Ode to Chuck

Unlike other shows that premiered strong and then tailed off a little or a lot in subsequent episodes (cough, Reaper, cough), the quality of Chuck started high and has even been steadily improving. The two Bilson episodes were fantastic and Bryce's return was also stellar. Along with Gossip Girl, Chuck now tops my list of appointment television. So, the question becomes: is there any way Josh Schwartz could make a show that I wouldn't love?

Oh, Chuck, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Chuck is hilarious. I've got weeks worth of lists of the hilarity that is this show, but I'm going to try to narrow it down to a few examples.

The shining example (at which I'm still laughing) in "Chuck vs. the Nemesis" was:

Awesome: "So, Thanksgiving: we're all supposed to say what we're thankful for..."
Casey: "Pass."
Chuck: "I'm thankful that Bryce Larkin is dead and is not currently in my bedroom making out with my new girlfriend."
Morgan: "Wow, buddy, that was dark."
Awesome: "And specific!"

Highlights in "Chuck vs. the Imported Hard Salami":

Morgan: "She is the hottest piece we are ever going to get! ...Beg for her back, Charles!"

Chuck: "Normally, here on planet Earth, a man will consider his feelings for a woman before jumping atop her."

"Chuck vs. the Truth" was fantastic. I mean, come on: Marshall Flinkman as a former elite gymnast turned rogue intelligence agent? Awesome. (I shudder to think what the world will come to if Blaine Wilson or the Hamm twins turn rogue.) Some of the best lines were:

Morgan: "I am a very busy man-boy."

Ellie: "Chuck, you need a haircut--it's starting to make funny animal shapes... At the time it seemed really important to have a New Kids fanny pack... Words taste like peaches!"

Chuck: "God, [Sarah,] you're so pretty. And Casey, your jaw was chiseled by Michelangelo himself!

And my favorites from "Chuck vs. the Sandworm":

Casey: "I'm sick of feeling like Team Chuck's little fat kid."

Chuck: "We are--chronologically speaking--adults."

And Chuck and Morgan's endless debate about which sandwich they'd want if they were stranded on a desert island, especially Chuck's: "Think about it, Morgan, this is a desert island--mayonnaise doesn't fare well in the tropics!"

Chuck loves The O.C. almost as much as I do. There was my sneaking suspicion that a picture of Ryan and Marissa at Tijuana was hidden amongst the Intersect images and the shout out to "The O.C...season 2, which was underrated" during the awesome Buy More 'name-that-show' competition.

But The O.C. homage to end all homages came at the end of "Chuck vs. the Sandworm" when Chuck and Morgan reenacted shot-for-shot the iconic (to me, anyway) Ryan/Marissa New Year's Eve party moment. They played Finley Quaye's "Dice," Morgan sat looking glum, Chuck ran in out of breath, they spotted each other across the room, Chuck bumped into someone as he hurried toward Morgan and my heart was so full of love I could barely stand it.

Chuck is surprisingly sexy. "Chuck vs. the Imported Hard Salami" was hotter than anything on Grey's Anatomy in at least a year. Chuck (Zach Levi) and Lou (Rachel Bilson) made talking about sandwiches wildly hot. And then the Chuck/Sarah kiss in front of the ticking bomb was crazy sexy. Kudos to Zach Levi for finding a way to be both goofy and sexy. In case the past few years in popular culture haven't convinced you, here's some more proof that geeks are hot.

Chuck is extremely sweet. It is nice to watch a show about a guy who loves his sister and his friends and is a little meek and underachieving and a lot adorable. It just is.

Premiere Watch '07: Round Up!!!

Well, I'm exhausted. Who knew that blogging about television could be so tiring ;-) It sure didn't help matters that there are now about a billion shows that I wanted to a least sample this season. Here are my rankings for the first episodes of almost everything a whole lot of new and returning shows (scale of 1 to 10):

Pilots:

• Pushing Daisies...............9.5
• Reaper..............................8.5
• Chuck...............................8.0
• Gossip Girl.......................7.5
• Dirty Sexy Money..........7.0
• Samantha Who?..............7.0
• Aliens in America............7.0
• Moonlight.........................6.5
• Kid Nation........................6.5
• Private Practice...............5.0
• Big Shots...........................2.5
• Viva Laughlin...................1.0

Returning Series:

• The Office.........................8.0
• 30 Rock.............................8.0
• Ugly Betty.........................7.5
• Grey's Anatomy...............7.0
• Brothers and Sisters........6.0
• Men In Trees....................6.0
• Heroes................................5.5
• Desperate Housewives....5.0

Whew. It seems like no sooner did we wade through all the premieres, than it's time for November Sweeps! Oh well, bring on the weddings, births, deaths, surprise pregancies, etc....

