Chuck vs. the Teal Deer
So I just watched every episode of Chuck ever in 48 hours. Time for a review.
First, some backstory. Chuck is about an average underachieving joe who gets all sorts of secrets downloaded into his brain by his asshole-niceguy college roommate. He then gets to be protected by hot, blonde CIA agent Sarah and chiseled-jawed NSA agent Casey. The reason I didn't watch it when it first aired was because I was still in mourning for Jake 2.0, a show that aired several years ago but I was introduced to recently by a friend. Jake had a very similar set up, right down to the dorky guy in the under achieving job getting whisked off to adventure by circumstances beyond his control and getting a hotty scientist and a rugged and manly NSA agent ... ok so you can see why I thought they would be similar.
And they are. To a point.
Even though my sister insists that Chuck is a superior program - and in many ways she's right - Jake 2.0 definitely did it better in a few cases and I'm going to give Chuck some love - after all I dedicated over 24 hours to watching it in the last 48 - but I am a fault-finder, so that is what I will be doing here.
If you are a fan who just likes to squee and talk about cute things, read no further. If you're interested in where I think Chuck has been failing as a show, while accepting I still love it a great deal, read on.
I will be doing this mostly by comparing the show to Jake 2.0, as they are very similar and it's easy to see the failures of both by setting them side by side.
Agency: Not THE Agency, but -- 'action or intervention, esp. such as to produce a particular result.' That means what a character does to get himself (or herself) into and out of trouble, the actions he takes in life, etc. Jake has it in spades, Chuck -- doesn't. Although both are thrust into their crazy spy world against their will, Jake takes charge and works to get what he wants out of his abnormalcy. Originally they want to lock him up and all but dissect him, instead he goes out of his way to prove himself an invaluable asset. Chuck doesn't have nearly as much agency. He's often told to wait in the car and even though he has been 'special' for one and a half years, he hasn't pressed to receive actual training for longer than one episode where he gets a five minute lesson in how to get into a woman's pants.
Powers: Chuck got it right here. Jake became a super powered, leap tall buildings in a single bound, guy. Chuck just knows things. Jake become the one who has to use his intellect and power to bring them together and usually save his handlers, Chuck needs his handlers to save him from everything. Chuck does save himself a goodly bit though, but it's nice, large, useful brain but very squishy outside instead of a wonder-character who can do everything, Chuck actually needs his handlers. That means the overlarge cast doesn't feel extraneous and like they are supporting someone who could practically do everything on his own anyway.
Character progression: Jake got about 15 episodes and in that time he grew very nicely as a character into someone dedicated to using his powers for awesome. This is where I deliver Chuck a massive 'fail'. Chuck doesn't grow, at all, you could list it as a main character flaw. He lives with his sister, works at a dead end job and generally isn't particularly happy. In this sense I'm in no position to judge, but ... where's the growth? Every third episode he and his female handler fall madly in love with each other and then they decide it's not to be again. Over and over and over and over and over. The show has only been on for about 25 episodes and already I want to punt them both out of a window whenever I see them alone. You can't run the same person arc every three episodes and expect us to care. You just can't.
Women: Jake had an amazing sexy scientist and some other girl who basically got written out of the formula who I'm going to ignore, but both of them were intelligent women at the top of their career and even though his handler occasionally let her feelings get in the way, at least she was only his doctor, not an agent.
Sarah ... Chuck's love interest on the other hand, makes me want to chew glass sometimes. She had already not endeared herself to me by the first episode, having hooked up with her previous partner. That automatically sets me on edge. Even though it takes two to tango it's very obvious that although her partner cares about her, he was able to make the tough decisions under pressure that she seems continually incapable of.
It doesn't seem to help that every three weeks she seems to have forgotten that she is supposed to be professional. Here is the root of my issue with Sarah and I'm going to open up a can of worms and say it was my issue with Sam from SG-1 as well. Her caring endangers herself and her male flame because she can't make cool decisions as it relates to her man. Chuck can't lose his powers - yet - Sarah, despite her curvy little booty, is a dime a dozen. She endangers him every time she walks out the door and can't separate fantasy from reality.
