Chuck 4x08
I don't normally post anything about tv but the last episode of Chuck really affected me, plus it ended with a cliffhanger which is pretty unusual for Chuck (even their end-of-season cliffhangers are never particularly suspenceful). I've finally found the time to re-watch it and verbalise how exactly it made me feel. Thank goodness it's only 2 days
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I really do agree with you about people who hate on characters when they get together and complain about how now they're boring. If it's a pair of characters that have been hinted at off and on for ages, then what are they expecting? It's obvious that at some point they're going to get together, and no there isn't going to be the same tension or excitement when people actually get together, but it's a different kind of squeeing for me. I actually love it when I get to see characters having a normal relationship (well, normal in the context of whatever show it is), and the joy comes from how well those characters are written when their relationship changes, and consequently their dynamics. If people only want sexual tension and excitement..well no show provides that, and I actually think that's really unsatisfying in the long run - that's when you have writers just fucking around with the fans. No, thanks.
I also really agree about the Sarah is holding Chuck back thing. To be honest, although I know Chuck had to change and in light of the other options available him becoming a proper spy was probably the best option, I'm not altogether okay with him being a spy. Like you said, the whole reason Sarah loves him, and the whole premise of the show basically, is about the fact that he's not a normal spy. Realistically, at some point he will need to take on more spy-like qualities or he just wouldn't survive with the CIA/NSA. So I'm a bit cautious as to where the show is ultimately going.
In terms of Sarah not being kick ass anymore, I'm actually really looking forward to seeing the more vulnerable side of her. Yeah, I love the ass-kicking side of her, but the variation and depth in a character is what actually makes them interesting. In the past I've always loved the little moments where Sarah's spy wall cracks a little and you see her as a person a little more. I think Yvonne is fantastic at showing that unwilling vulnerability, where she's being overcome with emotion but is struggling really hard not to. She has the ability to convey so much in her face with real subtlety. I was watching the ep this morning when there's a bomb in the car and they think it explodes with Chuck inside it and it turns out it was him using the car remote. Her reaction was amazing - absolutely devastated and then utter relief when he appeared again, at the same time trying not to give too much away because she knows she's not supposed to care that much.
Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, but it's basically just me saying that I'm really glad they're being more realistic in their development of Sarah. It'd be ridiculous if they put her in the first real, completely-in-love relationship of her life and didn't also make her struggle with letting her guard down. It makes total sense to me that it may be a bit of an imbalance for her at first - like she's been shoving her feelings aside for so long that when she finally lets herself love someone and grow attached to them, it's hard for her not be completely overwhelmed by it.
I'm going to stop rambling now since I've probably talked utter rubbish having not seen the episodes, but I will say that I'm with you on not being disappointed that they're still together :) I'll obviously be talking a lot about it when I catch up!
Oh and P.S. I wholeheartedly agree that there's a lot of nudity on Yvonne's part and I think it's pretty degrading (because even though there's occasional nudity from Chuck/Awesome, there is nowhere NEAR the amount as Sarah) - I've been trying to convert a few people lately, and in rewatching s1 I've noticed how many unnecessary panty-flash shots there were when she had to wear the Weinerlicious uniform. I guess that's one of the reasons they changed it to Orange Orange so she could wear pants! And although I understand that keeping a show on the air is a business and sometimes you have to appeal to a lower demographic than you'd like, I can't imagine it's particularly nice for Yvonne to feel like everyone's perving on her all the time.
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Anyway can I say YES to all of the above? I'm sorry if I'm sappy or, you know, a 'typical girl' but I do love seeing the vulnerable side of Sarah because I do not believe she can be completely without feelings. I do believe there are some people in the world who don't have feelings, even girls, but you know... Sarah is a positive character on television, not a real life person so of course she has feelings. It's harsh to negate it or to want her to never show them. She's only human, even though a lot of the time she does appear to be a little detached from reality. She really is learning personal relationships from scratch at the end of the day and probably has the emotional maturity of a teenager. Then again Chuck isn't much better! They're both really dysfunctional, but at the end of the day they love each other, cling to each other so they know if they want to stay together they need to find a way to make it work. Gosh I'm really talking about myself now aren't I?
I love the scene from s2 you talked about. I think it's really appropriate you mentioned it because I remember thinking the same and it's probably around the time I started to appreciate that Yvonne is not just a pretty face but she is actually a decent actress, which I've got to admit isn't something I've come to expect from a lot of US tv shows.
