Alias: The First Season (2001)

Back in 2001, the first season of J.J. Abrams' "Alias," starred Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a CIA agent working undercover as an operative for the mysterious (and evil) intelligence agency SD-6. The twist: most of the employees and agents of SD-6 believe they are actually working for the CIA and accomplishing good around the world. Only Bristow and her father (Victor Garber), who also works as an operative for SD-6, know the truth. But what is striking is about this season is what a terrible spy the Bristow character is. Although praised as being a first rate double agent of espionage, she is, in fact, an awful, awful international woman of mystery. Really, really bad.

Here's why:

1. Henchman are always sneaking up on her and capturing her. Whether she is stealing the core of a nuclear device, rummaging through a suspect's hotel room, or even disabling the fail-safe mechanism of the SD-6 headquarters, she is very often caught by surprise by the henchmen of her evil and nefarious enemies. She is very fortunate that these henchmen have the foresight not to shoot her on sight but rather escort her at gunpoint to another location so that she has the time and opportunity to clobber them. Shouldn't she be doing more to ensure that she is not caught by surprise? Isn't she extraordinarily fortunate that they have not shot her on sight before she has the opportunity to react?

2. She prefers kickboxing to firearms. In her line of work, wouldn't a firearm with a silencer serve her better than her mad kickboxing skills? I mean, she disarms her opponents via kickboxing, and then continues to kick them until that opponent is unconscious. What's the point of that in the world of international espionage?

3. She refuses to kill the bad guys. After clobbering the henchmen, she leaves them not for dead, but for unconscious. This means, that at some later determined point, these henchmen will awaken, identify her, and possibly, fight her again. Of course, for the convenience of the series, the defeated henchmen do not return or rise from their slumber. However, this seems particularly sloppy for the world of intrigue which Ms. Bristow inhabits. Indeed, in the first several episodes, much ado is made of her rivalry with Anna Espinosa (Gina Torres), an agent of a competing European spy agency. Espinosa has made a career of making matters difficult for both Bristow and SD-6. After an encounter with Espinosa in a church, Bristow leaves her handcuffed to a piece of furniture rather than killing her on the spot. This makes matters far worse in later episodes.

4. She is careless. In one episode, during an operation in Las Vegas, she turns the corner to discover that her partner, Marcus R. Dixon (Carl Lumbly) is being detained by security officers of the casino which they have entered under false pretenses. Before rushing over to assist him in the melee that is soon to ensue, she yells, "Dixon" across the hallway. That's his real name. Not his undercover identity, but his true and correct surname. What is she doing yelling it across a casino hallway in the presence of casino security? This seems a particularly troubling breach of protocol, especially considering the name of the series. In another careless move, Bristow does absolutely nothing to change her living arrangements after being offered sarcastic condolences from Espinosa (who is apparently aware that Bristow's fiancee was killed). If that's the case, then Espinosa very likely knows the real name of Bristow's fiancee, which would give her easy access to locating Bristow in Los Angeles. (Heck, you don't have to be an international spy to login to theknot.com and perform a search of soon-to-be married couples.). Thus, Espinosa could very easily find out Bristow's real name, her Los Angeles address, and other vital personal information which would endanger Bristow, her roommate, and other individuals.

We permit our television series to make silly mistakes to heighten tension. But this is the series by the guy who would ultimately co-create the far, far better "Lost" in 2004 and who would direct the first film of the official reboot of the Star Trek franchise in 2009. Alas.

John Cusack for President (2001/2002)

It's never too early, or too late, to talk about presidential elections and their accompanying trivia. In August of 2001, Democratic consultant and progressive operative Dan Carol began a tongue in cheek effort to draft Hollywood actor John Cusack to run for president. Not endorsed by the actor, and envisioned as "a draft, volunteer campaign designed to promote community service," Carol's grass roots campaign included a nifty website (an archive of which can be viewed here). The campaign - if it could truly be called that arose out of the now defunct progressive website Junction City. But why Cusack? The website boasted:

He made the tough decisions in Grosse Pointe Blank. He couldn't be bought in Eight Men Out. He's cooler than John Malkovich. And we like his politics so far.

Ultimately, after the effort received some favorable press coverage, Cusack pulled the plug on the idea. The last version of the campaign website noted: "The word has come down from the Big Guy that he wishes that this campaign would stop —and we must respect these wishes."

