meganbmoore | Entries tagged with tv: chuck

(Well, it's true, unless I've forgotten characters...)

A few weeks ago I finished the last season of Chuck. It had it's ups and downs but was largely pretty fun. Not as good as the first 2 or 4th seasons but better than the third. This week I watched the final season of Eureka (glad I was warned about the beginning of the season, always happy to see Beverley, amused that they thought we'd be shocked by the Henry reveal towards the end.) And the last couple episodes of both did the same thing with a female character that (1) is very uncommon (and on the final 5th season of each, at that...), (2) didn't exactly thrill me, but didn't make me want to throw things either.

( spoilers for season 5 of both shows )

Lost Girl 2.20:

( spoilers )
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: This one was really fun!

( short and not really spoilery )
Nikita 2.17:

( spoilers )
Once Upon A Time 1.16: Emma, you're doing that awkward thing again where you're having more chemistry with your biological mother than anyone else. Please stop. And Rumples didn't annoy me for the first time since...sometime back.

( spoilers )
Ringer 1.18:

( spoilers )

I also finished season 4 of Chuck. Despite going "What...no..." at the last scene (we'll see how it goes) it it temporarily bringing back one narrative aspect I dislike in earlier seasons, I likedthis season a lot, though I admit to being a bit distracted by Linda Hamilton, and all the Terminator/Sarah Connor references. (I suspect they asked her to do the pullups scene and she went "That was twenty years ago!" because someone clearly wanted it there.) Timothy Dalton's character was also a hoot. I admit, though, that I've forgotten most of season 3? I only really remember what happened with Orion, and the parts I liked.

Last night I thought about posting on important issues like how hoodies are incredibly so scary that if a black man wears one at night* it's only logical that you would fear for your life and shoot him (after following him around for a while, of course) or how comparing women to farm animals to help push your piece of legislation is apparently OK, but then I just got really depressed. Everyone blogging about creepy internet privacy laws only helped with that.

But then on Chuck Bela Talbot showed up as a Damsel In Distress This Week and resolved the issue by shooting the guy trying to kill her point blank with a shotgun, and then in the next episode Leland Palmer showed up and was creepy to her and she beat him up, and it cheered me up some. (And when you consider that Leland Palmer and Bela Talbot are the roles Ray Wise and Lauren Cohen are respectively best known for, and the later reveals about both characters, you have to do a little extra fist pumping.)

*ETA: I forgot the skittles! One must not forget how terrifying and dangerous skittles are.

I'm starting season 4 of Chuck (Netflix ha been withholding it from me half the time the last few months, and the other half I've been moving something else in front of it since it wasn't sharing) and you knowing, I had heard about Linda Hamilton being cast in a role that should remove any doubt that the casting director was the ultimate genre geek, but I had forgotten about it since.

This is extra pertinent since I spent yesterday and this morning marathoning Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles (most of whivh I have seen before and loved) and re-giggling at Person of Interest having a lena Headey-esque actress give the angsty silent crankypant ex-spy/assassin-turned-vigilante the pseudonym "John Reese."

Dear listies:

What are your thoughts on White Collar? I tend to like detective series and spy shows, as long as they don't end up procedurals (The Inside and Bones are the only real exceptions, and The Inside is almost more of a character piece, and Bones always reminds me more of an old bickering detectives drama and the fake forensics involve icky corpses, but they're usually barely recognizable as human, and it has lots of women doing things and multiple women with authority and actually having their authority respected.) or have an endless string of dead/used women.

White Collar sounds like something I'd have fun with, if not get invested in (that tends to usually be genre shows and period dramas, though there are a decent number of exceptions), if I liked the characters, and I like the actors in it who I'm familiar with, but I understand there's frudging at the end of season one, and then there's the cruddy way they treated Natalie Morales. It also sounds like it may be a case of "men do things while women support them," but I try not to judge things as such until I've actually watched them.

Also, I giggle at the thought of Matt Bomer as a con artist, or whatever he is. From impossibly good looking and perfect spy to impossibly perfect and good looking con? I'll keep thinking it's a deepcover mission! But, Bryce Larkin, Chuck and Sarah will be very disappointed with you! (In Chuck, I am annoyed with Bryce when he's all "Sarah, we are epic love and the fact that you've totally rejected running off with me twice and left me waiting for you at the train station for hours, so to speak, does not change that!" but like him when he is all "I shall protect the precious precious pirincess! And by 'princess,' I mean Chuck. Who has somehow remained both annoyingly and endearingly Pure.")

