On the first day of the fall TV season, the networks gave to me...
A very, very happy birthday to pellucid!
And happy birthday, a day in advance, to shmarollynn!
* * * * *
I was a little skeptical of Chuck, but the pilot was both charming and well-paced.
Chuck 1.01 - "Pilot"
Two things that made me raise an eyebrow were the premise itself, which requires an industrial-size handwave (the pictures, they put information in his braaaaaaaaain!) and the fact that anybody who is that good with little girls in ballerina costumes is not actually that socially inept.
BUT. The lead is likable and cute without being movie-star good-looking. Chuck and Sarah have good chemistry, and Sarah comes across as competent, kick-ass, and human rather than cartoonish. Chuck's little circle of family and friends all have good chemistry, for that matter, and the right balance of mundane and quirky. The pacing, alternating between Chuck's daily routine and his extraordinary encounters with action-adventure, was engaging. And I really liked the episode's opening, intercutting Chuck's struggle to get through the party with Bryce's Mission Impossible-style adventure while establishing that the two of them had had a complicated past connection. I bought that Bryce would email Chuck the file (I am resolutely not thinking about how large that file would actually be), that there was both a rivalry and a trust between them, and I like the parallels--Bryce bequeathing this information, and therefore a big piece of his current life, to Chuck, and the hints that Sarah and Bryce had been involved. There's a strong sense that Chuck had a brighter past, a past where he was friends with someone like Bryce and went to Stanford, and that something happened to make him what he is now, not even ambitious enough to move out of the Nerd Herd and apply for assistant manager.
I also really liked the way the show slyly caps on the petty politics and oppressive uniformity of the chain retail workplace and its environment--the Nerd Herd operates out of Buy More, which is next to Large Mart, and the aggressively bland backdrop serves as a nice foil for the larger-than-life spy business, especially when Adam Baldwin shows up in a green uniform t-shirt.
Heroes 2.01 - "Four Months Later"
I don't have a lot to say about Heroes, which was very plotty and all about moving the pieces in place for the next big story arc. Other people are saying much smarter things than I am, and I find keeping up with that many characters kind of exhausting. I found myself enjoying the Bennett pieces not only because they were about the Bennetts, whom I love, but also because they were slower and more character-focused. In particular, Claire's relationship with her father continues to sing: the lengths she's willing to go to to hide what she is because he's afraid for her, the way he's unable to follow his own rules and keep his head down, the way they are both suffocating, and the whole family is suffocating with them. I also liked that Mohinder and Matt have picked up the pieces and cobbled together a sort of family with Molly, and that Nathan, while he has survived, seems to have been terribly damaged--not only by the fact that his biological family is gone and he's alone now but in the scarred and burned reflection of himself that he sees. His survival is something of a cop-out, but I think it might have come at the price of a transformation that we're only seeing hints of right now.
For a show that emphasizes genetics so much, and the ways they shape the abilities of the heroes, there was a lot of tearing apart of biological family bonds in this episode: Nathan's hostility to his mother, and his wife and children now gone; Matt divorced and living with Mohinder and Molly; Nathan's rejection of Claire, and her closeness with her adoptive father; Hiro gone and Ando serving as surrogate son for Mr. Nakamura. That trend probably doesn't bode well for the Latino brother and sister who are making their way to the border.
I really don't know what to make yet of Hiro's adventure in 16th century Japan--other than that 16th century Japan bears a distinct resemblance to Southern California--but since he's always been the most invested in the hero narrative, and in the ways his ability and the abilities of others like them can contribute to a sort of comic-book triumph of good over evil, I think his rude awakening, the discovery that his own hero has feet made of clay and a British accent, is necessary. (Anders' British accent is pretty good, too, but his Japanese accent SUCKS.)
I won't be able to watch Bionic Woman live tomorrow because of a conference call with India; I am trying to count my blessings since the reviews haven't been that good, and the call is normally on Thursdays, and at least this time I'll be free for The Office.
