Genderswapped Chuck

Okay, this is kind of brilliant/hilarious: Chuck, with all the characters' genders flipped. I love the casting. Alison Brie as Chuck? Yes, please. Kristen Bell as Captain Awesome? OMG!!

Which raises some interesting thoughts, actually. I mean, I would pay huge amounts of money to see a female version of Casey. Like, HUGE. That goes without saying. But the thing I actually enjoyed about Chuck/Sarah in the beginning was the role reversal - Chuck is most often the damsel in distress and Sarah is the kick-ass hero who saves him. I love even more that they've grown into a couple who kicks ass together and saves each other's lives, but I don't think it would have been nearly as appealing if Chuck were a nerdy girl who always ended up in danger and had to be saved by the manly man CIA agent all the time (who, of course, she promptly falls in love with, because that's what women do with men who save their lives, right?).

Big Chuck Post

I know, I know, you've all been waiting for my reaction to the Chuck season finale. :-P Sorry, I have Monday classes now, and they're fucking with my Chuck. I actually did watch last week's episode, but wanted to rewatch before talking about it, so here's my belated thoughts on the last three episodes.

Chuck vs. the Living Dead

Heh, I love that Ellie and Papa Bartowski have a code using the classifieds. It's so old school.

Morgan: "Did you check his pulse?"
Chuck: "Well, he fell into a river."
Morgan: "He fell into a river?! Well, of course Shaw's alive! Haven't you ever seen a John Carpenter movie?"
Hee! And then the callback later when Sarah shoots the CIA guy and Chuck tells her to check his pulse.

Hahaha, Sarah intimidating Morgan into telling her about Chuck's dreams. It's like they listen to me - I said more Morgan and Sarah, and what did we get? More Morgan and Sarah!

Casey: "Reviewing pictures of people you killed? I do that myself from time to time." *snort* Of course he does.

You know what's funny? When Chuck is trying to convince his dad that he's no longer a spy, and he says Sarah's his girlfriend, they seem SO fake, with the "Hi, honey" and the kiss. If I were Papa B, I totally wouldn't have bought that. And yet, it's actually the truth...

Okay, I have to be honest, when the CIA guy gave Ellie the speaker, I was expecting it to be something more dramatic. I didn't buy the "it blocks listening devices" explanation - in fact, it occurred to me that maybe it was actually a way of planting a bug in Ellie and Awesome's apartment, but I was also kind of expecting something like a bomb. When it turned out to be a gun, it was a little bit of a letdown. But then she clocked Casey with the frying pan Anya-style and it was all worth it. :)

Hahaha, Casey torturing Sarah and Chuck with details about her and Shaw. And Chuck's "Objection! Relevance?" Hee!

I got a chuckle out of the sitcommy setup where Ellie is getting more suspicious of Casey, just as Casey promises Chuck he'll be Ellie's shadow. On most shows, it would be too cheesy to take seriously, but Chuck manages just the right level of cheese that you snicker and go OF COURSE. I also enjoyed the misunderstandings that came out of it (especially everyone thinking Ellie's having an affair, lol). I also appreciated that we're seeing the softer side of John Casey, who not only respects Chuck, but cares enough to make sure his family is safe. It's nice foreshadowing for the next episodes, when Casey's trying to protect his own family.

"You threw a knife at my face!" Heh, reference to the Buffy movie? I'll take it.

You know, the first time I watched this episode, I didn't notice how many times Chuck calls himself special, but after having seen the finale (where it turns out he really IS special), I picked up on it in this episode.

Papa B: "Does she have the Intersect, too?"
Chuck: "No, Dad, that's all her."
Awwwww! Also, can I say again how much I love kickass!Sarah? I missed her in the first arc of this season.

Lester has the hips of a six-year-old girl! lol

Chuck vs. the Subway

Okay, I have to admit, when I saw the title of this episode, I thought it was going to involve Chuck's most prominent sponsor. But this is good, too.

Haha, so as soon as Chuck saw Shaw on the subway, I thought, "If this were 24, Jack would call Chloe and have her use the security cameras to find him." And then Papa Bartowski did just that, lol! He's Chloe to Chuck's Jack Bauer. Hee!

