quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: Am I the only one who thinks that Chuck has become Meh? I feel like it has really awesome season openers and enders, but all the stuff in the middle is just awkwardly-to-the-point-of-not-funny. And the character growth is inconsistent. (In particular I'm sick of Chuck learning to be a good spy and then stopping in the middle of a mission to ask Sarah about relationship stuff. Dude, it can wait another few hours).
I stopped watching somewhere in the middle of this season. I don't know if there was a specific reason, it just fell by the wayside as other stuff took priority.
I could have written that entire post.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Jeff C.: I started watching Chuck last night and I love it so far. It definitely has a sense of humor. That, coupled with the spy angle, makes for a very interesting show.
Started? Wow.
Actually, if you think about it, it's sort of a TV version of this.
Yeah, it's just something I always meant to watch but never did. The premise just seemed silly an the trailers made the characters seem flat and one demensional. But then I watched the pilot and I couldn't stop until I was 5 episodes in and I realized how late it was getting. I love it so far, but I'm not very far along.
I love the humor and the characters, especially Adam Baldwin (Firefly ftw) and Chuck's best friend (whatever his name is) who always makes me laugh. Great stuff!
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
| IP: Logged |
posted
Adam Baldwin was great in Firefly, in Day Break, and in Angel. And he totally rocks in Chuck. He's a funny guy in real life, too.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
I've been wanting to watch the Sing-Off for a couple years now and just never had the time. When I got home from class tonight I turned it on Hulu and wow! What a great show! These groups are so talented, and it's a form of music that never gets to take center stage like this, but requires so much work to pull off.
That opening number especially was very very cool.
Edit to add: I thought the all girl group was really good, and the rap group, surprisingly, was also really quite excellent, and I usually don't really care for rap. The big band sound of the BYU group was really impressive. Didn't think you could do that with singing.
I'd love to see someone either do "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (or any of their songs really), or some of the 90s acapella stuff, like Shai "If I ever fall in love" or something from that same genre. That's the stuff I grew up with.
posted
I watched the Grimm trailer, it just looks like a less entertaining Supernatural, even the wardrobe is familiar. Nothing too fantastic about the monsters either, just sociopaths with guidelines and cg faces while Supernatural likes to play around with rules and abilities.
"From the creators (who aren't Joss Whedon) of 'Angel' and 'Buffy' (the Vampire Slayer)"
Something they did not learn from Joss is that some comedic element is needed to sustain a long term horror show, Supernatural has dark comedic relief abound but Superman just does not inspire laughter.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
It's not on here, but I'm really looking forward to Alcatraz (mid-season replacement). - Sci-fi -- check - J.J. Abrams -- check - Showrunner worked on Lost -- check - Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) -- check - Good early critical reception -- check
It might possibly make me feel better when Fringe is cancelled.
It had the plot potential to be a girl-centered mystery on the level of Veronica Mars, but it's turned out to be a badly paced plod. All the characters are acting in a kind of dull whisper which I assume is supposed to convey urgency and mystery: instead it means that there is no urgency and mystery at all. Everything just slugs along slowly.
None of the actors are bringing much to their roles, and I think partly that's due to the writing. Even in the second episode, half the scenes between characters are mostly retreading ground we have already covered. There's very little for the actors to act and that contributes to their dullness. Sarah Michelle Geller is particularly unconvincing and I think that's an acting issue. I don't think she's necessarily a bad actress, only that she needs a push, either in the writing or the directing, to bring energy to a role.
The whole show lacks energy. I wasn't really expecting it to be a hit, though.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
That's a weird one. It's full of actors who have been pretty good (in my opinion) in other things. But the story is just an outlandish soap knock-off so I wasn't expecting much from it, and from that perspective it has entertained me.
I'm actually just kind of shocked that all those actors couldn't find some real quality work this season.
I'm looking forward to 'Alcatraz' too, and that other one ('Awake'?) where it seems like the guy has an accident and starts living his life in two slightly different universes so his reality is always changing.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Another great episode of the Sing Off last night, though I think the first group was stronger.
Anyone watch Terra Nova on Monday? I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It had shades of LOST, but they kept it mysterious without making it non-sensical, which I appreciated. That's where LOST lost me. I think the cast is absolutely fantastic. I've seen all of the adult leads on other things before and I love pretty much every single one of them as individual actors, and I think they play well off each other.
In particular, I mean Jason O'Mara is just an excellent actor. I think part of that is just him playing himself, because he's a charismatic guy. Stephen Lang I've loved ever since he was Pickett in Gettysburg, and in particular I loved it when he yelled "Damnation!" in frustration. I'm a little iffy on the kids, in part because their story line is totally uninteresting to me at the moment (but I expect improvement!), and I think the older daughter as a smarty pants is being overacted or overwritten to the point of cliche. She's basically Elroy.
What do I love about the plot? They got all the science more or less out of the way early. I mean, going back in time on Earth? There are simply too many variables to make it a believable scenario for there to be no repercussions in the future. I think they showed that they tried to make it work, and frankly I think the attention to detail is fairly impressive. They dealt with biology, atmospheric climate science, paleontology, theoretical physics, a little bit of everything, and it might not be 100% true or what not, but it's enough to be believable.
I liked the touch of the dystopian future. I like that Terra Nova is basically a frontier town. In that sense it kind of has some hints of Firefly in it. Frontier town, rebels against a government, government secrets, some of that, but not quite the same feel obviously. They got the mystery out fast. Who are the Sixers, why are they there? Where is Taylor's son and what key does he hold to the mystery?
I also liked that while there is plenty of plot, plenty of interesting things to play with, but they didn't at all ignore the characters. It's so easy with a show like this to be plot heavy and ignore the characters, but I didn't get that at all. I actually felt quite touched at several points by the family moments. And I like Taylor. I kept waiting for him to be this evil tyrannical guy who tries to coopt Jim, and maybe that IS what happened, but he also has a likeable quality. I BELIEVE that he really does have the best interests of the colony at heart, though he obviously has secrets and ulterior motives, but they might end up being fair benign in the grand scheme of good and evil, considering his son is involved in one of them.
I was expecting a crap fest of plot intrigue and stupid mysteries or too much gimmicky crap with no substance, but I think they actually did a great job with it and I'm interested to see where it goes.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
