* Let there be spoilers!

Forget about the societal expectations (such as: keeping promises, marrying into the right class…etc) in period pieces; and the misunderstandings in romantic comedies. It makes much more an exciting watch when the boy and the girl can not be together because both their lives are at stake. It also doesn’t help the fact that the girl’s mother killed the boy’s father. What the hell am I talking about? Sydney (Jennifer Garner) and Vaughn (Michael Vartan). The show’s name is Alias.

Syd has problems. Big ones.

** Sydney is a double agent for the CIA and SD-6. SD-6 has been posing as a secret branch of CIA and unfortunately Sydney Bristow has been fooled for 7 years. SD-6 are the bad guys, her father has been misleading her about his own identity for years and her fiance is dead because of SD-6.

*: More details on the show, visit here.

• * So she goes to the real CIA, and joined their quest in bringing SD-6 down. And She starts to have  feelings for her CIA handler: Michael Vaughn. (Michael Vartan)- The feelings are mutual and growing stronger everyday but there is no way Vaughn and Syd can be seen together. If they were, SD-6 will kill them both. Oh and CIA will not be so pleased either…
• * Oh, and Syd learns that her mother wasn’t a primary school teacher who died in a car-crash as she was led to believe. Her mother-played by Lena Olin- was  KGB. She was sent to USA to seduce and marry a CIA operative. But before they learned teh truth, the evidence kind of pointed towards her dad.

*Michael has to sit in the office while Sydney risks her life on every mission. He sometimes has to risk his career and/or his life to get her out of trouble. Although she is great at her job, sometimes she has to undergo unauthorized operations to satisfy her own curiousity or save her dad…

*  Michael knows everything about her, yet their conversations usually take place in CIA storage rooms. They can not go out. They do help out each other with risk operations that are dangerous and personal. They have complete faith in each other. But their most romantic lines can only be: “Yeah, I’ll break into the Vatican with you.” They can not go see a movie but they do get to diffuse a bomb together. How romantic and safe.

*  At the end of season 1, Michael drowns. Or so Syd thinks. She has to go through a painful period-and so do we- when she thinks all is lost, while trying to make CIA thinks there is nothing going on between her and Michael. While they are not acting on their feelings, they both want to be like two normal people, having a chance to date.

* Season 2 finally gives them a chance to get together. For a little while.

* Second season finale makes Michael Vaughn think Sydney died. So season 3 puts Sydney through a hard time, trying to deal with the new woman in Mike’s life: His wife.  Of course they are not over each other. And being Alias, the wife will not turn out to be an angel…

So to sum up:

Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Boy can not date girl on many matters of life and death. Boy gets the girl. Loses the girl. Boy’s new girl turns out to be psycho and tries to kill boy and girl. Boy and girl save each other…And we get two more seasons with other twists. What a story to tell the kids…