GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Any "Chuck" fans here? (Potential Spoiler Alert)

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 6, 2012 18:02
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/M3IxQV
VIEWED: 2808
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Sunday, June 3, 2012 4:22 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Since I haven't had Cable TV in years, rarely watch commercials, and I don't hang out with anyone who regularly watches any network TV shows, I'm in the dark about a lot of that stuff. I actually have no idea what the general opinions of this show were.

My opinion.....

THIS SHOW WAS GREAT!!!!!!!!!

The only time I thought it lacked at all in any aspect was during the middle of the short 5th season.

The end though... the last three shows.... Well.... after all of the deep connections you've made with the characters up to this point..... they made the entire series worth watching.

Who would have thought that a sit-com, for SEVERE lack of a better word, would have left us with such a powerful conclusion?

The five year Conclusion was the love child of Forrest Gump and the actual book ending of Stephen King's short story "The Mist".


I think 30 Rock's Dennis Duffy couldn't have put it better....

"for the first time since the '86 World Series, I cried... I cried like a big, dumb homo"....

And I did....

I don't remember the last time my eyes gave alligator tears like that, allergies included.

It was rather cathartic....


After seeing the end I've seen a lot of internet feedback and a lot of people hated the ending. As much as I would have liked to see it turn out another way, this was a Perfect Ending to the series, just like Dustin Hoffman's character told Emma Thompson's character in Stranger than Fiction that her book was just average after she gave it the "Hollywood" ending......

I only wish that we could have had half as meaningful an end to Firefly as they were able to give Chuck.



In the end, after the last few minutes of the series it wasn't really all that downtrodden, and I'm really thankful for that. Kudos to the writers and the network to put such a strong piece out there, unadulterated and without a happy "Hollywood" ending.

If the ending were to be what I wanted it to be, I wouldn't remember it a year or two from now. I believe that if I went 20 years without ever re-watching Chuck, this ending will stick with me for life. That's a lot to say for a 30-something who finds any sort of stimulation to be a more valuable commodity year-to-year.

Who would have ever thought that a largely comedy series with Bond overtones would one day make me tear up in the first time in over 20 years?



Rent it, borrow it, download it....

Whatever you have to do to watch it.....

If you haven't seen it, Chuck will not disappoint!




Oh... did I forget to mention..... Adam Baldwin is in EVERY episode

There's more than one Firefly shout-out over the years too.

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Sunday, June 3, 2012 5:36 PM

CYBERSNARK


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Who would have thought that a sit-com, for SEVERE lack of a better word,

"Dramedy" is the generally-accepted term. They're becoming more of a thing (see Gilmore Girls, Eureka, Warehouse 13, et al).

And yes, Chuck is unbroken 16-bit nerdlove from beginning to end. Chuck and Morgan are my people.

What I really love about the ending is that it could go either way; maybe Sarah does get her memories back, maybe she doesn't. Very post-modernist; the audience is left to write their own ending.

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Monday, June 4, 2012 1:15 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.


There are just a handful of series since Firefly that I have enjoyed (almost) as much. I've got all five seasons of Chuck, and while I have sold quite a few DVDs over the past year or so, I'll be keeping them around to rewatch for many years to come.



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Monday, June 4, 2012 5:51 PM

OLDGUY

What Would Mal do ?


what I had imagined for an ending episode was Chuck in some way getting an intersect download happening again or a conk on the head or something and they do a fast rewind of the entire last 5 years..kind of a huge flash sequence to remind us of everything..then he suddenly wakes up on the floor of his bedroom with Morgan hanging over him...and he finds himself back where he was at the first episode...of course he is like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz..thinking it was all real, when it seems it was just a dream?!?
he struggles with the return to his 5 yr past..no Sarah, none of the experiences actually existing...
and he returns to his Buy More..where we'd see all the original cast back in position...and as he muddles around totally depressed with his old life...in walks Sarah..for the first time...for real...and so , it begins...again?


btw: would someone with a decent video editor please do a youtube of Sarah with Starship's Sarah song underneath.. I don't know why the show's leadership never did anything like that...it's perfect lyrics and feeling to capture the whole 13 year old longing that this show is so based upon...
my wife adores it.. I've enjoyed it enough to watch most of it with her...glad my Casey has a roll..but it ain't no Firefly.

