Alias ​​- the agent

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Television series
German title Alias ​​- the agent
Original title Alias
Alias.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 2001-2006
Production
company		 Touchstone Television
Bad Robot
length 42 minutes
Episodes 105 in 5 seasons ( list )
genre Drama , adventure , action series , mystery , thriller
idea JJ Abrams
production JJ Abrams
Ken Olin
music Michael Giacchino
First broadcast September 30, 2001 (USA) on ABC
German-language
first broadcast		 February 18, 2003 on ProSieben
occupation

Alias ​​- The Agent is an American television series that started in 2001 and contains elements of espionage, action and drama. In the USA it was first broadcast on the ABC broadcaster, in Germany the series started on ProSieben . The creator, head writer, showrunner, and partial director of the series, which ended after 105 episodes in May 2006, was JJ Abrams .

action

Starting position

Sydney Bristow leads a double life: officially she is a bank clerk, in fact she works as an agent for SD-6 - allegedly a secret subdivision of the CIA . When Arvin Sloane , the head of SD-6, learns that Sydney has let her fiancé know her secret, he arranges for him to be murdered. Sydney then quits the service and is therefore classified as a security risk itself. She narrowly escapes Sloane's captors when Jack Bristow , her estranged father, unexpectedly rushes to her aid. From him, who is surprisingly also in the service of SD-6, she learns that this organization is by no means part of the CIA, but rather belongs to the criminal syndicate of the Alliance of Twelve - an enemy of the state . In order to regain Sloane's trust, Sydney single-handedly procures an artifact of the philosopher , prophet and inventor Milo Rambaldi - a mixture of Leonardo da Vinci and Nostradamus - which is very important to Sloane .

Sloane, whose obsession is the works of the fictional “genius” from the 15th century , accepts this as evidence of Sydney's loyalty, but she now reveals herself to the real CIA to work from now on as a double agent ; their liaison will be Michael Vaughn . Besides Sydney, there is a second mole in SD-6: her father. Together they work to smash SD-6.

Further plot

Much of the plot in the first three seasons deals with the Rambaldi prophecy. Many episodes revolve around getting the artifacts of that man, which are scattered around the world and are sought by many interested parties or followers of Rambaldi. Arvin Sloane in particular is obsessed with him and his life's work, as he himself admits. The secret of the prophecy has not yet been fully revealed by the authors of the series, even if this appears after the finale of the fourth season. The solution only emerges in the final third of the last episode of the fifth season: one's own immortality (with Rambaldi's artifacts of course); defeating death.

Already in the middle of the second season SD-6 and all other SD cells are broken up by the Alliance of the Twelve, and most of the characters of SD-6 switch to the "real" CIA. The main focus of the plot is briefly focused by Rambaldi on clarifying the family situation in Sydney. If she had already learned in the first season that her mother, believed to be dead, was not just an agent of the KGB , she now has to find out that Irina Derevko is still alive and that her marriage to Jack was only an order to obtain internal information from the CIA get. With the same background, Sydney's friend Francie Calfo is murdered on behalf of Sloane and replaced by a double . At the end of the second season, Sydney finds out about this and shoots Allison Georgia Doren down after a violent fight, in which she loses consciousness and wakes up again two years later in Hong Kong with no memory whatsoever .

Solving this loophole is an integral part of season three, but this is made more difficult for Sydney emotionally because her colleague and partner Vaughn, believing she is dead, marries new CIA agent Lauren Reed . In the further course of the plot, however, she also turns out to be a traitor, as she also works as a double agent for the Convention , a criminal organization. Later she even rises to co-head with Julian Sark, thus sabotaging the plans of the CIA. Another element of the season is Sydney's encounter with her half-sister Nadia Santos , who sprang from an affair Irina with Sloane. Both the CIA and the Convention vie to find it as quickly as possible, since Nadia, in her role as the passenger, is the only person who knows the way to the Rambaldi sphere , which is said to be the soul of the Prophet. At the end of the season, Lauren's role as a mole is revealed, where she is shot by Vaughn.

In the fourth season, the task force, a secret subdivision of the CIA, calls itself Authorized Personnel Only (APO) . It is run by Sloane, and after an initial reluctance, Nadia joins the team. The lighting of their past runs like a red thread through the season. For example, it turns out that her teacher at the time was actually Elena Derevko , who eavesdrop on secret information from the CIA. She also arranges for a Sloane doppelganger to be recruited who creates confusion by doing business on his behalf. Elena also incriminates her sister Irina by attaching a contract killing to Sydney, so that Jack shoots Irina so that his daughter is not killed. Later, however, it turns out that the supposed Irina was just a clone and the "real" one is still alive. In the last episode, Elena plunges an entire city into chaos with an assassination attempt that has been planned for years, as she changes the psyche of the residents to evil with a Rambaldi device and thus the residents fight each other. The further spread, up to the planned apocalypse , can ultimately be prevented. In the last episode, Sydney and Vaughn want to celebrate the long-awaited marriage proposal in Santa Barbara , but before they arrive, he reveals to her that their story is no coincidence, and there is a car accident.

In order for Vaughn to recover, his death is faked, but this will only be cleared up in the course of the last season. Now pregnant, Sydney is on her own and is kidnapped by Prophet Five , an organization that has infiltrated the government so that all APO operations must be unofficially planned. However, she escapes and gives birth to her daughter Isabelle under Irina's supervision during a mission . Nadia is in a coma after the joint action against Elena because she was also infected with the Rambaldi virus. To get the antidote, Sloane secretly works with Prophet Five and sabotages a number of APO assignments. He manages to get the serum; however, he is unwilling to give up his Rambaldi obsession in favor of his daughter. When Nadia notices this, there is an argument between the two, in which she is killed in an accident. Then Sloane openly defected to Prophet Five and was hunted by the APO. Eventually he finds Rambaldi's underground burial chamber and apparently becomes immortal by touching a mysterious liquid. Jack, however, traps himself and Sloane in an explosion in the vault. Irina also dies of her obsession with power, because she would rather choose the inventor's most important artifact, Horizon , than choose her life. The last scene in the series shows the "new" Bristow family with Sydney, Vaughn and their two children Isabelle and Jack a few years later.

occupation

main actor

Role name actor Main role Supporting role German dubbing voice
Episodes Seasons Seasons
Sydney Anne Bristow, Anna Espinosa (in season 5) Jennifer Garner 1-105 1-5 Carola Ewert
Arvin Sloane Ron Rifkin 1-105 1-5 Kaspar Eichel
Michael Vaughn Michael Vartan 1-88 1-4 5 Tobias Kluckert
William "Will" Tippin Bradley Cooper 1-44 1-2 3, 5 Matthias Hinze
Marcus Dixon Carl Lumbly 1-105 1-5 Jörg Hengstler
Marshall Flinkman Kevin Weisman 1-105 1-5 Olaf Reichmann
Jack Bristow Victor Garber 1-105 1-5 Reinhard Kuhnert
Francine "Francie" Calfo,
Allison Georgia Doren 		Merrin Dungey 1-44 1-2 3, 5 Katrin Zimmermann
Julian Sark David Anders 23-66 2-3 1, 4-5 Norman Matt
Irina Derevko / Laura Bristow Lena Olin 23-44 2 4-5 Katja Nottke
Eric Weiss Greg Grunberg 45-88 3-4 1-2, 5th Oliver Siebeck
Lauren Reed Melissa George 45-66 3 4th Victoria Storm
Nadia Santos Mía Maestro 68-88 4th 3, 5 Gundi Eberhard
Rachel Gibson Rachel Nichols 89-105 5 Susanne Geier
Thomas Grace Balthazar Getty 89-104 5 Wolfgang Wagner
Renée Rienne Élodie Bouchez 89-97 5 5 Vera Teltz
Kelly Peyton Amy Acker 89-105 5 5 Cathlen Gawlich

