Chuck Versus the Shark

I mentioned a while back that I was afraid Chuck had jumped the shark, but I couldn't be sure until I'd actually seen which way they were going to go with it.

Sadly, I'm afraid I was correct, although it's not as bad as I'd feared. The writers are doing some good things with the characters, letting Chuck grow into his role as a spy, and also giving Morgan some surprising growth.

So why do I say it has jumped the shark? Basically because at the end of last season, everything had changed. Chuck was out of the Buy More and had mad Matrixy Intersect skillz, Morgan had left to pursue his dream of being a chef, Ellie and Awesome were married and moving on with their lives. And if the show had continued along those lines, it might have been good or bad, but it wouldn't really have felt like Chuck anymore.

But that doesn't mean I prefer what they've done, which is the same thing that shows like Smallville have done in the past after incredible finales that changed everything: had a season opener that takes pretty much everything and resets it to the status quo. Chuck is suddenly back at the Buy More, his Intersect skills as unpredictable as his previous flashes. Sarah and Casey are back to their old roles as his handlers. Morgan has returned, and Ellie and Awesome, although they've moved out, are living right next door and still just as much a part of the show as before.

and although it seemed as if they'd killed off Awesome last week, it was just a feint, and so as dramatic as last week's ending was, it's all undone now and we're back to the same old same old. And that gets tiresome and frustrating after a while. I won't stop watching the show, because I like the humor and the cast, especially Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin.

But I used to watch because I wanted to see where these characters were going to go, and now I know where they're going.

Nowhere.

Dollhouse Winding Up

Watched the latest episode of Dollhouse yesterday. All I can say is...

Dude.

I'm sad that Dollhouse is ending after this season. But one perhaps-positive side-effect is that it has forced Joss Whedon to get his story moving. So many shows with an overall mystery arc pad and stretch that story unbearably, hoping to make it last for as long as the show needs to last.

The first halves of both seasons of Dollhouse had touches of that. In a sense, we needed that gradual build-up, especially in the first season, to ingrain the basic concepts in us and let us get to know and like the characters before it started hitting us with all the action later. The first half of this season slowed down some, and it's necessary to slow down sometimes. And maybe Whedon thought he had time to take it easy. Maybe he thought that the word-of-mouth buzz that saved the show late in the first season would let him continue for a good long while.

But it didn't happen. Fox announced they were canceling the show, and now Whedon is rushing through the second half of the season, trying to wrap up the story he meant to tell over a period of maybe years.

And in one sense, maybe it's going a little too fast. But in another sense, you wish other shows had felt the same type of urgency (I'm looking at you, Prison Break--yeah, don't try to hide in the back, you know I'm right). And I've got to admit, the ride is exhilarating.

Oh, yeah, and Chuck returns tonight. I'm afraid the shark, she has been jumped with this one, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Jazzed

Came back from my Monday night game to discover that both Dollhouse and Chuck have been renewed for next season. So I'm pretty pumped. I'll miss Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Life, but really, having these two back when I'd almost given up hope more than makes up for it.

Seems like someone at Fox finally figured out that it's better to have a show like Dollhouse with a small, but devoted fan following in the Friday night death slot than keep wasting time and money spinning the wheel, trying to find something that hits big. And I mean, let's face it, part of the reason the ratings were so low (and going lower) for Dollhouse this season was not due to the show itself, but due to fans' lack of confidence in Fox to give the show a fighting chance. Several Whedon fans I know refused to watch it this season, simply because they were convinced that Fox would stomp it deader than Firefly as soon as they got hooked. Maybe they'll actually be tempted to watch now that the show has been given a reprieve.

On the other hand, Chuck (which came to a roaring climax this season) is either poised for greatness or standing on the dock with rope in hands, waiting for the speedboat to tow him out to the shark. Seriously, the final twist of the season has great potential to ruin the show. But I sincerely hope not. The show has been a ridiculously fun bright spot on Monday nights, and I hope this new direction doesn't kill its charm.

TV Round-up

I still haven't watched last night's shows, so the Chuck and Heroes impressions aren't completely up-to-date, but oh well...

I don't watch Bones, but I have enjoyed some of the episodes I've watched. However, the other day, I decided to watch the recent episode involving the death of a woman in a Renfaire-looking outfit. Turns out, it was a booth babe from a science-fiction convention. I can't believe how awful it was.

