Chuck me Tuesdays: Chuck versus the First Date

Chuck versus the First Date

Score: A

Team Chuck try to get the new intersect cipher back from awesome bad guy ‘Mr Colt’ (Michael Clarke Duncan) unaware that Casey’s been ordered to kill Chuck as soon as the new computer is complete. Believing he’s about to be free from his spy life, Chuck and Sarah go on their “first real date”/”second first date”.

The good

I loved this episode so it’s difficult to pick out just a few things to rave about. Season 2 was unarguably the best season and everything that was great about it clicks in this episode. The characterisation, the interactions between the leads, the right balance between ‘Chuck the normal, geeky guy’ and ‘Chuck the hero’, Sarah’s perfect mix of bad ass spy and vulnerability, Casey’s duty and loyalty to his country combined with his genuine, older-brother affection for Chuck, and the way the show combines ludicrous spy plots with very real emotion. I very nearly gave it an A+.

The bad

There’s not a single thing I don’t like about this episode: even the clumsy exposition at the beginning and the cage fight for the AM position didn’t bother me too much. It was just awesome.

The Chuckalicious

“Your boss, Carmichael. He’s good.” Mr Colt

I've always loved the humour of Chuck's alter-ego Carmichael being a kick-ass spy so the final scene on the rooftop always leaves me with a smile on my face.

The geekalicious

Lots of Call of Duty references and of course Die Hard.

Chuck me Tuesdays: Chuck versus the Marlin

Chuck versus the Marlin

Score: A

Is there a show more blighted by misfortune and network interference than Chuck? Ok, so Firefly got jacked around more but that was Fox and what else do we expect? Just as the show got picked up for a full season, the writer’s strike hit and the season suddenly ended when it was finally starting to pick up pace. As such, “Chuck versus the Marlin” became the season finale and, while it would work perfectly as the mid-season episode it was supposed to be, it’s not quite powerful enough for our farewell to Season 1.

The team find out that a Fulcrum agent has blown their cover just as Awesome elicits Chuck’s advice on proposing to Ellie. He gives our hero his grandmother’s engagement ring to take care of… right before the Buy More is robbed. Having our cast run around desperately trying to find the agent, the engagement ring and Big Mike’s Marlin could have been the kind of “whacky hijinks” I was complaining about in my last review but it actually works. As the CIA order Chuck into protective custody, the gang has to stop the Fulcrum agent before Chuck has to farewell his normal life for good.

The good

Parts of this episode were so funny that listing them all would take too long. Two of the best were Morgan and Ellie’s jealousy over Chuck confiding in Casey instead of them and the hilarious scene with the couch, Casey, a knife and Ellie. And, when given the opportunity, Big Mike can be the funniest person on the show.

While not the explosive season finale you’d expect, Chuck and Sarah watching Awesome propose to Ellie was just lovely and, knowing that Casey is reluctantly preparing to kill Chuck if ordered to do so, his role in the final scene is particularly poignant.

The bad

Noureen DeWulf is so poorly cast as pita delivery girl and Fulcrum agent Lizzie that her screentime verged on the painful. Obviously cast for her ability to flounce around in short shorts, the idea that she could in any way challenge, let alone beat, our ass-kicking Sarah Walker in a one-on-one was downright laughable. Also, she discovers Chuck is the Intersect and… doesn’t tell anybody about it? Seriously?

The Chuckalicious

The scene on the helipad as Sarah farewells Chuck is emotionally pitch-perfect and makes me mourn a little for the Season 1 that will never be. Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski sell their characters 110% and it’s scenes like this that truly make me love this show.

The geekalicious

There were surprisingly-few pop culture references, particularly for the season finale of a show devoted to them. But then, it was never intended to be the season finale so I’ll excuse it. Just this once.

Chuck me Tuesdays: Chuck versus the Undercover Lover

Chuck versus the Undercover Lover

Score: A

After last week’s wince fest, Phil Klemmer wrote this Casablanca-inspired gem that is possibly my favourite episode from the first season.

Chuck flashes on a "douche bag convention" of Russian arms dealers and in doing so finds out that Casey’s lover Ilsa Trinchina is still alive after faking her own death in Chechnya several years before. As Chuck tries to dig up Casey’s inner romantic, he digs up Ilsa’s shady spy past as well.

