The successful campaign to save Chuck last spring, which involved buying Subway sandwiches, was impressive enough to bring Subway in as a marketing partner for the show. Chuck was originally slated to return in March after the Olympics, but recent rumblings suggest that it may return in January instead. Now fans of the BuyMore have six more episodes of Chuck to look forward to. Considering that the show that was on the brink of being canceled a few months ago, things are now looking much rosier for Chuck and the gang.

(Variety)

Not Shaken . . . Just Nerd.

I am gonna go out on a limb here and say it: Chuck is the most fun show on TV today. That being said, I can see how some people who want a little more depth to their story or more serialized television might not have been a big fan of Chuck in its early days. But to you I say: It’s time to play catch up.

Chuck started out with a rather simple premise. Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), leader of the Nerd Herd (i.e. Geek Squad) at his local Buy More (i.e. Best Buy) is pretty much a college drop-out slacker-type who lives with his sister. He has a best friend, Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez), who is his childhood friend, gaming buddy and all around hanger-on. Then he opens an e-mail from his former college buddy, Bryce Larkin.

And Chuck becomes the most valuable secret the U.S. Government has.

Chuck has downloaded all of the Nation’s most classified and Top Secret projects and personnel into his head. He is now guarded around the clock by his cover girlfriend, the beautiful but deadly Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), and his cover co-worker and neighbor, the stoic and gruff John Casey (Adam Baldwin).

Admittedly, I watched this show in the beginning for two reasons: 1)It looked to be a fun show and 2) It had Adam Baldwin in it. And I have made a solemn vow to try watch everything Firefly alumni get a role in (Thank you SciFi channel for making me watch some truly craptastic movies). But I digress.

For the first half of the season or so, it was a pretty formulaic and episodic show. But after they came back from the writer’s strike, the show really took off. It is still formulaic, but there is a serious heart to the show now that wasn’t there previously.

I think that charm comes from two things. First of all Chuck has some of the most amazing stunt casting seen today: Melinda Clarke as a deadly seductress (Hey, it’s Nandi – more Firefly!), Michael Clarke Duncan as dangerous villain (The Green Mile), John Laroquette as a former spy and ladies’ man (Night Court), Bruce Boxleitner as Chuck’s sister’s soon to be father-in-law (Scarecrow & Mrs. King) and probably my favorite: Reginald VelJohnson as a doughnut munching cop outside a hostage situation at the Buy More (Die Hard, as a doughnut munching cop outside Nakatomi towers). Each actor and actress just adds a little something to the series as a whole.

The second though, is Yvonne Strahovski. Yes, she wears ridiculous outfits and has fight scenes that make fanboys everywhere melt. But the heart she puts into Sarah makes her more than your average two-dimensional cover girl. We watch Sarah slowly fall for Chuck, and watch her heart break when she realizes that nothing can possibly ever work between them. In a recent episode where she thought Chuck had been killed was some of her best work to date. The utter shock, disbelief, horror and grief that struck her in those few seconds were absolutely overwhelming. She, like so many other genre actresses, ranks among the most underrated in television.

While the show has been a little stale over the last few episodes, news from Chuck’s creator, Josh Schwartz has me more psyched for the show than ever. They have a game-changing ending for this season of Chuck which will lead to one of two things. If Chuck doesn’t get picked up for a third season, this ending will send the show out with a bang. If they are renewed, the show will go a whole new direction next season. I, for one, am good to go either way. I’ve enjoyed the show from the beginning, and am pretty sure I’ll continue to enjoy it through its conclusion, now, or hopefully a few more years down the road.

WARNING: Spoilers for the episode follow – don’t read until you’ve seen the latest episode of Heroes!

Let’s admit it, Heroes had a lot to live up to upon its return. Volume three was amazingly lackluster, especially for a show that has so much potential. That was my biggest issue with “Villains” – its complete and utter loss of focus from the show’s original theme of “ordinary people with extraordinary abilities.”

So the first episode of this arc, “A Clear and Present Danger,” brings us back to that core theme. It has been two months since we last saw our heroes, and villains.  People have moved on: Peter has become a paramedic, Claire has gotten her GED and is looking at colleges, Daphne is a bike messenger (though she’s not too fond of using her bike), and Tracy has moved on from Nathan back to her governor. Oh, and Noah is back to being, well, Noah. And that’s the point – we’re back to our heroes being everyday people.

