Holy lord, we need MORE CC's, people. Let's talk Monday night TV, stat, because PRESIDENT PALMER AUTHORIZED THIS.
CHUCK Season Finale Thoughts:
- Absolutely awesome. That's all I can say about last night's epic Chuck finale. A near-perfect episode, last night's Chuck had a little bit of everything, and all I can really say is: wow, now THAT was an episode.
Every story beat was hit to perfection, and the episode, like Chuck, seemed to wear its heart on its sleeve. There was romance, action, heroism, villainy, and an absolutely glorious montage set to Jeffster's rendition of Mr. Roboto. About that sequence: Best. Montage. Ever. I mean, wow, never has Mr. Roboto been so spectacularly wrong and yet so amazingly right.
The ep was a perfect storm in which Chuck's three disparate worlds collided - his life as the Intersect, his home life, and his life as a humble agent of Buy More. But everyone had their moment in the sun - Chuck and Morgan had some classic moments of fanboy friendship, Jeff and Lester had the aforementioned montage to end all montages, Bryce Larkin returned for one final mission, and Scott Bakula whupped ass with his sweet arm-computer thingie like it was 1988 all over again. Chevy Chase continued to be awesomely evil as Roarke as well - I mean, kudos to Chevy, man. It was great to see that one of my all-time favorite comedic actors can still go. And thank you in general to CHUCK for continuing to feature one great guest star after another.
I also can't say enough about Adam Baldwin as Casey. The character has walked a tightrope between being a lovable badass and a genuinely dangerous operative / adversary, but the show has done a great job of pitting him against Chuck enough times that, when he does finally stay true to his friendship with the Chuckster and swoops in to save the day, it's a great, stand-up-and-cheer moment. I mean come on, Casey and his howling commandos parachuting into Ellie's wedding for the last-minute save? Now that's awesome.
Finally, the action-packed ending sequence just had a great, "holy crap, where is this all going?" sense of urgency to it, and even though I suspected that it might end with Chuck re-absorbing the Intersect plus some spiffy new powers to boot, it was still a pretty cool way to end things. It was a cool, dramatic ending, and yet between Casey's "What the Chuck?" crack and Chuck's geeky "I know kung-fu" episode-ending quip, there was that trademark sense of humor at play throughout.
It's funny, too, because if CHUCK does come back for a Season 3, this stands as one hell of a cliffhanger. If this is it for the show though, it's almost an equally perfect ending. How can a blatant "to be continued" cliffhanger serve as a fitting ending, you ask? Well, in that sense it's more of a metaphorical "to be continued," a statement that Chuck's life is now turning a corner, and that while this chapter of his life may be over, a new one is about to begin. Cheesy? A bit, but you couldn't help but notice how closely this ep paralleled the series pilot - from Bryce's daring escape to Sarah taking out some rogues with a well-placed knife-fling. I loved all the symetry, and it did make you feel that Chuck, and the show, had come full circle.
And now here we are, at the brink of potential cancellation. I'll hold off on delivering a eulogy for the show, as I am semi-optimistic that it could return. But if this is the end, I do think that the show went out with one hell of a bang, and a fitting and satisfying ending to boot. Still, I can't help but think that CHUCK is more popular than the ratings indicate. It's one of the few shows on network TV that seems legitimately geared towards Gen Y, the same people who do the majority of their TV watching via DVR, Hulu, and DVD. But that's what made Chuck instantly stand out to me when I first read the pilot script back in 2006. It felt like Y: The Last Man meets Alias meets The OC. Unlike most network TV shows, it felt like it was written by people who weren't too far removed from the central characters in age or sensibilities. It just plain felt like a cool show. And you know what? It will be a real shame if Chuck finds itself replaced by yet another cop or lawyer show. Or God forbid, mindless reality crap. Let's hear it for what is an increasingly rare breed: fun, original concepts in television.
And let's hear it for Chuck. Domo Origato, Mr. Roboto.
My Grade: A
24 Thoughts:
- Okay, last night's 24 was one of those episodes that got crazy to the point where I was half-expecting Jack to wake up in some kind of VR chamber surrounded by his dead wife, Tony, Bill, Chloe, etc and realize that he's been the subject of some crazy miltary psych experiment for the last five years. I mean, wow, an enraged / slowly-going-insane Jack shouting out the name of President Palmer as if this were Season 2? Crazy-awesome.
