posted
So I don't know if there's a thread for this, but I just wanted to say to people who had given up on Chunk because the show had gotten kinda lame, Season 3 was overall very good, and while they do still employ the "awkward humor" that I find way more, well, awkward, than actually funny, apart from that the show has moved dramatically forward, with decent character development and good pacing.
I can't think of any particular spoilery stuff I really want to talk about, other than than I just watched what I assume is the Spring Finale and it was good enough for me to want to post about how good it was.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
First off...who left the show because they thought it was lame?! The show is awesome! It's always been awesome. I'm very keen to spot awkward humor, because I really, really hate it. It makes me incredibly uncomfortable most of the time. But other than stuff with Jeff and Lester, I don't really think any of the humor is awkward based, despite how awkward Chuck can be.
I think the writing is brilliant, the characters are fleshed out impressively, and the chemistry between the actors is pleasantly obvious. I love it so, and I'm GEEKED that it was approved already for another season. I love their season finales, and I love where they go with them. Every time I worry that a major shift is going to ruin the dynamic of the show, they do something awesome to take it to the next level.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I actually don't find Jeff and Lester awkward at all, largely because they're so caricaturized that I don't feel for them as people. The parts I find awkward (which I often skip over, even in Season 3) is when Chuck decides to start talking about random emotional stuff in the middle of an important mission instead of, I dunno, on the car ride home? It makes me cringe so bad its physically painful.
The early parts of Season 3 had a lot of that stuff, which is why my parents stopped watching (at least to some extent).
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
For an alternate perspective, I watched a half dozen or so episodes this season but then gave up because I didn't like the character arcs. I watched the last half hour or so of the season finale and didn't feel like they'd improved their approach at all in the intervening episodes.
I think it would have been interesting to explore Chuck's darker side; they hinted at that at one point (Chuck starts drinking whiskey, alone, instead of scarfing down cheese balls) but didn't develop it at all. Instead, they tried to endlessly string out the "will they, won't they" question between Sarah and Chuck, neutered Casey's character, and introduced what may be the blandest villain of all time (Brandon Routh's character).
My bottom line; moving forward in an interesting way after Chuck downloaded intersect 2.0 at the end of season two would have been difficult. Too difficult, it seems, for the pared down writing crew that worked on season three. Maybe if their budget bumps back up for season four they'll be able to recover, but I kind of doubt it.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
While I can understand all those complaints, I'm not really sure how the writing got "worse." The writing has never been particularly great from a character development standpoint. Things moved way forward this season in ways they hadn't at all in previous seasons, so I don't think you can blame any problems on budget cuts.
I don't know if they're going to continuously break up Chuck and Sarah, but for now things look relatively stable. The "will they won't they" went on longer than I'd have liked but honestly it was shorter than I expected it to be based on the overall vibe of the show (Since the whole show basically revolved around it, I didn't think it'd resolve remotely till Season 4. If they weren't constantly under threat of cancellation it may have ended up going that way).
Don't know what exactly you meant by them neutering Casey's character. I thought he's been more interesting, not less.
My issue with Routh isn't that he's bland (I like his calm, friendly demeanor even when he's being evil, and wish we had more villains like him. I loved the line when he's like, "what do you want me to say? Mu-a-ha-ha-ha?") What I don't like is that his motivations aren't very clear. He's a generic good guy, then he seems to instantly flip to a generic bad guy. I know he wants to take over the CIA in revenge for killing his wife, but it's unclear what he'd intend to do afterwards with it. But seriously, it's a campy spy show. None of the villains have really had compelling motivations from Day 1.
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Yeah, I don't agree that Casey was neutered. Beyond grunting, he didn't really even have a character until partway through season 2, and it was fleshed out a LOT more in Season 3. Learning his back story, and getting a bit more insight into what makes him tick, and having them show that he really does care about his team was a big deal to me.
I'm actually kind of glad that they only dipped their toes in the pool of Chuck's dark side. 90% of why I like the show is the comedy. It's not as funny if Chuck spends his days drowning his sorrows in boose and misery. If it was a different kind of show, I would have liked to see that. But it's light-hearted and campy fun. I thought it was incredibly consistent.
