25 Years Later, This Masterpiece 5-Part Sci-Fi Spy Thriller is Finally Streaming For Free
The early 2000s were a defining era for television. It’s a time that saw the emergence of prestige TV, now-iconic sitcoms centering around colorful characters or rooted in the mockumentary style, and, of course, high-concept, complicated mysteries that kept fans guessing week after week. This was the era of shows like The Sopranos, 24, Malcom in the Middle, Arrested Development, and Lost, but there was another incredible series that helped define the era as well. Part spy thriller, part sci-fi, it’s a series that would see two of its stars to become part of Marvel’s superhero universe, and fans still hope for a reboot, but while we wait for that to materialize it’s available to stream for free.
As of August 1st, all five seasons of Alias will be streaming for free on Pluto TV. The series will be joined by another beloved spy series, Burn Notice, in coming to the platform, giving fans of the spy thriller genre a perfect double feature of action, adventure, and mystery. Alias’s five season run gives fans 105 episodes to dig into while Burn Notice’s seven season adventure offers up 111 episodes making both shows a great binge opportunity for fans.
Alias Wasn’t Just a Spy Thriller; It Was Low-Key a Sci-Fi Masterpiece As Well
If you’re a fan of Alias, you might be asking yourself why I’m calling the J.J. Abrams-created, Jennifer Garner starring series a sci-fi masterpiece. After all, the core of the story was that we were following Garner’s Sydney Bristow, a grad student who was actually a CIA double agent posing as an operative for the criminal spy organization SD-6 in an effort to take it down. But while the espionage is very much the central aspect of Alias, science fiction played a key role as well and the way the series blended it almost seamlessly into the larger story not only made the show a great watch week to week but proves that sci-fi doesn’t have to be completely “out there” in order to work in a mainstream way.
The beauty of Alias’s sci-fi was that it felt completely organic. On one hand, you had sci-fi elements in the various bits of technology that the show utilized. Resident tech geek Marshall Flinkman (Kevin Wiesman) seemed to pull out all manner of wild, high-concept gadgets each week with many of them quietly leaning into futuristic technological ideas in ways that were not actually functional in reality, but were so well presented that they were, frankly, believable. There was also the mythology element of the series. Alias may have presented itself as a simple spy drama where one agent works to bring down a criminal organization, by the end of the first episode “Truth Be Told”, it was clear this was going to be something far more complex. That episode introduced the mysterious 15th century inventor Milo Rambaldi, the lore around him, and the prophecy tied to his work. It’s something lead to stories involving doppelgangers, immortality.
The beauty of Alias is how it pulled it all together into an engaging, serialized mystery box that had wide appeal and it very much helped pave the way for more high-concept network series that actively blend genres. One notable series Alias helped pave the way for was Lost, another Abrams series — and that’s a series that, is for many, one of the best television series to have ever aired on television. But you don’t have to take my word for just how great Alias is. You can stream it for yourself, for free, on Pluto TV starting August 1st.
