Geekshow

The Chuck Saga Continues (Pt. 2)

I’ve seen helicopter lessons, dance instructions, wookies, and more than my fair share of product placement. I believe that for the first time, I’m begining to see the charm of NBC’s Chuck. It’s not always elegant. Sometimes the fight scenes seem a bit forced. However, a lot of my initial fears from the pilot have been resolved for the most part. For more thoughts on Episodes 2-4 of Chuck, keep reading.

Things still aren’t perfect. Sometimes the comedy falls flat on it’s face. And as I mentioned before, it seems as though they have to force a fight into every episode, even if it could go without one. However, I appreciate that they’ve moves away from the parody style humor that plagued the pilot episode for me.

The characters are really starting to come into their own in these episodes. I’m starting to enjoy Zachary Levi’s presentation of normal guy Chuck, quite a bit. When your show features such a stereotype, it can be hard to not go way too far. Take the geekiness or the wimpering too far and it becomes annoying. But in the episodes I’ve seen so far, they’ve pulled it all off pretty well. Except for that weirdly akward, "Why are all these people sleeping" comment. Was that supposed to be a joke, or is he that big of an idiot? Either way, generally they deserve Kudos.

So at this point, I’m wondering how long it will take for Chuck and Bryce’s Stanford girlfriend to make an appearance. Jill, right? She’s gotten enough mentions to this point that I’m totally expecting her to make an appearance at some point. It might not happen, but it’s just a hunch I’ve gotten so far.

To continue to improve, I’d like to see the series take more of an arcing story as opposed to episodic approach it’s taken so far. It might not happen, as it may inherit the general network tradition and remain episodic. But still, I’d like to see it happen. Also, I’d like to see Adam Baldwin’s role step up. I imagine as she show gets closer to the looming "6-month" deadline that will happen. I look forward to it.

I have to say, now that a lot of cheesier humor has departed, I’m enjoying the show quite a bit more. None of the characters really bother me right now, but I still find Sarah Lancaster’s character, and her boyfriend, to be some of the weak links. I’m eager to keep going to see what happens.