Though, uhm, with exactly 1 episode of The Undercovers left ever, I may subconsciously get bitter on principle for any new-to-me spy shows that don't get cancelled halfway through their first season.

1. I tried reading more of Dan Brown's The Last Symbol. I made it to about chapter 19 (they're short chapters), and it would have been a mch better book with about 1/3 of the wordcount at that point. Anyway, apparently, almost every college student in America gets an Eurorail ticket and tours Europe between high school and college. This, apparently, is a true American standard. The hundreds of college graduates and students that I know and I would like to know where our tickets were. With our silver spoons, maybe? ("Silver spoons" referring not from coming from a family able to send their kid to Europe, but to the classism involved in the assumption.) And really, aside from being tedious and having a boring plot (which gets interrupted every other paragraph by trivia, most of which serves absolutely no purpose) it's...extremely elitist. Almost every character is an amazingly brilliant, wealthy white person who is revolutionary in hir field, which we are constantly reminded of, and their lives and brilliance get explained to us in minute detail. Complete with what appears to be the main female character being mansplained into brilliance. Also, I find the characters terribly dull? Like, even the geeky ladies aren't fun. Also, the only nonwhite people are (1) the hispanic guard who did not properly perform a security check and let the villain in, and (2) the Japanese leader of the supersecret branch of the CIA. Who is actually the only character with the potential to be interesting so far, but she's also the only character to get a really detailed physical description, and she's described in extremely unflattering terms, depicted as incredibly ugly and scary looking.

2. But for better or for worse, they took the books off the computers again, so no more The Lost Symbol for me. Actually, that's probably unquestionably good. It also means no more Sparklepire posts, though. Not reading more of that is also probably for the best, but, while time consuming, those posts were pretty fun to write. More time to catch up with all the books (good and bad) that i've read the last month or so, though.

3. The whole thing with Elizabeth Moon's really bad Islamophobic/appropriative/narrowminded post went down when I had laryngitis and did not want to, uhm, discuss unpleasant things. (Random fact: Eureka and Scarecrow and Mrs. King go from fun to utterly fabulous when you live in a mild blur caused by drugs meant to keep you from feeling the pain of trying to hack up a lung for a week, let me tell you.) A lot of the hoopla involved the fact that Moon is a guest of honor for 2011's WisCon, and whether or not that status is being revoked. It isn't, and while I'm not familiar with the process involved, I suspect that, in most cases, there are far more strings and rules involved in uninviting a GoH than in inviting them in the first place. Like many others, I think that, while the post itself is pretty awful, the biggest problem is that Moon deleted all the comments to the post but left the post itself exactly as it originally was and has said nothing else on the matter publicly. Third parties have said she regrets the post, but nothing from Moon herself. I mean, what, is she saving it up for a giant, manipulative group hug at WisCon?

I also think that the other GoH, Nisi Shawl, is largely being overlooked? Here's what she has to say on the matter.

Anyway, assuming I can afford it and have a roommate/place to stay next year, I still plan on going. I mean, this year, I wanted to see Nnedi Okorafor (ETA to fix the name change, which I will eventually remember!), and only did at the GoH speeches and the signing?

4. Continuing with authorfail, Christopher Pike's recent fail is possibly the most entertaining. Basically, he wrote a book set in Turkey. A Turkish woman read the beginning and posted an Amazon reviews explaining a number of misrepresentations in the book. A man claiming to be Pike's editor left a (now deleted) response explaining why she was wrongwrongwrong. They interacted a bit more and "Michael Bright" basically said that she couldn't possibly know what she was talking about and that one trip to Turkey made Pike an expert. And then it was discovered that Pike had previously publicly admitted that "Michael Bright" is one of several sockpuppets he uses. And then it was discovered that Pike had left a number of Amazon reviews praising his books as amazing and brilliant and the best things ever. There's an excellent writeup on the whole thing here.

