35 replies to this topic

[DLibrasnow]

Looking through the forums I was surprised to see there was no thread on the return of the spy series "Chuck" to TV screens in January.

It appeared the show had been canceled after its second series when NBC was clearing out its schedule to make room for the debacle that would become "The Jay Leno Show" but now that Leno's ratings have been in the toilet NBC seems ro have decided to make "Chuck:" one of its anchor shows.

All starts with a special 2-hour episode on Sunday, Jan. 10 before "Chuck" takes its regular Monday night position.

On another note, the Blu-ray release of Season 2 is out on Jan. 5

[SecretAgentFan]

I recently discovered CHUCK when I got the first season on DVD.

And I LOVED it! Great fun, all around. Baldwin is a hoot! Already ordered the second season and hope to get the third season when it´s aired.

[jaguar007]

It appeared the show had been canceled after its second series when NBC was clearing out its schedule to make room for the debacle that would become "The Jay Leno Show" but now that Leno's ratings have been in the toilet NBC seems ro have decided to make "Chuck:" one of its anchor shows.

Actually Chuck was never canceled, it was on the fence for a while and there was a great fan campaign to save the show (involving sponsor Subway). It was renewed as a mid-season replacement.

[Jackanaples]

I like CHUCK quite a bit, and think it's only gotten better as the series has progressed. I like all the actors on the show; most especially Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah. I don't usually go for blondes, but Ms. Strahovski has to be one of the most beautiful women to grace American tv screens since Diana Rigg in THE AVENGERS.

[trs007]

I shall get my first CHUCK experience tonight. I never even heard of this program till I caught a trailer at the movies for it this past weekend.

Added Season1, Disc1 to the Netflix queue and viola, will be CHUCKing tonight.

[tdalton]

I shall get my first CHUCK experience tonight. I never even heard of this program till I caught a trailer at the movies for it this past weekend.

Added Season1, Disc1 to the Netflix queue and viola, will be CHUCKing tonight.

Great to hear that more people are getting into this show. Season 1 has got some great episodes, especially episode 4 "Chuck vs. the Wookie", which is perhaps one of my favorites of the entire series.

Also, although this one isn't on Disc 1, Casino Royale's Ivana Milicevic guest stars as someone from Agent Casey's past (and provides with some phenomenal comedic moments with Chuck and Sarah). That episode is titled "Chuck vs. the Undercover Lover".

[Professor Dent]

This is a good show. Glad to see it was pulled back from the brink of cancellation for another season even if it is on the schedule as a mid-season replacement.

[tdalton]

On another note, the Blu-ray release of Season 2 is out on Jan. 5

Can't wait for this release tomorrow. I'm definitely planning on a CHUCK marathon tomorrow (as well as a couple other days this week), as this will be the first time I will have seen all but one of the S2 episodes in HD and not being played on a computer monitor (but, still, thanks to iTunes I was at least able to catch up to the show last year in time for the season finale).

[tdalton]

Just a reminder that Season 3 begins tonight at 9pm Eastern on NBC.


Can't wait.

[Bill]

I don't know if anybody caught this show Monday (3/22) but Chuck, in his quest to become a full fledged spy, had to make his first kill. With an obvious tip of the hat to the 2006 Casino Royale, he confronted his target in a men's room, and, for this show, a rather brutal fight ensued (but nothing compared to CR, obviously). I will not say how it ended, for fear of spoilers, but it was clear that the show producers and writers, on record as being major fans of pop culture, must have watched CR more then once!

[Chief of SIS]

I'm behind on Chuck by about a season but would love to catch up (just don't have time for TV). But I saw this...



And couldn't help but think how much it looked like this...

Edited by Chief of SIS, 30 October 2011 - 03:31 PM.

[tdalton]

I'm a big fan of that poster for CHUCK. I think it works much better than the QOS poster it is imitating.

Hopefully this fifth (and final) season will get better after a rather dull premiere this past Friday. The series could definitely benefit from Dalton returning to the series, although I doubt that ends up happening.

[coco1997]

Hopefully this fifth (and final) season will get better after a rather dull premiere this past Friday. The series could definitely benefit from Dalton returning to the series, although I doubt that ends up happening.

Do you know why they decided to make this fifth season the final one, t?

[tdalton]

Hopefully this fifth (and final) season will get better after a rather dull premiere this past Friday. The series could definitely benefit from Dalton returning to the series, although I doubt that ends up happening.

Do you know why they decided to make this fifth season the final one, t?