But of course, they won’t be left alone too long. Nathan has been on a Blagojevich-type media blitzkrieg trying to convince America that he is out to protect the nation from “dangerous people” with his work with Homeland security. Of course the average American thinks he means terrorists, but those with abilities know better.

As for the rest of the episode, you know what happened by now (or at least you should! Stop reading if you haven’t! Unless you don’t care about spoilers, then there is nothing I can do for you). What I want to focus on are some of the highlights of Heroes’ return.

Noah Bennet. We have returned to an ambiguous Mr. Bennet, which really folks, is kinda the way it should be. Protective Daddy was fun for a while, but it was getting old.  It brings up so many new questions – How did Noah get involved with Nathan’s organization? Blackmail or genuine interest in what Senator Petrelli is selling? Noah Bennet is so much more intriguing when he is straying into the gray area, rather than trying to keep things black-and-white.

Speaking of Gray, Sylar’s back and is still trying to find his parents. And still isn’t getting anywhere. As he only person with abilities that was able to beat the ambush that was set up to collect him, he may be the first person out of the gate to try to stop Nathan and his war on those with abilities. Sylar teaming up with some of our other heroes could once again lead to some amazing moments.

Hiro and Ando. We get to see now if Ando has the heroic chops to match Hiro. This is Ando’s chance to shine and I hope James Kyson Lee gets the story line to back up his talent. I’ve been excited to see what he could do when it was his turn to step up and be the hero, and I really don’t expect this arc to disappoint.

The most interesting turn of the events for the evening was Matt Parkman. Visited by visions of the deceased African prophet, Usutu (damn you Papa Petrelli!), Matt is given the “paint-the-future” prescient power. This brings up an interesting point. Are powers transferred if there is no one currently with that ability? Did Usutu get the power after Isaac was murdered? Or, worst case scenario (I really hope this isn’t it), did the writers need someone with the “paint-the-future” power and just give it to Parkman instead of bringing in another new character?

I’m intrigued and my interest has once again been peaked. As I’ve said before, this show is going to get amazing again, and I sure don’t want to miss the episode when that happens. This, my friends, was a pretty good start.

So what did you think, Heroes fans? Are you encouraged by the latest episode of Heroes? Reserving judgement? Or are you ready to give up all together?

Now if they’ll just get rid of Claire’s horrible wig . . .

Volume Four, titled “Fugitives,” is supposed to be a back-to-basics approach that will bring back old fans of the show and draw in new viewers, according to Kring. New viewers will not need to be familiar with the previous Heroes season to be able to jump into the back half of Season 3.

Kring told TV Guide, “This volume starts us pretty much from scratch. There is almost nothing that the audience needs to know from the previous volume in order to follow the storyline.”

News of this interview comes in a timely fashion to start building hype for the upcoming episodes. For the first time, Heroes did not get an early renewal notice from NBC.

Honestly, my biggest complaint from Season 3 was the way many of the characters didn’t seem to progress past their Season 1 origins. Getting back to the “ordinary people with extraordinary powers” theme may just be the infusion of adrenaline this show needs to get back to being the amazing show it once was.

Source: Slice of SciFi

Fuller wrote the best episodes of Heroes’ first, best season, including the Noah Bennet-centric “Company Man.” Fuller left Heroes late in its first season to create Daisies — and Heroes has been a confusing mess ever since, confounding fans and critics and currently garnering about half as many viewers as it did during Fuller’s tenure on the show.

Despite Heroes’ substantial declines, there are still few shows as popular on NBC, whose current slate includes even lower-rated fare like My Own Worst Enemy, Knight Rider, Crusoe, Life, Lipstick Jungle, My Name Is Earl, Kath & Kim, and Law & Order.

As a result, the network seems likely to renew the sci-fi drama for a fourth season, with Fuller playing a more prominent role in the franchise’s creative direction.

Fuller’s signing with NBC Universal would surely signal the death of ratings-challenged Daisies. It’s hard to imagine ABC bringing back the black comedy for a third season without the man who provided its vision.

Before joining Heroes, Fuller created the acclaimed but short-lived comedy hourlongs Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls.

Source: THR via AICN

Variety reports the two writer-producers were axed because of NBC’s frustration with the direction of the three-year-old series, which has taken a pounding this season from fans and critics.

