Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Has Chuck Jumped the Shark?

Chuck is one of my favorite TV shows, and one that Allysen and I most eagerly awaited the return of. But...but...what have they done with our show?

In the first five episodes, the writing has taken a seriously wrong turn, for my tastes. Much of the charm and wit are missing, or at best labored. The plotting makes Chuck seem stupid, rather than endearingly innocent. They brought back Morgan and Big Mike in a ham-handed fashion—and rather nastily, with the summary execution of the Tony Hale character with a bullet through the head. They've fallen in love with the famous guest star gimmick (two from the Superman world). They seem to feel that Yvonne Strahovski has to be shown semi-naked even more often than in the past, as if any hotblooded male needs that gimmick to maintain an interest in Yvonne Strahovski. (I enjoy attractive, semi-clad women as much as the next guy, but here it just seems blatantly exploitative.) Chuck summons impossible skills at the drop of a script-writer's pen. In short...bah! I'm waiting for the show I love to return. But I'm not sure if it's going to.

To be fair, they pretty well painted themselves into a corner at the end of last season. It was clear things had to change; they couldn't continue with the same-old same-old. He had the new Intersect, the plot arc with his father was finished, and things with Sarah were at a make-or-break point. They clearly didn't want Chuck and Sarah to get together, because there would go all of the sexual tension. And yet...how did they deal with this? By having Chuck throw away a chance for a life with Sarah, so that he could become a real (bumbling) spy? Ssssss...

We haven't given up yet. Maybe they just need time to shake things out. But we're well into the season now, and we're very afraid that it's going to go the way of Andromeda after its chief writer left the show. Which is to say, down the tubes.

But I surely hope not.

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4 Comments:

At 11:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually i've been mostly pleasantly surprised with Chuck this season so far. I was really worried that with the way they ended last season they had transformed our lovable bumbling innocent Chuck into "instant James Bond". In my opinion though despite him having the instant abilities available to him they've done a pretty good job of keeping Chuck, well Chuck. First of all he can't access his abilities when he's too nervous which makes it no sure thing, plus he struggles with just being a spy in general, he hates guns and can't shut off the human side of him that's necessary to be an effective spy. Now I will agree that it was a mistake to have Sarah offer to run off with him and then have him decline, that was just idiotic writing. Sorry but Chuck's wildest dream was that he and Sarah could settle down and just live a normal life and were supposed to believe he said no to her offer to run off together, um ok, yeah right. I buy the whole Chuck wanting to try to be a spy to impress her but not doing that instead of running off together. But other than that i'm enjoying Chuck being the occasional super spy while the rest of the time just being himself and struggling to try to balance the two and the comedic moments that result.

-Marco

 
At 5:07 PM, Blogger Jeffrey A. Carver said...

Glad it's working for you, Marco. For me, the Auggh moments are outweighing the laugh moments, at least so far. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

 
At 4:54 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

I've liked it all the way through. Heck even my parents (who are 71 and 66 years old) have liked it all the way through, and mom has never liked Sci-Fi.

They also like Heroes, White Collar and they liked My Name is Earl. (Damn the network suits for canceling it! We'll never know who Earl Jr's real father is.)

P.S. Guilty pleasure admission, we all like Drop Dead Diva too.

 
At 12:16 PM, Blogger Jeffrey A. Carver said...

I thought it got better toward the end--though I'm not sure I like the darker turn the series has taken. We're with you, here, on White Collar (started watching in the middle of the series).

 

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