Still not done my paper...

... but let's not dwell on that. I'd rather think about some of the reasons that Alias is one of my favorite TV shows:

• No one has ever given birth while trapped in an elevator on Alias.
• No plot has ever revolved around someone's buddy from 'Nam.
• A multi-racial group of kids from the inner city has never learned an imporant lesson about respecting each others' differences.
• There has never been a "very special episode" ending with a public service announcement.

I thought of all these while watching MacGyver (which is still an awesome show).

But on the other hand, Alias has created its own cliches, which I don't have to wait 20 years to find amusing:

• Almost everyone who is married, is married to a Russian spy.
• No one ever stays dead.
• Marshall's gadgets only work once. (In season one, he invented a device that would read someone's retinal scan using trick sunglasses and create a contact lens that will fool a retinal scanner. In a later season, a bad guy's eyeball has to be popped out of his head.)