NBC decided that, since the ratings were abysmal by the end of fourth season, that the show would have a 13-episode fifth season that would be a final run for the show. The creative team behind the show probably had more story to tell and didn't make the decision to end things after this season.

In short, NBC basically cancelled the show but, to avoid the angry emails and not draw the ire of the very loyal fanbase that they would like to keep watching NBC, they allowed the creative team to wrap things up rather than leave things on a cliffhanger and with absolutely no resolution to the mythology behind the series.

[SecretAgentFan]

Finally got the Season 4 box set and I just got to the first episode with Timothy Dalton.

And let me say this: He is FANTASTIC in that episode. Brilliantly funny (I never knew how funny he could be!) and obviously enjoying his role.

Looking forward to the rest of this season!

[tdalton]

Finally got the Season 4 box set and I just got to the first episode with Timothy Dalton.

And let me say this: He is FANTASTIC in that episode. Brilliantly funny (I never knew how funny he could be!) and obviously enjoying his role.

Looking forward to the rest of this season!

He only gets better as the season goes. He gets some really great moments in the episodes that he's in, with an odd mixture of ruthlessness and hilarity that in the hands of a less capable actor would have been nearly impossible to pull off.

I especially loved the ending of the episode that you're referring to. That big moment towards the end of the episode had me thinking that he could probably step right back into the tux and play Bond again.

[SecretAgentFan]

Finally got the Season 4 box set and I just got to the first episode with Timothy Dalton.

And let me say this: He is FANTASTIC in that episode. Brilliantly funny (I never knew how funny he could be!) and obviously enjoying his role.

Looking forward to the rest of this season!

He only gets better as the season goes. He gets some really great moments in the episodes that he's in, with an odd mixture of ruthlessness and hilarity that in the hands of a less capable actor would have been nearly impossible to pull off.

I especially loved the ending of the episode that you're referring to. That big moment towards the end of the episode had me thinking that he could probably step right back into the tux and play Bond again.

I think so, too.

Seeing him on CHUCK actually makes me sad that he never got the chance to stay on the Bond films. He would have been a very interesting "older" Bond.

I´m still hoping that some day he´ll be "M"...

[tdalton]

Well, Chuck reached its conclusion tonight. I won't go into any details regarding the finale tonight as I know that we have some members here who don't get to view the show at the same pace the American TV audience does, but I'll go as far as to say that my feelings towards the finale are decidedly mixed, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I feel about the finale. That's a process that will probably take a while.

It's sad to see such a great show leave the airwaves, especially with little else out there to even adequately fill the void that it is leaving. Although they'll never read this, I would like to thank the creative team behind the show for five years of what has grown to be one of my favorite TV series ever (and for bringing Timothy Dalton back into the spotlight for a while ), and to the cast as well, who were nothing short of phenomenal the whole way.

[SecretAgentFan]

Thanks for avoiding spoilers, tdalton! I´ve finished season 4 and I really liked it. I prefer it to season 3 and thought that the ensemble almost reached the heights of season 2 again. Of course, Timothy Dalton´s bravura turn in a major supporting role made this season especially good.

I sincerely hope that he will get more chances to show how versatile he is. I would love him to get his own cable show, in a starring role, of course. HBO, are you listening?

As for the end of "Chuck" - yes, I would have liked the show to continue, too. On the other hand, it´s better to end it while it´s still creatively working than to milk it and squeeze it dry ("Glee", unfortunately, has gone this way IMO).

[tdalton]

I'll preface my response by saying that I'm trying very much to make sure I don't outright spoil anything, but having seen how everything ends up, it's hard not to at least let one's feelings about how it does end seep into the discussion, but I'm going to attempt to not divulge the mechanics of how Season 5 goes down even though you'll probably be able to get a good handle on my impressions of the season, probably in a similar way you read a bunch of us who had already seen Season 3 complaining about it a couple of years ago )

Thanks for avoiding spoilers, tdalton! I´ve finished season 4 and I really liked it. I prefer it to season 3 and thought that the ensemble almost reached the heights of season 2 again. Of course, Timothy Dalton´s bravura turn in a major supporting role made this season especially good.

I think what you'll find that the even numbered seasons of Chuck are the strongest (although Season 1 is very good as well). I feel very much that Dalton (and this isn't simply a biased opinion because I'm a huge fan of Dalton's) creatively rescued the franchise, and managed to give the fans a great "big bad" villain after the debacle that had been the Daniel Shaw character in Season 3. Season 5, at times, feels empty without Dalton.