Premiere Watch '07: Samantha Who?

Samantha Who?

Well, this is my last premiere review of the fall season, unless I blog Viva Laughlin for some evil fun tomorrow...which, face it, I'm totally going to do.

Anyway, Samantha Who? was a pretty darn delightful show, which is much more than anyone can say for ABC's other new comedies (Cavemen, Carpoolers), which I couldn't even sit through. I enjoy seeing Christina Applegate back on television, as I was a bit of a Jessie fan back in the day. At times, Christina seemed just a little over-the-top in her portrayal of Sam, but I guess she was going for the always-on-the-verge-of-a-freak-out thing that is popular among female TV characters (and Chuck from Chuck).

After the first episode, I feel pretty sorry for "new" Sam since she's stuck with "old" Sam's scary parents and friends. I love Gilmore Girls' Sookie, but her character was pretty freaky on this show. And, let's just say, if that's how Jennifer Esposito acts in real life (I assume it's not), then I can see why Bradley Cooper divorced her.

I did love Barry Watson in this show. I think he's becoming one of those people who just get cuter and cuter all the time (or maybe he just seems cuter since I don't have to be watching 7th Heaven to see him). It was a nice twist that Todd had already tried to break up with pre-coma Sam. That revelation made a lot of sense because he didn't really seem all that into having her around. I also liked how all the messages on his answering machine were his friends bad-mouthing Sam.

I hope we get to see more flashbacks to pre-coma Sam, because she seems pretty entertaining in her horribleness.

Funniest Part:

Sam: "You raised me. You made me who I am!"

Sam's mom: "What a horrible thing to say!"

Sam's dad: "Apologize to your mother."

What I liked most about this pilot is that it made it seem like there's plenty more material to cover in this story. So hopefully the show won't peter out in the next few episodes, like I think Reaper sadly has.

But I would be remiss not to mention that this show is almost exactly 13 Going On 30 without the fairy dust and the "Thriller" dance sequence.

Premiere Rating: 7 / 10

(photo: abc.com)

Tuesday Wrap-Up: The Devil, Mariska Hargitay, and Sabrina

Reaper:
This bug stuff was really unpleasant. I guess cockroaches on your toothbrush is reason #4053 not to sell your soul to the devil.

The best creepy Sock comment of the episode would have to be: "I was thinking after that, we could get a drink, have a few laughs, maybe launder some soiled clothing." Eew.

The highlight of this episode was that the devil's slide show presentation included a photo of him and Mariska Hargitay at the Emmys. Poor Mariska!

Speaking of Mariska...

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:
Watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Cassiday "Beaver" Casablancas argue about who raped whom is all kinds of creepy. I have to hand it to Kyle Gallner, Beaver can be one messed-up dude when he wants to be. Of course he's the creep and Sabrina is good! Duh. I was just hoping that Harvey would show up at some point. I wonder how Harvey is doing...

Wow, L&O: SVU is ridiculous. It just layers one unpleasant thing on after another for a whole hour. Ick. What's even sillier is that the events of this show would take place over months and months in real life. And none of the main characters seem to have personalities.

I really need to stop watching the Law & Orders when they have guest stars I like. Last year I thought Criminal Intent was a disaster, and SVU is not much easier to take.

Reaper: Week 2

Reaper: "Charged"

While I still really enjoyed this show, I thought this episode dropped off quite a bit from the pilot. It seemed to drag on for a while; it felt like Sam took forever just to open the stinking devil box.

The episode was still funny though. And it contained kind of a nasty little shout out to Delaware, which I feel I should mention after spending 4 years there:

Sam: "Ben, can you find Delaware on a map?" Ouch.

Premiere Watch '07: Reaper

Ok, just as it was difficult to talk about Gossip Girl without mentioning The OC, it's kind of hard to discuss Reaper without at least thinking about Chuck. Because, wow, in a lot of ways, they're almost the same show. Funny, underachieving guy who works in a huge "box" store unwittingly becomes a secret agent (or, in the case of Reaper, a secret agent demon hunter). Based on the pilots, I think I liked Reaper just a little bit better...due in no small part to the fact that the main character is played by Bret Harrison..

In sticking with the 5 points per actor rule I pulled out of my butt established yesterday, I'd like to report that Bret Harrison totally delivered his 5 points for Reaper. I love Bret Harrison. He's the reason I still occasionally watch the Grounded for Life reruns on ABC Family. I love Brad and Lily (and especially their big dance at the prom). And, of course, finding out that Bret is in Adam Brody's band put him way over the top in my estimation. Like Michael Cera, Adam Brody has exceptional taste in friends. And, to prove that I'm a real Bret Harrison connoisseur, when I watched the repeat earlier this summer, I totally recognized that it was him playing the really weird, hip hop-ish VJ on the episode of The OC when Seth and Ryan go to Spring Break in Miami.