Last night's ep had a ton of kickass 24 moments. Jack's face-to-face with Jonas Hodges, for one, was flat-out filled with gravitas, and seeing the sheer intensity on display as Kiefer and Voight engaged in verbal sparring was pretty awesome. We also got the return of CHLOE, who left her husband Morris and son for a midnight rendezevous with Jack and team. The return of the old CTU computer displays within the halls of the FBI was a nice little slice of nostalgia. Now they just need to rewire the phones so that they have the classic CTU "doop-doop-DEE-doop" ring.
Meanwhile, Evil Tony continues to be perhaps the show's most intiguing character. We still don't quite no what his deal is, but you can't help but sorta root for the guy even if he's gone rogue. But, that brings me to one of the episode's potential missteps - that being the badguys' master plan. Right now, you've got to admit that the schemes of this secret cabal of private military corp peeps don't make a whole lot of sense. I mean, okay, so their original plan was to secretly stage a terrorist attack, and then taking advantage of the ensuing chaos to build their own power base within the US government. But now, Starkwood has basically been exposed - you'd think that that would kind of put a damper on the whole plan. And yet, the PMC'ers still think that when the $%^# hits the fan, the government will be running to them with open arms. You'd think that the government might be *slightly* weary of turning power over to the PMC's after one of their number just tried to deploy bio-weapons on US soil. Hmmm ...
Otherwise, my only other complaint is the whole Olivia sideplot is, as usual, pretty lame. I mean, at 3 am in the midst of national crisis she has the determinaiton to enact some crazy scheme to presumably frame someone for Jonas Hodges' murder? Even worse, that someone could be AARON BY-GOD PIERCE? Aaron deserves better than this, brother.
But ... the couple of groan-inducing moments in this ep were easily overshadowed by the numerous moments of awesome. Everything with Jack ruled it, and we got the usual great performances from Kiefer, Cherry Jones, Carlos Bernard, Jon Voight, et al, with enough gravitas to keep me pumped for next week's ep.
My Grade: B+
FOX SUNDAY NIGHT Thoughts:
- First off, KING OF THE HILL. While this episode wasn't necessarilly a classic, it was a nice epilogue to Cotton's story, with Hank tasked with carrying out his deceased father's last will and testament. It was funny and heart-warming in that unique KOTH way. And what kills me is that this show STILL gets no respect from FOX, being relegated to a terrible 7:30 pm timeslot over the last couple of weeks. And now, with the poor performance of Sit Down, Shut Up, FOX's longtime utility player is being called back up to the big leagues.
My Grade: B+
- THE SIMPSONS had a pretty solid ep, with Homer, in a rare showing of commitment, devoting himself to bettering Bart and Lisa's lives by helping Bart with his school projects and helping Lisa to become more popular. The results were actually pretty funny, especially Homer's psychological techniques for making Lisa cool. Not a ton of huge laughs, but not a bad little episode either.
My Grade: B+
- Finally, FAMILY GUY had decent at best, mediocre at worst episode that had some promise in that it actually tried to present a solid Chris plotline, but seemed unable to focus on anything in particular, getting far too sidetracked with the Stewie-on-steroids B-plot and the usual assortment of cutaways that now seem more forced than funny. I mean, I hate when Family Guy just becomes a series of cutaways with the actual plot serving as the filler. That's not how the show used to be, and it's just lame - especially when 3/4 of the cuts are not even especially funny. Still, there were a couple pretty good jokes in the mix, especially a roided-up Stewie repeatedly cutting off Brian as he tried to get by - a classic FG joke that went on so long that it went from sorta funny to really funny to hilarious. Mostly though, this was a pretty unmemorable ep.
My Grade: C+
- Now, I've only seen the pilot of SIT DOWN, SHUT UP, but after viewing it I can barely stomach the thought of watching Episode 2. I have to ask - what happened here? You've got Mitchell Hurvitz, the creator of Arrested Development. You've got an all-star voice cast that includes AD alums Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. But none of that can make up for the fact that the show was just not funny in the slightest. The timing, the jokes, the plotting - all of it was just off the mark. Even worse, the characters all felt completely flat and many of them were just downright irritating. There were little moments where the rapid-fire dialogue showed shades of the old AD wit, but just as the show would get your hopes up, it'd dash them with a flat punchline or an annoying character moment. I guess there is a *slight* chance that the show could turn things around given the talent on-hand, but given the poor reception it received, I don't know if many would be willing to stick it out and give it that chance.
My Grade: D
- Okay - I'm out for now. Next post will be the long awaited review of ANVIL.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment