Chuck thoughts (for real this time)
Jan. 29th, 2012 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalBefore I get into my own reactions, I shall direct you to HitFix's Chuck vs. the Retrospective Interview (and yes, that is five separate links) with series creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. After seeing the finale, I was actually really glad I'd read all of it (as well as watched clips of the show's best moments) because SO MUCH of the finale was callbacks to the pilot episode and season 1 (which I haven't seen in quite a while) that I appreciated the refresher course.
Overall, I've felt like season 5 was pretty strong. I'm really glad we got a chance to see an extended run with an Intersect-free Chuck. It shows not only how much he's learned and grown as a spy, but also gives him a chance to show off the computer skills he's had all along, but which frequently took a backseat to the kung-fu and other fancy Intersect stuff. I admit, I lost track of the sequence of Nefarious Criminal Organizations after Chuck and/or the Intersect after the Volkoff arc, but as long as Team Bartowski keeps fighting the bad guys in entertaining fashion, who cares?
LOVED the Casey/Verbanski arc - those two are smokin' hot and a perfect match. I've also really enjoyed how EVERYONE finally has been pulled into the spy world. Morgan is a full-fledged member of the team (and takes a turn with the Intersect), Ellie actively takes up the Bartowski legacy in helping Chuck out, and of course Awesome moonlights as a fake superspy. Even Jeff and Lester are in on the action - and can I just say, Smart!Jeff is about the most hilarious turn their arc could've taken, and it's so fabulous that they got to save the day more than once (and actually realized they were doing it). We got one last Jeffster! performance, with the highest stakes ever, and OF COURSE they would be a hit in Germany, lol.
(Also, I totally laughed out loud when Jeff and Lester tried to convince Big Mike of all the spy stuff happening in and around the Buy More and he completely didn't believe it. As the last remaining character who hadn't been sucked in somehow, I was wondering if he'd find out at the end. The fact that he did - and dismissed the idea as utterly absurd - was perfect.)
One thing I also appreciated about much of season 5 is that we were FINALLY over the Chuck/Sarah relationship drama. They were happily married, and although there were some milestones (the baby discussion, the dream home), mostly the season allowed them to just be an awesome crime-fighting couple without making the relationship central to the plot all the time.
Which is why I was a bit disappointed that the last few episodes pivoted back to the whole "Chuck and Sarah's relationship is the most important part of the entire series" perspective. I mean, it doesn't surprise me, because the show has always considered Chuck/Sarah the "heart" of the show, so I'm not surprised that the finale and Sarah's memory loss was all about their relationship. But for me, what Chuck was always about wasn't romance - it was family. The Bartowskis, of course, and Alex and Sarah's parents, but also the found-family dynamic of the Chuck/Sarah/Casey(/Morgan) team, and the ways that each of them has been changed by their time together.
One of the saddest moments of the finale, for me, was when Casey was saying goodbye, and he and Chuck have a heartfelt moment and then he turns to Sarah... and she goes to shake his hand like they're mere acquaintances. Which, of course, to her they are, but it's just heartbreaking to watch. Look how far we've come that Casey - who unequivocally DOES NOT HUG, lol - is actually hurt that Sarah is so impersonal in her goodbye, after five years of working together. That moment said SO MUCH about the characters and how they've ALL changed each other by working as a team, not just Chuck and Sarah's romance.
Mostly, though, I thought it was a great and appropriate conclusion to the series. Thematically, with all the echoes of previous missions, and in the way that it tied in several former big bads with the Key. Mama B is back one last time - and gave me another LOL moment when Awesome covers Clara's eyes: "Grandma, what did we say about firearms in front of the baby?" Hee!
Even Chuck and Sarah coming back full circle to the beach would have been perfect, except that I can't get over the thing with Sarah's memory. That's really the one thing I actively don't like about the way the show ended. I might be less bothered if we saw her get all her memories back, but it's already pretty heavily implied that it'll happen, if not with the Disney Princess kiss, then gradually over time. I don't doubt that Sarah will fall in love with Chuck all over again. That's not really what bothered me.
It's the fact that it was done to her at all. Maybe I've watched too many Joss Whedon shows where memory is a huge theme, but the erasing of someone's memory is just a HORRIBLE violation to me, stripping them of their very identity. And to do that to the show's main female character as the climax of the entire series? Especially when the show has had issues with Sarah's agency in the past (particularly season 3 and the Shaw mess). For a character that has spent so much time being kickass and awesome (and can we just take a moment to flail over just how kickass Sarah was in these last few eps, both with the Intersect and without it?) and the big final mission is that Sarah is violated mentally, stripped of her agency - not to mention five years of character development - and Chuck needs to save her with ~~love? It's just... gross.
I mean, I get that it set up the structure of the finale, that a lot of things end up coming full circle that way. And I loved all the callbacks to previous episodes, as Chuck and Sarah relived the early missions and jogged her memory a bit. I just wish we could've had the trip down memory lane WITHOUT the gross violation, you know?
That said, though, Chuck is still one of my favorite shows - it's not the most well-written (GOD, the Plot Hole of the Week, lol) nor the best produced (though they did incredible things with zero budget), but it was always such a JOY to watch. It never failed to bring a smile to my face, and frequently had me literally laughing out loud. And it introduced me to Zachary Levi, my TV boyfriend, and Yvonne Strahovski, both of whom are incredible actors and deserve to be ridiculously famous.
Chuck was the Little Show That Could - God knows how many times it's almost been canceled, only to be resurrected by crazy random happenstance (the writers' strike; NBC's total implosion) or fan devotion (the Subway campaign). When I'm tempted to think about the flaws of the finale, I have to remember that this is approximately the eleventh series finale episode the show has done, lol. I figured they'd be clean out of ideas by now. And even though it was wrapped up pretty tidily and I don't feel a sense of unfinished business, I still am sad that it's over. I'll miss you, Chuck.
