NBC Monday Night Lineup At a Glance– Chuck, Heroes, Journeyman 11-25
Beware the Spoilers
CHUCK: Episode 1.10– Chuck Vs. the Nemesis
Okay, I’ll admit it. Despite my hatred for love triangles, this was handled so much better than I thought it would be. The episode I assumed would be the most dramatic and least funny was surprisingly one of the funniest so far. It also had just the right mix of everything this show has become known for– humor, romance, action, government spy stuff, and just a little more humor to top it off. The episode retains the show’s absurdity while telling a good story with some heart.
I’m not sure why the Thanksgiving episode came after Thanksgiving, but it was the perfect offset for the return of Bryce Larkin from the dead. I was little annoyed to see a second triangle between Anna, Morgan and Ellie at the dinner, but it wasn’t overdone and helped to further Morgan’s character development– he’s still ever slowly learning how to be responsible and how to treat women. After how he treated Anna at the end of last episode, I thought it was weird that she took him back, but it’s good for the character.
Matthew Borner turns in an excellent performance as Bryce Larkin. It was a relief to find that he really is a good guy and strange but understandable circumstances forced him to turn Chuck into the intersect and made him look like a rogue agent. He and Sarah have a lot of chemistry, and the performance makes us believe these people really were in love for a long time. I rolled my eyes when I first realized Bryce would be in the show, but now that we’ve seen him, I’m looking forward to seeing him again. He seems to me the epitome of who Chuck wishes he could be.
Now for the funny, because there was plenty of it. The Klingon language was used as a major plot point!!! When Bryce makes Chuck speak Klingon in the teaser to prove who he is, that was brilliant, but to use it to ask Chuck if he is wearing a bullet-proof vest? Genius. That’s the level of humor I’ve come to expect from Chuck, and this one delivered in spades. Making black Friday at the Buy More like a war zone was shot brilliantly and the slow motion action made me laugh. Morgan has more funny moments than anyone this time around, and I usually don’t find him that amusing, but the line, “Jeff, you’re the only guy old enough to know how the registers work” really got me. Funnier than that, though, is Morgan dropping a box on Jeff’s head when he says “pineapple” to denote that the store needs to be evacuated, only to later accidentally throw the megaphone at his head.
I might be a sap here, but I really was sad at the end when Sarah can’t decide which phone to answer. The writing and acting made me like Bryce, so I finally did care about both relationships. And Chuck has a great character moment earlier when he sees Bryce and Sarah fighting together and says they really are great.
4 out of 4 points
HEROES: Episode 1.10– Truth & Consequences
This week most of the subplots we’ve been following were addressed, which was nice. It’s hard to keep up with all the various stories when each episode picks and chooses which of them will appear. This is also one of the best cliffhanger endings for the series, with Hiro and Peter about to fight at the end. That’s going to be a great, epic, comic-book-esque fight and a great way to pull in the audience for next week. Earlier this season, as I’ve said before, the show wasn’t doing a good job of hooking me into the next episode, but it’s gotten much better.
Last week it looked like Suresh had joined the dark side, and he kind of has, but now he’s trying to fix the Company by destroying all the virus strains. That’s an interesting twist I hadn’t considered and now I’m a little happier with the way he’s been pulled into the Company’s fold. He won’t just do everything their way. He thinks they can help, but he wants to make sure that’s really what they’re doing. I don’t think he’ll succeed at changing the Company, but the idea is cool.
I also like Claire deciding to make her powers public. It seemed like a leap from the earlier scene where she wanted to find the Hatian and make him erase her memories, but I take that to more of a moment of panic. I wonder if she’ll actually get the word out about her abilities or if she’ll find out her dad’s still alive and abort that mission entirely.
I hope Silar gets his powers back so he can go back to being scary, interesting, and in all our characters ways. He’s still been creepy in seducing Maya and I thought that was played out very well, but I haven’t liked the isolation of so many of the characters this season. Next year, I hope the main thread forces more of the characters to team up at once.
Next week is the season finale since the writer’s strike isn’t over yet, which is a shame. At the same time, I wonder where the next 11 or 12 episodes were supposed to go, because this sure feels like the end of a season. When the show starts up again after the strike, will the next season finish off whatever this one was supposed to be, or will those episodes be scrapped for a third part? My assumption is that Tim Kring knows exactly where it’s supposed to go and he won’t be able to drop those episodes from production without losing major plot points or reworking where they happen, so I hope this short season doesn’t create a weird, lopsided season 3. I suppose we’ll find out eventually.
3.5 out of 4 points
JOURNEYMAN: Episode 1.10– Blowback
This is easily the best episode so far of the season. I actually have nothing negative to say about it whatsoever. The story is solid and does everything it needs to. It pushes the overall series arc forward, quite a bit further than any other episode has, both by having Livia run into another main character and finally bringing Jack into the fold of people who realize what’s happening to Dan. Not to mention the rather interesting notion that Livia’s purpose for meeting Dan originally was to bring him to Katie who was meant to be with him.
An antagonist needs to have some redeeming quality, something that makes him sympathetic to a viewer. Otherwise, he’s just evil for the sake of it and that isn’t realistic. Most villains don’t see themselves that way. This episode managed it beautifully by having Dan go back in time to meet the 10-year old version of Bennett, who is locked in his room by his father for saying that he hates his mother, who left them both. We come to find that he grows up kidnapping children because he thinks he’s helping them, that he really has become psychotic and doesn’t realize it. He isn’t simply insane; now we have a very believable back story to back it up. I especially like that this isn’t the typical father beating his son story. Bennett doesn’t hate his father for hurting him– he hates his mother for leaving him.
The kid who played the younger Bennett had one of the best child performances I’ve seen in a long time, and combining that with the older Bennett at the end and how he reacts to Dan knowing about his childhood makes me really believe that kid was really him. The way Dan’s gunshot wound was handled after he’s shot in the teaser was very smart, like this show usually is with those things. His wound gets infected because he’s given an outdated antibiotic in the ’80s and he has to get back to the present before he can really function again. I also appreciate some humor in a serious episode like this; the line where Dan slips and mentions Starbucks in an ’80s hospital is priceless.
No Journeyman next week, but it will be back in two. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the execs at NBC don’t axe this show prematurely, but it is on their hit list if Nielson ratings don’t improve. I wish they would pay attention to Internet viewers– there’s a lot of people watching this show that they don’t even know about, and I’m afraid that despite all of fans’ hopes and letter writing campaigns, we’re going to loose it before we’re ever entirely sure of what’s happening with the time travel.
4.0 out of 4 points
LLAP
-Cap’n Logan
Tags: Chuck, comedy, drama, Heroes, Journeyman, Matthew Borner, NBC, primetime, superhero, timetravel, TV