Naturally, this went down just as I was about to embark on a reread of Pike's books! And it was to be a reread for pleasure, no doubt marred by what my adult mind will register as Fail. Now it'll be a reread watching for the Fail! Uhm...when i get around to it.

5. You know, I get that a lot of book releases are scheduled for late in the year so they can be bought as gifts and whatnot, but it can be a bit overwhelming? This is the stack of books released in the last couple months (some paperback releases of hardcovers) that I have but haven't read yet:

Tasha Alexander: Tears of Pearl
Julie Berry: The Amaranth Enchantment
Rhys Bowen: Royal Flush
Marie Brennan: A Star Shall Fall
Elizabeth Chadwick: For the King's Favor
Loretta Chase: Last Night's Scandal
Simon R. Green: Ghost of A Chance
Karen Kincy: Other
Carolyn McCullough: Once A Witch
Deanna Raybourn: Dark Road to Darjeeling
Gillian Shields: Immortal

I suspect there are a few out that I've missed, I'm good at that. And Anna Godberson and Sarah Beth Durst both have new books out next week!

Maybe I'll get some of these read while travelling to various family things this weekend.

5. The first few eps of season 3 of Chuck are...not as bad as I'd been lead to expect (possibly because of that) but definitely not as fun as previous seasons. And I still refuse to believe that Chuck (or anyone) could physically adjust as quickly as Chuck did. The end of ep 3, though, implies that the show and I may soon have a serious falling out.

ETA: 6: I have learned that the guy behind Lost Girl is also behind my most recent One True Love, Queen of Swords (I, uhm, am a bit fickle about fictional One True Loves...what do we think will supplant girl!Zorro?) as well as La Femma Nikita, Andromeda, and Relic Hunter, all of which I have intended to watch for some time, but haven't.

If ever I doubted that Nathan Fillon only ever really played one character (said character pretty much being Nathan Fillon) Castle would have removed that doubt. Thankfully, I rather like Nathan Fillon as he plays the same guy in new situations, over and over. Though I normally don’t like the character type?

Anyway, this series seems designed to appeal to fans of the old 80s “bickering detectives” shows like Moonlighting and Remington Steele, which is shorthand for “I like it.”

The pilot, though enjoyable, made me cringe as it fell into the trope of “Serious Career Woman is Wrong when she plays by the books and Free Spirited Man is Right despite having no real experience,” and added to it by just saying “it’s more interesting that way.” Thankfully, that doesn’t last long and the rest of the series is more balanced, with Castle frequently learning that Real Life doesn’t always come with fun twists and reveals, and that actual detectives also have to put up with all sorts of boring things, and Beckett is serious about her job, but seems to happily cut loose in other situations.

One thing I particularly like is how Castle seems to almost be actively depressed when not talking to or about women, and not in an objectifying way, much as I roll my eyes at some bits. The guy just seriously likes being around women in any context. But then, his mother, despite not really being a good mother, is pretty much a force of nature, and his daughter is essentially raising him. (I have no idea how Alexis turned out so normal and well adjusted. Girl defies genetics.) Guy probably feels lost if a woman isn’t around, calling the shots in some context.

I’m not particularly thrilled with how a subplot involving Castle prying into Beckett’s past is developing at the end of the season, but I’ll wait until I see how that plays out to cast judgment.

I also watched the second season of Chuck, which I’ve been told is the best of the series. Not having seen any of S3 yet, I would agree, as it starts out having it’s footing well in hand, instead of spending half the season floundering like the first season. I particularly liked the Jill plotline (despite initial misgivings), Alex (show, why do the awesome lady spies who aren’t Sarah and who Casey has the hots for only stay for one episode?) and the Awesome wedding jitters. I feel like I’m being punished, though, every time there’s a Buy More plotline. Hollywood, when will you stop upholding sexist pervs as the pinnacle of humor? Like, I’m pretty sure Jeff and Lester’s character descriptions are “geeky sexist perv” and Morgan’s is “Geeky, slightly less sexist (in isolation) slightly less pervy (unless Ellie is involved) but loyal.” I have to resist the urge to FF every time they come on screen. Though at least Big Mike is fairly entertaining. The only redeeming value they have, though, is Anna, who isn’t even in half the episodes. But heaven forbid Jeff, Lester and Morgan don’t get a plot each episode.