The good

For once I enjoyed the B(uy More) plot and the show did a good job of integrating Ellie, Awesome, Morgan and the Buymorons into the secondary storyline as well as developing Ellie and Awesome’s relationship. This was the first sign that Morgan could be more than “Chuck’s annoying little bearded friend”.

The insight into Casey’s character was intelligent and consistent and it was great to see him open up to Chuck. Knowing that he’s been tasked to kill Chuck in the near future made their bonding bittersweet: you can see exactly why Casey will find it hard to pull the trigger when the time comes.

The bad

“It’s alive!!!”

This show falls down consistently when it tries to be “whacky” rather than witty (which is why the Buy More plots tend to leave me a little cold) and Chuck’s strange yelling of this phrase is the epitome of this. Still, these moments are few and far between in this otherwise great episode so this section is refreshingly light on.

The Chuckalicious

“You don’t know who’s on top”.

Who doesn’t love some Chuck/Casey brotherly bonding and this episode gave us the best of their relationship. From conspiring for Casey to reconnect with Ilsa to hiding under the bed while she’s rolling around with somebody else, this was Chuck and Casey’s moment to shine. And they did just that, culminating in an awesome (sip) fight scene and plunge to the hotel swimming pool below.

I’ve never been a Neil Diamond fan, but after this episode I downloaded “Love on the Rocks” and play it… a LOT.

The geekalicious

Casablanca reigns supreme. Ilsa is named for Rick's ex-girlfriend in Casablanca and her Russian fiancé’s name is Victor after Ilsa's husband in Casablanca. Casey is even watching Casablanca in the home theatre room when Ilsa comes to see him. And of course, Ilsa flies away at the end, leaving Chuck to tell Casey, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".

Chuck me Tuesdays: Chuck versus the Crown Vic

Chuck versus the Crown Vic

Score: C

Following Sarah’s choice of Team Chuck over Team Bryce, Chuck and Sarah go undercover on a mission to foil a counterfeiter - a mission made more difficult due to Chuck’s jealousy and general all-round idiocy. Meanwhile, Morgan behaves like a dick as well. And if a general sense that this episode was painful bleeds through this review, it’s because it was.

The good

“I hate this assignment.”

Adam Baldwin’s Casey is, as always, hilarious and the car wash scene with his precious Crown Victoria was brilliant. “Carmichael’s” and Sarah’s “fight” at the end is so gloriously overacted that it remains a Chuck highlight for me.

And, of course, the poignancy of the termination order at the end was powerfully done. Poor Casey.

The bad

The ‘B’(uy More) plot. Again.

While slightly redeeming himself at the end, Chuck was so incompetent in this episode that Sarah was doubtless wishing she’d run away with Bryce. From losing $100k at the casino and having an open breakdown about it to behaving like a whingy little child about his nemesis, I’m surprised he didn’t drive Sarah straight to Omaha.

Our hero may be emotional and insecure but he’s also an adult, something the writers in this episode seemed to forget.

The Chuckalicious

Exploding Crown Victoria’s aside, the ‘win’ moment for me from this episode was when Chuck runs around trying to get someone to believe him about his flash on Morgan’s photo and Sarah unhesitatingly leaps to his aid despite all their fights. And the scene at the Buy More Christmas party was just lovely.

The geekalicious

Love Boat references abound and of course Morgan being Morgan has to do a Titanic homage. And dat’s ‘bout it.

Chuck me Tuesdays: Chuck versus the Nemesis

Chuck versus the Nemesis

Score: B+

What the world needs is definitely more Klingon.

Bryce Larkin comes back from the dead with the answers Chuck’s been after and he brings a new nemesis with him. Fulcrum is our bad guy. Write it down. Of course, it’s not the only nemesis referred to by the title. Bryce Larkin is, after all, awesome and it's hard not to feel intimidated by the woman you love's perfect ex. Particularly if he got you kicked out of Stanford (sip).

The good

Matthew Bomer. ‘Nough said.

The bad

Pineapple. I know that contrivances are spy movie clichés and that this show glories in them but the ‘pineapple’ Buy More subplot was kind of ridiculous. Not so ridiculous that we didn’t enjoy it, however, and so it’s forgiven.

And sweet potatoes with marshmallows in them? I guess it's the Australian in me but that sounds disgusting. And do Americans really eat icecream on steak? Bleh.