Drunk!Awesome! I noticed there were multiple plays on the name joke this episode, first with Devon realizing Morgan's serious because he called him Devon, and then Morgan saying, "Awesome," to the Buy More guys and Devon thinking he's talking to him.

"Our mission is to grab Shaw, or kill him, whichever's quicker." Heh, Casey says that with just a little too much glee.

Can I just point out that Zachary Levi looks really hot in these episodes? I love him being all confident as a spy, and for some reason, that black jacket really does it for me.

Hahahahaha, I love Awesome blurting out the truth to Ellie. The look on his face when he realizes she didn't know about Chuck is priceless. The poor guy has been struggling to keep this secret all year, and he thinks it's finally okay to talk and he just gets in more trouble. And Ellie trying to get information out of him and Morgan! "I have pockets of missing knowledge." "You need to find me somebody who knows a lot more than you do." Loved Morgan's description of the Ring, "a nefarious criminal organization hellbent on world domination."

LOL, Casey in the diner, communicating only in grunts. Also, now I want pie.

So, the bit where Chuck says he's choosing to protect Sarah by running away pinged me because of the patronizing tendency of guys to protect girls who don't need it (see also: Angel). But it didn't bother me this time because Sarah can take care of herself, and moreover, Chuck knows that, so it's not about her being weak or incapable or anything. It's about not wanting to be the cause of bad things happening to the people he loves. Of course, it's also portrayed as the wrong thing to do, since Chuck and his dad are doing a U-turn (to a very nice song, btw) in no time.

Haha, Alex really takes after her dad, doesn't she? "I got an A in my self-defense class!"

"This is the last time I'm gonna walk away from you." Um, yeah, could we be a little less obvious here? Although, for some reason, my first thought was that Ellie was going to die, and then I realized that was pretty unlikely.

Dammit, Shaw made me laugh. I'm still determined not to like him (he's so painfully wooden), but his deadpan "muhaha" after explaining his evil plan got me.

"Don't know when it happened, but our boy became a man. Bartowski's a spy. You picked a good one, Walker. Finally." AWWWWWW. And also hee!

Noooooo!!!! They killed Papa Bartowski! ...right outside a room with a cellular regeneration machine, so who knows, maybe he'll come back. It's like Buffy. No one ever really dies on this show.

Speaking of connections to Buffy, there's been a distinct thread running through this season about emotions being a weakness - Chuck's emotions interfere with the Intersect, everybody says that emotions will get a spy in trouble (which is one of the reasons Sarah was opposed to a relationship with Chuck in the first place), etc. Shaw uses it to his advantage twice in this episode, first by playing on Sarah's emotions to trap her, and then killing Chuck's father in order to make him unable to fight. And I can't help thinking of Buffy's line, "My emotions are total assets." I don't know that we've gotten quite that level of subversion, but since these are our heroes, it doesn't seem like the notion of emotions=bad spy is totally true, either, since our team is pretty successful despite their close personal ties. Even Casey's got some affection for both Sarah and Chuck (and hell, even Morgan) at this point.

Okay, so, the very first scene between Morgan and Alex, I totally started shipping them. And I thought, "Oh, man, Casey would love that." Heh, "You might wanna stand back. This could explode."

I love love love the Team Bartowski second string coming in at the end, just when Chuck's lost all hope. Also, the music in this episode is awesome.

Is it just me, or does flashback!Ellie look like a younger version of Erica's sister Sam on Being Erica?

Heh, Morgan and Awesome. "This is Casey's car!" Yes, it certainly is. The two of them arguing over who has to take the gun, and "You used my missile!" And Casey's reaction when he realizes exactly who saved them, lol.

Okay, when Shaw opened his eyes after the explosion, I seriously for a second wondered if he was supposed to be a robot. That's not even meant as a criticism of his acting (although it is), I legitimately was like, "OMG Shaw's a robot! That explains everything!" Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Chuck vs. the Ring Part II

Zac Levi, still looking hot. Yes, I'm shallow.

Awwww, Chuck and Ellie. I love them as siblings, and I feel like their relationship has suffered from Ellie not knowing - well, obviously from an in-show perspective, but also from a meta perspective. It's been very hard to like Ellie, because she ends up seeming shrill and controlling, and we haven't had a good sense of what Ellie and Chuck mean to each other because of that interference. But these last few episodes are really all about the Bartowski family, and I love it.

