One of my favorite shows from the past couple of years,
Chuck, came to a close Friday evening. The two-hour finale was pretty as close to perfect as the show gets and a reminder of everything that I've come to enjoy about the show.
The two-hour finale was chock full of call-backs to some of the series best moments all while trying to wrap up the series in a way that felt satisfying and complete. Given that
Chuck has pretty much had three other potential series finales leading up to this point, it's great they were able to find a way to deliver a final finale that didn't feel like it was necessarily rehashing things we'd seen in other potential finales all while putting a bow on five years of the spy dramedy.
And, of course, any time you can have Jeffster save the day by taking on an 80's hit, you've got a winner. (Though in all fairness, it wasn't quite as amazingly funny as season two's "Mr. Roboto" performance. Part of that is probably the surprise factor in that one).
Looking back, I can see how and why season five developed as it did, even if I think the whole Morgan has the intersect plotline was a bit rushed. But seeing where the journey took us made that all a bit more worthwhile, even if I wish they'd explored it a bit more. I still think the high point was earlier this season with Chuck taking on Shaw in the Buy More and pulling a Superman II moment to remove the Intersect from Shaw and allow them to fight on equal ground.*
*Plus the whole homage of Shaw being played by Brandon Routh is pretty darn cool.
At its best
Chuck was one of the most entertaining shows on TV with plenty of sly winks to fans. It had some of the best guest casting of any show out there, primarily because it based the characters certain guests played on their reputation. This allowed for the show to quickly get into the meat and potatoes of the story without long exposition scenes and it also allowed for sly commentary on each guest star. Again, Shaw worked well because he was played by Routh, though the show really didn't get much better than Chevy Chase and Scott Bakula as guest stars in season two.
Revisiting pivotal moments from the Chuck/Sarah relationship helped the finale keep moving, but it also tempted me to pull out the Blu-Rays and start over from the beginning to watch things unfold all over again.
I will admit that part of me was pretty nitpicky and wondered if Sarah has had the Intersect removed from her brain or if it's still in there and she just can't access it because she doesn't recall how. And while I like Elle and Awesome getting a happy ending, the whole "we've got our dream jobs and are moving" felt a bit too much like an obvious series finale type of moment.
But I'm willing to let all of that slide and call the finale "near perfect" because it did what Chuck did best. And the final scene on the beach as Chuck and Sarah begin to fall in love all over again was exactly how the series should end.
Oh sure, it's no "Guys, I know kung fu," but it was still pretty darn good.
Labels: Chuck, tv round-up
posted by Michael Hickerson at 1/30/2012 06:12:00 AM |
|
