i ♥ will

What? You kissed Will Tippin? Are you kidding me? . . . I don't believe it. You must have been really drunk.
-Francie Calfo

So, Alias has been cancelled and will soon join Will, Francie, Weiss, Irina, and Vaughn (basically all the good characters) in that big top-secret-CIA-headquarters in the sky. My friend mrsjackbristow is crying into her pillow each night, but I cannot say that I am sad to see it go, at least in its present incarnation. Pregnant Sydney? No, no, no. (However, I will cop to loving last week's scene of Jack and Syd assembling a crib.)

I first began watching the spy drama earlier this year, when I visited scoutfinch in Madison over MLK weekend. On Sunday morning, the skies saw fit to blanket the state in over a foot of snow in what is now listed as one of the worst storms in Wisconsin history, so we settled in with the Season One DVD's. Neither of us had ever watched the show while it aired, but we both had close friends who were addicted to it. (In fact, one of my first encounters with mrsjackbristow gave me a taste for how fanatical Alias fans can be. One night a few years ago, when my right foot inexplicably started paining me to the point of limping, I stopped by her apartment [she has a degree in sports medicine] to have her take a look at it. She answered the door with, "Alias is on. I'll talk to you during the commercial," and turned away to head back to the television. I faltered after her and sat down to wait while Jack and Katya got their sexual tension on.) Of course, scoutfinch and I loved the show from the very first episode, and within a month I had watched the entire first two seasons.

And then, the third season was released on DVD. And then, I didn't want to watch Alias anymore.

And it's not because I'm a Sydney/Vaughn shipper, because I'm not. I actually think that he's a bit of a dolt (albeit a really, really hot one) and that Syd should have shacked up with Weiss a long time ago (and not just because he's Jewish!), especially after Vaughn threw her over and got married to someone else (and an EVIL someone else, at that) within two years of Syd's "death." Rather, I mourn the loss of Sydney's support system. Will and Francie are gone after Season Two, and they took with them Sydney's lifeline to normalcy and humanity. Season Three was just a big ol' depressive bout of friendless Syd moping after Vaughn (with the notable exception of the cute if still maudlin scene in which Syd and Weiss get drunk on tequila shots). Or maybe my beef with post-Season-Two Alias is just based on the fact that I lurve Bradley Cooper.

Bradley Cooper interview, Part the First (in which he expounds for some time on Wet Hot American Summer)

Bradley Cooper interview, Part the Second