[ September 21, 2005 ]
Whatever the scenario, the fact remains that MV will be offscreen for a significant portion of the season. He hasn't filmed since August 17. No matter what storyline they use, MV won't be onscreen. There's nothing good or satisfactory about that fact. Frankly, we don't care in the least what storyline they use if MV isn't ONSCREEN. So they might bring him back for the final few eps. Big whoop, a couple of eps out of the entire season means little. They're still screwing over MV and his fans -- they'll string fans along with the tease of his possible return at the very end -- and we're not about to let them off the hook for that because of some vague possibility. They want MV's fans to tune in without actually PAYING or USING MV, and we think that's cheap and slimey. The advertiser boycott still needs to go on to show them that it's not OK for them to treat fans and actors this way.

Yes, we read J.J.'s comments and saw nothing new in them, just his usual annoying and vague teasing. If there was anything really positive to say, anything concrete, they'd say it instead of letting the fan outrage continue and risk losing more viewers. But they can't. Although he did basically confirm that MV won't be around. Who cares if they mention Vaughn if MV's not there? We're not that easily appeased. We lived through the same basic thing in the final seasons of "The X-Files" and heard the same empty promises and teases regarding the absence of David Duchovny. It's all about dangling a carrot on a stick in front of the viewers. Sorry to sound so cynical, but we know how the game is played. It's Spin Control 101.

[ December 5, 2003 ]
There are love-to-hate characters, like Sloane, who are fun and enjoyable. And then there are "hate to even look at her or hear her speak" characters, like the COW, who are not fun and not enjoyable. She's just a turnoff who is not working, either as a character in her own right or as a plot contrivance. She's like a black hole, sucking the show's entertainment value and quality away.

She's the kind of hated character who detracts from a show, not adds to it. I don't want to root against her. I don't want to see what bad or annoying things she does. I just want her to go the hell away and never darken the Alias scripts again. However, I know that's not going to happen, unfortunately. A silly, naive part of me kept hoping that she'd be pushed into the background where she belongs and the show would be "fixed" somehow and I could come back, but that's not going to happen. I just don't see how a character that inspires such negative response can honestly be termed a good thing. I don't believe the axiom that any publicity is good publicity -- just ask Michael Jackson!

Nor do I believe that any reaction is a good reaction. So much effort is being put into disliking and complaining about this character -- wouldn't it be infinitely better if that effort could go into supporting the show or speccing positively or talking about characters who are actually enjoyed by fans? I can't believe that such a proportion of negativity can ever be a good thing for a show. And yet it's impossible for many NOT to be negative about this character -- which pushes aside enjoyment and positivity.

I think it's really sad that so much time and attention -- on both sides of the camera -- is being paid to a disliked character played by a B-list actress instead of to worthier, popular characters played by far better actors. They get shoved into the background and/or have their characters harmed while she gets a disproportionate share of attention and thought -- with so far little positive result. It's time to stop greasing this squeaky wheel and pay some real thought to the characters who most fans actually care about and want to see.

When is Vaughn going to be shown as something more than a passive wuss clinging to a character we hate, which only harms his character? The COW brings him down to her subpar level. Her existence makes the specialness of the VSR a lie. When is Dixon going to get an honest-to-God storyline and act more like himself instead of a robot? Carl Lumbly is a fantastic, lauded actor who deserves much more screen time than the COW. Are Weiss and Marshall, characters since the beginning, ever going to be more than background characters or comic relief? I'm not a Sark fan, but he deserves a storyline a heck of a lot more than the COW, because DA is a charismatic actor even without knowing much about Sark.

And yet all of these characters are being short-changed or actively sacrificed so that J.J. can force the COW down viewers' throats. THEY are the ones whose stories and emotions and feelings should be addressed and given time to. Not the new play-pretty character that hardly anyone seems to enjoy having on the show except the writers.

Instead, it appears that just the opposite is going to happen, with Killjoy being put front and center and getting a major arc that the other characters will have to react to. That overemphasizes her importance and de-emphasizes theirs.

Look at all the effort that has been put into trying to make the fans like and accept the COW -- the preseason press blitz, the articles, the interviews, the visits from infotainment shows, practically an entire issue of the official Alias magazine devoted to singing her praises. And has this changed the fans' opinions of her in any significant way? Has she been embraced by the fans because of all this effort and pimping? NO! It has been a complete and utter waste of time and effort. Think what they could have done with the other characters and storylines had they spent that time and effort on them instead.

How much more time and effort are J.J. and VBR going to waste on this character instead of taking responsibility for their misstep, admitting that she was a mistake and letting the show and the fans move the hell on to something that might actually work and be entertaining?


[ Sept. 13, 2003 ]
(In response to quotes by Ken Olin and J.J. Abrams in the October/November 2003 issue of CFQ)

Feh. KO is now on my sh*t list, too. He's parroting the same old uncreative, juvenile crap that couples can't be compelling together, only apart. It's more exciting and romantic to WANT to be together than to actually BE together???

Hacks! They are completely nothing but hacks who can only fall back on the same old soap-opera cliches. We went through S&V having to work to get together once. They're just repeating themselves, only now it's Browzilla and The Triangle That Ate Alias instead of SD-1 in the way.

They can talk all the hot air they want to about characters, but it's obvious they're only REALLY interested in keeping Syd and Vaughn apart, because they are too untalented or lazy to write them as interesting together. They care much more about the "gotcha" than honest, mature storytelling that deals with real issues. They had a GOLDMINE of inherent issues in S/V, but they chose cliches and mindf*cks instead. Hacks.

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