The mid-2000s were an excellent time for serialized action shows. There were 24, Lost, Chuck, Prison Break and loads more. But, perhaps the best of all of them – for a while anyway – was J.J. Abrams’ Alias, which starred Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a black ops agent for what she thinks is a unit of the CIA, Sd-6. Of course, the truth turns out to be much deadlier, as Sydney finds out in the influential pilot episode, which aired September 30th, 2001.

The series immediately became a big hit, with Jennifer Garner rivalling Angelina Jolie for a while as one of the top female action stars of the era. It paved the way for her to be cast as Elektra in the early Marvel movie Daredevil (a role she reprises in Deadpool 3), and the show also offered an early part to a young Bradley Cooper, who played her friend Will Tippin.