Guest actor

The main supporting actors (voice actors in italics in brackets) include (seasons with appearances in brackets):

Television broadcast

Development of audience
response Average reach of first broadcasts in the USA ( ABC )
Season Television season spectator
1 2001-2002 9.7 million
2 2002-2003 8.8 million
3 2003-2004 8.2 million
4th 2004-2005 10.3 million
5 2005-2006 6.7 million

The first three seasons, each consisting of 22 episodes, were first broadcast in the USA from 2001 to 2004 by the broadcaster ABC on Sunday evening. They started in September and ended in May of the following year. The fourth season, also comprising 22 episodes, began only in the middle of the television season, January 2005, and was broadcast on Wednesday evening. The fifth season was initially broadcast on Thursday evening and later moved back to Wednesday, before being cut from originally planned 22 to 17 episodes after a four-month break and ending with a double episode on May 22, 2006.

In Germany, ProSieben broadcast the first season between February and July 2003 and the second season between April and August 2004 in the evening program. Since June 11, 2007, the third season has been broadcast for the first time on Monday evening in double episodes, from August in single episodes. Following the third season, the 4th and then the 5th and final season has been broadcast since September 2007.

In German pay-TV, the series Alias ​​has already been broadcast in full (seasons 1–5) by the station 13th Street and is regularly repeated.

DVD release

Alias ​​- Die Agentin is also available on DVD in the German-speaking region with the regional code (RC) 2. In 2004 and 2005, the rights holder Touchstone Pictures released the first three seasons. They are approved by the FSK from the age of 16. The fourth season was released on June 7, 2007 after almost a year and a half wait since the release of the third season, the fifth season was released on October 11, 2007 by Buena Vista .

There are up to four episodes on each DVD. Apart from the fifth season with only five discs, each of the season sets contains six DVDs, two of which are in a keep-case. The episodes are in anamorphic 16: 9 widescreen format. All seasons have the English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1 and the German soundtrack in Dolby Digital 2.0 - with the exception of the 2nd and 5th seasons, in which this is available in Dolby Digital 5.1. The 2nd and 3rd seasons also contain the Italian soundtrack in Dolby Digital 2.0, while the 4th season contains the Spanish soundtrack, also in Dolby Digital 2.0.

The Rambaldi complete box of the series was released on December 6, 2007. This limited edition box is based on one of the Rambaldi artifacts (Artifact 45) and contains an additional disc with new bonus material.

Awards and nominations

Leading actress Jennifer Garner won the 2002 Golden Globe Award in the category "Best Actress in a Drama Series", in which she was also nominated for the next three years. Also in 2002, Alias ​​- Die Agentin was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series.

In the course of the series, Alias ​​was nominated a total of 36 times for the Emmy , 11 times each in the first two seasons and 8, 4 and 2 times in the last three seasons. The series was awarded once each in the categories Best Camera, Best Art Direction, Stunt Coordination and Make-up.

literature

  • Mark Cotta Vaz: Alias ​​Declassified: The Official Companion . Bantam Books, New York 2002, ISBN 0-553-37597-0
  • Kevin Weisman: Alias ​​Assumed: Sex, Lies and SD-6 . BenBella Books, 2005, ISBN 1-932100-46-6

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Mark Cotta Vaz: Alias ​​Declassified: The Official Companion . Bantam Books, New York 2002, ISBN 0-553-37597-0
  2. ↑ German synchronous index | Series | Alias ​​- the agent. Retrieved June 7, 2020 .
  3. ^ Joal Ryan: TV Season Wraps; "CSI" Rules , February 28, 2007
  4. ↑ a b Suzanne C. Ryan: TV producers have to be agile to deal with ratings, say experts , February 28, 2007
  5. ↑ The Hollywood Reporter: Primetime Series ( Memento of May 19, 2007 on the Internet Archive ), February 28, 2007
  6. ↑ The Hollywood Reporter: Series ( December 8, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ), February 28, 2007
  7. ^ Academy of Television Arts & Sciences: Advanced Primetime Awards Search , February 28, 2007