On the one hand, I’m incredibly depressed that tonight is the finale of “Chuck.” On the other hand, I feel as if I should be grateful that we had the show for as long as we did. And the great thing about that is that it happened because fans took one of the favorite tactics of boycotters and censors, turned it around, and accomplished something positive with it.
“Chuck” was always a demented, schizo series. In any single episode, the story could ricochet from broadly played comedy to high-stakes espionage.
That didn’t always sit well with a lot of viewers. Mixing genres is a challenge on your best day, and most people didn’t take to situations as tonally diverse as spies dodging bullets in Morocco in one scene and stoned salesmen dodging work in the Buy More the next scene.
Me, I loved it from the pilot episode on. I loved the writing, I thought the cast was engaging. Sure, sometimes the humor and drama pushed too hard against each other or stretched too far away, but I was always happy to just ride with it.
And, as is typical with shows I really enjoy, it was viewer challenged, season after season. It was on the bubble more than Glinda the Good Witch.
Usually when fans attempt to keep a series on the air, they do so by targeting the network. Very iffy.
However when censors or boycotters try to drive a series from the air, they do so by targeting the sponsors. Typically, this gets more publicity and, if not always successful, can still have a chilling effect desired by self-appointed protectors of what you should be allowed to watch.
So “Chuck” fans adopted the sponsor-directed tactics by showing 110% support for “Subway,” which went from being a mere product placement in one episode to a full-fledged rallying point as a way of impressing upon sponsors that, hey, support this show and we’ll support you. Granted, it was one of a number of means undertaken to display support for the program, but it was one of the most visible and highly touted.
So this evening we’ll be watching to see how it all ends while munching “Subway” sandwiches.
Chuck me.
PAD
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how do you feel about the last min Sarah development?
I see it as a compelling obstacle. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t destroy their happiness. My belief is that it won’t; that the producers would feel that it’s a betrayal of the fans who have so much invested in the series. You REALLY want to reward that kind of dedication by turning the show into a tragedy at the end?
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Actually, my dream ending features Linda Hamilton climbing into a car, turning to the driver and saying, “That went well.” And you pan over and see Scott Bakula as his dad, alive and well, saying, “Yes, it did.” And they drive off together into the sunset.
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Either that or Jayne Cobb wakes up on “Serenity” and says to Mal, “You won’t believe the dream I had…”
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PAD
You know what? I’d be good with either one of those endings. My only regret with this show is that they didn’t explore the Orion stuff very much. All those plot hooks, blown to smithereens…
I liked it a lot! You saw that, yes, there was no magic reset button, but the core of these two characters lives on. You can see the ‘happily ever after’ for those two, but it was real, and would require work, hard work to bring it about! Showed respect for the viewers!
I’ll miss the show greatly, too, and not just because Mr. Bartowski has a tastefully chosen first name. Of course, it was one of the great celebrations of geek culture, helped along by the fact that Zach Levi and Josh Gomez are “One of Us! One of Us!” Perhaps even more gratifyingly, it celebrated intelligence (and not just the espionage kind.) Chuck (and Ellie and Awesome and even Morgan) saved the day through smarts as often as Sarah and Casey did with fists and bullets. Granted, Jeffster didn’t carry the IQ banner very often, but even Jeff got his chance to shine by the series’ end.
Happily, there are a number of other shows on TV now where brainy characters are celebrated (see, for example, Abby Scioto on NCIS and the entire core cast of White Collar), but the passing of Chuck and Eureka this year leave a couple of big voids in that particular landscape.
One scene they never did that I wish they had, back when Sarah’s cover id was working in the frozen yogurt shop. Casey shuts up either Chuck or Morgan by shoving a cone of froyo in their mouth and makes some comment about a “cone of silence”.
I appreciated how the show paid it forward this season by plugging another bubble show, Community, with conspicuous cameos by Danny Pudi and Yvette Nicole Brown. That’s another intelligent, genre-bending show that’s been viewer challenged since season 1. I haven’t been having such good luck with the series I like, either.
What I always liked about the show was how they didn’t let any plotlines drag out usually and threw everything in because the show could be cancelled at any time. The only think I never warmed to was Jeffster, whenever they were on the screen, my eyes would roll and I hoped their appearance would finish quickly.
Only THING, dammit.
