This week's Chuck...

I have to admit, I had high hopes for this episode of Chuck. Really high hopes. It looked like a promising storyline, with Sarah's old friends and Morgan/Alex relationship problems, I thought it might have something to offer.

It was awful.

I'm serious, I could barely stand to finish watching it. The whole thing was based around the premise of Sarah's old team called "C.A.T.S." (can't you just see all the possible AWFUL jokes, euphemisms, etc that can come out of that?). One of the worst parts was when they were introduced (the team), and they all said, you guessed it, "Meeeyow!" in the a-typical "sexy tigress" sort of way. It escalated with the dozens upon dozens of "Kitty kitty" jokes, as well as plenty of lame lines like "the CATS are back". There was absolutely nothing redeeming about this script in the least bit. The traitor was predictable (there's no way the one who's originally blamed could be it, the returning cast member has to be innocent, that leaves one obvious person), the traps were unsurprising, the always-awful lines delivered by General Beckman, etc. I threaten again: I may seriously consider not watching this show again. I'm hoping something very very good will come out of the season finale, but I'm not crossing my fingers anymore.

As a side note, I was pleased with the backstory of Morgan finally saying "I Love You" to Alex in order to save their relationship. Everything about that was nice, and it was also different. Sure it was predictable, but you can get away with that in romance.

My final verdict is this: Chuck's first two seasons were the bomb. Serious awesomeness. Season three was very good in my opinion, but slightly more scattered than the first two. This new season is no longer about the intersect, and barely about the CIA. It is now a comedy/drama about Chuck and Sarah's relationship and relationships with others that happens to involve CIA missions and the occasional flash from Chuck when necessary. Downhill faster than Calvin and Hobbes talking Philosopy.

-Cody

I just

heard a song by a band called Switchfoot. After a show in Florida (i think?), Jon Foreman (the lead singer) went out to the parking lot and sang a few songs to a whoever wanted to listen. One of the songs he sang was called Against the Voices.

This song, when I heard it, was very touching to me. It talks all about how there are voices in your head, voices all around, that are trying to convince us to be someone else. They constantly beat at us, from when we wake up, to when we hit the road, everywhere.

He goes on to say that they're not singing, they're just talking, so let them keep talking to themselves.

The chorus is the most poignant part to me, though. He says "Everybody knows the hardest war to fight is the fight to be yourself when the world tries to turn you into someone else."

I would definitely recommend anyone who reads this goes and listens to the song. I'll even give you a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQvbJN1jIs

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it touches you the same way it touched me.

-Cody

"Guys..."

"Guys, we need a mission."

This was the line uttered by Sarah Walker in the latest episode of Chuck just before the opening credits began. It was at this point I became afraid that this episode could be one big filler-filled bag of cliches.

I am, however, glad to report that I was wrong. While the episode had its fair share of bad cliche moments and obnoxious predictability, it was quite pleasant and enjoyable to watch. There was an interesting back story about General Beckman, whom we haven't heard much about history-wise until now. There was the return of a previous character, whom had a large and quite interesting role in this episode.

I have to say, however, that there was one line that is absolutely inexcusable. While facing the possibility of a certain-death mission for Roan (which would involve seducing a female and double crossing her a second time in so many days), Chuck and Sarah protest. They say that it is impossible, and Chuck utters the horrid line, "seduction impossible". This cannot be excused. It is atrocious.

Aside from that (and the always obnoxious "it's a suicide mission" that turns out to be a piece of cake), this episode wasn't bad. There were a few touching moments between Ellie and her mom, Casey tried his hand at seducing a woman (and failed humorously, I might add), Chuck and Sarah talk over some serious relationship issues instead of some petty fight, and they set us up for some very interesting (potentially) plot developments with Sarah's family. I'm hoping now that the writers killed the Volkoff story quickly because it was dragging, and are now moving past that with some better plots and story arcs. Here's hopin'

-Cody

Christina Aguilera

I know everyone else is in a big uproar about this whole thing, so I decided to add my voice to the fray.

First off, she sang the song well, and accurately. She forgot a single line, but sang through it anyway DESPITE obviously knowing she messed up. So what's everyone making such a big deal out of? Like you haven't forgotten something before? There are actually people with the audacity to call her unpatriotic and disrespectful for "forgetting a song that I've known the words to since I was 5". and "She's so unpatriotic, she couldn't take the time to learn the words to a song".

WHAT?

What's wrong with forgetting? She sang in front of millions upon millions of people. The single biggest televised event like, EVER. She has every right in the world to be nervous and forget things. It's completely unfair of people to accuse her so viciously and hatefully because of a simple mistake.
I went on stage one time to sing the song Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. EVERYONE has heard that song and knows that song. EVERYONE knows the first verse to it. including me. and I forgot it. I went up to the mike and forgot what I was supposed to sing.

my point is, it's very very easy to forget a song you take for granted you know. It's also easy to just plain forget stuff. It frickin happens.


For fear of becoming another Chris Crocker, I won't plead for anyone to "Leave Christina Alone", but seriously? Just think about it slowly and rationally before you open your mouth and let something stupid spill out of it. The world will be a better place if you do.

Thank you

-Cody

Wikinut

A friend of mine recently referred me to a website called Wikinut. It is basically a website where they publish your writing online, and you get money based on advertisement, page views, etc. If you enjoy writing, it is definitely a place to go and share your writing. Also, if anyone happens to go to the site and join based on my recommendation here, I would appreciate it if you would follow me, or at least give my writings a read-through. Here's a link to my page:

http://www.wikinut.com/author~xhdli/Cody-M./

Thanks, and enjoy!