I think the big problem with Season 5, and I say that somewhat reluctantly in that Season 5 as a whole is quite enjoyable for the majority of the time, is that the show almost becomes a victim of the fact that they've crafted series finales now six times including the actual series finale. They've had to craft endings for the series several times ("Chuck vs. the Ring" in Season 2, "Chuck vs. the Other Guy" and "Chuck vs. the Ring Part 2" in Season 3, "Chuck vs. the Push Mix" and "Chuck vs. the Cliffhanger" in Season 4), which I would imagine puts a strain on a writer figuring out how to actually go about crafting a final season when you actually know that it's your final season. The only thing that I will say about the finale is that it is very, very emotional (the trio of Levi, Strahovski, and Baldwin all deserve Emmy consideration for their work here, even if I don't agree with the storyline they are asked to act out), and contains a couple of my favorite comedic moments of the entire series, one involving Chuck's second ever attempt at firing a real gun. My only advice to you when you get to Season 5 and begin heading towards the finale is to not bring any expectations of how you might think it will go or how you would want it to go. I'm still trying to process how I feel about the finale, although I think I've come fairly close to making up my mind on it.

I do like the fact that they proved in Season 5 that a show can have its two leads involved in a romantic relationship and not lose the drama (they prove this in spades, for better or worse), which should be a lesson to shows out there that are becoming frustrating in their attempts to avoid doing so when the will they, won't they nature begins suffocating everything else in the show (I'm looking at you Castle ).

To kind of review Season 5 in a non-spoiler way, I'll say that it's the most emotional season of the series by far, which is to kind of be expected since it's the final season, but I found myself surprised at where they went at times. There are some really great episodes contained in the season that stack up with some of the best in the series, such as "Chuck vs. the Business Trip" and "Chuck vs. the Santa Suit", which continues the Chuck tradition of great Christmas episodes. To kind of give you a preview, while not giving too much away, their attempt at replacing Dalton as the big bad in Season 5 is an interesting one, and I take my hat off to Angus Macfadyen for stepping into a role that I would imagine a lot of actors would have been hesitant about.

As for the end of "Chuck" - yes, I would have liked the show to continue, too. On the other hand, it´s better to end it while it´s still creatively working than to milk it and squeeze it dry ("Glee", unfortunately, has gone this way IMO).

I definitely agree, although I do think that there could have been many more seasons of good creative work left for Chuck, were it not for some of the decisions that NBC made in how it handled the show. When you force the writers of the show to craft series finales for it a total of five times before the actual series finale, you kind of force the creative steam out of the show prematurely. The decisions to extend the show's order in both Season 3 and Season 4 after the initial 13-episode arcs had been completed really stunted the growth of the show, as you can't just switch gears and craft an entire new story arc in that little amount of time, and that forced them to extend storylines that didn't really need extending, and it also meant that their ideas for the series finale were going to be used up by the time the actual series finale came around.

I think that the handling fo Chuck should be a lesson to network executives everywhere, in that the episode order at the beginning of the season, at least for serialized shows such as this, need to be pretty much set in stone from the beginning. Otherwise it just backs the writers into a corner that they can't get out of, as they have to tell their story at warp speed to fit it into the 13-episode order and then pad things out for the final 9 or 11 episodes (9 for S3 and 11 for S4) in order to satisfy the extra episodes requested by the network.

Edited by tdalton, 28 January 2012 - 12:34 PM.

[SecretAgentFan]

I absolutely agree: the many, many finales that were forced on CHUCK always threatened to kill the momentum of the series.

But in the end, it is one of the great tv series that has managed to stay at least interesting (in its weaker episodes) and to give us a first rate action comedy with highly likable characters.

[tdalton]

I absolutely agree: the many, many finales that were forced on CHUCK always threatened to kill the momentum of the series.

Agreed. Ultimately, I think that this did take a huge toll on the series, at least from a creative standpoint. I almost shudder to think what Season 4 would have been like without Dalton. The critics are always quick to applaud Dalton as one of, if not THE, best guest stars in the series, and the creative team behind the show always gush over him, moreso than most of the other guest stars. But, I've never seen any of them really acknowledge what Dalton's presence did for the show. I remember enjoying episodes 1-6 of Season 4, but I didn't feel like they really reached the heights of any of the best in the series, or anything from Season 2. When Dalton first appeared on screen, you could feel something was different. When he revealed his true identity at the end of the episode, I remember thinking "They just saved the show". It's a shame that they never truly capitalized on that momentum, as it really should have springboarded the series forward into Season 5.

But in the end, it is one of the great tv series that has managed to stay at least interesting (in its weaker episodes) and to give us a first rate action comedy with highly likable characters.