And if you read all the above links and STILL WANT MORE, here are a couple post-mortems with Schwartz and Fedak.
Overall, I've felt like season 5 was pretty strong. I'm really glad we got a chance to see an extended run with an Intersect-free Chuck. It shows not only how much he's learned and grown as a spy, but also gives him a chance to show off the computer skills he's had all along, but which frequently took a backseat to the kung-fu and other fancy Intersect stuff. I admit, I lost track of the sequence of Nefarious Criminal Organizations after Chuck and/or the Intersect after the Volkoff arc, but as long as Team Bartowski keeps fighting the bad guys in entertaining fashion, who cares?
LOVED the Casey/Verbanski arc - those two are smokin' hot and a perfect match. I've also really enjoyed how EVERYONE finally has been pulled into the spy world. Morgan is a full-fledged member of the team (and takes a turn with the Intersect), Ellie actively takes up the Bartowski legacy in helping Chuck out, and of course Awesome moonlights as a fake superspy. Even Jeff and Lester are in on the action - and can I just say, Smart!Jeff is about the most hilarious turn their arc could've taken, and it's so fabulous that they got to save the day more than once (and actually realized they were doing it). We got one last Jeffster! performance, with the highest stakes ever, and OF COURSE they would be a hit in Germany, lol.
(Also, I totally laughed out loud when Jeff and Lester tried to convince Big Mike of all the spy stuff happening in and around the Buy More and he completely didn't believe it. As the last remaining character who hadn't been sucked in somehow, I was wondering if he'd find out at the end. The fact that he did - and dismissed the idea as utterly absurd - was perfect.)
One thing I also appreciated about much of season 5 is that we were FINALLY over the Chuck/Sarah relationship drama. They were happily married, and although there were some milestones (the baby discussion, the dream home), mostly the season allowed them to just be an awesome crime-fighting couple without making the relationship central to the plot all the time.
Which is why I was a bit disappointed that the last few episodes pivoted back to the whole "Chuck and Sarah's relationship is the most important part of the entire series" perspective. I mean, it doesn't surprise me, because the show has always considered Chuck/Sarah the "heart" of the show, so I'm not surprised that the finale and Sarah's memory loss was all about their relationship. But for me, what Chuck was always about wasn't romance - it was family. The Bartowskis, of course, and Alex and Sarah's parents, but also the found-family dynamic of the Chuck/Sarah/Casey(/Morgan) team, and the ways that each of them has been changed by their time together.
One of the saddest moments of the finale, for me, was when Casey was saying goodbye, and he and Chuck have a heartfelt moment and then he turns to Sarah... and she goes to shake his hand like they're mere acquaintances. Which, of course, to her they are, but it's just heartbreaking to watch. Look how far we've come that Casey - who unequivocally DOES NOT HUG, lol - is actually hurt that Sarah is so impersonal in her goodbye, after five years of working together. That moment said SO MUCH about the characters and how they've ALL changed each other by working as a team, not just Chuck and Sarah's romance.
Mostly, though, I thought it was a great and appropriate conclusion to the series. Thematically, with all the echoes of previous missions, and in the way that it tied in several former big bads with the Key. Mama B is back one last time - and gave me another LOL moment when Awesome covers Clara's eyes: "Grandma, what did we say about firearms in front of the baby?" Hee!
Even Chuck and Sarah coming back full circle to the beach would have been perfect, except that I can't get over the thing with Sarah's memory. That's really the one thing I actively don't like about the way the show ended. I might be less bothered if we saw her get all her memories back, but it's already pretty heavily implied that it'll happen, if not with the Disney Princess kiss, then gradually over time. I don't doubt that Sarah will fall in love with Chuck all over again. That's not really what bothered me.
It's the fact that it was done to her at all. Maybe I've watched too many Joss Whedon shows where memory is a huge theme, but the erasing of someone's memory is just a HORRIBLE violation to me, stripping them of their very identity. And to do that to the show's main female character as the climax of the entire series? Especially when the show has had issues with Sarah's agency in the past (particularly season 3 and the Shaw mess). For a character that has spent so much time being kickass and awesome (and can we just take a moment to flail over just how kickass Sarah was in these last few eps, both with the Intersect and without it?) and the big final mission is that Sarah is violated mentally, stripped of her agency - not to mention five years of character development - and Chuck needs to save her with ~~love? It's just... gross.
I mean, I get that it set up the structure of the finale, that a lot of things end up coming full circle that way. And I loved all the callbacks to previous episodes, as Chuck and Sarah relived the early missions and jogged her memory a bit. I just wish we could've had the trip down memory lane WITHOUT the gross violation, you know?
That said, though, Chuck is still one of my favorite shows - it's not the most well-written (GOD, the Plot Hole of the Week, lol) nor the best produced (though they did incredible things with zero budget), but it was always such a JOY to watch. It never failed to bring a smile to my face, and frequently had me literally laughing out loud. And it introduced me to Zachary Levi, my TV boyfriend, and Yvonne Strahovski, both of whom are incredible actors and deserve to be ridiculously famous.
Chuck was the Little Show That Could - God knows how many times it's almost been canceled, only to be resurrected by crazy random happenstance (the writers' strike; NBC's total implosion) or fan devotion (the Subway campaign). When I'm tempted to think about the flaws of the finale, I have to remember that this is approximately the eleventh series finale episode the show has done, lol. I figured they'd be clean out of ideas by now. And even though it was wrapped up pretty tidily and I don't feel a sense of unfinished business, I still am sad that it's over. I'll miss you, Chuck.
And if you read all the above links and STILL WANT MORE, here are a couple post-mortems with Schwartz and Fedak.