Ah well, now that it’s over, I’m sure the bittersweet ending will ruffle the feathers of many who may have been hoping for an assured George & Mary Bailey – picket fence conclusion for Chuck and Sarah (I’ll save any detailed comments until a “spoiler warning” notice is given here or someone else spills the beans). I’ll admit I was surprised that the creators chose to finish on such a note of ambiguity, but I was satisfied with it. I’ll really miss this show, and I can’t wait to see where Adam Baldwin lands next.
Peter, you actually predicted Sarah would lose her memory and revert to her 1st season cold spy persona in the season 4 finale(which we thought might be the last)!
Chuck co-creator Chris Sendak says it’s open to audience interpretation but he believes that Sarah’s memories haven’t been erased completely(she did remember some things in the finale) and she’ll get remember it all eventually and fall in love with Chuck again. That’s the post fade out future for them that I choose to believe will happen.
I did? When the hëll did I do that?
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PAD
Unless you’re teasing us:
http://www.peterdavid.net:80/index.php/2011/05/18/cowboy-pete-held-his-breath-during-the-last-five-minutes-of-chuck-wspoilers/#more-6291
Ba-DUM dum!
I have to say, I liked how they wrapped everything up. (No real spoilers follow.) There were TONS of flashbacks to earlier episodes, a mostly happily-ever-after for everyone (except foR Neil C. with his hatred of Jeffster), and an ending that should satisfy both people who want it to end with a sense of finality, and people who want the adventures of the characters to continue.
Huh. How about that? No wonder I didn’t recall it, though. There’s nothing more embarrassing for a guy than premature speculation.
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PAD
You just killed me with that premature speculation quip. Why did I never think of that little pun?
I personally loved the ending, as it leaves us some space to imagine what happens next for these characters, even if there are no more episodes and the feature film thing falls through.
I thought it was a gift from the creators, giving us one to grow on, so to speak.
I was worried that entire last fifteen minutes they would give Sarah a “flash” after Chuck did Morgan’s proposed situation. I know a lot of people aren’t feeling it, but I thought it was incredibly fitting that no-matter what happened, you knew they’d be okay, bookending that last scene in the pilot perfectly.
Gotta say that while I enjoyed the finale, I hated not seeing Bakula return. I mean, come on… the guy “died” what, spitting distance from a ‘resurrection machine”? ARGH!
I’m one of the people you guys can blame for low viewership of Chuck. When it started, it looked interesting, but it was on opposite two shows we were already DVR’ing, and two is the mad our DVR can handle. Based on feedback from friends and others whose tastes and opinions seem to run fairly parallel with mine and clips that I saw, it appeared I’d enjoy it. So, it became one of those, “Well, I’ll catch up with it on DVD.” shows. And, I never did. I still want to, but I’m sorry to say that I may have helped sign the death warrant of what sounds like a great show with my actions (or lack thereof).
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Sorry, everyone.
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–Daryl
Only if your viewing habits are monitored by TV networks.
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PAD
I realize the Neilsen and ratings folks in general are painful archaic in how they gather (and interpret) data. But with the proliferation of DVRs et al I’m surprised there isn’t pretty good data available as to what programs folks record and even which do they then delete unseen.
Apparently, there is. When Janet Jackson had her infamous wardrobe malfunction, Tivo announced the next day that it was the most replayed 10 seconds in history and had numbers for how many people had seen it. So they’ve got *very* detailed information.
NBC didn’t help this season by not having episodes on its Website or Hulu.
Agreed. This season is the first season where I missed an episode. (Luckily, it was the episode right before Brandon Routh fully came back, and the “previously on Chuck” filled me in just enough to enjoy the rest of my beloved series.) Not having shows via NBC or HULU already caused the demise for season 2 of Harry’s Law.
My one disappointment with the finale was that they didn’t bring back Anna Wu – although I’m sure they didn’t want to mess up the Morgan/Alex/Casey dynamic.
It was nice, too, that they gave a couple of lines to the Buy More background actors.
I thought it something of a discrepency that Grimes lost older memories (movies and tv shows from youth) but Sarah lost only recent memories. Convenient for the plot, though.
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I wonder how ticked people would have been if they had ended the show ala St Elsewhere — with *Chuck* suddenly getting up off the floor of his bedroom, (in 2006) rubbing his temples and mumbling to himself, “Bryce, what the heck was in that email you just sent me?”