Chuck 1.01 - 1.05
Feb. 6th, 2012 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snick_backupChuck is a show I've enjoyed in bits and pieces, but never watched in any organized fashion. I'm not necessarily committing to watching it through now. However, a friend and I staged a two-woman anti-Super Bowl party yesterday that included marathoning Chuck, so I thought I'd give my impressions.
Basically: this is fun, frothy comedy-action of the kind that makes no sense but isn't really supposed to. The point of the show is not sense-making, but of regular joe Chuck Bartowski running around avoiding spy missions to the best of his ability (and usually failing), working at a fictional equivalent of Best Buy, and hanging out with his sister and fellow employees.
The goods:
* Chuck Bartowski is the nicest guy on television. (Or not anymore, I guess; the series finale was a week or so ago.) He's sweet, genuine, self-deprecating, and competent in his field of expertise. He's rightly terrified of suddenly becoming a spy, but he does the hero thing anyway, when he needs to (and then freaks out afterwards).
* Chuck's relationship with his sister Ellie is too wonderful for words. Fictional adult siblings who like and support each other! And like spending time together! I don't even know how to process this oddity.
* Captain Awesome aka Devon, Ellie's boyfriend. Who is the jockiest jock that ever jocked, and yet he's so genuine about it. Any other show, he'd be the arrogant bully or the villain's muscle; here he's just, you know, nice. And also awesome.
* John Casey aka ADAM BALDWIN. He's exactly like Jayne, if Jayne got an IQ upgrade and a job with the NSA. He's grumpy and sarcastic and huge (I never got a sense on Firefly of just how big Baldwin is) and I'd watch the show for him alone.
The bads:
* The constant oversexualization of CIA agent Sarah Walker. Gah. It's one thing to have her dressed to the max to go undercover at an art auction; it's another to have her day job uniform at the hot dog restaurant be this:
There is no good in that outfit, and the camera approaches it with a blatant male gaze; already we've seen groups of teenage boys come into the restaurant solely to look at Sarah (and especially watch her bend over to pick things up).
That aside, constantly we see Sarah stalking around in her underwear: in her bathroom, in her bedroom. Maybe the worst is in the pilot, when Sarah and Chuck go on their first date and Sarah disguises stealthy defensive weapons attacks as dirty dancing around and on the oblivious Chuck.
* Sarah in general, honestly. We've already made a big deal about not knowing anything about Walker's true past or even her name, but don't know those things about Casey, either, and yet I feel I know exactly who he is. Sarah is still a cypher with no hint of personality that I can see. I have nothing against the actress; she's just not given anything to do, and I'm already thoroughly frustrated with the arrangement.
* The utterly forced, artificial UST between Sarah and Chuck. How lovely it would have been to give them a season or so of working relationship warming to friendship, all complicated by the awkwardness of their cover as a dating couple. Instead, five eps in we already knee deep in longing unrequited love on Chuck's side and angst and secret past that Sarah declines to share. Ugh.
Interestingly, I remember vaguely registering all these unfortunate aspects the first time I watched the show, but I couldn't articulate what about them bothered me. Now I can, having spent three and a half years in feminist fandom.
--
Conclusion: I'm pretty sure the friend and I will get together for more episodes, so there may be more reportage later. Apparently the next one, 1.06 Chuck vs. the Sand Worm, actually involves some reference to Dune, and I am all over references to Dune.
Original entry posted at Dreamwidth. Feel free to reply here or there. (
DW replies)
Basically: this is fun, frothy comedy-action of the kind that makes no sense but isn't really supposed to. The point of the show is not sense-making, but of regular joe Chuck Bartowski running around avoiding spy missions to the best of his ability (and usually failing), working at a fictional equivalent of Best Buy, and hanging out with his sister and fellow employees.
The goods:
* Chuck Bartowski is the nicest guy on television. (Or not anymore, I guess; the series finale was a week or so ago.) He's sweet, genuine, self-deprecating, and competent in his field of expertise. He's rightly terrified of suddenly becoming a spy, but he does the hero thing anyway, when he needs to (and then freaks out afterwards).
* Chuck's relationship with his sister Ellie is too wonderful for words. Fictional adult siblings who like and support each other! And like spending time together! I don't even know how to process this oddity.
