On the first day of the fall TV season, the networks gave to me...

[danceswithwords]

A very, very happy birthday to pellucid!

And happy birthday, a day in advance, to shmarollynn!

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I was a little skeptical of Chuck, but the pilot was both charming and well-paced.

Comments

[danceswithwords]

I'm interested in the Chuck/Bryce backstory as well and what had happened in Chuck's life (other than losing his girlfriend to Bryce) to make him the underachiever he was at Nerd Herd. There was a hint about family tragedy re. the brief mention of his father.

I was really pleased by that aspect, especially since it was a credible set-up for why someone who is essentially bright is stuck in such a dead-end. And then the spy stuff becomes not only the excuse for shiny adventures but a well-needed catalyst for personal journey. And I think the writers did a good job of establishing all of the characters right away as people you actually care about; Sarah in particular could have come across as such a cliche, but I thought the actress brought a lot of complexity to the role.

And Adam Baldwin! As Chuck's new trainee! I can't wait for the wacky hijinks.

That is going to be GOLD.

I still find it fascinating that the central relationships on the show are so overwhelming familial across the board, be they adoptive or blood, in contrast to Jossverse shows in which there is usually a small biological family unit involved, but the big relationship theme is always a formation of *new* family out of a ragtag bunch of unrelated outcasts.

It seems, at least based on this episode, like the show might be moving in the latter direction. But there's a separate biological component, in the sense that all of the heroes are related by their biological oddities, instead of by family ties.