TV Report: Alias, Season One

So a couple of years ago, I tried to start watching Alias. And then I thought -- "What in the heck is up with all this Rambaldi nonsense?"

Obviously, this was a show I should have watched from the beginning. So when I found the first season cheap, I snapped it up.

This is fun, James Bond meets MTV stuff. Sydney Bristow is recruited from college to be a spy. (This was always my secret dream when I was in college.) Now she chases around the world in short skirts and an assortment of wigs, doing sneaky spy stuff and talking into headsets.

There's a big, elaborate double agent plot I'm not even gonna try to explain. Watch it for yourself. But there's lots of action, good suspense, a dash of romance -- and someone finally starts to explain all that Rambaldi stuff! (It's a MacGuffin -- go with it.)

Some stunt casting (Roger Moore, and a hip villainous turn by Quentin Tarantino) ups the cool factor, and a slick soundtrack may be worth researching and downloading. My biggest problem? Sydney -- she tends to the whiney and emo. But Spy Daddy (Sydney's father, Jack Bristow) is twelve shades of fabulous -- he steals the show every time he appears on screen.

A guilty pleasure, but a good one.