So...Chuck.
The skinny is as follows....
Chuck is not impressive. That's to say it's not impressive in an Aaron Sorkin, Joss Whedon sort of way; the kind of way that makes you fall madly in love with every character...villains/protags included. It's not an instant classic and doesn't impress upon you the feeling of "down the road" classic either. What it is...All it is...is fun.
The two principal writers do not have remarkable track records. I don't feel like going back to look up the names but I know one has written for no other show but Chuck, and the other has made, let's just say, a significant contribution to The O.C.; a show that reverberated such maddening echoes of Beverly Hills 9 blah 2 1 blah that your room was soon filled to the point of swelling with the sound of whining rich kids and their incredibly fortunate unfortunate parents. What made The O.C. seem winning was the attempt at wit....Enter Coen. It's sort of like when G.W.B. spoke with the occasional coherent sentence.....It's like, 'Ok so he's not always completely obtuse....but president?....Really?' I could go on an unstoppable sound-off about how dreadful shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills were born because of inspid absurdity like Beverly Hills......but I wanna talk about Chuck so...
What grabbed me about Chuck at the start was how much fun the plot was. Interesting, smart, hilarious guy is sent an e-mail by his enemy from Stanford that, upon being opened, uploads every government secret that the CIA and FBI combined can store in one hard-drive into his head.....and let's face it....that's ALOTTA crap. He's now under constant government protection/surveillance by a laconic juggernaut named "Agent Casey" and the leggyest blond super agent/model ever to holster a weapon named "Agent Walker". Now, with "The Intersect" in his head Chuck Bartowski(how awesome is that name!?) "flashes" on anything and everything that the government chose to include in the device upon its creation. When Chuck flashes he can regurgitate secret identities, locations, passwords, etc.etc. without understanding what he's seeing or saying. Pretty cool, right? I thought so.
Season one did a fine job of making me care about Chuck and friends. I cared about what happened to everyone. And anyone who enjoys any kind of serialized medium, whether it be a movie or television series, knows that if the creators can make you care, then they're doing well. I'm going to deviate now, just for a second, to Beverly Hills and her children......How, ya know, in the world....can ANYONE care about those characters?....How?......(snapping out of frustration.....NOW)
Chuck has other charming qualities...like it's often tasteful selection of music. The likes of Frightened Rabbit and Bon Iver have made frequent appearances in key climactic scenes. I've also always been a fan of a show that isn't scared to reach so desperately for a powerful moment in the midst of hilarity and sophomoric humor. The show does sometimes falter in this area, but I've been pleasantly surprised often enough. One of my favorite moments in the show so far has come in the iffy and recently ended season 2. The CIA believes the "new Intersect" is ready to be tested and Agent Walker, known as Sarah at this point, and Chuck think it's safe to have their first official romantic night together. And Agent Casey is commanded to kill Chuck as he's no longer needed and constitutes a threat to national security, what with all those secrets boppin' around in his head. The show very smoothly juggles three points of view: Chuck and Sarah's shy purposeful glances at each other, Casey spy-marauding through Chuck's house with a gun at the ready, and CIA agents preparing to view the new Intersect. Throughout the scene Frightened Rabbit's "The Twist" is playing. The song has a nice progression and fitting lyrics like, "I need human heat." I won't tell you what happens but....it was awesome and quite frankly moving in a bitter-sweet sort of way.
Season 2 ended last night and the last four of episodes have be so convoluted and rushed that I imagine many fans of the show who seek their weekly injection of wit and smarty-pants screenwriting are on the verge of scramming for good. I can't say I blame them. The writers, it seems, have inherited the Wachowski Brothers curse of not knowing how to close. I hear Axel Rose's immortal question, "Where do we go? Where do we go now?" It feels like they've revealed all the show's major twists just to save Season 2 and give Season 3 a fighting chance on NBC's corporate cutting board. I now hear Sir Ben Kingsley saying, "Keep her back." and Lawrence Fishburn shouting "Bring her out!" in Searching For Bobby Fisher. I just hope it wasn't the queen we saw these past few weeks but some very gaudy pawns.
Chuck and company......I believe in you. Put your heads together and knock me out next fall!