More egregious than that, she seems to just turn it on and off, she goes from playing house with him to stomping on his heart, tells him it's time for their relationship to move onto sex (by which she means fake 'cover' sex) but acts surprised when he thought real kissing and hand holding and dinners would have created some feelings but seems forever disinclined to say 'no this relationship isn't happening' and then actually following through. It's honestly a relationship dynamic I haven't seen on TV in this form, but I see it in real life uncomfortably frequently.
Men: I actually have mostly forgotten about Jake's male handler over the years, he honestly wasn't that memorable other than being played by a pretty hot actor and always harshing on Jake. There was an episode near the end of the season/series where Jake has to shoot his handler to maintain his cover and he does it. I loved that moment. It showed that Jake, even though he'd gotten a little hardened and a little more spy he was willing to make a tough call. His handler thanked him for it later.
Chuck has -- Casey, and he's honestly one of the main reasons I continue to watch the show despite a main character who doesn't receive any character development that sticks after the credits role and a lead female who often makes me want to tear out my hair. That is mainly because Casey is played by the incredibly sexy Adam Baldwin (of Jayne from Firefly fame), but a large part is that Casey is the only person who seems to have been granted any actual character development!
In the first episode he was a cold blooded killer who executed any kill order with equal aplomb. By the end of the first season he found himself hesitating to do his job: kill Chuck, and by the second season, he has even grown into an understated but present sense of humor that leaves him constantly bemused that the other 2/3rds of his partnership seems incapable of keeping their emotions in their pants, while still occasionally catering to their emotions. It's a wonderful mix and I want to see more of him ...
Closing: I like the show ... I dislike all of the time getting spent at Buy More lately. It seems extraneous and all of this crap I've been forced to watch about characters who don't interest me nearly as much as Chuck, Sarah and Casey's plots had better pay off or I am going to be very cranky.
I am also incredibly disappointed by the fact that almost every episode of season 1 had a few 'chekov's guns' in it that were inevitably fired by the end of the show. There have been very few of these in season 2 and unless they are actually breaking out of their more episodic formula I'm going to be very disappointed if all of these things don't come back and actually be meaningful this season.
First, some backstory. Chuck is about an average underachieving joe who gets all sorts of secrets downloaded into his brain by his asshole-niceguy college roommate. He then gets to be protected by hot, blonde CIA agent Sarah and chiseled-jawed NSA agent Casey. The reason I didn't watch it when it first aired was because I was still in mourning for Jake 2.0, a show that aired several years ago but I was introduced to recently by a friend. Jake had a very similar set up, right down to the dorky guy in the under achieving job getting whisked off to adventure by circumstances beyond his control and getting a hotty scientist and a rugged and manly NSA agent ... ok so you can see why I thought they would be similar.
And they are. To a point.
Even though my sister insists that Chuck is a superior program - and in many ways she's right - Jake 2.0 definitely did it better in a few cases and I'm going to give Chuck some love - after all I dedicated over 24 hours to watching it in the last 48 - but I am a fault-finder, so that is what I will be doing here.
If you are a fan who just likes to squee and talk about cute things, read no further. If you're interested in where I think Chuck has been failing as a show, while accepting I still love it a great deal, read on.
I will be doing this mostly by comparing the show to Jake 2.0, as they are very similar and it's easy to see the failures of both by setting them side by side.
Agency: Not THE Agency, but -- 'action or intervention, esp. such as to produce a particular result.' That means what a character does to get himself (or herself) into and out of trouble, the actions he takes in life, etc. Jake has it in spades, Chuck -- doesn't. Although both are thrust into their crazy spy world against their will, Jake takes charge and works to get what he wants out of his abnormalcy. Originally they want to lock him up and all but dissect him, instead he goes out of his way to prove himself an invaluable asset. Chuck doesn't have nearly as much agency. He's often told to wait in the car and even though he has been 'special' for one and a half years, he hasn't pressed to receive actual training for longer than one episode where he gets a five minute lesson in how to get into a woman's pants.
