5. Alias - Sydney Loses 2 Years
The first two seasons of Alias really were some of the greatest television ever to air, but after Sydney Bristow managed to take down the evil organization she had been working as a mole in for the CIA, SD-6 in the middle of Season 2, I really didn't think there would be all that much story to tell. The whole concept of the show had been until this point "a mole working for the CIA" so without this, how could the show survive? I recently wrote an article for WhatCulture entitled "
10 Greatest TV Pilot Episodes Of All Time" where I placed Alias's pilot episode at number 1, saying it was Alias's best episode ever. I have since changed my mind... it is still the greatest TV pilot of all time, but the season 2 end, and the magnificent plot twist/cliff hanger from this episode makes "The Telling" (which like the pilot was written and directed by J J Abrams) my favorite episode of this show. Sydney has a very violent confrontation in her house with her enemy, where it looks as though all her best friends had been killed (one had been, the other, played by Bradley Cooper survived). She gets knocked out and wakes up in a strange street, completely confused. She gets in contact with her boyfriend, who comes to meet her and tells her that 2 years has since passed. Not only this, but the relationship Sydney had with her boyfriend Vaughn was now over, and in this two years in which Sydney had completely lost her memory Vaughn had gotten married. Alias really was a stunning TV series that truly doesn't get enough credit for the great show it was. For my money, it was a much better show that Abrams' other show Lost.