The show has not only been fighting to keep viewers, averaging 9 million-plus this season, down from 11.6 million last year, but has also been grappling with overruns that far exceed the $4 million-per-episode budget.

Alexander was a co-executive producer of Lost and Alias before joining Heroes. Loeb, of course, is best known for his comics work such as Batman: The Long Halloween and Spider-Man: Blue, and as a producer of both Smallville and Lost.

Anyone else get the feeling that these promotional character shots were made by the same people who did them for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer?

A network will typically wait till the ratings come in before picking up the back nine episodes of a season,  but NBC is apparently convinced Chuck is among the least likely to falter this season.

“This show has really hit its stride and deserves a full-season commitment to carry out the producers’ vision for this unique series,” said Teri Weinberg, exec veep of NBC Entertainment.

Chuck’s full-season order comes more than a month before the show’s Sept. 29 premiere date. Exec producer Josh Schwartz called the pickup “unexpected.”

“It’s an incredible show of faith by NBC and so amazingly nice to get based on the work alone,” Schwartz said.

Chuck launched last year but was cut short by the writers strike. Rather than bring it back in the spring, NBC opted to hold off and relaunch it this fall.

Chuck returns Monday, September 29th on NBC.

As it turns out, I’ve taken a strong liking to Chuck. I’m not in love, but it’s definitely a strong liking. What was there to stop me from completely falling in love with the series? It didn’t get to finish it’s first season. It ended rather abruptly due to the writers’ strike. The show had just began to take off, and then it slows back down, and bumps into a brick wall. 

Ultimately, I’ve ended up loving just about every character in the show. I even enjoy Captain Awesome, at least for what he is. The one thing that I didn’t love during the last few episodes is the angst with Sarah that happens. I didn’t mind the "will they or won’t they" hidden feelings moments nearly as badly as the "leave me alone, I’m torn" moments. I was glad to see after a couple episodes that she was seemingly back to her normal self. Honestly, I’m a little worried about that in the future, because I can see them bringing that back up again. And if there is one thing I hate in a show the dangles a relationship in front of your face, it’s when they decide to give you a glimpse of the pot of gold, then yank it out from under your nose an episode or two later. I’m hoping that someone will eventually find a better formula for dealing with what fans want in a different and more unique way.

After finishing the first season of Chuck, I happily moved on to Supernatural. After hearing about how it was the series that people enjoyed the most, I was eager to give it a try. And so far? It’s been…going through the motions. Setting things up, letting you get to know the characters. Building up the story. That may sound like a complaint. Maybe that it isn’t stepping outside it’s boundaries. But it’s not really a bad thing, I’ve come to find out. Because they are doing there job quite well. After only three episodes, I feel like I know the two brothers. I feel like they are definitely brothers. And I feel like I am familiar with how the show will go, at least for a while.

This isn’t to say I’m loving the show, or that I don’t expect more. I’m liking the show, sure. But I’m still expecting more out of it. I’m just not expecting that "more" to happen right now. It can continue to build the story and the characters so long as it does just that, continues to build. But other than that, I don’t have a whole lot to say about the show. Jared Padalecki is still the annoying/whiny twit I remember from Gilmore Girls. But in this case, it totally fits his character as the annoying/whiny twit little brother. Jensen Ackles pretty much kicks seven types of ass, as far as I’m concerned. He makes the show, and allows Jared to bask in it’s glow. But again, that’s fine, because that’s how the show seems to be setup.

Looking forward to continuing on. Though I do have to say that the thriller/MoTD/horror elements are still not golden to me. But they aren’t as over the top as I expected. Still, this is the CW. So I guess I should have expected that.

Got you itching for more? Check out the recently released Heroes Webisodes as well.

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.

Alright, so before I go into my thoughts on the episode itself, let’s discuss my opinions on various aspects of the show post-pilot. Josh Schwartz? Love him. Adam Baldwin? Oh so talented. Yvonne Strahovski? I’m taking a liking to her. Zachary Levi? He could grow on me. I definitely see that bit of Adam Brody in his character. He’s no Adam Brody. So I’ll let the character evolve a bit before I make a judgement on him? Sarah Lancaster? I didn’t love her in Everwood. I don’t dislike her here, but I’d be ok with her scenes being a bit rare.

