Oh, don't get me wrong, it's tremendously STUPID. But so are most of Alias' heists (visible lasers, idiot guards, absurd disguises, overengineered security that would be improved upon by a simple locked door, the list goes on). I just don't see how it makes the show racist.
I get why brownface (or any -face) is problematic when real-life people do it for entertainment. I'm not sure why I should think it's problematic in the context of undercover agents trying to pretend to be part of a group that (at least if its anything like real-world jihadist groups) probably has a pretty small number of non-Arab white members.
And even if it is problematic, TV show depicting problematic behavior != problematic TV show.
Yeah, it's hard to get interested in the moral complications of Sydney's existence when the show is willing to go to such extreme lengths to make sure she never actually has to make any ethically thorny decisions or take any morally grey actions to achieve her goals (compare: Person of Interest, which grapples with and ultimately addresses these questions so. much. more. effectively). It's frankly cowardly writing, and I suspect it comes from not trusting the audience to stay engaged with a morally compromised protagonist.
Something about that actually feels very 90s, to me.
Lrnu, Nyvnf arire ernyyl frrzf vagrerfgrq va tenccyvat jvgu nal bs gur gubeal zbeny dhrfgvbaf CBV unaqyrq fb oevyyvnagyl. Vafgrnq, vg whfg trgf zber naq zber bofrffrq jvgu zlfgvpny flyybtvfz naq arire-rkcynvarq ZpThssva'f.
Url, jung bgure WW Noenzf fubj qbrf gung erzvaq lbh bs...
Vg nyfb vf hggreyl vzcynhfvoyr, va n jnl gung nyzbfg frrzf zber yvxr n fbnc bcren guna nalguvat ryfr; erzrzore jura Fybna tbrf gb eha n oynpxbcf tebhc sbe gur PVN nsgre gur PVN ohfgf uvz sbe ehaavat n znffvir pevzvany pbafcvenpl?!!
Nyvnf vf n ybg bs sha va F1/F2, naq gura tbrf bss gur envyf zber funecyl guna onfvpnyyl nalguvat ryfr V'ir rire frra.
Nyvnf vf zber be yrff ZpThssva: Gur Fubj.
Vg'f uhtr qbjauvyy fyvqr va dhnyvgl va gur yngre frnfbaf vf nyfb qverpgyl pbeeryngrq sebz jura vg orpbzrf rira zber sbphfrq ba gur (hggreyl abafrafvpny) ZpThssva'f gb gur rkcrafr bs rirelguvat ryfr.
Without being spoilery, I think many, many people felt that way, if not when you did then a little later in the show. I think it's absolutely a JJ Abrams problem, though I'd argue Fringe did a better job escaping it (though I'd also argue that Fringe naturally stops at the end of Season 3, and Season 4/5 are sort of tacked-on).
I agree with most of this, but I will say going from Alias to Nikita really highlights how far TV fight choreography has come in the last decade (I know most people probably don't care about this, but it's always interesting for me). There's a lot less gymnastic high kicking kung-fu/karate-style excess, just from a stylistic perspective, but there's also a real technical evolution in how scenes are filmed. One big example is just how shows demonstrate the impact of punches and kicks; Alias, like a lot of shows at the time, relied really heavily on the cut-away technique, where the actual strike landing isn't shown.
Agreed. I couldn't figure out why, at the very least, he couldn't just *walk out of the room* and then suck the air out?
Isn't that great, though? In Greer's mind he's not the villain; he's not murdering and destroying for kicks. I think this is a perfectly fitting end to his character.
I mean, maybe (OK, definitely) it would have been satisfying to see someone shoot him, but I think his self-sacrifice is stronger thematically.
Remember Root's first episode, where she was assassinating political figures for money and pinning the blame on a random unemployed guy?
Yeah. Root was genuinely a monster, even more so than John or Fusco or Shaw, before she found TM.
And she didn't join TM because of morality, either. That was a later byproduct.
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