-Cody

So i just read back

and noticed that I was previously complaining about the frustration of Chuck always stuck unhappy, and then I blogged about my annoyance at the easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy happy solution to all of Chuck's problems.

Understand that I loved the heart wrenching episodes, I just wanted to muse about the constant repetition of unhappiness over and over and freaking over again in every movie, television show, etc you ever see. Everyone's unhappy for most of the time with only half of the people getting their happy endings (this doesn't count comedies or romance).

and my most recent blog was complaining about the show's lack of convincing and effective storyline.

Just wanted to make that distinction to everyone who reads this (which is a lot, I know.)

-Cody

Told You So

So guess what happened this week on Chuck?

-the tension built up in the past two episodes continued and will do so for the rest of the season until the pulsing season finale?

-a main character died?

-a cliffhanger of an ending leaving you anticipating the next week?

NO!

instead, the whole idea of the separation between Chuck and Sarah lasting for a very long time came to a very quick and happy ending, and any hope of a tense fingernail-biting finale leading to a climactic decision between right and wrong for Chuck/Chuck's mom/Sarah and the possibility of eliminating Volkoff came crashing down.

To summarize, Chuck and Morgan managed to sneak onto Volkoff's "floating fortress" of a boat (after luring him there in the first place by scaring him onto it) undetected, met up with Sarah and Chuck's mom (who were sneaking around the deck without Volkoff being suspicious at all), and decided to go hang out together and find Volkoff's secret computer network. Once they get past all the obstacles and into the computer room (there was a Deus ex machina in the form of Morgan developing talent as a yoga master out of nowhere to sneak past some lasers and comically and predictably having all his clothing cut off by them except for his underwear), Chuck sneakily plugs a flash drive into the main computer without his mom noticing and then takes it out without a further mention of it. They get almost all the way into the computer system, but don't have Volkoff's voice password. Can you guess what happens next?

Shocker! they're caught by Volkoff. Then a truly unexpected and yet predictable plot development in the form of Orion (Chuck's dead dad) being alive after all! He messages Frost (Chuck's Mom's nickname) and tells her to meet him at his old cabin.

Frost manages to grab a gun and allows Chuck, Sarah, and Morgan to escape. There is no further mention of these people. (But don't worry, they're not pulling off some predictable rescue that will leave you absolutely unsatisfied. I promise.)

So Volkoff goes off to kill Orion (because he's super jealous and digs Frost) and when he gets to the cabin, guess who's there?

did you guess it? IT'S CHUCK!!!! cause Orion is totally dead still. sorry.

and he ties up Volkoff and puts a gun to his face. "but wait, Chuck doesn't kill people!" Exactly.

So Volkoff gets loose and is about to shoot Chuck in the face. and he has one of his dudes smother John Casey with a pillow (he's in the hospital). And Chuck's mom is about to be shot. AND SUDDENLY CHUCK AND MORGAN ENACT THEIR TOTALLY UNEXPECTED BACKUP PLAN WHERE THEY RECORDED VOLKOFF'S VOICE AND USE IT TO UNLOCK THE NETWORK AND DOWNLOAD IT TO THE COMPUTER RIGHT BEHIND HIM IN ORION'S CABIN!!!!

Didn't see that one coming.

and instead of turning around and destroying the computer behind him (you know, kick it? throw a chair at it? you're in a cabin for heaven's sake!), Volkoff stands there and is all like "wut?"

and John Casey was only pretending to be dead! woah!

and then Sarah somehow opens the blast door and rescues Frost spectacularly and easily. SHOCKER!!

But Volkoff recovers and is all "well i've got my men outside waiting! you'd need an army to get out alive!!!" and then Chuck is all "*opens the door and the CIA is standing outside* will this suffice?". Didn't see that coming, and ESPECIALLY didn't anticipate the "will this do?".

and then, at the end, Chuck finally gets to propose to Sarah and she accepts. (after she died her hair from black to blonde in the time it took to take a helicopter from the cabin to the hospital.)

and the preview for next week is basically "here's another lame filler episode before we do something exciting again. AND...it'll feature a prior character we want to bring back just for the heck of it".

Let me tell you folks, the writers pulled out all the stops and wrote a truly unique and non-repetitive-cliche episode this time. AND IT HAD A LAME HAPPY ENDING TO IT TOO.

I mean, wait until the season finale for the happy ending. that's how it should usually go. Not in the middle of a season like this. There is no thread of consistency over this season. It's all just a bunch of episodes with a few of them being tied together recently. The first few weren't like that at all. So what's next? Who knows. All I know is this: Chuck is not as good as it used to be, and I'm seriously considering not watching it anymore. It used to be way, WAY better than it was. Now they're just telling a story based on the characters and NOT relevant to the original storyline at all. Chuck's intersect is a useful asset now and again, but usually not major. There are just things about this season that just don't work. The writing is not as good as it used to be, the story isn't as exciting, the story doesn't always flow, and there are way too many cliches to tolerate at times.

My diagnosis is this: The writers need to come up with some new big development that will last at least two seasons (and be interesting), and make it somewhat unique too. Otherwise, this show will fizzle out soon. Soon.

My fingers are crossed, because I truly enjoyed all previous seasons of this show, and would like to see it continue. Here's hoping.

-Cody