Shark Bytes

1. PLOTS. At first, it was like one long movie. Seasons 1-2 were totally gripping. The story built and built, and each episode had an "OMG" ending that made one want to keep watching. Seasons 3 and 5 were also good, but the rehash started to get tired. How many times can you rewrite the backstory and how many times can people switch sides before it gets tired? Season 4 was the only one that sucked. Its standalone episodes were totally lame, destroying the whole lustre of the show.

2. CHARACTERS. Spydaddy is kickass, and Sydney is gorgeous and amazing all throughout. Only in Season 5 is she really marginalized a little bit in favor of Rachel Gibson.

But the show's strength is really as an ensemble cast. In the first 2 seasons, as the plot grows in complexity, naturally, so does the cast. It's really awesome, because you are never drawn out of the story by the odd feeling that some actor wasn't available. No, each character shows up exactly when needed. It contributed to the show feeling like one great movie. (Actually, there is an exception--Weiss is strangely missing for much of Season 2.)

After Season 2, it just got weird. The cast was majorly reduced at the end of each season. I'm not talking about characters who died--that was always well-handled and totally understandable. What sucked was when a major character, a major player in the international intrigue scene, was just not a part of the show anymore. As if they were in hiding or somehow inactive. They would show up for cameos here and there for especially poignant episodes, often for season finales.

After Season 2:
Kendall
Irina
Will

After Season 3:
Sark

After Season 4:
Vaughn
Weiss
Nadia

It sucked because every time one of these characters would resurface it would remind me of why I loved this show. But in the first few seasons, you didn't have to wade through a whole season of mediocrity waiting for Sark or Irina to come back. They were regulars!

So, basically, the later seasons were the lingering of a once-great show, kept alive only by the remarkable talents of Jennifer Garner. Where precisely did the show jump the shark? Seasons 1 and 2 were definitely good, Seasons 4 and 5 were definitely bad, but I'm torn about Season 3. The two-year skip at the end of Season 2 didn't bother me--indeed, I thought it made a lot of sense as a way to add a lot of mystery back to the show. I missed Kendall and Will, but they showed up once each, which was satisfying enough. I was likewise appeased by Irina continuing as a character through IMing Spydaddy. It was believable, you know? It didn't really feel at that point like they had gutted the cast yet. Sark was still a part of the show, and that counts for a lot. The plots were good.

It really jumped the shark when they brought back Sloane as head of APO (Season 4). That was the point at which you knew they had nothing new to do with the show.

it jumped the shark when that, sydney is the chosen one and remboldi carap. and at the end when salone could never die, it was the end that wuz unrealistic crap

Quick! The Ford F-150!

I enjoyed all things Alias to a certain degree, but season 3 was a definite low point.

The show got so far off-course, they had to reboot the whole thing in season 4. Hell, they even had Vaughn flat out say "Last year sucked".

No matter how strange the later years got, the first two seasons will always be classics in my eyes.

I enjoyed it all the way through til season 5. JTS or not I love Alias and thought all the seasons were equaly great. 47

Definitely agree that the show jumped at the "waking up two years later" moment, if not earlier. Things started slowing down bigtime as soon as she stopped being a double agent inside SD6. And when she and Vaughn were together (I guess that was late season 2?) all the tension was gone and it was just boring happy/mushy.

And then the thing with her ovaries was just such a let down -- I mean, all that buildup about a prophecy concerning her, and then they're just after her eggs? (Okay, I admit I never watched anything beyond mid-season 3, so if something new came of that, I'm sorry, but really, by then the show was well and truly jumped already...)

2 words: season 5

Jumping the shark? Let me count the ways.
In no particular order
Rambaldi (the 300 year old man)
Nadia (love her as an actual character, but my god I never understood how she showed up)
Hong Kong wake up
Being able to trick Sark by having Sydney wear a lauren mask and a voice changer
Lauren.
Francinator
Julia Thorne
Vaughn never really being dead
Parallel plot between Sydney and the hot blonde that replaced her.
The Derevko sisters that magically appear

After season 2 I watched in hope of redemption. It was never the same. Oh, and as a side note, I'd also like to blame Ben Affleck for messing up my favorite tv relationship ever.

That "two years later" thing killed the show IMHO. I loved Alias, but after that, couldn't watch it again. It was a shame.

Never jumped end of story!

When they killed Nadia! They finally bring her out of the coma just in time to have her own father, who loved her so much, 'accidentally' kill her!
It made me so angry!!! I loved NADIA!

When Vaughn got married. That was completely out of character! He was supposedly so in love with Sydney, and then is so broken up about her "death" that he takes up with another woman just months later?? I've heard that JJ Abrams believed keeping lovers apart was good television, but come on!! That was just a contrivance. Vaughn would never have done something like get with someone else so fast. He was just too loyal and too much of a stand-up guy for that. That storyline really made me mad.

I think it was a 6 episode shark jump. It started with the season 4 premiere and the 4x06 episode with the attempted X-Files type Halloweenish episode with the vampires and hallucinations being the last straw.

"Quick! Jump in the Ford F150!!!!" in a chase scene in a parking ramp. Don't remember when that happened, but the shark was most definitely jumped.

Too many inconsistencies showed up over time. One particularly bothersome one was how Sydney was supposed to have met Sloane only when she was recruited into SD-6, but in reality she had grown up around him and he filled in for her father. What's up with that? And how could Vaughn have been working "secretly" with Renee for 7 years when he was always around? It's like season 5 was determined to take everything we knew (and loved) about the show and turn it on its ear, just for shock value. And to echo what numerous other posters have beeen saying, the loss of the Garner/Vartan relationship in real life came across loud and clear onscreen. The chemistry evaporated and Jennifer Garner seemed, somehow, a much harder person--not nearly as sweet or "nice" as before. Cruel, what she did to Michael Vartan. I haven't had such a high opinion of her since then.