* Captain Awesome aka Devon, Ellie's boyfriend. Who is the jockiest jock that ever jocked, and yet he's so genuine about it. Any other show, he'd be the arrogant bully or the villain's muscle; here he's just, you know, nice. And also awesome.
* John Casey aka ADAM BALDWIN. He's exactly like Jayne, if Jayne got an IQ upgrade and a job with the NSA. He's grumpy and sarcastic and huge (I never got a sense on Firefly of just how big Baldwin is) and I'd watch the show for him alone.
The bads:
* The constant oversexualization of CIA agent Sarah Walker. Gah. It's one thing to have her dressed to the max to go undercover at an art auction; it's another to have her day job uniform at the hot dog restaurant be this:
There is no good in that outfit, and the camera approaches it with a blatant male gaze; already we've seen groups of teenage boys come into the restaurant solely to look at Sarah (and especially watch her bend over to pick things up).
That aside, constantly we see Sarah stalking around in her underwear: in her bathroom, in her bedroom. Maybe the worst is in the pilot, when Sarah and Chuck go on their first date and Sarah disguises stealthy defensive weapons attacks as dirty dancing around and on the oblivious Chuck.
* Sarah in general, honestly. We've already made a big deal about not knowing anything about Walker's true past or even her name, but don't know those things about Casey, either, and yet I feel I know exactly who he is. Sarah is still a cypher with no hint of personality that I can see. I have nothing against the actress; she's just not given anything to do, and I'm already thoroughly frustrated with the arrangement.
* The utterly forced, artificial UST between Sarah and Chuck. How lovely it would have been to give them a season or so of working relationship warming to friendship, all complicated by the awkwardness of their cover as a dating couple. Instead, five eps in we already knee deep in longing unrequited love on Chuck's side and angst and secret past that Sarah declines to share. Ugh.
Interestingly, I remember vaguely registering all these unfortunate aspects the first time I watched the show, but I couldn't articulate what about them bothered me. Now I can, having spent three and a half years in feminist fandom.
--
Conclusion: I'm pretty sure the friend and I will get together for more episodes, so there may be more reportage later. Apparently the next one, 1.06 Chuck vs. the Sand Worm, actually involves some reference to Dune, and I am all over references to Dune.
Original entry posted at Dreamwidth. Feel free to reply here or there. (
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-06 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-06 10:31 pm (UTC)I've actually only watched S1, although I own S2. I didn't stop watching cause I stopped liking it (more because I was bored and needed a break because really, the episodes are very formulaic), and I do intend to watch it again someday (it's a really good show for watching a random episode when you need some something cheerful and fun), but I'm also leery of some the things I've heard about later seasons. I have friends who were OBSESSED with it around S3 (they got me into it) and then just went off cold turkey b/c they got so annoyed with certain elements of it. :/
no subject
Date: 2012-02-06 10:48 pm (UTC)::Nods::
I really like the first couple seasons of Chuck, but honestly? I got really bored with the last couple. Sarah does get a little better developed, but not enough to make her interesting IMO. And much as I adore clueless early Chuck, later Chuck is a much more conventional action hero, and therefore not nearly as interesting IMO.
Casey, Awesome, and Ellie make the show for me!
eta for icon fail
no subject
Date: 2012-02-06 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-07 12:02 am (UTC)Exactly! Very fun to pop in for a couple hours' light entertainment. It's like, I dunno, one of the sillier Will Smith action movies, but with less language.
that Chuck's colleagues in the Buy More are really, really gross
Yes. I think the one reason I can stand them is that, even though they're played for laughs, Chuck himself thinks they're gross and gently slaps them down whenever opportunity offers. Also it helps that Chuck himself is much more, um, couth.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-07 12:05 am (UTC)Interesting. I'll be interested to see how I feel about that development when it happens. It seems like maybe, since I like him so much early on, I will enjoy watching him mature and become more competent? But we shall see.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-07 02:32 am (UTC)Ugh, and now I'm remembering that another show was recommended to me for being silly action fluff, and now I'm blanking. I might remember later.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-07 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-07 03:20 am (UTC)I think it was Burn Notice...
no subject
Date: 2012-02-07 05:05 am (UTC)Oh, also there's White Collar? Which I think might be a similar sort of thing, with the plots and the heists, sort of?