Hahaha, Chuck played Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof. (Fun fact: I was in Fiddler my freshman year of high school.)

"Why do you have my daughter's phone number?" Baahaha! Remember how I totally called Morgan/Alex in the last episode? THIS was the scene I was hoping for.

I love Chuck's calm demeanor confronting Shaw, and of course him muhaha-ing back at Shaw (er, even though he wasn't there to hear Shaw say it), which I think goes back to the emotions thing, and shows that he can at least keep his cool when it counts. Even if his brain is completely fried.

"Ellie - she's gonna be so mad at me if I die." Aww, Chuck.

Heh, Morgan dialing the iPhone with his nose. I also love Alan Sepinwall's reaction: "I was skeptical that you could actually work an iPhone with your nose, but I tried it after seeing Morgan do it, and dammit if the buttons didn't respond to the ol' Sepinwall schnozola." Awww, but the poor guy broke his thumbs, only to have Jeff and Lester pull the fire alarm for him. At least he earned Casey's respect for it.

Chuck is now wearing a white t-shirt and... yep. Still hot.

The Intersect-on-Intersect fight to Jeffster's "Blaze of Glory" - OMG. I am loving the show's tradition of having a Jeffster performance coinciding with a big battle in the season finale, though I think the wedding might have an edge, what with the live Jeffster performance and Casey crashing in through the skylight.

Heh, I love Chuck deciding to let Shaw live, and then Sarah braining him with a pole. She is so my kind of girl.

And Morgan blowing up the Buy More! And Jeff and Lester becoming fugitives! I love how they're like, "Did we do that?" This is exactly what I want from a Buy More plot - something totally zany that ends up intersecting with the spy plot in a significant way. Of course, now that the Buy More has been blown to smithereens, who knows what they'll do with the subplots next season. I can't imagine this is the last we've seen of Jeff, Lester, and Big Mike (though that would thin out the cast and give them some wiggle room in the budget).

Speaking of big changes, it looks like Chuck will be a rogue spy, after retiring from the CIA on the goodwill of having saved multiple branches of the US government (hee!), pursuing some of the things his father was working on. I'm guessing Team Bartowski will stick together in some capacity (though I didn't notice that Casey or, more importantly, Sarah got the easy dismissal that Chuck did), and Ellie will again be in the dark about Chuck's extracurricular activities. It's a big change, but I thought they handled the Intersect 2.0 seamlessly, so I trust them to do this, too. It feels a lot like Graduation Day for Chuck, you know? He's finally a real spy, he's outgrown his CIA training, and now everything changes. And I, for one, am very curious who they'll get to play Mama Bartowski - my vote is for Mary McDonnell.

In conclusion? Awesome.

Stuff people should be watching, part 3

If you're not watching Chuck, I'm not sure I could talk about it more than I already do, but I'm always up for convincing people. This is a show that seems to specialize in providing a little something for everyone.

You want mystery and intrigue? As a spoof of the spy genre, Chuck delves into an ever-expanding web of conspiracies. The Intersect, the computer in Chuck's head that's made him an unwitting spy, is a top secret intelligence project, and plenty of rogue agents and shadowy organizations would love to get their hands on the technology.

You want comedy? This show is hilarious. I mean, Casey alone is comedy gold, with his Jayne-esque love of guns and his ability to communicate only in grunts. You'll never tire of watching him trying to cope with an inept Chuck (or, more recently, Morgan). But then you've also got the Buy More crew, who are pretty much insane, and the go-to guys for wacky antics. And then there's Devon, who's so perfect his nickname is "Captain Awesome," but may be in over his head with the spy world.

You want action? This show has kick-ass fight scenes. In the beginning, we had Sarah and Casey kicking ass and taking names, but now that Chuck knows kung fu, we're getting to see what Zachary Levi can do with a stunt team. One of my favorite fights this season involved Chuck and Sarah having to fight the bad guys while handcuffed together.

You want romance? Chuck/Sarah delivers. Sure, the will-they-won't-they lasted a little too long, but Zac and Yvonne sell it so hard that you can't help wishing those two crazy kids could make it work. And now that they're finally together, the show's got lots of new ground to explore.