How do I feel about the episode? Well, you better keep on reading to find out…

There was a lot to love about this pilot. But there was a lot to hold back that love as well. When I imagined Chuck, I imagined it being two steps off from a sitcom. That’s not exactly right. It looks like it’s about five steps off. That’s what keeps this episode from being "special" to me. You take super serious plots involving the CIA and NSA and mix it with a sometimes goofy comedy style. Maybe I can learn to get over that, or maybe the slapstick humor (Ninja burglar, anyone?) will be toned down a bit. But in this case, it really bugged me.

The beauty of The O.C. was that it was a mostly serious and charming serious which at times took ordinary humor to special places. But at the heart of the series, it was still a very real series. With Chuck, it seems to take the opposite approach. Let’s stick a stereotypical nerd in a spoofed out job that seems straight out of 40 Year Old Virgin, have him become the target of a serious plot, and then wash it out with a spy spoof action show.

Ok, ok. Let me be fair. Besides the Best Buy/Geek Squad pun damage, occasionally goofy action scene, there is probably very litte over-the-top humor going on in the episode. It’s just that everytime I got to enjoying the episode, I had to grown a bit to myself and be pulled back out of the show. A nut shot from a candle deflecting ninja? Seriously?

But I digress. Hidden under what I arguably consider too much of the wrong type of humor is a very interesting story. The characters compel me, the acting is surprisingly strong for a pilot episode, and honestly, I often found myself laughing. Laughing at the dialog, that is. Very nice dialog, I might add. I suggest they rely on it a bit more.

*ahem* Pilots are generally some of the weaker episodes in a series. And for the most part, this wasn’t bad. I just hope they decide what type of show they want sometime soon, so I can decide if it’s for me. Do you remember the gore fest that was the first few episodes of Heroes? Remember how people were worried it was going to remain over-the-top gross you out action with a Cheerleader that could heal herself and a villian that could slice your head open? That’s me right now. Except silly humor has taken the place of gross special effects.

The good news is, I actually think I could enjoy a show like this, even if it does remain fickle with it’s tone. But it’s not the show I want, nor would it be one of my favorites. I’ve heard Scott say repeatedly the Gossip Girl and Chuck are two halves of a whole. I agree. One is mean-spirited and serious, the other is light-hearted and slapstick. Maybe I should watch them both at the same time.

So, does anyone want to re-assure me? Perhaps I’m insane. That happens often enough.

The problem with this is that quite often, I miss out on a lot of really good shows. As recently as 6 months ago, I had only watched 2 episodes of Lost. Now it ranks amongst my favorite shows on television. I didn’t get into Veronica Mars until the second season, just because it sounded…un-compelling. I missed the original television run of Firefly (Though, then again, is that such a bad thing?).

My point is that often I unfairly judge a show before I give it a fair shot. We all do it. Admit it. How many of you refuse to watch The O.C. because of your impressions of what it might be? Well, the other day I entered into an agreement with TheDoctor (Scott) to rectify two cases of pre-maturely judging a show. Well, two cases for me, and one for him. I’ve agreed to give Supernatural and Chuck a fair shot, if he would be willing to do the same for Babylon 5.

It’s a pretty sweet deal for me, because I’ve been trying to get him to watch B5 now for a while, but talking him past the first season isn’t an easy thing. Meanwhile, I have to watch two shows as well that I haven’t really given a shot. I watched the first episode of Supernatural, and decided it wasn’t the show for me. And Chuck? As appealing of a name as the show has (/sarcasm), what little I know about it has never grabbed me. But Josh Shwartz (Going back to The O.C.)? Adam Baldwin? Somehow, I’ll find a way to soldier through, I’m sure.

The deal is simple. I watch Supernatural and Chuck for a mostly unspecified amount of time (We’ll say at least into season 2 of Supernatural, and the entire season of Chuck). And Scott watches Babylon 5 at least up to "Coming of Shadows". In both cases, we should then have enough of an opinion of each show to mostly judge it for what it is. In Scott’s case, it’s a little risky, because ultimately a lot of season 1 of Babylon 5 isn’t fantastic. Personally I think there are about 3 episodes up to and including "Coming of Shadows" that are pretty fantastic. But will it be enough of a glimpse into the series of a whole to grab ahold of him? We shall see.

Which of us has the better road ahead? Who got the better deal? What show are you unfairly hesitant to watch despite the suggestions to do so? Stay tuned as I keep a running list of entries about my experiences and thoughts while I go through my half of the deal.

Holding my nose, and preparing to dive in,
Saberj