Monsters of Television

“I didn’t fly halfway across the world to be debriefed. That’s your job, John.”

Watching this show is to continuously realize that the series made a decision in the third season of who it wanted to be: Chuck is always going to sacrifice any real intrigue for everything saccharine and foolish. Since then the show has had its moments (Orion’s exit, for example) but, overall, I find that I spend each episode reminding myself that I have to come to terms with their decision. It favors slapstick jokes and nerd references over deep storytelling.

And I’m not saying the show is wrong in making that decision. Season 2 made promises the show could never keep (especially when short-sighted fans made themselves heard on what they think of storylines) and a series that’s more episodic with shorter arcs makes sense for syndication (although I’m not sure who’d want to pick up this series with those ratings). Just as I’ve said this to myself through every episode, I’ve mentioned it a couple of times in reviews. Sometimes you have to just let the hilarity ensue.

With the final season of Chuck about to be written in the books, taking a little air out of the Casey’s cold demeanor is the dark corner of fun the show hasn’t explored nearly as much as it could/should have. Keeping in mind what this show is trying to be, this was a pretty solid episode. Especially if this show wants to make the viewing public want to beat Chuck senseless.

Chuck’s idea to make his company the touchy-feely security agency in a field of professionals not only annoyingly makes sense for Chuck to ideate, but it’s frustratingly in line with everything the government has been trying to beat out of him since Day 1. Almost every problem in Seasons 1 and 2 are direct results of Chuck acting emotionally. Season 3 suggested that his emotions might be killing him and that only after he deadened himself could he be a real spy. Season 4 continued that thread. The problem is that everyone also wants him to maintain an inner-Chuckness, a child-like state that is anatopistic in his profession and his chronology.

Chuck as a character is complicated but only by a thread of inconsistent writing. For instance, he rides the line between immature and idealist in “vs The Baby” and shows growth in his conversation with Sarah after rescuing her (“I think you were wrong.”) But, in this episode, between CARE and the cocky misunderstanding of his wife, Chuck leaves behind the character growing from the anxiety-riddled mess in the early seasons and falls into JD-of-Scrubs territory. He’s slapstick, a buffoon, a conflation of his cheap comedy bits contributing to the confabulation of his character for people that don’t remember what this character is supposed to be.

I think that sentence might make the situation sound more dire than I think it is, particularly since we’re looking at four remaining episodes to examine Chuck. Something can be said of how Chuck is perceived during an episode that focuses on Casey, who’s always thought Chuck as a joke. We’ve had more Casey episodes lately, something I particularly enjoy, as we explore one of the two final frontiers of this show. Humanizing Casey has been a mission for the latter half of last season and almost all of this one. His attachement to Gertrude is just another step in his development and it’s so much fun to watch him squirm with his humanity. Interestingly, in order for him to be human, he apparently needs to be broken down before being built back up, like a boot camp would to build a soldier. He’s embarrassed (swim briefs), demeaned (Gertrude’s sexual dominance), and stung with condescension (emotion education by Chuck) before he can finally relate feelings to anyone (come to terms with Gertrude being his girlfriend and admitting that to his daughter). It’s a true testament to his character and its portrayal that all of these things can happen and we see his defenses erode rather than see sharp changes occur.

Besides that, the pregnancy storyline is a no-brainer not-going-to-happen-yet. One, that means they might have to put Yvonne Strahovski in a fat suit at some point, negating all the ideas they have for putting Sarah in skimpy outfits, the one true thing Chuck writers have been good at throughout the series (though nice call on the Sarah addressing that in this episode). Two, knowledge that a baby Chuck or Sarah is on the way is too tempting to not fold it into the series ending. Like, I said: this show sacrifices intrigue in favor of the saccharine and foolish. That’s the kind of ending we’ll get.

Some other quick notes:

• Is is de rigeur for any kind of respectable clandestine outfit bent on world domination/destruction/anarchy to develop a makeshift torture room and employing a talky proctor who demands answers?
• So, if Sarah isn’t pregnant, why did she have morning sickness? Was it psychosomatic? Did she have the flu? On one hand, I want to commend the writers for scripting a baby scare without going through a whole ordeal of Sarah being scared about missing a period, talking to Ellie about it, etc, etc. On the other, I sometimes don’t trust the writers and am curious why we were supposed to believe she thought she was pregnant.
• Jeff finally putting the pieces together about Team Chuck is the longest game this series has ever pulled, I think. This entire season has been set up for Jeff to incrementally prove that he has the smarts to put it together, even going so far as to show his thought processes line up the same way Chuck’s did when he was searching for Orion (his board of index cards looks suspiciously familiar to Chuck’s map on the back of the Tron poster). In a show that can’t seem to keep the lid on a story for more than three episodes, it’s nice to see them slowly massage this one out. This is, afterall, the final frontier for this series. Chuck will have finally implicated everyone he’s ever known into his “clandestine” organization.
• CARE really is the worst idea ever.
• Downton Abbey reference! “What about the bombs they drop of Edwardian convention?” “Oh, no. The house maid is laying out coffee spoons with the dinner service. There’s going to be hell to pay at Downton Abbey tonight.”
• “Stop spiraling.” Chuck’s been spiraling since — always. He’s always spiraling, right?
• Why do all of Sarah’s baby names start with “L” — and all for boys? Is this a connection to her middle name being Lisa? A way for someone to put Zach Levi’s name into the show? Am I missing some letter voo-doo? Help me out if you know.
• Sometimes I forget how good Vik Sahay is. Then I see him dress in drag and run in heels and I realize that’s the Work It I want to see.
• The best thing that Chuck has done so far as a series: the sound effects for Casey and Gertrude’s foreplay (complete with grunt), Sarah seeing the display, and her response to Chuck asking her what’s wrong. “Everything. It’s all wrong.”
• There need to be more Casey and Sarah scenes. It’s easy to forget that these two liked the idea of being partners (eventually) and the show glosses over the opportunities for buddy cop humor. Like Sarah barging into Casey’s dressing room.