You want family drama? Ellie and Chuck are as close as siblings can be - except for the huge secret that Chuck's been keeping from her. Now she's close to finding out that Chuck's a spy - and I can't wait to see her reaction when she realizes that just about everyone (including her husband, Awesome) is in the know except her. Plus, the always fantastic Scott Bakula pops up occasionally as their wayward mad scientist father.

You want nerd love? This show manages to mine humor from its video game-playing, sci-fi movie-watching, comic book-reading, electronics-repairing characters, without making nerds the butt of the joke. (Dude, Chuck saves the day by playing Missile Command.) Plus, the pop culture references abound.

You want random musical numbers? I give you - Jeffster!

In summary: Watch Chuck. It's awesome.

Some thoughts on Chuck

I haven't done a Chuck post in a while (aside from some Zachary Levi squee), so let's talk about how this extra-six-episodes arc is shaking out.

I thought it got off to a really great start with the Honeymooners episode. It's pretty clear that Chuck and Sarah finally getting together is hardly going to be the downfall of the show. The relationship conflict was a little silly - haven't we already been over the "Do you want to quit?" "Do YOU want to quit?" stuff already? But then, I guess we've gone back and forth so many times, it could be confusing. First Chuck wanted Sarah to quit so they could be together, then he decided he liked the spy stuff and didn't want to give it up, but meanwhile Sarah had decided she DID want to quit to be with Chuck, and she wanted Chuck to quit because it was changing him, so now we're finally coming back around to them both wanting to be together at the same time and what does that mean for their spy careers? Anyway, I'm glad we got that straightened out and out of the way, and in the meantime, it gave us a pretty hilarious episode.

It was cute how they both accidentally caught each other sneaking around the bad guy's cabin, and I LOVED the fight scene with Sarah and Chuck handcuffed together. I kind of want to write a Spuffy fic that incorporates handcuffed fighting now. I also enjoyed Morgan being weirdly brilliant and useful for tracking down Chuck. And the scene in the cafe with Chuck/Morgan and Sarah/Casey talking in front of the terrorist - you could totally see him becoming a Chuck/Sarah shipper before our eyes, lol. Plus, a Jeffster! performance? Awesome.

I haven't been as thrilled with the next two episodes, though. The one with the older spy couple was silly, and although I adored everything to do with that tiger, the whole "Chuck and Sarah get a glimpse of their future" thing was cliched and didn't do much for me. I also felt that they were starting to get too reliant on the character pairings - even before Sarah and Chuck got together, the last few episodes have been putting those two together (usually with much drama) while Casey and Morgan do a comic relief thing on their own. One of the things I miss is the Team Bartowski dynamic, which hasn't been right all season because of Shaw, and especially I miss Chuck/Casey interactions. In taking Chuck's place as the bumbling idiot on the team, Morgan also seems to have taken Chuck's place as the one who receives most of Casey's disapproving glares and grunts. I also think there's a LOT of comedy to be had by pairing up Morgan and Sarah, as that bit in the kitchen proved.

Last night's episode gave me a little of what I wanted, switching things up to put Chuck and Morgan together (at a Beethoven concert!) with Sarah and Casey pairing up to keep Chuck out of hot water. And yet, I wasn't really fond of this one, either. I think Alan Sepinwall hit it on the head when he said the balance of comedy and drama that this show does so well just didn't work for this episode. There could have been a lot more suspense with more build up on both the "Chuck's having crazy dreams" thing and whatever's going on with Ellie and the Ring operatives. Chuck being locked up in a psych ward isn't a big deal when we don't have any doubt that he's right about the bad guys, so you gotta give us some kind of stakes. Even the return of Anna Wu was less than I'd hoped for. She seemed really different, more snooty and full of herself. Well, okay, she was always that, but she used to be awesome, too, and now she's just stuck up. I was happy to see Morgan leave her in the dust.

Coming up, it looks like Papa Bartowski will be back (yay!) and perhaps also Shaw (boo!). Plus, there's still the chance that Chuck might really be crazy someday.

Gah!

I forgot to wish Megan a happy birthday! It was Thursday. I can't keep my days straight. My Mother's Day cards are all going to be late, too.

Have more Zachary Levi singing!

It's official

Move over, NPH. Zachary Levi is my new TV boyfriend. HE SINGS, people.

"I always hate it when people watch a musical and they go, 'Oh, it's so unrealistic. No one just breaks into song in the middle of their day.' Yeah, they do. They do, if they're me."