But why did I love Bret tonight? Well, he plays the lovable slacker very well. And he can do an impeccable freak out. And he has a very expressive face. And, in the scene where they vanquished the demon, and Sock said, "I think I wet my pants," Bret actually looked down to check. Eeeeeew, but so funny!

Other great things about Reaper include Ray Wise making the Devil seem like a pretty charming fellow and a very solid supporting cast. Sometimes Sock (that nickname is awesome) was a little over the top and trying super hard to channel his inner Seth Rogen (do we all have an inner Seth Rogen, and is that good or bad?), but he delivered a lot of the episode's funniest lines. And, let's face it, I like TV that's funny, so while the demon guy bursting into flames was pretty creepy and the Zamboni thing was gross, it's the comedy that will keep me coming back.

I'd also like to mention that the directing and camera work in this episode was fantastic. The scene where the shopping cart eluded Sam's reach was particularly cool. This episode was directed by Kevin Smith, and I admit that I haven't seen much of his work, except for a little bit of Jersey Girl, but we won't hold that against him. A lot of people made career choices during Bennifer 1.0 that they came to regret (um, namely Ben Affleck). Anyway, nice job, Kevin.

Highlights:

• Sam's mom: "Sam did go to college. He went for a month, and we're very proud of him for trying. It's just that college made him sleepy."
• Sock called Sam's brother "K-Fed" just because he didn't get into Stanford. Ouch!
• Sock throwing the bleach at Sam. "You were supposed to move that with your mind."
• the Devil explaining where the portals to hell are: "Anyplace that seems like hell on earth is hell on earth--like the DMV on Union Street."
• Devil: "Oh, I forgot, you got a 600 on the SATs."
• Ben: "I take it back, Sam; that's a really evil mini-vac!"
• Ha ha, asshat. Did we all learn our name-calling from Summer Roberts? It's nice to have a friend who will forgive you for anything just because you say, "I'm an asshat."
• Sock: "You're evil."
  Sam: "So I heard."
• I loved the scene where they got all suited up to go fight the demon and then had to sit and wait for the Dirt Devil to recharge.
• Sock: "You are Neo; you're the one!"
• DMV lady: "The boss give you the vessel he thinks you can handle... you must be a real moron."
• Sam: "My parents sold my soul to the devil! I mean how crazy is that?"
  Sock: "My dad forgot to pick me up from sleep-away camp for three days."
  Sam: "That's not the same thing."

My one problem with this episode was that you could totally tell that all the scenes with Missy Peregrym had been shot at a much later date than the rest of the episode. This is the problem we run into, CW, when we recast actors months later. The camera work in the new scenes seemed different, the lighting seemed different, and the real problem was that Bret looked different. He had longer hair, there were highlights in his hair, his face was scruffier, and he looked a little bigger. It was just silly.

Other than that, pretty awesome pilot. My fave so far.

Premiere Rating: 8.5 / 10

(photo source: cwtv.com)

2007 Fall Outlook

I'm going to have a lot of television on my plate this fall. Even though three of my favorite shows ever (The OC, Gilmore Girls, and Veronica Mars) were canceled last season, there are still about a million shows that I want to watch. Actually, I'm planning to check out 23 shows this fall. Even I think that's excessive.

Something's gotta give at some point though. Right? Thankfully, Damages is going to wrap up its first season in October, but if everything on this list is still going strong by the time Lost, Kyle XY, Monk, Greek, and Psych come back, I'm going to be screwed.

I'm most excited to see the pilots of all the new shows because we've been hearing about them for almost six months now! It's go time!

The following is a list of shows that I plan on watching (or at least monitoring). I also included a ranking (high, medium, or low) of how excited I am to have each (so far unpremiered) show back.

Sunday:
Desperate Housewives (low), Brothers and Sisters (low)

Monday:

Chuck (high), Heroes (medium -- escaping "low" only because of the addition of David Anders and Kristen Bell to the cast), Aliens in America (medium), Samantha Who? (medium)

Tuesday:

Beauty and the Geek, Reaper (high), Bones (medium), Damages

Wednesday:
Pushing Daisies (high), Private Practice (low), Dirty Sexy Money (high), Gossip Girl, Kid Nation

Thursday:

30 Rock (high), The Office (high), Ugly Betty (medium), Grey's Anatomy (low), Smallville (medium), Without a Trace (low)

Friday:

Moonlight (medium), Men In Trees (medium)

Yikes. And this list doesn't include Viva Laughlin, which I want to watch because it is supposed to be ridiculous and terrible, and Big Shots, which I will try (due to allegiance to Michael Vartan) to watch at least once even though it looks awful.

Hmm. I guess it's good that I really don't have anything else to do...