If I have to be nitpicky on one thing is that the shift between cool!Sarah and lovey-dovey!Sarah has been too sharp and I can't believe I'm the only person who noticed that. For someone who's often portrayed as kind of outside of social conventions she doesn't seem to have struggled one bit. I wish they had explored that a bit more, but tv really doesn't give you that much chance for introspection, does it? There's fanfic for that...
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I'll have to comment on the sharp transition you mentioned after I've seen it. The only think which I can think might partially explain it, is that I always saw Sarah as being very smart emotionally..but smart in the way that she's very good at understanding other people. She's obviously very good at understanding emotion and how people interact and relate, which is kind of why she's been so good at being the one who's able to get through to Chuck. Part of that is her being good at it naturally, but I think the other part is that it's been part of her training, to help her put on all the different facades that she needs when she's undercover.
But the gap comes in reality comes in the way that you can know things intellectually without ever having experienced them before, and therefore know what it's like to actually struggle with the complications that they bring. The more I think about Sarah and reflect on the way they've developed her character, the more I love her and love the writers. You remember in Chuck vs The Suburbs where you could tell that she was actually really enjoying being all domestic and wifey? To me the way that was written and the way she played it was so insightful into her character, because although you could see she was enjoying just being a 'normal girl', it was still clear that it was a cover and that she wasn't really comfortable in that skin because it's so far out of her frame of reference..but it was like she wanted to let herself be comfortable with it, but had no idea how.
Another interesting ep was when we find out that her name is Sam and she's talking to Shaw about feeling like she doesn't even know what's a cover and what's her anymore. That was also a 'yes!' moment for me in terms of her character, because the effect of the CIA recruiting her so young would have been massive in terms of the identity development, along with the fact that even before her father went to prison they were always pulling cons, so it's hardly like she had a stable sense of self to begin with.
All of that combined results in what you mentioned about her emotionally being still of teenage maturity, in terms of her own experience. She has the intellect and kindness (because I do believe she is ultimately a warm and kind person) to know how other people's relationships work, and she knows the type of things you're supposed to say and do. But she doesn't know how to actually apply it to her own life when she's got all the feelings that go along with the knowledge. And that kind of goes back to what I believe about her being overwhelmed by it once she lets her guard down. Sooooo, whether this is accurate or true or not I have no idea, but I can imagine the situation in which she would be doing what she knows she's supposed to do in her role as The Girlfriend, but feeling very out of her depth with it.
I told you I ramble :P
This is actually helping me with ideas to flesh out the fic I'm quietly plotting.
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Let me just say this one thing: there is a good resolution to the situation that had me worried for a week. That's not spoiler, right? It was kind of predictable, really, it's a feel-good show, it can't end too badly. But you never know on tv, especially not before a Xmas hiatus. Actually, there's still a chance of another cliffhanger that will last for weeks this time, because there is ONE more episode to go before the Xmas hiatus... but I really hope they go easy on us!?
Bear this in mind - the speed of Sarah's "turning" from all business to loving girlfriend is not something that refers to s4 only. I started seeing it straight away after 3x13! It was literally like someone flicked a switch and in fairness, it could have been done better. But here's another thing that I've concluded, with the help of the recaps. This is just not that type of show. There's not a lot of time for introspection, we can't have the endless montages and sequences with emo music where the characters are crying alone by a window. Which sometimes would be needed. Otherwise we see these shifts in situations but we don't know what the characters are thinking. And that's how we all end up with different ideas about the motives behind Sarah and the things she says and does. Because they don't tell us flat out: this is why. We're kind of left guessing.
The bottom line is, I agree, Sarah doesn't quite know who she is herself. She's a bit of an empty container that she just fills with different personalities as the mission requires. This makes her very hard to write and I really hope the writers have a general idea of her background even though they've not revealed ALL of it yet, or there will be discrepancies. But at the same time I mean hard to write for me because I have to keep thinking: is this really what she would do? I wouldn't say she is a definitely black and white character and as such easy to fathom. Looking at things that the show makes me feel and that aren't necessarily true, I keep thinking: am I understanding what they're trying to get across with her character or not? I feel a lot less connected to Sarah than I have to other characters in the past, other than being an absolute control freak. What if I've got it all wrong and I'm liking the show and the character for all the wrong reasons?
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