ME TOO, ZAC! ME TOO!

Freedom!

I am officially DONE with this semester - emailed my last paper to the professor last night. Which means I'm free... for a whole two weeks, and then the summer session starts. Oh well.

Anyway, it's that time of year, so if you're curious whether your favorite shows will be back next year, here's the chart for you. I'm happy to see that only two of my shows are "on the bubble" - Chuck, as ever (eat more Subway!), and Life Unexpected, which was cute, but I probably won't miss it. Getting the axe are 24, which I knew about and am ready for the end, and Dollhouse, which was canceled in the spectacular chaos of "let's cram five seasons worth of plot into the last six episodes" six months ago, so I'm not sure why it's even worth mentioning.

Last week's Chuck

Still chugging along with the TV... I did watch this week's Chuck, but haven't had a chance for thoughts yet, so we're still on last week.

I loved that Chuck's mission instructions self-destructed, but I loved even more that Chuck's reaction was all, "That actually self-destructed. Just like in the movies."

Am I the only one who found Casey's "I made my bunk, now I have to lie in it" extra funny because of Jayne? I gotta say, Casey tormenting Jeffster in the Buy More is comedy gold. Also - "It was a thoughtful felony." lol

Ah, the Subway product placement is out in full force, lol. Usually that kind of thing is really jarring for me, because it's never integrated well, but for some reason, it works on Chuck. Or maybe I'm just more tolerant because Subway is saving the show.

I was a little bit relieved to see Chuck and Sarah actually making some progress in talking about how they feel. Not, as I've said before, because I'm necessarily rooting for the ship, but at some point the dancing around gets to be a bit much and I just want them to get to the point already. I do feel a little bit annoyed at Sarah, that all this time she's kept Chuck at a distance because their respective roles meant they couldn't be together - but when he does what he has to do, becomes a real spy in order to be with her, she decides she doesn't like that Chuck. I said before that I liked the genuine conflict there, with them both changing so much that they'd passed each other, with Chuck getting more spylike and Sarah getting softer, but it does make it seem like Sarah wants to have her cake and eat it, too.

I'm also curious to see how things play out with Chuck not actually passing his test on his own. Casey's not always going to be around to kill people for him. One of the cool things about the extra episode order on this season is that things feel like they're really heating up to a big finale (which will be two weeks from now)... but then we still get six more episodes!

This was the first episode I really noticed Zachary Levi's stunt double. I don't know if it's because Levi's really good at doing the stunts (in one of the interviews at the end of S2, Schwartz and Fedak said they were thrilled at how good he turned out to be once they really let him do stuff), so the double doesn't get used much or what, but it was kind of distracting.

So that's the sound of liberty...

EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! Best Chuck EVER!

I love Awesome freaking out about Chuck's secret life (but I will be really, really sad if he and Ellie do go off to Africa). And the Buy More rebellion! With the FLAG OMG. Casey and Jeff! And Morgan! We've waited three years for Morgan to find out, and that was the perfect, perfect reaction. And the look on his face when he and Chuck came out of Castle? Priceless. "You flashed on Duck Hunt." Hee!

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better - JEFFSTER.

VICTORYYYYYYYYYY!

TV talk

With the Olympics being on, and all my shows being either preempted or in reruns, there hasn't been much to talk about. But this week, shows are back!

OMG how much did I love this week's Chuck?? SO hilarious with Chuck being undercover, just cool enough to fool the bad guys (and how ridiculous were they, lol), but still lapsing into talking about cupcakes and sterile torture instruments. I have to say, I am really loving the new, more confident Chuck this season. I think they've got a great balance between making him kick-ass enough that I totally have a TV crush on Zachary Levi, but still maintaining that goofiness and occasional ineptitude that makes him Chuck.

After the whole crazy shipper thing that resulted from the last episode, I did get a chuckle out of the meta exchange about "will they/won't they" couples, but I imagine the crazy haters were probably not pleased by the outcome of this episode. Hannah's gone, but Sarah/Shaw took a giant leap forward, meaning that it's still an obstacle to Chuck/Sarah. To be honest, I would've preferred the opposite (lose the Sarah/Shaw stuff but keep Hannah around), which is surprising, because I thought I would hate Kristin Kreuk a lot more. Or at all.

