Spying in the swamp water

The TV series "Alias" has a cult-ish following, so I picked up the DVD set, to see what's what.

So far, the spycraft is repetitive and cliched, while the characters and their personal woes are engaging.

Season 3, however, is driving me bats. A U.S. senator — and father of the traitor-mole — is in the CIA office in Los Angeles, and is giving orders.

Does Ted Stevens know that the CIA will take orders from him? Fictionally. Sigh of relief.

"Alias's" credibility is nearly destroyed by this nonsense. CIA is Executive Branch; Senate is Legislative Branch. Legislators don't give orders to the other branches of the federal government. Dick Cheney would rip this fictional Senator a few new orifices.

In a side matter, the two-man writing team that's working on the new "Star Trek" movie wrote a bunch of episodes for "Alias." Alas, their writing, however manhandled by the showrunners, sucks swamp water, just as it did on "Hercules The Legendary Journeys," one of their first gigs.

James T. Kirk's screwed. Again.

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