Also, Michael Shanks guest stars on Eureka tonight.
And happy birthday, a day in advance, to shmarollynn!
* * * * *
I was a little skeptical of Chuck, but the pilot was both charming and well-paced.
Chuck 1.01 - "Pilot"
Two things that made me raise an eyebrow were the premise itself, which requires an industrial-size handwave (the pictures, they put information in his braaaaaaaaain!) and the fact that anybody who is that good with little girls in ballerina costumes is not actually that socially inept.
BUT. The lead is likable and cute without being movie-star good-looking. Chuck and Sarah have good chemistry, and Sarah comes across as competent, kick-ass, and human rather than cartoonish. Chuck's little circle of family and friends all have good chemistry, for that matter, and the right balance of mundane and quirky. The pacing, alternating between Chuck's daily routine and his extraordinary encounters with action-adventure, was engaging. And I really liked the episode's opening, intercutting Chuck's struggle to get through the party with Bryce's Mission Impossible-style adventure while establishing that the two of them had had a complicated past connection. I bought that Bryce would email Chuck the file (I am resolutely not thinking about how large that file would actually be), that there was both a rivalry and a trust between them, and I like the parallels--Bryce bequeathing this information, and therefore a big piece of his current life, to Chuck, and the hints that Sarah and Bryce had been involved. There's a strong sense that Chuck had a brighter past, a past where he was friends with someone like Bryce and went to Stanford, and that something happened to make him what he is now, not even ambitious enough to move out of the Nerd Herd and apply for assistant manager.
I also really liked the way the show slyly caps on the petty politics and oppressive uniformity of the chain retail workplace and its environment--the Nerd Herd operates out of Buy More, which is next to Large Mart, and the aggressively bland backdrop serves as a nice foil for the larger-than-life spy business, especially when Adam Baldwin shows up in a green uniform t-shirt.
Heroes 2.01 - "Four Months Later"
I don't have a lot to say about Heroes, which was very plotty and all about moving the pieces in place for the next big story arc. Other people are saying much smarter things than I am, and I find keeping up with that many characters kind of exhausting. I found myself enjoying the Bennett pieces not only because they were about the Bennetts, whom I love, but also because they were slower and more character-focused. In particular, Claire's relationship with her father continues to sing: the lengths she's willing to go to to hide what she is because he's afraid for her, the way he's unable to follow his own rules and keep his head down, the way they are both suffocating, and the whole family is suffocating with them. I also liked that Mohinder and Matt have picked up the pieces and cobbled together a sort of family with Molly, and that Nathan, while he has survived, seems to have been terribly damaged--not only by the fact that his biological family is gone and he's alone now but in the scarred and burned reflection of himself that he sees. His survival is something of a cop-out, but I think it might have come at the price of a transformation that we're only seeing hints of right now.
For a show that emphasizes genetics so much, and the ways they shape the abilities of the heroes, there was a lot of tearing apart of biological family bonds in this episode: Nathan's hostility to his mother, and his wife and children now gone; Matt divorced and living with Mohinder and Molly; Nathan's rejection of Claire, and her closeness with her adoptive father; Hiro gone and Ando serving as surrogate son for Mr. Nakamura. That trend probably doesn't bode well for the Latino brother and sister who are making their way to the border.
I really don't know what to make yet of Hiro's adventure in 16th century Japan--other than that 16th century Japan bears a distinct resemblance to Southern California--but since he's always been the most invested in the hero narrative, and in the ways his ability and the abilities of others like them can contribute to a sort of comic-book triumph of good over evil, I think his rude awakening, the discovery that his own hero has feet made of clay and a British accent, is necessary. (Anders' British accent is pretty good, too, but his Japanese accent SUCKS.)
I won't be able to watch Bionic Woman live tomorrow because of a conference call with India; I am trying to count my blessings since the reviews haven't been that good, and the call is normally on Thursdays, and at least this time I'll be free for The Office.
Also, Michael Shanks guest stars on Eureka tonight.