Last season on Alias was a bittersweet one.

It provided integral details of the plot which many fans have been hoping to learn since the first episode, but at the same time often neglected the characters which make up the series, according to some. Similarly, the addition of actress Melissa George to the series divided fans into two camps, one for the season and one against.

For the fourth season, however, series creator J.J. Abrams said he is determined to fix the problems with the third season while keeping all of its blessings. For starters, CIA super-sleuth Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) will move to a new top-secret department of the CIA.

"A cool new organization with cool new headquarters, Abrams recently said.

The new dynamic of the season will see the introduction of Angela Bassett, star of Waiting To Exhale, as Sydneys new boss at this black-operations division.

"I think we have found a way to click back into the Alias we all enjoyed," Abrams said. "The plot became our god, which was a huge problem, it ended up superceding character."

The first season saw Sydney working undercover at SD-6, a criminal organization posing as the CIA in a global crime syndicate. Throughout the first two years of the show, Sydney had a very active social life outside of the agency, via the characters of Will (Bradley Cooper) and Francie (Merrin Dungey), both who were reduced to one or two episode appearances in the third season.

Attempting to rekindle what was lost in their involvement with the show, Sydney will get a bit more of a home life in the form of her half-sister Nadia (Mia Maestro), whom she will become roommates with.

Alias returns to ABC on Jan. 5, following Abrams' other critically acclaimed series Lost.