Results tagged “Chuck” from Anyone Else Watching?

The most exciting news is that Scott Bakula is guesting as Chuck and Ellie's dad. Quantum Leap was one of my favorite shows as a kid so I am excited to see Bakula pop up again.

 A clip of the cast talking about working with Bakula is available here if you are interested. I hope that the turn could lead to a comeback for him. Hey, if Mark Harmon can comeback and headline a top 3 show, anything is possible.

The writers also mentioned that "Jeffster," the greatest band you've never heard of, is going to make another appearance. Their performance of Toto's timeless hit "Africa" was unforgettable. 

Anyone else looking forward to the album? Me, I cant wait.

Good episode last night. I do think that the writers have to start advancing the whole Chuck/Sarah thing. Every week they seemingly wrap-up the whole "Will they? Wont they?" angle, only to back track the next week. I understand that the relationship is a key part of the show and I generally enjoy it. I just hope they find a new spin to keep it fresh.

I think the introduction of Cole Barker was a good start in shaking things up. Cole, a Bond-like MI:6 agent, took one look at Sarah and decided he wanted to "butter her biscuit." What a great line. You'll never hear me say it, mainly because there is no way in hell I could pull it off, but great line nevertheless.

Kudos to Jonathan Cake for his performance as Cole. I had not seen him in anything since Empire, ABC's atrocious miniseries from a few summers ago. Amazing the difference good material makes. I am looking forward to seeing him again next week. 

Chuck has slowly been building an interesting mythology. This year the writers have advanced the whole idea of the "evil CIA" group Fulcrum, begun in season 1. I think that has really strengthened the mission-a-week format of the show. Fulcrum is more of an old school spy group: Less SD-6 and more SPECTRE. This weeks episode featured Chuck and Sarah going undercover in a neighborhood that turned out to be a Fulcrum installation, which set up an interesting path for the show as the season winds down. Chuck isn't just about the spy stuff though,

What is great about Chuck, is that it does an excellent job at balancing the serious with the absolutely silly. Jumping between tones is really tough to do well. It usually leads to wildly uneven television. Chuck keeps it light without taking away the dramatic stakes of the human relationships and missions. Most of the really silly stuff takes place at the Buy More (basically Best Buy) where Chuck works. Here is a great example of the kind of humor the show loves to do. Note the Pop Culture reference as well:

While many shows are self-aware and include a lot of pop-culture references, Chuck is perhaps the most unabashed about it. From missions that take place at Nakatomi Plaza to characters named Ned Ryerson, the episodes are jam-packed with references to other material. Last nights episode ended with a great homage to not one but two of the Indiana Jones movies (in the same scene no less). If you don't find that impressive then you probably wont find this blog at all interesting... sorry.

So if that is your first taste of Chuck I hope it encourages you to give the show a shot. For those who have watched before, I hope I captured some of what you love about the show. You can find all of the season 2 episodes here and you can buy the first season for under $20 here. The Show is on Mondays at 8 p.m. on NBC