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Tuesday, June 5, 2012 4:13 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Cybersnark:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Who would have thought that a sit-com, for SEVERE lack of a better word,

"Dramedy" is the generally-accepted term. They're becoming more of a thing (see Gilmore Girls, Eureka, Warehouse 13, et al).

And yes, Chuck is unbroken 16-bit nerdlove from beginning to end. Chuck and Morgan are my people.

What I really love about the ending is that it could go either way; maybe Sarah does get her memories back, maybe she doesn't. Very post-modernist; the audience is left to write their own ending.



Hey Cybersnark,

I guess Dramady would be the term, but I think Chuck ended up being a lot more than that in the end too. Aside from some really deep watching like Dexter and other cable fare, and a network show like LOST that was amped from the beginning to be something more than the ordinary, I really didn't expect this conclusion (or all the emotions in-between) from Chuck.

As weird as it is for me to say, I think all of the people on Chuck are "my people". I got just about every nerd reference that Chuck and Morgan made over all the years. For years in my early 20s I did body building and actually know what it was like to be "awesome", and being the oldest of 3 brothers from a broken home I can relate to Elle's sensible nature. Being the lone wolf I've been, I totally got the role of Orion, and when when a job nobody wants to do HAS to get done, I can relate to Linda Hamilton's "Mom". Hell... even "Jeffster" is my people..... I used to be a karaoke whore and I've done enough drugs back in my day where I'm just glad I didn't turn out like Jeff did. Really awesome how they "fixed" him in the last season... lol

BTW... Jeffster's songs were pretty damn sweet. I loved their covers of "Africa", "Mr. Roboto" and "Take on Me" the most. Three of my favorite songs as a kid and they nailed them all.

My favorite line from the series????: Devon's dad to Devon (Awesome) at the wedding: "Why are you letting Sam Kinnison and an Indian lesbian ruin your wedding?"



The only two characters I couldn't relate to personally were Sarah and Casey....

Maybe that's why the show meant so much to me. It wasn't just the people that I grew to love over the seasons because I knew, at least in part, what it was like to be them, but it was because you also had these two uber-amazing people who were "forced" to be a part of all of this at first, but then they really came to love it as time wore on.

In my own life, my Bro is Casey.....

Still searching for my Sarah.




I think I hope that aside from some knee-jerk reactions that Sarah never really remembers the past. The last few minutes left you with the sense that Chuck not only had the ability, but was going to somehow pull off making her fall in love with him all over again.

Good luck, Chuck!



(P.S. I hope they never ruin the series by making a movie. The ending was perfect, in its own way, in my opinion)



Quote:

Originally posted by ecgordon:
There are just a handful of series since Firefly that I have enjoyed (almost) as much. I've got all five seasons of Chuck, and while I have sold quite a few DVDs over the past year or so, I'll be keeping them around to rewatch for many years to come.





Good to hear I'm not alone Ecgordon. Chuck is definitely in my top 10 shows ever made, and probably closer to the top than the middle. The last 3-4 episodes sealed the deal for me and I'll never forget the journey.



Quote:

Originally posted by OLDGUY:
what I had imagined for an ending episode was Chuck in some way getting an intersect download happening again or a conk on the head or something and they do a fast rewind of the entire last 5 years..kind of a huge flash sequence to remind us of everything..then he suddenly wakes up on the floor of his bedroom with Morgan hanging over him...and he finds himself back where he was at the first episode...of course he is like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz..thinking it was all real, when it seems it was just a dream?!?
he struggles with the return to his 5 yr past..no Sarah, none of the experiences actually existing...
and he returns to his Buy More..where we'd see all the original cast back in position...and as he muddles around totally depressed with his old life...in walks Sarah..for the first time...for real...and so , it begins...again?


btw: would someone with a decent video editor please do a youtube of Sarah with Starship's Sarah song underneath.. I don't know why the show's leadership never did anything like that...it's perfect lyrics and feeling to capture the whole 13 year old longing that this show is so based upon...
my wife adores it.. I've enjoyed it enough to watch most of it with her...glad my Casey has a roll..but it ain't no Firefly.