Again, very much agreed.

Hopefully the TV (or online) movie that the producers, Yvonne, Zac, and a couple of the others have talked about in recent interviews comes to be at some point. I doubt that it will, and I'd probably place the odds of it happening at under 1%, but the fact that most of the cast and crew have indicated a strong willingness to return for such an event should there be the demand (reading over the message boards last night and today, the demand is definitely there given how Season 5 unfolded) and the opportunity for it to happen. I'm not getting my hopes up, as I know that it won't happen, but as they say, "never say never".

Edited by tdalton, 28 January 2012 - 04:26 PM.

[SecretAgentFan]

That´s great news! At least one movie (like "Firefly" produced "Serenity") would be wonderful!

[jsteed]

Really loved the season finale. This show really is one of a kind. According to Chris Fedak the DVD/Bluray of Season 5 will have an extented cut of the finale with an extra 8 minutes. I think that a TV movie or online movie could be possible and hope that it could eventually happen but WB would really have get some sort of profit off it. Incredible five seasons.

[DominicGreene]

Looking through the forums I was surprised to see there was no thread on the return of the spy series "Chuck" to TV screens in January.

It appeared the show had been canceled after its second series when NBC was clearing out its schedule to make room for the debacle that would become "The Jay Leno Show" but now that Leno's ratings have been in the toilet NBC seems ro have decided to make "Chuck:" one of its anchor shows.

All starts with a special 2-hour episode on Sunday, Jan. 10 before "Chuck" takes its regular Monday night position.

On another note, the Blu-ray release of Season 2 is out on Jan. 5

I absolutely love Chuck, it's so terrible that it's done. The Chuck fans are fighting for a movie though!! I recommend this show to all Bond fans, I promise that you will love it! I was going to make a thread on it, but I forgot. It's basically Nerdy James Bond: the Show

Edited by DominicGreene, 30 January 2012 - 08:29 PM.

[DominicGreene]

Looking through the forums I was surprised to see there was no thread on the return of the spy series "Chuck" to TV screens in January.

It appeared the show had been canceled after its second series when NBC was clearing out its schedule to make room for the debacle that would become "The Jay Leno Show" but now that Leno's ratings have been in the toilet NBC seems ro have decided to make "Chuck:" one of its anchor shows.

All starts with a special 2-hour episode on Sunday, Jan. 10 before "Chuck" takes its regular Monday night position.

On another note, the Blu-ray release of Season 2 is out on Jan. 5

I absolutely love Chuck, it's so terrible that it's done. The Chuck fans are fighting for a movie though!! I recommend this show to all Bond fans, I promise that you will love it! I was going to make a thread on it, but I forgot. It's basically Nerdy James Bond: the Show. To anyone who plans on watching the series, watch out for season 5. You won't want it to end, I'll say that much.

[tdalton]

I absolutely love Chuck, it's so terrible that it's done. The Chuck fans are fighting for a movie though!! I recommend this show to all Bond fans, I promise that you will love it! I was going to make a thread on it, but I forgot. It's basically Nerdy James Bond: the Show. To anyone who plans on watching the series, watch out for season 5. You won't want it to end, I'll say that much.

Hopefully the movie does happen, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I can't see Warner Brothers putting up the money for it, and NBC has washed their hands of the series entirely, so they'd have to find another backer for it, I think.

Regarding Season 5, I'd have to say that our views differ on that greatly. There were some good episodes in there ("Chuck vs. the Business Trip" and "Chuck vs. the Santa Suit") and some of my favorite comedic moments of the entire series were contained within the series finale:

Spoiler

Chuck shooting down Casey's helicopter with Casey's pistol and Jeffster's performance of a-ha's "Take on Me"

While there were those good moments in Season 5, and there were others I didn't list there, I'd have to say that I'd have been better off had NBC canceled the series after Season 4. I honestly didn't think that they could have ruined the momentum they had going by the end of Season 4 (creative momentum, of course, as the ratings still stunk), especially with the spark that Timothy Dalton and Linda Hamilton brought to the show, but they managed to completely botch it in Season 5, namely in the stretch run. Had they ended the series around episode 7 or 8 of this season, I could have felt very good about Season 5, but what they did to the show after that (minus the performance of Angus Mcfadyen, who I thought did an outstanding job with what amounts to a pretty thankless task) was just unbelievably bad and went against what the show had spent the prior 89 episodes building up for the fans. While I admit to not watching a whole lot of network TV, I'd have to say that, IMO, the Chuck series finale was one of the worst in terms of its relationship to the overall series than the episode that concluded Roseanne back in the 1990s.

