You call this archaeology?

So I'm making my way through the first season of Alias on DVD, and I get to the part about the Rambaldi prophecy and okay, whatever. Then James Bond Roger Moore tricks Arvin Sloane into assassinating someone. Yeah. This, I'm not sure I can deal with.

Sure, I'm willing to suspend a certain amount of disbelief, but if nothing else, I expect spies to be smart. And how bright can you be, if the guy from Moonraker can dupe you with Photoshop and Excel? I'm having a really hard time believing that Sloane could be that gullible and sloppy. I mean, hello, independent corroboration? Is you a spymaster or ain't you?

(Aside: does J.J. Abrams love the clip shows, or what? It's episode 17 of Alias, episode 21 of Lost, and the final episode of Felicity. Shave that budget! SHAVE IT!)

It's kind of strange that, for a show which is ostensibly about espionage, the actual espionage elements are the weakest parts of the story-- sometimes, it feels like the SD-6 stuff is just the "B" plot for all the touchy-feely relationship through lines: Sidney's non-spy friends, her estranged father, her missing mother, her crappy love life, etc. And there's nothing wrong with all that; I'm just saying, I'd like to see a real spy show someday, a hardware show. But maybe there's no audience for it.