( spoilers )

Kicked out of Stanford after his roommate, Bryce, framed him for cheating on a test, Chuck Bartowski is a slacker nerd seemingly destined to spend the rest of his life one step away from lower management at the local Buy More and living with his sister, Ellie, and her boyfriend, Devon (who we will call Captain Awesome, since everyone but Ellie does). Except that then Bryce, now a CIA agent, goes rogue and sends Chuck an e-mail containing all the files of the Intersect, a computer containing all of the government’s intel gathered from all of it’s organizations, compressed into millions of images. Chuck opens the e-mail, effectively downloading the entire computer into his brain, resulting in “flashes” any time he sees anything related to international espionage or government secrets. With Bryce having blown up the computer itself, Chuck’s brain is now the only place where all the files can be found. As a result, Chuck is given two handlers-Sarah Walker, a CIA agent who was Bryce’s partner (and girlfriend) and John Casey, the NSA (I think) agent who shot and killed Bryce when he stole the Intersect- to keep an eye on him while he continues about his daily life.

Yeah, I have a little trouble buying that he wouldn’t be immediately carted off to a safehouse myself, no matter how much I suspend my disbelief.

The vast majority of my interest in the show was Adam Baldwin as Casey, and for the first few episodes, that’s really the only interesting thing going on. Sarah is pretty cool, but the show a bit too caught up in her being in love with Bryce but falling for Chuck, and doesn’t seem to really know what it wants to do with her. I hope it’ll be like Psych, where they didn’t seem sure what to do with Juliet in season 1, but figured it out in season 2 and changed the character from “good” to “awesome.” Ellie and Captain Awesome are adorable, but don’t seem to serve much purpose. The entirety of the Buy More staff was irritating. Chuck himself is sweet, but not very interesting. I am also mildly concerned by his being so hung up on Sarah despite knowing that, by necessity, everything he knows about her is a lie.

But then there’s Casey, who is a super-tense, grumpy, anti-social, detail oriented, paranoid spy forced to work retail and babysit an irritating (to him) geek. Played by Adam Baldwin. I don’t think it’s humanly possibly to not be entertained by that. I admit, despite my usual disinterest in such things, I spent a while thinking about how spy hate!sex would be fun, or even Casey/Ellie. Except that I would never do that to Chuck or Captain Awesome. Not even a fling. Casey also has awesome spy ex-girlfriends, one of whom is essentially a female James Bond.

Thankfully, Chuck started to come into his own mid-season, which helped the show as a whole. I still have trouble with the idea that he’d be able to continue on with his normal life, and wish I thought he was falling for the “real” Sarah, instead of a fantasy version of her based on his knowing that nothing he knows about her is real, but his actual crush is adorable, as are his puppyish attempts to become friends with Casey later in the season. I’m still irritated by the Buy More staff, who I don’t find particularly entertaining or endearing, though Anna is OK, and I can at least tolerate Morgan, Chuck’s best friend who has a crush of Ellie, by the last two episodes. The actual spy bits, though, are usually pretty great, and the actual show entertaining once it gets going.

Did I mention the part where ~~Jayne~~ Adam Baldwin is a spy who has to work retail?

PS-Fandom, why do you appear to have generated no icons of Sarah and Casey pointing their guns at something?

Profile

meganbmoore

July 2020

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Eureka & Chuck: the shows where the only permanently dead major characters are straight white dudes
TeeVee
(no subject)
(no subject)
I apparently no longer have a Chuck icon.
I'm never sure if the evil Muslim sorceress is appropriate for the conversation or not...
Castle Season 1, Chuck Season 2
Chuck: Season 1 (complete)

Style Credit

Style: Wisteria for Nouveau Oleanders by branchandroot
Resources: OpenClipart and Siren

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated May. 28th, 2025 04:40 pm

Of Swords and Parasols

I'm a damsel. I'm in distress. I can handle it.

Entries tagged with tv: chuck

Eureka & Chuck: the shows where the only permanently dead major characters are straight white dudes

TeeVee

(no subject)

(no subject)

I apparently no longer have a Chuck icon.

I'm never sure if the evil Muslim sorceress is appropriate for the conversation or not...

Castle Season 1, Chuck Season 2

Chuck: Season 1 (complete)