I also watched the premiere of Parenthood last night. It's been on my radar because I absolutely love Lauren Graham and Peter Krause, and I wasn't disappointed by them. Lauren Graham's character kind of reminds me of Lorelai, if Rory had been a huge troublemaker instead of the perfect daughter, lol. Overall, though, the show reminds me more of Brothers & Sisters, but with more likable actors. (To be fair, I like both Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths a lot more after having watched B&S than I did before.) I had a lot of trouble keeping track of all the characters, since I didn't recognize many of the actors, and I'm still not sure how everyone's related. But the dialogue was fast-paced and snappy, and I do have a weakness for big zany family dramas (it's the only child thing, I think), so I'll keep watching.

Yep, you guessed it...

Another snow day. Got an email from GW, and they have adopted the term "snowpocalypse," so you know it must be serious. Meanwhile, a flock of crows have taken shelter in the tree outside my window, and it is driving Chelsea craaaaa-zeeeee. She is hopping from window to window, meowing furiously (although sometimes it sounds more like a pathetic "Mommy, do something!" whine), while the birds blissfully ignore her.

Speaking of crazy, guess what Chuck shippers are up to. If you're just joining us, the latest development in the Chuck/Sarah forbidden love tale has both of them being paired up with other people (oh the horrors). Chuck's hooking up with fellow Nerd Herder Hannah, while Sarah's showing some attraction to fellow spy Shaw. (Weirdly, both love interests are played by Superman alums - Kristin Kreuk from Smallville and Brandon Routh from Superman Returns.)

I personally am not terribly invested in Chuck/Sarah. Yes, they're obviously meant for each other, but I'm in no hurry to get there. On the occasions when I wish they would just get together already, it's usually because they're pushing the "we can't be together" angst over the top (as they did in the first few eps of the season), and not out of any particular desire to see them consummate their love. I don't have any problems with this newest obstacle - I actually like Hannah, which is a little bit of a shock, given that I generally avoid anything (or anyone) Smallville-related like the plague. It seems a little weird to me that Sarah and Shaw would want a relationship, given that they both have a "spies don't fall in love" rule. Granted, Sarah's spent the entire run of the show breaking that rule with Chuck, but specifically because of that, I'd expect her to tread more cautiously here.

Still, I'm willing to sit back and see where the show takes this. Crazy-cakes shippers, on the other hand, seem to think this has absolutely ruined the show for good, and one "fan" even suggested a boycott so that low ratings force the writers to get Chuck and Sarah together. Alan Sepinwall explains why this is completely idiotic. He also talks to the show creators about the controversy, which only seems to emphasize how much the fans are overreacting. I swear to God, if my shiny show gets canceled because whiny Charah fans executed a completely useless boycott, HEADS WILL ROLL.

Something different for a change

Good news - we're getting six more episodes of Chuck, and the season may start sooner than previously expected (March), due to all of NBC's new shows completely tanking.

And a trailer for the new (and final) season of 24.

All by myself...

My boss is on vacation (again!) so I'm all alone in the office for the rest of the week. So, I am making baby announcements.

Well, just one. David Boreanaz and his wife Jaime have a baby girl named Bardot.

More good news - Mad Men has been renewed for a fourth season.

Not so good news - bad Superman actors are descending on Chuck. Brandon Routh (who I thought made a horrible Superman) and Kristin Kreuk (the worst actor on Smallville, which is an impressive feat) will both guest star next season.

Chuck at Comic-Con

It's kind of a slow day in work, and my boss is out of the office, so I just watched the Chuck panel from Comic-Con (which was last weekend).

First, there's the Season 2 trailer and the Schwartz/Fedak skit (omg hilarious), then the live Jeffster! performance, and of course, the panel discussion. Watch it. Watch it all. Love Chuck.

(I also ate Subway for lunch today... power of suggestion.)

Finally!

Usually, if I'm not posting for a while, it's because I'm busy, and then there's this whole catching-up process where I try to cover everything that I missed over the X number of weeks I wasn't able to check my regular blogs.

Lately, it's been the opposite. Plenty of time to read, nothing to talk about. Most shows are winding down (WTF was up with the Bones finale?), and so the only big news is in what's getting renewed. If you've been following along with the cheat sheet I linked to a while back, you should be up-to-date, but in case you're not, here's the deal.