You can review the original media coverage of the draft Cusack campaign here, here, here, here, and here. As for Carol, you can see his LinkedIn profile to see his political resume.


In December of 2007, just over two years ago, I conducted a brief email interview with Carol regarding the idea, which by then was more than six years old. The interview went as follows:

1. How did you come up with the idea for Cusack for President in 2002? Who designed the site and led the movement besides yourself?

We had what I thought was a pretty innovative citizen engagement web site called Junction-City.com (now defunct) that we saw as a proving ground for different forms of creative online engagement, on issues and causes. In the summer of 2001, we decided to launch a celebrity for president campaign to reach out to young people turned off by party politics as usual. We thought about a bunch of folks, from Little Steven Van Zandt to Bruce Springsteen to Cameron Diaz, but Cusack's integrity, authenticity and "everyman" quality seemed like the right call at the time. It sure hit a chord. "We" was myself and the wonderful creative team at my cause consulting company.

2. What was Cusack's response? Did he ultimately ask you to stop the movement and website? How did you learn that?

As the effort took off on campuses and the entertainment press, we were contacted by a PR agency that was promoting one of Cusack's movies who asked us to blast out list about the movie. We took this as a tacit sign of support. Then when we expanded the site to include more campus organizing tools in early 2002, we got a clear go-ahead from folks in his camp that it was OK as long as we weren't raising funds. Later as Mr Cusack kept getting peppered with questions on the campaign, and because of the seriousness of choosing a president became clear in the 2002-2003 run-up to the Iraq war, we were asked quite understandably to close it down. Which we did.

Lots of folks saw the campaign as one of the important proving grounds for chapter-based online organizing efforts later used by the Dean campaign and MoveOn efforts, and for the Draft Wesley Clark campaign.

3. What did you think of Stephen Colbert's brief run for the presidency?

I LOVE Stephen Colbert and think he is brilliant. I didn't love his presidential run.

4. Did you think about starting the Cusack site again in 2008?

No way. I am busy with my work on smart forms of US energy independence. Plus the ball is in his court, not mine.

I would say this: I think past draft campaigns like this -- whether imaginary like the movie Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 1939), tongue-in-cheek like Pat Paulsen (1968), somewhere in between (Cusack 2001) or fully serious (Perot 1992, Bloomberg 2008?) -- reflect voter demand for something more than what they are getting from the usual candidates. In some measure, I think some of the current presidential field are reaching out to these deeper aspirations, but the proof will be in the pudding and if we end up with a lot of voters who are "bored" with early nominations in March 2008, I wouldn't be surprised if something popped up here.

But we are in two shooting wars now, so this type of insurgent-creative challenge better be serious if it expects to get authentic and meaningful support.

24 (Season 8)

Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, the world's unluckiest counter-terrorism agent, is so 2001. Season 8 of Fox's "24" begins tonight, and I must confess that I gave up on this series years ago. In 2001, when it was new to the airwaves, the premise of a program in real time was novel and gripping. Sure, even then, the show had its problems (Jack's wife's amnesia, Kim Bauer), but they were easily forgiven in the show's infancy. To boot, nine years ago, the show featured the lovely Sarah Clarke as the twisted and evil Nina Myers, who would be killed by Jack Bauer two seasons later. But that was then. These days, the show rigidly adheres to its tired narrative playbook, endlessly recycling its plots and themes and attempting to shock its viewers at the end of each episode. But to what end? We've seen it all before; there's nothing new here. Yawn.

What the show's producers have done to try to shake things up for the new season is not encouraging. The setting moves to New York City (but it will mostly be shot in Canada), and although that sounds more promising due to the compactness and immediacy of that city, I suspect a new locale cannot save the show from its inevitable doldrums. Further, Katee Sackoff from "Battlestar Galactica" joins the cast this season, but not even that casting decision could compel me to set my DVR to record this mess of a series. Would that the writers and producers would do something truly daring with the show, but alas, from what I gather, viewers are still left with moles and traitors and backroom presidential politics, all of which have been done to death and to death and to death. (What might have been? In 2005, the pop novel writer Dan Brown rejected the offer of 24's producers to adapt The Da Vinci Code into a full season of "24." Whatever that book's merits, that would have been an interesting season.). Alas.

So, to you, "24," I say goodbye.