Edited by tdalton, 01 February 2012 - 03:43 AM.

[DominicGreene]

I absolutely love Chuck, it's so terrible that it's done. The Chuck fans are fighting for a movie though!! I recommend this show to all Bond fans, I promise that you will love it! I was going to make a thread on it, but I forgot. It's basically Nerdy James Bond: the Show. To anyone who plans on watching the series, watch out for season 5. You won't want it to end, I'll say that much.

Hopefully the movie does happen, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I can't see Warner Brothers putting up the money for it, and NBC has washed their hands of the series entirely, so they'd have to find another backer for it, I think.

Regarding Season 5, I'd have to say that our views differ on that greatly. There were some good episodes in there ("Chuck vs. the Business Trip" and "Chuck vs. the Santa Suit") and some of my favorite comedic moments of the entire series were contained within the series finale:

Spoiler

Chuck shooting down Casey's helicopter with Casey's pistol and Jeffster's performance of a-ha's "Take on Me"

While there were those good moments in Season 5, and there were others I didn't list there, I'd have to say that I'd have been better off had NBC canceled the series after Season 4. I honestly didn't think that they could have ruined the momentum they had going by the end of Season 4 (creative momentum, of course, as the ratings still stunk), especially with the spark that Timothy Dalton and Linda Hamilton brought to the show, but they managed to completely botch it in Season 5, namely in the stretch run. Had they ended the series around episode 7 or 8 of this season, I could have felt very good about Season 5, but what they did to the show after that (minus the performance of Angus Mcfadyen, who I thought did an outstanding job with what amounts to a pretty thankless task) was just unbelievably bad and went against what the show had spent the prior 89 episodes building up for the fans. While I admit to not watching a whole lot of network TV, I'd have to say that, IMO, the Chuck series finale was one of the worst in terms of its relationship to the overall series than the episode that concluded Roseanne back in the 1990s.

I agree with you on that one. I mean, I apresiate an ending like that for a movie, because they only have 2 hours to really captivate you. But in the finale, it's like they just crushed the moments that we loved throughout the whole series.

Season 4 was a good ending. I was happy with it, as opposed to the season 5 finale, which I still haunts me. And I don't believe in "It should end the way it started" crap. I should end the way it bloody-well wants. Instead, the producers gave us a ty finale, and now fans are begging for a movie (me) because we want to know what happens next.

[tdalton]

I would have at least been able to be OK with the way they ended the finale if

Spoiler

the supporting characters had acted even remotely in character during the finale. It really bothered me to see Ellie and Awesome abandon Chuck when he needed them the most. Considering that they are both doctors, and especially that Ellie is a neurologist who had already solved many of the secrets regarding the Intersect, it's clear that they both could have done quite a bit to help Sarah recover her memories. Even if they couldn't, they could have at least stayed and tried to help her, or at the absolute very least they could have at least expressed some concern. The times when they were all saying that Sarah was gone, they were so cold in saying it, as though they didn't care, and that the friendships that they had built with her over the previous five seasons hadn't meant a thing. Chuck is supposed to be a show about family, and it was sad to see everyone abandoning Chuck when he needed their help the most.

I also hated the fact that they couldn't, by virtue of the stupidity of the plot device they chose to use, give Sarah and Casey a proper final moment together. They shake hands coldly, as though they don't know each other, even though they've been partners for years. It was all an inexplicable ending to an otherwise great series.

[DominicGreene]

I would have at least been able to be OK with the way they ended the finale if

Spoiler

the supporting characters had acted even remotely in character during the finale. It really bothered me to see Ellie and Awesome abandon Chuck when he needed them the most. Considering that they are both doctors, and especially that Ellie is a neurologist who had already solved many of the secrets regarding the Intersect, it's clear that they both could have done quite a bit to help Sarah recover her memories. Even if they couldn't, they could have at least stayed and tried to help her, or at the absolute very least they could have at least expressed some concern. The times when they were all saying that Sarah was gone, they were so cold in saying it, as though they didn't care, and that the friendships that they had built with her over the previous five seasons hadn't meant a thing. Chuck is supposed to be a show about family, and it was sad to see everyone abandoning Chuck when he needed their help the most.

I also hated the fact that they couldn't, by virtue of the stupidity of the plot device they chose to use, give Sarah and Casey a proper final moment together. They shake hands coldly, as though they don't know each other, even though they've been partners for years. It was all an inexplicable ending to an otherwise great series.

I agree wholeheartedly with you on that one.