Powers: Chuck got it right here. Jake became a super powered, leap tall buildings in a single bound, guy. Chuck just knows things. Jake become the one who has to use his intellect and power to bring them together and usually save his handlers, Chuck needs his handlers to save him from everything. Chuck does save himself a goodly bit though, but it's nice, large, useful brain but very squishy outside instead of a wonder-character who can do everything, Chuck actually needs his handlers. That means the overlarge cast doesn't feel extraneous and like they are supporting someone who could practically do everything on his own anyway.
Character progression: Jake got about 15 episodes and in that time he grew very nicely as a character into someone dedicated to using his powers for awesome. This is where I deliver Chuck a massive 'fail'. Chuck doesn't grow, at all, you could list it as a main character flaw. He lives with his sister, works at a dead end job and generally isn't particularly happy. In this sense I'm in no position to judge, but ... where's the growth? Every third episode he and his female handler fall madly in love with each other and then they decide it's not to be again. Over and over and over and over and over. The show has only been on for about 25 episodes and already I want to punt them both out of a window whenever I see them alone. You can't run the same person arc every three episodes and expect us to care. You just can't.
Women: Jake had an amazing sexy scientist and some other girl who basically got written out of the formula who I'm going to ignore, but both of them were intelligent women at the top of their career and even though his handler occasionally let her feelings get in the way, at least she was only his doctor, not an agent.
Sarah ... Chuck's love interest on the other hand, makes me want to chew glass sometimes. She had already not endeared herself to me by the first episode, having hooked up with her previous partner. That automatically sets me on edge. Even though it takes two to tango it's very obvious that although her partner cares about her, he was able to make the tough decisions under pressure that she seems continually incapable of.
It doesn't seem to help that every three weeks she seems to have forgotten that she is supposed to be professional. Here is the root of my issue with Sarah and I'm going to open up a can of worms and say it was my issue with Sam from SG-1 as well. Her caring endangers herself and her male flame because she can't make cool decisions as it relates to her man. Chuck can't lose his powers - yet - Sarah, despite her curvy little booty, is a dime a dozen. She endangers him every time she walks out the door and can't separate fantasy from reality.
More egregious than that, she seems to just turn it on and off, she goes from playing house with him to stomping on his heart, tells him it's time for their relationship to move onto sex (by which she means fake 'cover' sex) but acts surprised when he thought real kissing and hand holding and dinners would have created some feelings but seems forever disinclined to say 'no this relationship isn't happening' and then actually following through. It's honestly a relationship dynamic I haven't seen on TV in this form, but I see it in real life uncomfortably frequently.
Men: I actually have mostly forgotten about Jake's male handler over the years, he honestly wasn't that memorable other than being played by a pretty hot actor and always harshing on Jake. There was an episode near the end of the season/series where Jake has to shoot his handler to maintain his cover and he does it. I loved that moment. It showed that Jake, even though he'd gotten a little hardened and a little more spy he was willing to make a tough call. His handler thanked him for it later.
Chuck has -- Casey, and he's honestly one of the main reasons I continue to watch the show despite a main character who doesn't receive any character development that sticks after the credits role and a lead female who often makes me want to tear out my hair. That is mainly because Casey is played by the incredibly sexy Adam Baldwin (of Jayne from Firefly fame), but a large part is that Casey is the only person who seems to have been granted any actual character development!
In the first episode he was a cold blooded killer who executed any kill order with equal aplomb. By the end of the first season he found himself hesitating to do his job: kill Chuck, and by the second season, he has even grown into an understated but present sense of humor that leaves him constantly bemused that the other 2/3rds of his partnership seems incapable of keeping their emotions in their pants, while still occasionally catering to their emotions. It's a wonderful mix and I want to see more of him ...
Closing: I like the show ... I dislike all of the time getting spent at Buy More lately. It seems extraneous and all of this crap I've been forced to watch about characters who don't interest me nearly as much as Chuck, Sarah and Casey's plots had better pay off or I am going to be very cranky.
I am also incredibly disappointed by the fact that almost every episode of season 1 had a few 'chekov's guns' in it that were inevitably fired by the end of the show. There have been very few of these in season 2 and unless they are actually breaking out of their more episodic formula I'm going to be very disappointed if all of these things don't come back and actually be meaningful this season.