SPOILER WARNING

Chuck: Episode 1.11– Chuck Vs. The Crown Vic

I’ve already expressed my frustration that the last three episodes have focused too much on Chuck and Sarah’s lack of a relationship, and after last week’s very strong episode with the return of Bryce Larkin, I was really expecting it to finally pay off. But it didn’t. I sat through love triangle after love triangle, hoping this would be the episode where a decision would be made: either she’d move on, go with Bryce (which would mean she’d have to leave the show and I was sure the writers wouldn’t do anything that surprising) or she would choose Chuck. A decision was made, it just wasn’t that one. Sarah stays because it’s her job, but she suddenly starts acting very irritated toward Chuck when he even hints that they may have had any feelings for each other. She isn’t out of character– after all, she’s probably afraid that if she did choose one over the other, he would get killed and she’d find herself where she was when Bryce “died” the first time. Or since she’s in the same line of work Bryce is, she might be afraid she could die and leave Bryce or Chuck in that position. So it’s somewhat interesting for the character, but I still wanted her to make a choice between them. Instead, at the end, she does lighten up a little but the writers pull the “just friends” card. Please. Like that’s going to last. They both have feelings for each other and the writers won’t forget that. Which means sometime later this season (once it starts up again) we’re going to be taken on this roller coaster ride once again.

The comedy, again, is somewhat lost in the middle of Chuck’s jealousy at the “crown vic” who Sarah pretends to hit on in order to discover his sinister plot. Chuck going undercover and accidentally losing $100,000 at a roulette table is pretty hilarious, though, and programming the missile’s GPS coordinates for Casey’s car so it won’t kill them all was the funniest part of the episode. The strongest part of the episode are the small revelations we were given about a couple of characters. We find out that Morgan’s girlfriend Anna has another side to her, the submissive Chinese girl, who she shamefully pretends to be around her parents. And we discover that Casey has a love for cars, when we previously didn’t think he loved anything but maybe guns.

The ending scene is a great hook to bring us back after the holidays– the government is about to have a new intersect so they don’t need Chuck anymore. This is going to bring a whole new element to the show which I think will up the stakes a little. Will the humor suffer too much and where is Casey’s character going to go are the two questions foremost on my mind.

2.5 out of 4 points

Heroes: Episode 2.11– Powerless

This was quite a finale, and now that it’s over, I can say that even with only 11 episodes, it feels like a full season. This “volume’s” conclusion, as opposed to last season’s, felt much less contrived. We get to see almost every character with powers use them in an interesting and exciting way, yet the resolution doesn’t rely too much on powers, as I felt last year’s did. We see a lot of characters making real decisions– Peter deciding he can’t trust Adam, Niki deciding to go into a burning building to rescue Monica even though she knows it’ll probably get her killed (and does), Mohinder deciding to help Silar to save his friends though he knows he’ll regret it later, Bennett going back to the company to protect his family, etc. These hard choices are what make for good television drama, and sometimes the ones in this show don’t make a lot of sense, but I thought there was some real heart in this episode that Heroes sometimes lacks.

We knew going into it that two of the Heroes would die, and I must say, I didn’t call who it would be at all. When Silar shoots Maya, I really thought she was dead, so that was a good fake-out. I certainly hope no more of the characters who were killed are brought back to life, however. Niki and Nathan are both given very good death scenes. Niki’s is wonderfully ironic, since her husband died the same way, and this raises the question of whether these people should really try to be comic book-esque super heroes are not. I’m looking forward to seeing what this does to Micah– now he’s an orphan because both his parents tried to be exactly who he wanted them to, and who he wants to be. Nathan goes out in a blaze of glory, which is wonderful. His character came a very long way and if he had to die, it should have been exactly the way it was here; trying to save the world by telling the truth about his abilities. There’s also a nice bit of irony about his death. Claire is his biological daughter and he died trying to expose the Heroes, which is what she was just about to do before Bennett stopped her. Did Bennett kill Nathan? I’m thinking probably, but it could have been someone else from the Company.

Silar once again survives for next season, a volume called “Villains.” He’s got his powers back and I’m looking forward to seeing him do more than seduce confused super powered women. I also predict we’ll see a return of Adam, who was humorously buried alive by Hiro. Since the next volume is “Villains” I’d kind of like to see the two team up to create most of the conflict for season 3. More super powered bad guys, less Company!

That was the one thing I didn’t really like about this episode. I hoped the Company would be destroyed, but it’s still around. Crippled, without a killer virus, but still around and powerful enough to make Bennett join it again. Adam’s big plot to basically create a second Great Flood, only with a virus, is really compelling. He’s lived so long he thinks he’s God. I want to see more of those sorts of issues dealt with. It’s really time to move on from the tyranny of the Company.

3.5 out of 4 points

One more episode of Journeyman left to review next week, and then nothing for a while. Unfortunately, as I expected, Journeyman did get canceled. At least Chuck is safe. Keep your ears open for the eventual end of the strike and the beginning of new seasons in the new year!

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

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