The main character, Brennan, is supposed to be this brainiac who's a little out of touch with the everyday world, but they were having her miss even the most obvious of "Star Wars" references, like some alien in a 50's B-picture. I mean, I halfway expected her to say, "Is this one of your Earth jokes?" Plus, the vibe around the convention and the characterization of the fans bore only the slightest resemblance to any kind of fan activity I've ever seen. Chuck would have gotten at least a little of it right.

For instance, Chuck's big episode after the break, "Chuck vs. the Third Dimension," had Chuck protecting a rock star. Now the rock star just happens to be played by the most famous hobbit rock star ever, Dominic Monaghan of "The Lord of the Rings" and Lost. But the rock star's name is Tyler Martin, which was just incredibly weird, because the day before I watched this episode, I listened to an interview with Tyler Martin, web-cartoonist and developer of the Comicpress plug-in for Wordpress, which I use on the Hero Go Home site (Boom! Review of TV show turns into reference to obscure geek hero turns into plug for my own site! Trifecta!). Maybe they weren't giving a nod to that Tyler Martin, but Chuck is just geek-aware enough that they could have been.

Interesting nod toward plausibility in the newest episode of Chuck. One of the problems with Chuck's premise is that he was infected with this huge intelligence database that was then destroyed. Now Chuck's got all the intel in his head. But intel goes stale after a while. What you knew about someone three weeks or months or years ago might not be relevant to what they're doing now. So Chuck has to get updated every now and then or else all he's got is a head full of old secrets that are currently useless.

So in the latest Chuck, he gets reinfected with an evil version of the Intersect database. However, this one comes from a computer with the latest high-speed datalines running into the building, not from an email attachment sent from a cell phone. Better.

Fox has a new show called Lie to Me. It's a mystery series starring Tim Roth as a guy who has spent his life studying lies and the way people act when they're telling them. So the camera is always focusing on twitches the actors make as they deliver their dialogue. It's a pretty good show, but the dialogue between the main characters gets awfully tiresome. (note: this is not actual dialogue from the show)

Character 1: What's wrong?

Character 2: Nothing.

Character 1 (pointing at 2's face): No! See? Right there. Mouth shrug indicating deception. You're lying. And I know what you're lying about!

Character 2 (pointing back): Ha! One-sided shrug! You don't know and you're just fishing.

Character 1: Maybe I don't. But something's wrong and you want to tell me.

Character 2: No, I don't. I'm fine.

Character 1 (pointing): Ha! Smiled with your mouth and not your eyes. Liar!

God, give it a rest.

Heroes continues to be Heroes, half-awesome, half-annoying-as-all-get-out. The characters are now fugitives from a government pogrom, which is led by the The Flying Senator who has turned Judas Goat. They've managed to make Suresh less ridiculous than in the "Villains" arc, but they've stolen Hiro's powers and turned him into a petulant whiny brat. I don't want petulant whiny Hiro. I want a Hiro who's on his way to being the ass-kicker we saw back in Season One, with the silly soul-patch and the katana slung across his back.

Other than that, Terminator is back and Dollhouse has premiered. I like what I've so far of Dollhouse, but I'll wait until after the third episode before I give my impressions.

Chuck Rocks

So I'm watching Chuck's Christmas episode tonight (it's not available on Hulu yet, but I'll update with the link tomorrow ETA: Here it is) and it sets up this hostage crisis in the Buy More. And suddenly, we hear just a hint of "Ode to Joy" on the soundtrack, and I'm thinking, "Is this supposed to be some sort of shout-out to 'Die Hard,' what with the hostage crisis at Christmas and everything?"

And then the LAPD pull up outside, and who should be with them?

That's right: Sgt. Al Powell.

But since Chuck is nothing if not unafraid to go over the top, instead of then slamming us over the head with a dozen more "Die Hard" references, they throw in a reference to a completely different cool-ass movie. You see, the guy taking everybody hostage is named something like Nate Rhyerson, but everybody calls him "Ned." Bing! (Full disclosure: Ned 'Rhyerson' is not in fact played by Stephen Tobolowsky, but Sgt. Al Powell is played by Reginald Veljohnson)

Heroes wasn't bad as a finale to the "Villains" arc, and I hope like hell Sylar's really dead, cause I'm sick of the sight of him, but of course, we never saw the body, so he'll be back, dammit. He'll be back.

And I'm afraid we may have seen the last of My Own Worst Enemy, which is too bad, because I was having fun with it. It's problem is that as a spy drama, it's as unbelievable as Chuck, but not as funny, so it's harder to buy into. Sort of a TV version of "True Lies," but without Jamie Lee Curits and Eliza Dushku, more's the pity.