First and foremost, CHUCK IS BACK! Albeit with a reduced budget, but that seems to be par for the course in TV this year. Also an emerging pattern is that low-rated shows seem to have a better chance at renewal this year, since I guess the networks would rather spend their money on low-performing shows they already have than risk spending it on new shows that might do even worse. That's apparently what saved Dollhouse (along with, again, the slashed budget thing), which I'm kinda "meh" about. I was ready to call it quits, but I hung on till the magical episode 6, and... yeah, it's better now than it was at the beginning, but I found the finale somewhat disappointing, and wouldn't really have minded if that was the last we saw of it. I feel like this time Joss' grand statement is kind of getting in the way of the storytelling. (Also, I no longer trust him farther than I can throw him, after how he ruined the Buffy season 8 comics.)

Also, this article is mostly for Kelly, but honestly, it pisses me off that my diploma is in Latin. I find it ridiculous that we need to make up Latin words like "Franklinus et Marshallanium" (I have no idea if that's right but it's close enough) just to make ourselves sound smarter. It's bullshit. That's not the name of the college I went to, and I don't want it on my degree.

Nail-biting

It's that time of year when we find out whether all our favorite shows have been canceled or not. Still no word on Chuck, but we know that Life is out and Fringe is in. I'd kind of have preferred that the other way around. Life was awesome. If you need a list to keep track of everything, here's a handy one. So, to sum up the shows I watch:

Already renewed: 24, Fringe, Friday Night Lights, The Office
Likely coming back: HIMYM, Bones, Chuck (although I'm not sure I trust this), Parks & Recreation
Likely canceled: Cupid, Dollhouse, Kings (and I just started watching it, too)
Already canceled: Dirty Sexy Money, Life

This is Awesome

Remember yesterday I told you about the Subway Save Chuck campaign? Well, here's a hilarious video of Zachary Levi leading hundreds of fans to Subway at a convention yesterday. Then he got behind the counter and helped make the sandwiches. Aww.

As for the finale itself, I am preparing to burn my living room. How about you? We should be hearing about renewal next week... In the meantime, interview with Chris Fedak about the finale and the possible season 3 (well, okay, he mostly dodges those questions).

Also regarding last night's TV, it seems Kiefer had to pull out a little Jack Bauer in order to get to work with Jon Voight: "If you don't let me work with him, I'll kill you."

I declare today Chuck Day

Don't forget to go to Subway today to support the campaign to save Chuck. Also, an interview with Captain Awesome and a letter to NBC on why they should renew the show.

Happy Inauguration Day!

I'll be back with more stuff later on, but first I wanted to post a few links from Friday that I never got up.

Casting news: Scott Bakula will be playing Chuck's father, and Amy Ryan is coming back to The Office. Plus, an interview with Josh Radnor.

I think Battlestar Galactica fried my brain this week (in a good way). Between that and Friday Night Lights, it might be too much awesome for one night.

It's 4pm on a Friday

...and it's snowing. Who's doing work, honestly?

I'll spare you the politics, even though I have three days of newspaper reading, and just give you the fun stuff.

This may very well explode my geeky brain: Tricia Helfer (from BSG) guest-starring on Chuck. Eeee!!!

Kiefer Sutherland points out how ridiculous it is to think that people actually elected a black President because of 24. And, of course, more on the 24 movie. Plus, why the name changed from Exile to Redemption: "Somebody at Fox didn't like it." Ha.

Here's the second half of that Christian Kane interview I posted a while ago.

And finally, I haven't really spent much time on Heroes since I stopped watching the show, but I couldn't resist commenting on these two things. First, I saw this quote from a recap of a recent episode: "Why does Sylar get to be the new force of great justice in this show, while Hiro is consigned to the role of cutey clown?" Uh... because Sylar is awesome and Hiro is unbelievably not? I don't understand why people are getting so worked up about Hiro being a 10-year-old. (No, I have no idea how that happened, and I don't care.) He's always acted like a pre-pubescent idiot, so really, what's the difference?

And second, wow. If I hadn't already lost interest, this would have been the final nail in the coffin. In fact, Tim Kring pissed me off so much that I almost wish I were still watching just so I could quit in protest.