In the News:
- We’re one step closer to Skynet–robots have been taught to lie.
- Writer James Fay talks about killing off Ianto Jones on “Torchwood.”
- Edward James Olmos wants to write a BSG sequel comic book.
Multiverse News: Nigel Blackwood returns with a new report from the Multiverse
Movie Talk:
- Khan may or may not be in the “Star Trek” sequel. Depends on if the story is one that works for the character.
- Find out more about “FAQ About Time Travel.”
Slice of Trivia: Kurt’s back with some new clips to stump the studio crew and you. Can you figure them out before the studio crew does? And don’t forget Kurt needs your clips for future trivia segments. Send them: sliceoftrivia@gmail.com
TV Talk: Jane Badler talks about her role on “V.”
Interview: “Eureka” producer Jamie Paglia drops back by this week for an interview about season four of the hit SyFy series. We go full SPOILER for this one, so if you haven’t seen up through the mid-season finale, you may want to catch up and then listen. (Seriously…we SPOIL the heck out of things and if you’re not watching “Eureka” all we can ask is–why not?!?)
In the Future: Find out more about “The Mis-Adventures Of Adam West.”
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Good interview. Not sure it motivated me to watch the show again, but maybe I’ll peruse it when it’s out on DVD, I’m retired (again), and have more time for discretionary viewing then I do now. I never did like the Carter-Allison love interest after the first season, and thought they had both moved on. The fact he’s still pining for her is not a plus.
Personally, I’d be happy if Carter ended up with Sarah.
I agree with the Chuck comments at the end, except for the assessment of the last 15 minutes being good.
I thought the whole episode was weak and disjointed, jumping all over the place in terms of emotion, story, and acting.
The whole computer-file-download-thing was outdated and lame . Perhaps it was a nod to old shows and movies where a file took a long time to download or copy, and it served to add tension to a scene, but these days you can move multiple gigabytes of data in the time they had (and they were moving only one file).
Plus, they only had a short while to go to finish getting the whole file. Lots of precedent for them waiting, to complete the mission, as it were, but instead it ended up being strictly a plot device for Chuck to say “I care more about you guys than my mom”. To me it came across as fake and out of character.
And I know the fan-boys need to be entertained, but the whole text-with-your-toes-let’s-get-some-upskirt-shots of Sarah went on way too long.
At some point that kind of exploitative treatment might put off female viewers . . . oh wait, they flashed some man-flesh as well. That was also longer than it needed to be, and it too came across as deliberate, looking out of place, disrupting the flow, and taking me out of the absorption in the show.
I’ll still watch, and I look forward to the guests, but cameos are not going to carry this show. I hope they step it up a bit.
Lastly, the final scene marks a departure for the show. A level of callousness not seen to date. Sure, Sarah executed a Ring agent before, but he was not a sympathetic character, and he had threatened Chuck and his family. And sure, I would have done the same, but they did not make the character that was killed (avoiding spoilers as much as I can) an evil-must-die sort of person. In fact, he was played for camp more than anything else, so that scene, and his way his demise came to be, to me looked out of place in this show.
Perhaps they can thread the line between good-ole-fun killing and cold-blooded killing, but at some point it’s going to trip them up. I think the line “I have a family” already did.
Oh Emilio…I sometimes wonder why you watch shows since they all seem to bother you so much…;)
Chuck worked for me. The hour was smart, fun and far better than the contrived reasons to keep Chuck and Sarah apart last year.
And if YS is a good enough sport to go along with it, I’m fine with. and let’s face it, the show does offer off beef-cake for both genders.
As for the end, I think it fits in with the theme I’m seeing this year of not everything is how you picture it. And it’s a show about spies–they do brutal things. To show that aspect of Chuck’s mom works becuase I think once he finds her, it will be interesting to see how different the reality is from what he expects.
I watch in a desperate attempt to earn geek creds.
Seriously, I watch Chuck because I like it. However, the premiere raised some concerns. No, not the eye candy. I don’t have any problem with that as it has been a part of the show all along. In these two instances I felt it was not as casual as in the past. That is, much more in-your-face. Not a big deal, but I’m particular about my face and what others may want to smash on it.
No, for one, we did not see Chuck *do* anything. In the past we would have seen him take care of the goons with the guns that were surrounding him; the payoff at the end of the set-up, as it were. In fact, there was no action to speak of in the whole show (ok, his mom a little bit); just people poised for action, with the next scene implying something has happened, but it’s left up to our imagination as to what. Works when reading books; less so when watching TV.
The last scene may have set up the character of his mom for us, but I wish they would have left the “I have family” line out. Puts a different tone in a show I watch primarily because it is lighthearted. Sanitized, mostly bloodless killing is fun. Remorseless, almost joyous executions less so. She looked positively smug as she pulled the trigger. The show needs to decide what it wants to be.
I understand some people like the dark, and I do too. It has it’s place in much that I watch and read, and it’s out of place elsewhere. This is an elsewhere show for me; tinges of gray are OK, but darkness puts a damper on the fun. They may be spies, but I’m not expecting Bourne – and even Jason avoids killing, even when he has just cause.
As for shows in general, I admit I probably have higher expectations than most, especially in two areas; details which take me out of the suspension of disbelief, and consistency in character actions/development. Probably comes from having limited time for dedicated TV/movie viewing.
Or, as some have hinted, I’m just a jackwagon. (I’ll have to look that up someday . . . but I’ve heard ignorance is bliss).