Hey Oldguy,

Interesting take on your thoughts for the end.

When you really think about it though, the end-game for Chuck would be pretty much parallel with what you think.

In a way, for Chuck at least, it's as if it all WAS a dream. Sure, it's as if it were a dream that all of his friends and family had too and they all awoke from, but Sarah is the one who woke up 5 years later, and 5 years older, and lost all of those years from her life. After seeing the video Casey gave her, she said to Chuck "I believe you..... I just don't feel it".

But when he went back to the beach where Sarah first said he could trust her completely, she asked "This place is important, isn't it?". And later she said "Chuck..... Tell me a story."

Even though you'd have a hard time making an arugment that Chuck was any sort of dork well out of Sarah's League by the end of the series, she was reverted back to a mindset still in "Bryce-world", and "never let your guard down". Hell... he's even got a clean version of the Intersect back in his head, and I think the fact that he chose to save Beckman and his friends rather than restore her memories struck the same chord as never shooting anyone with bullets did.

All of this could lead to a revival of the series or at least a movie or 3.

I hope that never happens.....

Chuck ended perfectly.

It didn't leave me yearning for a different ending like "Forrest Gump" or the movie version of the Steven King short story "The Mist".....

It was the IMPOSSIBLE ending of a great 5 year "dramedy" that ended like King's original short story the movie came from.

Let the audience be the most important character and fill in the blanks...


"I'm going to bed now. But first I'm going to kiss my son and whisper two words in his ear. Against the dreams that may come, you know. Two words that sound a bit alike. One of them is Hartford. The other is hope." ~The last paragraph from Stephen King's "The Mist"


And now... for some fun.....

Jeffster's "Take on Me"


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Wednesday, June 6, 2012 9:50 AM

CHRISISALL


CHUCK was and is gold. I own it all on DVD. Great ending. Made me cry like a big, dumb hobo.

Chrisisall, wearing a frilly Mal thing on his head, and ready to shoot unarmed, full-body armoured Operatives

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012 6:02 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by chrisisall:
CHUCK was and is gold. I own it all on DVD. Great ending. Made me cry like a big, dumb hobo.

Chrisisall, wearing a frilly Mal thing on his head, and ready to shoot unarmed, full-body armoured Operatives



No points deducted for PC Chrisisall

Seriously....

I hope I find more shows like this in the future. My contacts get dry and sometimes I wonder if my tear ducts even work anymore.

I had the first "contact sprinkling" earlier in the series, but it was an overwatering in the last episode....

Even more than LOST, which was a better story overall, I've never fallen in love with so many simultaneous characters in one show at one single time.....

LOST, I'm probably "attached" to 2 or 3 characters....

Chuck had it all...

It was everything that Firefly could have been had the characters devloped 4 more years....

possibly, even more... since parts of me related so deeply with difining aspects of nearly every main, and several of the sub-characthers...


Firefly was awesome, but the movie just wrapped up 5 more years of potential awesomeness in 2 hours...

LOST was awesome, but the last season and ending seemed rushed, and the weight of the world lied upon it and the writers....

Cable TV shows like Sopranos and Dexter and Breaking Bad are awesome, but they're so far out of my own circle of comfort that it's just a mindless escape to enjoy.....

Chuck was different though....

Chuck was US....

Male or Female watching and putting themselves in those shoes....

Drawn to a person who was so family oriented and good and non-politically motivated about anything that he just did what came as instinct every step of the way.

Anyone who could turn Cold, Hard, John Casey into a guy who would tell his discovered daughter he loved her and wear a "World's Greatest Dad" apron while making dinner for the occasion is okay with me....




And for more fun....

Jeffster - Mr Roboto.....



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