Jenos -
Looks like just 13 for now, but we could see a full-season pick-up, just like last year. I wouldn't be surprised if they worked it out differently this time to accommodate the possibility this time, but I have to admit, they did some pretty cool stuff for having tacked on those 7 or 8 episodes on the end of the season. I would have been happy if they had ended it at the 13 ep break, because it was well done. But I liked the direction they took it in with the extra time.
In many ways I felt that the Season 3 finale reset the show. So many things had changed, and at the same time, the door was opened to dozens of new potential bad guys, and we have a new long term plot device.
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posted
Just popping in to say how much I wholeheartedly agree. Chuck has been outstanding this season and everyone should watch it.
Posts: 1604 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I've gotten a big kick out of Chuck since the beginning, but I love how much they brought it at the back half of the season. I'm really looking forward to getting more in the fall.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I didn't quite get the end of the finale, so maybe someone can explain it to me.
What I got out of it was that Chuck's dad was a spy working alone, apart from any government. He seems to have been doing this in an attempt to find Chuck's mother who went missing. (Or did she leave because she found out about Chuck's father?)
Chuck's father has all of these files in the basement under his house contains research on hundreds of other organizations like Fulcrum/The Ring?
Speaking of Fulcrum, what ever happened to them? Chevy Chase's character was not the leader of Fulcrum (They said as much in season 2) so what happened to them? It was kind of confusing to me.
I LOVE the show but I was kind of let down at the lack of "Buy More" episodes. I think the Buy More scenes are the best part of the show. I worked at a CompUSA back in the day and everytime there is a Buy More scene it reminds me of some of the funny things we did when I worked there.
One time we took one of the software guys and tied him up in an upstairs room of the warehouse. We made him look dirty and unkempt, and put a bowl of dogfood next to him. We then took a brand new employee for a tour of the store, and took him up there. The kid was freaked out when he saw the guy tied up. The software kid really got into it and played the part well.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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quote:One time we took one of the software guys and tied him up in an upstairs room of the warehouse. We made him look dirty and unkempt, and put a bowl of dogfood next to him. We then took a brand new employee for a tour of the store, and took him up there. The kid was freaked out when he saw the guy tied up. The software kid really got into it and played the part well.
That aside, I have to admit I have never been all that into the Buy More sections of the episodes, especially as Chuck has had less and less to do with the Buy More himself. I understand why they're there (because there are plenty of people like Geraine who love them) but I don't think they need more than the one subplot per episode they've been doing lately. (I did especially love how Jeffster's music video got queued up for the big showdown.)
As for the plot, sounds like you pretty much got it, but I thought they clarified that Chevy Chase WAS the leader of Fulcrum, it was just that Fulcrum was part of a larger organization (the Ring). Ergo, Fulcrum is gone, but they still have to deal with its parent organization.
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posted
So what are the dozens (or hundreds it seems) of other organizations that Chuck's father had files on? Are they also groups like The Ring, or groups that operate under them?
I don't think Chuck's father is dead. It is too convenient that he died next to a cellular regeneration lab. As he told Chuck before, Orion has had to die many times before.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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I thought they were going to go the "Routh's regen thing will save the father" route, but I think by ressurecting him as a computer simulation alleviates the need for that. They might have him come back but I don't think they'd need to for multiple seasons.
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I'd actually be surprised if whatever Ring lackey was sent to clean up didn't resurrect Orion. They want to know what he knows. What better way to find out than to ask him?
I just hope this time as Chuck does the spy thing that he tells Ellie.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I've been thinking about what I meant when I said they "neutered" Casey. I guess I felt like the backstory was a cop-out. They needed some reason for him being his grunting, alpha self, so they created this weepy back story, introduced a daughter for him to learn how to love, and turned him into Morgan's comic relief sidekick. I would have preferred if they'd just let Casey be Casey.
What I took from the final minutes of the finale was that Chuck is part of an extended spy family, one that's involved in hundreds of secret organizations (probably mostly of the Ring type, rather than the CIA type). I think next season he'll be freelancing, trying to keep it hidden from everyone, and trying to track down his mom who's being protected by one of these organizations (likely because she knows too much).
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