Alias: The Complete 4th Season (DVD)

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The twenty-two episodes for Season Four are distributed equally on six DVDs in the following manner:

Disc 1: "Authorized Personnel Only (Part 1)", "Authorized Personnel Only (Part 2)", "The Awful Truth", "Ice"
Disc 2: "Welcome to Liberty Village", "Nocturne", "Detente", "Echoes"
Disc 3: "A Man of His Words", "The Index", "The Road Home", "The Orphan"
Disc 4: "Tuesday", "Nightingale", "Pandora", "Another Mister Sloane"
Disc 5: "A Clean Conscience", "Mirage", "In Dreams", "Descent"
Disc 6: "Search and Rescue", "Before the Flood"

Video:
It is hard to find any fault with the excellent video transfer for this "Alias" DVD set. Presented in its original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the anamorphic widescreen video is clear and well defined, with just a slight tinge of film grain present. Skin tones and other colors also look natural and vivid. Most probably taken from a high-definition source, this "Alias" DVD set is a great example of a video transfer done right. Optional Spanish subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired are included on this DVD.

Audio:
In what has become a norm for "Alias", this DVD set again features only one audio track and that is, English Dolby Digital 5.1. This audio mix is quite dynamic with a decent amount of directional effects and surround activity. The LFE is also used to great effect, especially during the more intense action sequences.

Extras:
To start things off, there are audio commentaries on the following four episodes:
"A.P.O. (Part 1)" – commentary by JJ Abrams, Jennifer Garner, Ken Olin and Sarah Caplan
"A.P.O. (part 2)" - commentary by JJ Abrams, Jennifer Garner, Ken Olin and Sarah Caplan
"Ice" – commentary by Jeff Melvoin, Drew Goddard and Jeffrey Bell
"Nocturne" – commentary by Lawrence Trilling, Jeff Pinkner and Jesse Alexander

The first two commentaries are the most interesting ones of the lot with both Abrams and Garner lightening up both tracks with some interesting details about certain scenes and exhibiting plenty of camaraderie and poking fun at one another. The other two commentaries are for the most part only mildly interesting, adding some tidbits of information that we might not have noticed before.

The rest of the bonus material can be found on Disc 6. "A Chat with Jennifer Garner" is a 6-minute interview session between Garner and executive producer Ken Olin. In it, Olin asks Garner about working with Mia Maestro and also about Garner´s directorial debut in one of the episodes in Season Four. Next is "Meet Mia: Syd´s Little Sister", which is obviously a segment about Mia Maestro detailing her experience working on "Alias". Moving on, "Alias Bloopers" is a collection of funny bloopers and gags taken during the entire season´s filming with a brief introduction by JJ Abrams.

Next we have "Anatomy of a Scene", which is made up of two segments:
"The Train Fight" where the visual-effects supervisor and the stunt coordinator detail how the impressive fight scene on a moving train from the first episode was shot.
"The Chopper Escape" is another example of how much visual-effects shots are used on "Alias", where Jennifer Garner, who was not available for the actual location shoot, was later inserted into the finished shots.

In "Director´s Diary", we follow director Jeffrey Bell as he details the shooting process for episode 20, "Descent". It starts from pre-production, where all the planning is done to stage and location shooting and finally to the post-production editing. The next feature is "Guest Stars of Season 4", where we are introduced to the various guest stars who appeared in this season´s episodes. They include Joel Gray, who plays Sloane´s lookalike/clone, Gina Torres who plays Sydney´s nemesis Anna Espinoza, Angela Bassett, who plays CIA Director Chase, Sonia Braga, who plays Nadia´s guardian Sophia and finally the great Lena Olin, who plays Sydney´s mum, Irina.

Kevin Weisman, who plays chief techie/nerd Marshall on "Alias", helms the next feature titled "Marshall´s World". In it, Weisman has a camera follow him as he goes about his routines on the set. Next in "Agent Weiss´ Spy Cam", actor Greg Grunberg enthusiastically supplies the voiceover to descriptions about the various digital photos, shown here in a montage, that he took during filming. Finally, there are 10 "Deleted Scenes" for your viewing pleasure.

Packaging:
The "Alias" Season Four DVD set is packaged similarly to the "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" sets where the DVDs are placed onto a 4-panel Digipak case with 2 DVDs on a single tray (one partially on top of the other). This Digipak box is then housed inside a hard plastic cover that rounds up the packaging. Also included is a booklet that lists each of the 22 episodes plus a brief synopsis for all of them.

Film Value:
Apart from the over-the-top season finale, Season Four of "Alias" is another strong example of JJ Abrams´ penchant for pulling the rug from under your feet. I wholly enjoyed this season with its multiple plot twists and imaginative stories. As always, the regular cast is superb and with the inclusion of such guest stars as Angela Bassett, Isabella Rosellini, Lena Olin and Sonia Braga, you can be sure that the quality of acting is maintained and sometimes even jacked up throughout the entire season. Change is always good and "Alias" keeps that mantra going. This season is definitely another winner in my books.

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