Alias: a mid-season 3 evaluation

I've recently been wondering if Alias really does take itself seriously like 24. Take for example, last season's Von-Sydney thing was dealt with fatal earnestness, and Syd's increasingly classier mission disguises. Don't forget, also, the whole Rambaldi prophecy foofaraw, which I'll admit in a second is sub-X-Files jive, and this season's Rambaldi-substitute (that is, before Rambaldi reared his fake-Nostradamus head again) being the Lazarey investigation/search for Syd's missing two years. All of these points certainly have self-indulgent qualities, but the way I reason them all away is to think of the sheer volume of twists and turns, the haphazard development of secondary characters (i.e. everyone who isn't Syd), and the complete absurdity of the show's very premise, the whole Agent Felicity angle where the CIA has a program of recruiting college coeds but not really because it's SD-6 pulling the strings which Syd and her IQ of 3000 can't figure out after two years or whatever with them! Alias will balance out the X-File retread qualities and remain my favorite show as long as it continues to seek out this sort of instant gratification (I'm doing my best to ignore what might happen when I'm tired of this shtick, though for now I will go on record to say that IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN).