When Alias first started airing in late 2001, I initially had no desire or intent to watch it because it looked like it would be cheesy and I've never been into the spy genre. James Bond and that type of stuff was never my thing. However, a friend of mine was super into it and relentlessly begged me to watch, so I finally reluctantly agreed to check it out. I was hooked like crack pretty much within the first 2 minutes. Suddenly I realized that I actually am into the spy genre, provided that it involves the girl getting to do all the bad-ass stuff for a change. I was used to the tradition of chicks being used mainly as eye candy in spy stories. But then Alias came along and flipped that 180 degrees, and I was all for it. And this show had the added benefit of one of my favorite things: a "will-they-won't-they" couple in Sydney and Vaughn - Sydney Bristow is a double agent for a rogue organization called SD-6 and the CIA, and Michael Vaughn is her CIA handler. Vaughn doesn't show up until the last few scenes of the pilot episode, but the chemistry is there pretty much right away.
