“Chuck”: Chuck vs. The Helicopter (1×2)
posted by Don Z on October 2, 2007 at 12:35 pm in Chuck, TV, Reviews
Two episodes in, I’m still enjoying “Chuck” juuuust enough to want to keep watching. Trolling around the interweb I’m sensing that “Chuck” is not high on the list of favorite fall shows. The pilot was bad, people seem to say, and episode two was horrible.
Not to say that “Chuck” is anything groundbreaking, or even a good show. If you’re going to do a spy spoof, you have to play it spoofy, which “Chuck” does not seem to understand. It takes itself just a smidge too seriously. In the second episode, the badguy Dr. Zarnow tells Sarah “I’m going to take you somewhere where I will torture you!” Seriously, he says that. If you’re reached the point where you’re going to torture them, the subject of your torture is onto you. You say things like “we have ways of making you talk.” Duh. I don’t think they thought the line would come off as funny and spoofy; it’s just lazy writing.
That being said, I still like lots of things about “Chuck,” and I think people who like fun TV and skew toward the nerdy side will still like it, despite bad nerd dialogue like “So I was playing XBOX last night and…” What self-respecting XBOX player would say that? Nobody. Why write that, especially when in the prior scene (we’re talking about the pilot now) a nervous “Chuck” explains to the girls his sister has forced on him that his fingers are bandaged because of “Call of Duty”: “the controller chafes after several hours…”
An important caveat here: In my TV market (Sacramento, CA), the CBS affiliate airs its prime-time lineup an hour earlier. So “How I Met Your Mother” is on at 7 pm, rather than 8 pm. If that is not the case for you, and you are the kind of person who would be inclined to watch “Chuck,” you should be watching “HIMYM” instead.
Comment by Len posted October 3, 2007 at 2:05 pm:
I think Chuck is perfectly good for what it is. It kind of reminds me of a gymnastics competition where the degree of difficulty sets a ceiling on how many points you can get for a trick. I don’t think it’s fair to nitpick Chuck on the details because it’s not that type of show. It’s for those who liked Charlie’s Angels(the movie) or The Promise Ring’s Very Emergency album. A McG television show is going to be a little vapid and mildly sexist. But it’s also going to be fast paced, light hearted and have slick action sequences. At best, if could only be an 8 out of 10…I think it’s a 7. Compare this Bionic Woman, which is a 4 despite aiming to be a 10, not only was the show bad, it was bad while trying to be something really good. Don’t get caught up in the details of Chuck…let it affect you, go with it and you’ll eventually see the sailboat through all the little dots. In the end, one’s TV palatte can’t be filled only with engaging character driven shows with long story arcs and great acting. Sometimes I want to take a trip to the beach. Vamos a la playa…Vamos al Chuck.
Comment by Don posted October 3, 2007 at 3:09 pm:
I see where you working Len… and I haven’t watched an entire Charlies Angels movie but don’t you think if you’re going for “don’t nitpick me on the details” you have to purposely gloss over some of the details?
for example did Sarah tell Chuck while he was flying the chopper that “they designed the controls” exactly like whatever fake flight sim game he had played? if she was just BSing to give him confidence they didn’t make that explicit. they would have had to show Jayne i mean Chase give her a “WTF?” look, and her roll her eyes and do a “blah blah blah” hand puppet move. that’s a far better show right there. to me at least.
recently my wife and i were watching an old episode of Sesame Street (no we were not baked at the time). One puppet is buying something from another puppet, and when it comes time to pay he just puts his puppet hand near the other puppet’s hand and says “here’s money…” Chuck needs to here’s money some of the details a little more.