CHUCK vs. The Suburbs

CHUCK! I was so glad to have it back after last week. I felt like NBC was toying with me by giving us a new Heroes but not a new Chuck, and yeah, I know, the President has things he wants us to know, but seriously, couldn’t he just implant the intersect in all of our heads instead of depriving us of Chuck? I thought so, anyway!

As I was sitting here pondering the episode last night, I briefly considered who was the cutest in last night’s episode, and I really and truly almost went with that beautiful golden retriever, but Casey pulled me right back in when he sprayed Chuck with cologne on the naughty bits. It was so obviously ad-libbed and Casey looked SO pleased with himself that Billy and I actually backed it up and watched it again. And I was so impressed with Chuck holding it together enough to yell “WHY THERE?” I was so happy that didn’t end up on the cutting room floor, and it reinforced my belief that I NEED these DVDs because I’m positive that the outtakes alone would be worth the cost.

Once again, I thought the guest stars were outstanding. You’ll never hear me complain about Andy Richter (unless it was about his show that was on a few years ago, which was terrible), and even though it makes me feel a little bit old that Jenny McCarthy is playing a cougar, she was outstanding. And I have no idea who it was, but her partner was so scary looking that I think he might figure into my future nightmares.

The Buy More plot was a little weird for me this week–I think it might’ve been a little too much Big Mike and maybe not quite enough Lester and Jeff, but I did get a kick out of Emmett’s hair, and I was surprised that they made Big Mike hook up with Morgan’s mom when I was really expecting Emmett’s (although that may have been a little too Arrested Development/mommy issues to be original). And I loved how Big Mike was hoping and praying after looking around that she was Chuck’s mom. He loooooves Chuck! Maybe Chuck can become the next Lady Big Mike. Hey, I don’t judge.

Chuck and Sarah playing house were adorable, and I loved how happy he was but I also really felt his pain that it wasn’t really real, especially when Sarah didn’t want to go back and finish out the last couple days for fun, and he had to tell Ellie that it was never going to be anything more than it is now. Because I know Chuck has told HIMSELF that a bunch of times, but I don’t think he’s ever actually admitted it to Ellie. I did think it was interesting though that they acknowledged how long he and Sarah had been a “couple”, and it is realistic that once you cross certain thresholds in duration, people start pressuring. As a 28-year-old about to celebrate her third anniversary with her boyfriend, trust me, I know.

I’m kind of sitting here racking my brain, thinking if there’s just anything I HAVE to say about last night’s episode before I get to the main thing I want to say, and I guess that it kind of comes down to the fact that I enjoyed it and thought it was funny, and I have no real complaints. It won’t necessarily go down in history as my most favorite episode, but it was still solid and they accomplished something important, which was this:

Do you guys remember during the first season when I would kind of idly wonder whether Chuck had potential to be a long-term show, or if it was just going to be a series of stand-alones that would run out pretty quickly? I feel like they’ve done an excellent job of giving this show plenty of room to grow, and by giving Chuck the Fulcrum secrets last night, they really aggressively pursued new directions for the show to take and in a way that I think will be really successful.

I think it’s appropriate here, since we’re all TV lovers, to compare what Chuck is doing to a few other GMMR shows. And I know everyone may not watch both of these, but please just hang with me for a minute. I am a HUGE lover of Supernatural. I mean, big time, and this season has been phenomenal. And I remember reading something, possibly last year, by a writer who was commenting that Supernatural succeeds at mythology where Heroes doesn’t, and it’s because Supernatural takes its own stories and mythology deeper, instead of taking the Heroes route of continuing stories by layering stories and stories and characters on top of each other and trying to stretch wider and wider. I like Heroes too, don’t get me wrong, but like most of the fans, I don’t have a hard time coming up with criticisms and that’s one of my main ones. I think that Chuck has stayed closer to the Supernatural model in its show mythology, and I prefer that. I mean, really, we haven’t had many new additions to the cast, but we have gotten to know the cast better. Chuck’s situation hasn’t changed much, but what he knows (and what we know) has grown. And because of that, I feel more invested in ALL the characters, instead of sitting around wishing some of them would die because they’re so useless (I’m looking at YOU, Claire and Mohinder).

And the other thing is, like I said, I LOVE Supernatural, but a lot of that love really came on this season, its fourth, because of how good and how surprising it became. I think when these shows really dig into their subject matter, it lets them age like a fine wine, or nurtures them into a beautiful flower, or any other cheesy cliche you can manage. I liked Chuck in its first season and I loke it (somewhere between like and love, if you will) now, but I expect my the third season it will be all out love, and I will be sending it Valentines all year round and baking it cookies to surprise it and driving past its house to see if its car is there, and maybe even calling it and hanging up just so I can hear its voice. In other words, it will be SERIOUS.

SB has many interests, including photography, her pets, entertainment, traveling and writing. She does have a day job, but that mostly amounts to her being a sarcastic young woman with a lot of time on her hands, which is why she appreciates the opportunity to recap.

Like this recap of CHUCK? Want to help spread the word? Use the “Share This” link below to share this post with others on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo! Buzz, Digg and more.