There were multiple SD-#s. It is possible that there was one they didn't know about so it is still going.

Yeah, but it would need a <i>much</i> cooler sounding name ... like, say, "The Order" or maybe "Section 47" or perhaps "The Bond."

das

How about Section 31?


;)

That was my inspiration, but no numbers exist in the Aliaverse other than 47.

das

Well, I was going to ask if Section 37 was a combination between Section 31 and Aliaverse 47, but I see you beat me to the correction. :lol:

The brain briefly failed me. Reading that Whoopi thread in Otter gave me a temporary case of Stupid, like staring into the sun or something.

das

Ahh, the lone voice of reason in a very bizarre political thread. :)

Just so this thread isn't completely off topic.....

:up: to Abrams seeing the faults and his plan to do something about them. I just hope his splitting duties between two shows doesn't lessen the impact.

:lol: I couldn't bring myself to finish reading that stupid piece of shit.

Back on topic:

I still think the next super-secret organization is either going to be called "The Fraternity" or "The Knights of Columbus". For real...

rotfl

5/5

:lol: I'm betting on "Circle K"

das

:lol: That works, too.

Good to hear. Since the show isn't coming back until January the writers have plenty of time to get back on track.

well with both Jack and Sloan being Syd's dad, they're almost there with the 3 men and a baby plot.

Not a whole lot more....the airing of the show has been pushed back, but production will progress as normal.

After reading the article again, I disagree with what it said about Sark not "gelling." I think they should get rid of Sydney's sister. This whole "I have a sister?" thing gives me Buffy flashbacks. And not the good kind.

Also, from what I read somewhere else, next season .

I really hope he can fix it. It got way too wacky last season. This is one of the few shows that I actually make a point of always sitting down to watch, so it was a little dissapointing the way the last season went.

And, the more spy stuff, the better.

I agree that spy stuff is the best. Rambaldi stuff is cool when it's in the context of spying. That's what's good about this show, the spying. Abrams could introduce other 'McGuffin' to replace Rambaldi and the show could be good again like the first 2 seasons.

The spy stuff was not the only good thing about the first 2 seasons. Sydney's personal life was sorely missing last season. They need to get her some friends and a life. They need to bring back Will.