The Chuckalicious

Matthew Bomer. Don’t get me wrong, I love Zachary Levi’s Chuck but how can you go past Bomer’s sexy, perfect Bryce. He’s a super spy with a heart of gold who’s not afraid to geek out with his old friend. And until Bond brings himself to save the world with Klingon, Bryce Larkin wins the spy award hands down.

The Thanksgiving dinner scene with Ellie, Morgan, Anna and the sweet potatoes was funny as hell and Chuck’s Thanksgiving speech that he’s “thankful Bryce Larkin is dead and not in his bedroom making out with his new girlfriend” was hilarious, particularly when followed by Morgan and Awesome’s “Dude, that was dark. And specific.”

The geekalicious

Apart from the Casablanca reference "we'll always have Omaha" there's not much going on in this episode that I saw.

Unless you count the Klingon. Bryce and Chuck save the day with Klingon. Did I mention the Klingon?

Chuck me Tuesdays TBC

So, having been inspired by the significant improvement in Chuck Season 4 versus the generally-awful Chuck Season 3, I've decided to come off hiatus and finish the Chuck me Tuesdays segments. I'll try to do one a week until I catch up to the current season. How Chucktastic is that?

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Hiatus

This blog is on hiatus. I no longer have the time to write it and was anyway not getting the response from readers that I would have liked. If anyone has an interest in Merlin fan fiction, they can still find my writing over at Mnemosyne77 Merlin fan fiction.

Sanctuary season finale surprisingly enjoyable

How bizarrely wonderful was the Sanctuary season finale? After 10 lacklustere episodes of pure mediocrity, episode 11 stepped up the pace and then the double-length season finale was very enjoyable.

It was the little things that made the difference (after all, the big things about the show remain ridiculous. The plot line revolved around a gargantuan underwater arachnid that could control the planet's techtonic plates - and was named Big Bertha).

All the characters finally seemed to have a role in the plot, all the actors who were supposed to be Japanese, Hindu, Zulu, or other nationalities actually spoke their own languages, the actors finally got to exercise some acting muscles but weren't given material that would be beyond their grasp, and Kate wasn't as annoyingly pointless as usual.

The only drawbacks were the same ones that always plague Sanctuary. With loads of extras, special effects, and guest stars, this is obviously where the show's budget in the last year has gone. Is it really worth producing three good episodes a year and 10 crap ones?

Even if one of the good ones makes this the only science fiction programme to ever include a Bollywood dancing sequence. Which was awesome!

No longer boring you with fan fiction

So, I'm no longer going to be boring you with fanfiction. This blog isn't really the right place for it anyway.
But if you are interested, then you can put an author alert on me at my profile page here.

I honestly haven't had much to say about TV at the moment.

Merlin finished up, proving once and for all that the writers only had one good season in them. They also realised they had one really interesting character and moved quickly to get rid of her. Now we're stuck with the insipid, one-dimensional Gwen as the only main female character. Ergh.

Supernatural is as good as always but is on hiatus for the moment.

Chuck Season 3 is apparently starting in January now. I know one of my nieces will be thrilled. Although I loved Season 2, I'm a little (ok, a lot) concerned about the Subway product placement and that they're not going to let Sarah and Chuck be together. That would be very annoying.

Smallville, also on hiatus, has moved beyond "so bad it's funny" and is now just bad. So painful in fact, that even dedicated TV watchers such as myself are finding it too difficult to watch. Welling and Durance still have as much sexual tension as a used cold teabag.

Fringe is as painful and unwatcheable as it always was. Naturally I've seen every episode. It's a special kind of torture.

Faced with extinction, "the Joss" is pulling out all the stops in Dollhouse, which is still very good but still lacking something. Because it's been cancelled, he's having to rush through five seasons of storyline in 13 episodes and so the narrative is very rushed. Oh, what could have been if not for Fox. Maybe this time he will have learned, finally, that he shouldn't work with them.

On the Sci Fi channel, mediocrity reigns supreme as Sanctuary continues it's midly-enjoyable if somewhat insipid run (did I just use insipid twice in one blog entry - my apologies) on a budget so low it makes Flash Gordon looks professional. And Stargate Universe is pretty much what fans expected: a two-bit BSG rip-off without the humour. (BSG had no humour in case you didn't get the... oh, you did... ok).

As you can see, nothing is really floating my boat at the moment, which is probably why I've chosen to write my own stories instead.

If there's some extraordinary show out there that I'm missing, please let me know. Otherwise it's repeats for me.